LES GLOUTONNES /THE GREEDY/THE EROTIC EXPLOITS OF MACISTE IN ATLANTIS (1973)

Thanks to Mario Giguere. MACISTE ET LES GLOUTONNES/LES GLOUTONNES /THE GREEDY/LES EXPLOITS EROTIQUES DE MACISTE DANS L’ATLANTIDE (1973) Here’s an update of my previous review of LES GLOUTONNES, Jess Franco’s Z budget peplum from 1973. This and YUKA/THE LUSTFUL AMAZONS were likely shot back-to-back. They register as odd wonderments, unpretentious, no-budget fun. [Originally published by the wonderful Club Des Monstres in 2008]. Directed under his Clifford Brown beard, this is a fascinating mess due to the fact that Robert de Nesle and co. took a supposedly «serious» movie and made it into a delirious collage of peplum, adventure, comedy, erotic and fantasy patterns. It’s Wal Davis as the long haired, baby faced version of the legendary Maciste (first seen in the 1913 Italian epic, CABIRIA) vs. Robert Woods (LA COMTESSE PERVERSE) as the explorer Caronte, who bewitched by the evil sorceress Parka (Kali Hansa), attempts to overthrow and kill the Queen of Atlantis, played by Alice Arno. Maciste prevails with the help of «the gobblers», the lost women of Atlantis. Howard Vernon makes an appearance as Cagliostro (cf LA MALDICION DES FRANKENSTEIN), who along with his puckish assistant (Richard De Conninick) views the erotic adventures via a magical globe. A very interesting, eclectic score, credited to Robert Viger [?], is a bonus.

The Madeira locations are rather intoxicating, especially explored by the director’s trademark telezoom lens in the manner of the much more somber LA COMTESSE NOIRE, also shot in 1973. I conducted a still unpublished interview with actor Robet Woods about these Maciste films and he immediately indicated that they were fun to make and gave him some time to engage in fishing along the island's coastline, a relaxing indulgence of a favorite sport during production downtimes. He felt that AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO was the best of his Franco films because of the quality of Emma Cohen's award winning performance in the lead role and that it gave him the chance to disply his skill on the jazz trumpet as the musician lover of Cohen's character.

There’s even a hardcore sex scene thrown in the mix, with a nude man descending a spiral staircase to sospray down Ms. Arno and another actress with pent up white fluid which looks like mayonnaise. Mark Forest was originally supposed to play Maciste, according to Franco, but another actor was mistakenly engaged. Davis (rn Waldemar Wohlfahrt) ending up as a goofy looking Maciste. The opening sequence of Robert Woods exploring a misty valley and the first view of the stormy coast of «Atlantis» are outstanding images, but unless you are a Franco completest you may resist the bizarre delights of this film. The emergence of a platoon of white sheeted ghouls looks like outtakes from the Spanish version of LA MALDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN.

The final battle between Maciste and Woods' Caronte takes place on what appears to be a huge sandpit filled with rocks and black stones which seem leftover from an ancient eruption on the volcanic island. It's a surreal finale which features Maciste causing an avalanche by throwing boulders into the pit. Some additional footge of Alice Arno writhing around in bed reading a book which appears to be literary iteration of the main narrative. Her scenes look like alternate footage from one of the many versions of THE HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA. Even if it was hijacked by De Nesle LES GLOUTONNES still registers as one of the director's most delirious efforts, a no-budget fantasia which draws the viewer into a strange, mythical world. Franco also made YUKA (also shot in 1973 with Davis / Wohlfahrt Waldemar and Robert Woods playing the leads), another erotic «peplum» set in the Middle Ages. Both would make a nice double bill on a High Def restoration. I could watch this film on a 20 hour loop or as an endlessly expanded termite epic. It’s an oneiric peplum which defies the familiar coordinates of time and space into a Jess Franco state of mind. (C) Robert Monell, 2026

LILIAN (la virgen pervertida) : Jess Franco, 1983

EL FRANCONOMICON / I'M IN A JESS FRANCO STATE OF MIND Robert Monell & Alex Mendíbil Blog Alliance LILIAN (la virgen pervertida) Clifford Brawn (sic) 1983

An image which sums up the hard-boiled dimension inhabited by Al Pereira (Antonio Mayans). Cigarettes, a gun, a few drinks, suggesting a minimalist pattern of a gritty life and a story which ends with Al executing the club owner (Emilio Linder) who drugged, raped, and turned out Lilian (Katja Bienert).

In the opening scene of this neo-noir the young, naive Lilian opens a door to the upscale villa in which she is staying and confronts a hardcore scene between Lina Romay and Jose Llamas. That perfectly sums up the issue with this project, which began as Clasificada «S» thriller which had to be upgraded/downgraded to a hardcore feature, necessitating the removal of some 20 minutes of the original’s runtime (84m). The reason was a Spanish law which had been suddenly imposed restricting the showing of «S» product in Adult houses. Jess Franco had to scramble and add this footage since his film would not be playable in more mainstream locations. I assume the film did reasonably well, probably due to those grudgingly added hardcore scenes, and may disappoint those who look for something more than another hardcore. LILIAN… tells the downbeat story of a young woman (Katja Bienert) who collapses while staggering though a desert-like area. She has been drugged, held prisoner and forced to be the abused party in an S&M show staged for the edification of the local police official (Daniel J. White) who is supposed to be leading investigations. Instead he takes detective Al Pereira off the case when he gets too close to the truth. Al has discovered the comatose Lilian, who recounts her terror in a delirium at the residence of retired cop and friend Bernardo (Jess Franco), who counsels Al to forget it. He doesn’t. Corruption is endemic here as in LES EBRANLEES (1972) and BOTAS NEGRAS, LATIGO DE CUERO (Golden Films Internacional, 1982), two very similar Al Pereira episodes. As in those films, Al Pereira is depicted as a hotheaded, high minded loser who will ultimately trigger his own exile from the human race. The villains, the drug lord (Emilio Linder) and his wife (Lina Romay). who fetches him party girls and druggies at her nightclub, are oh-so-chic, part of the local glitter scene. Franco shoots this as a 1980s Film Noir, a virtual encyclopedia of noir references and visual quotes. Using long takes and wide angle lenses in the style of Sam Fuller (UNDERWORLD USA) and Robert Aldrich (KISS ME, DEADLY), but also incorporating his personal favorites THE KILLERS (Robert Siodmak version) and Howard Hawks’ THE BIG SLEEP in the flashback structure of the former and the opening credits of the latter, which are recreated in the penultimate scene when the camera lingers on a pack of cigarettes (American, of course), two whiskey glasses and a pistol on a table. The drug lord had just been sitting there having a drink when Al Pereira burst in and summarily executed him, Dirty Harry style. Al leaves his pistol as a calling card, knowing the police will trace it to him. Then he quickly hops into his car and drives away into a future life of assured damnation. One evil bastard is done away with, but the corporate evil of the big combo will continue under the averted attention of the corrupt police official. And the principled avenger and seeker of justice Al Pereira will suffer the punishments of our sinful, fallen world. The film has a brutal, nihilistic tone which is mediated by one of Daniel J. White’s most breathtaking scores, incorporating a kind of funk theme and an ethereal line. Some of these cues can also be heard in the director’s 1985 Jungle adventure, L’ESCLAVA BLANCA, a Manacoa production. If one can forgive or fast forward the hardcore scenes there’s a good film in there. Franco and Antonio Mayans are superb as the world weary receivers of Lilian’s sad story. This element of delirious confession to authority figures evokes EUGENIE DE SADE (1970) and Sade’s theater piece, DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PRIEST AND A DYING MAN (1782). The Spanish «kiosk» DVD version was screened for this review. It has very good video quality, sharp and colorful with acceptable Spanish only audio. This version lasts approximately 73 minutes. We’re left with a moral vacuum, set in the glitter scene, which is made into a sexual hell by the insertion of much routine hardcore footage, taking advantage of Spain’s newly liberalized censorship. With strong performances by Lina Romay, Jess Franco as the retired cop, and Daniel J White as the corrupt police official. This was released on Spanish VHS before it appeared as a «kiosk» DVD. The opening beach escape by the delirious heroine is an excellent, atmospheric overture to a film which overlaps the Classificada S rating the legalized of hardcore sex films in 1984. Filmed on locations in Madrid and Huelva. (c) Robert Monell, 2026 Deja un comentario Escribe un comentario...

LA ESCLAVA BLANCA (Jess Franco, 1985)

LA ESCLAVA BLANCA (Clifford Brown/Jess Franco. 1985)- source: Video Search of Miami (Spanish VHS-U.S. import) DIRECTED BY "CLIFFORD BROWN" (JESS FRANCO) WITH: JOSÉ LLAMAS, MABEL ESCAÑO, JOSE MIGUEL GARCIA MARFA, AUGUSTÎN GIL, LINA ROMAY, CONCHI MONTÉSa, JAMES TALL. 87 minutes Of the eight other films Franco made in 1985 (half of them hardcore porno features), this very low budget adventure stands out because of an absorbing screenplay, if you're in the mood for Saturday afternoon jungle adventures, by ace Spanish screenwriter Santiago Moncada. Beside writing Mario Bava's HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON, Claudio Guerin Hill's THE BELL FROM HELL and Juan Antonio Bardem's THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER, Moncada has written and produced screenplays for a variety of European genre directors. Manuel Cano's SWAMP OF THE RAVENS, TARZAN'S GREATEST CHALLENGE and VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST were all based on Moncada screenplays along with the ultra-violent Spanish western CUTTHROATS NINE (1972). LA ESCLAVA BLANCA was co-produced by Moncada and Franco's Manacoa company.

Above: Prolific Spanish screenwriter Santiago Moncada As for Jess Franco, 1985 wasn't his best year, but it was a busy one, offering a variate of micro-budgeted genre projects. In LA ESCLAVA BLANCA, Moncada gives us three separate stories that gradually interweave and come together in the final scene. The first story seems to have elements of MACBETH and B movie programmers. A weak-willed jungle guide is manipulated by his domineering wife into committing a series of crimes. During a safari, he leads a honeymoon couple (José Llamas and Conchi Montés) into a trap laid by the Tobonga, a Stone Age tribe that worships a giant lizard god. The bride is tied to a sacrificial altar for later sacrifice. The second story starts out in the city, where a female karate student (Lina Romay and two of her instructors accidentally discover the secret of the Tobonga. In the third story, two separate expeditions make their way back to the Tobonga camp. One of these groups includes the original guide, who has been abducted by the karate instructors (they have also killed his wife). The other consists of the husband of the abducted woman and the female karate student (Lina Romay) who has split off from the school. During the long trip back, the guide has a change of heart and decides to repent, turning against his captors and helping the people he originally betrayed.

The climax of the film, shot and edited with dispatch despite the budgetary restrictions, may remind some viewers of a miniature version of the final scene in THE WILD BUNCH. The very last scene, in which the Tobonga gold is abandoned by the survivors, echoes THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE. Franco's film, of course, is a lot less ambitious than those two Hollywood classics, but maybe that's why it works so well. The massacre at the Tobonga camp, the abduction scene, and the opening safari are as well-staged as anything Franco has ever done. It's as if everything were contained in quotation marks. Franco took everything he shot, no matter how rushed or threadbare, will equal seriousness. The intention is to locate a method of representation. No message, that's for Western Union. There's also an amusing dose of voodoo dancing thrown in for good measure. He takes it all seriously, even though it's bascially juvenile comic-strip pulp. But, then again, Jess Franco had a life long passion for comics and pulp fiction. That doesn't mean, however, that there's not an encoded intent which often emerges as his trademark brand of sly humor as he immerses the viewer in genre cliches.

Daniel White's pulsating drum and vocal score is familiar from some of Franco's other jungle adventures (MACUMBA SEXUAL, DEVIL HUNTER), but this is the most unpretentious of the lot, never breaking out of its generic tropes. Jose Miguel Marfa and Mabel Escaño are both very effective as the safari guides from hell. With its karate scenes featuring Lina Romay, voodoo rituals, adventure story, literary and film references, LA ESCLAVA BLANCA seems like a kind of boundary marker in Franco's multiverse. Lerger budgeted projects like FACELESS and his eventual digital era were in sight. If one can get past his sometimes sub-standard jungle/cannibal fare (cf WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN), this one definitely provides 90 solid minutes of undemanding entertainment. As Franco investigators we must keep in mind, though, that there are numerous ways to read his extensive filmography. As facts become more accessible there is also the tendency to do qualitative classifications, "best" and "worst" lists and create misleading arcs. What I have intended to do here in this blog, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is to do a quantitative survey, free of conventional standards which don't really apply to the kind of artist Freanco was. He deliberaty defies and discourages conventional analysis. He has often stated that he only wants to entertain audiences. Implying that he has no "messages" or hidden agendas. But there are layers of hidden agendas throughout his twisting career. LA ESCLAVA BLANCA perhaps becomes more interesting in relation to his uncompleted JUNGLE OF FEAR (1993), based on Poe's THE GOLD BUG. Then there are other iterations of that story (LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS), There are threads and threads within threads. One just has look and look again to perceive the entanglements which may be partially or totally invisible to first time viewers.

I would be pleasantly surpised if this forgotten mid 1980s programmer showed up on a Blu-ray release, but stranger things have happened. I had some behind the scenes photos of the shoot supplied by Senor Marfa but haven't yet been able to transfer them here. The Spanish "jungle" locations will be very familiar to serious Jess Franco collectors. I put jungle in quotation marks because everything which he filmed at this point in his career is surrounded by imperceptible quotation marks. It's like studying a foreign language with its own inflections, pronunciations and notations. (C) Robert Monell