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 review of LES GLOUTONNES, Jess Franco’s Z budget peplum from 1973. Actually, this and YUKA/THE LUSTFUL AMAZONS were shot back-to-back or since it’s Jess Franco, probably simultaneously, with same cast, on the same locations. They’re odd wonderments , unpretentious, no-budget fun. [Originally published by the wonderful Club Des Monstres in 2008]. Directed under his French beard, Clifford Brown, 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 legendary Maciste (first seen in the 1913 Italian epic, CABIRIA) vs. Robert Woods (LA COMTESSE PERVERSE) as the explorer Caronte, who, turned 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 shot-on-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 1973. There’s even a hardcore sex scene thrown in the mix, with a nude man descending a spiral staircase to spray 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 Wadlemar 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 hate this film. The emergence of a platoon of white sheeted ghouls looks lik outtakes from the alternate Spanish version of EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN while some additional footge of Alice Arno looks like alternate footage from one of the many versions of THE HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA. Franco also made YUKA (also 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 the kind of film Robert Siodmak (an idol of Tio Jess) would make late in his career and everyone would dismiss as an absurdity. But it’s sublime absurdity in the way only Jess Franco can deliver. Robert Monell