DER WOLF German VHS

http://cgi.ebay.de/DER-WOLF-Jess-Franco-Adrian-Hoven-Janine-Reynaud-FSK-16_W0QQitemZ350205793045QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDE_DVDs?hash=item5189e45315&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1781|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

 

Thanks to Eric Cotenas for the alert that this rare German VHS was on EBAY. I haven't seen this version of Jess Franco's 1967 "Red Lips" adventure TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS. The Spanish EL CASO DE LAS DOS BELLEZAS is longer, has a different scene arrangement than TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS, and features a different music score.

OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO lists DER WOLF HORROR PERVERS as the W. German video title. I'm not sure if this version conforms to TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS in terms of runtime, scene arrangement, music or the longer, rescored Spanish alternate.

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KISS AND KILL

In search of Fu Manchu...



I'm looking for either the original prerecord or a dupe of this alternate version of Jess Franco's THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU (1968). This version was released on US video in the 1980s. It was about 10m shorter than BLOOD..., better paced and had a different scene arrangement. In fact the opening scene of an expedition cutting their way through a thick jungle may have been an inspiration for the opening scene in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

This may be the same as the German version which is listed in some sources as running 82m. I would also be interested in seeing this version, which is out on R2 DVD. The Blue Underground DVD of THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU runs 94m. The great advantage of that presentation is that it looks terrific, is in original aspect ratio and is loaded with bonus materials.

I actually rented KISS AND KILL from a local video store about 20 years ago but failed to copy it. When I returned to the store sometime later I discovered that it had been removed from their inventory.

If anyone can help me out with one or both of these it would be much appreciated. I can be contacted at monell579@hotmail.com.

If anyone has any further information on these please post it below. Thanks.

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EL LLANERO [THE JAGUAR] (1963)

[This is an expanded version of a review posted on my CINEMADROME site]
 
Here's a suggestion: read the review of Jess Franco's EL LLANERO/THE JAGUAR (1963) in the tome SPAGHETTI WESTERNS: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE VIOLENT.... and then decide for yourself if the reviewer even saw the film.
 
Here are some comments, you can decide if they are a more accurate description. I have seen the film, many times, and there are no zoom shots in it. In fact, it looks nothing like Franco's later work in the 1970s.
 

Directed by Jesus Franco
From a novel by "David Khunne"
Produced by Julian Estaban for S.A. Big 4/Madrid

VENEZUELA, 1863: The Mendoza ranch is raided by the forces of Col. Saltierra (Georges Rollin) who massacre the family of Col. Mendoza. But his young son escapes under the protection of a servant (Roberto Camardiel). Saltierra is on the side of the victors in the war, but decades later an avenger known as "the Jaguar" fights the government with a resistance group which hides in the mountains.

José Suárez in the Spaghetti-western Texas, addio (1966).

This is an almost totally forgotten film, even in Spain where the term El Llanero is the popular name for The Lone Ranger! Nonetheless, this is a beautifully composed (by Emilio Foriscot) period adventure/melodrama which looks and plays like a western. A classical US western with its Fordian images of silhouetted riders seen on distance ridges, while also providing a glimpse of the coming Sergio Leone Eurowestern style in the scene of Saltierra's entry into the seemingly deserted town at the beginning. The empty streets, a hanged man, the sun baked architecture anticipate the stark look of the game changing FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964). But Franco's western takes the melodramatic, rather than ironic, path with romantic entanglements provided by Marta Reves (THE GIRL FROM RIO) and the sensual Silvia Sorente (who went topless in CASTLE OF BLOOD the next year) as the humid Lolita. As in many Franco films the director takes every opportunity to take a musical detour with the onscreen performances of the then popular LOS MACHUCAMBOS. The sing-alongs and the virtuous rebels versus the heavy handed military get a tad corny but it's so breathtakingly lensed and staged that style wins out over content in the end. That can certainly be said about many Jess Franco films.

With Betsy Blair, in a German poster of Calle mayor
Born	José Suárez Sánchez 19 September 1919 Trubia, Asturias, Spain
Died	6 August 1981 Moreda, Aller, Asturias, Spain
Years active	1944 - 1977

Jose Saurez had a long career as a well known leading man in romantic melodramas before appearing in Jess Franco's EL LLANERO; but having been a very popular actor in Spain his career may have peaked by this time and he evolved into numerous Spaghetti westerns as did Roberto Camardiel, the latter most notoriously as the leader of sadistic/fascist/homosexual outlaw gang in Questi's DJANGO, KILL... (1967). Fans of that genre will note the early appearances of such regulars as Tito Garcia, Manuel Zarzo, Jose Riesgo and many others. Saurez, wearing a white hat and seeming pretty much miscast, is upstaged by Georges Rollin, Sorente, Camardiel and Todd Martin. It looks like Franco worked really hard on this film as each and every set-up is impressive and rigorous.

A terrific looking film which captures the look and ambiance of the rugged landscape in painstaking detail with absolutely no zoom or rack focus shots. Franco seems to have mastered the 2.35:1 aspect ratio at this early point in this career. In fact, it may be too carefully composed and deliberate for those expecting down and dirty action.

I've only managed to see a very fuzzy dub of the Spanish language TVE print. I'm not certain of its availability on DVD but it has been released on French video.

 

Finally, I doubt we'll ever see a R1 US DVD of this, but you never can tell and it does illustrate another aspect of the director's talents.

 

 

(c) Robert Monell, 2009

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WELCOME TO THE LUIS BUNUEL FILM FESTIVAL

Maria Felix la doña en "Los Ambiciosos"

aka La fièvre monte à El Pao

The Luis Bunuel Film Festival opens today. It will unfold on this blog and my CINEMADROME Forums @ www.cinemadrome.yuku.com.  Images, videos, rare artwork from the 50 year film career of the great Spanish surrealist director Luis Bunuel will be featured along with commentary, essays, reviews and discussion.

This will be an irregular, but ongoing project, with feedback and reader's contributions being most welcome.

A special emphasis will be placed on some of the lesser known Bunuel titles which are, however, very much worth experiencing. Today's focus is on the rarely seen 1956 Mexican-French adventure film LA MORT EN CE JARDIN. Artwork, production stills and a brief review are offered over on my CINEMADROME site.

Coming up on this site soon will be a review of the equally rare 1959 political melodrama, "Los Ambiciosos", with the late, legendary Maria Felix. There is a definite Jess Franco connection in this one which will be examined. In the meantime check out the LOS AMBICIOSOS video over on Youtube.

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: MACISTE CONTRE LA REINE DES AMAZONES (1973)

Jess Franco "does" Maciste....




"Wal Davis" also appeared in this excellent Jess Franco film... in a "serious" role.



Was Waldemar Wohlfahrt aka Wal Davis really the "world's sleaziest actor" as referenced in OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO?

I wouldn't know. But I sure enjoyed watching him "act" in the delightfully absurd EL VAMPIRO DE LA AUTOPSIA (1970), better known as Jose Luis Madrid's THE HORRIBLE SEXY VAMPIRE. I'll be reviewing that here in the future. In the meantime my most recent reflections on one of the several titles he acted in for Jess Franco in the mid 1970's:

YUKA [onscreen title]
Directed by Clifford Brown [Jess Franco]

Pygar (Robert Woods) meets with Maciste (Wal Davis) in a Medieval pub where he recounts his recent adventure in the land of the Amazons. He tells of his capture, rape by and escape from the ferocious females, led by the sadistic sex-crazed Queen (Alice Arno. He persuades Maciste to join him in a follow up expedition with hopes in robbing the Amazons of their well-guarded treasure. Everything goes wrong, though, upon arrival in the Amazon's village. Recaptured, tortured, made into sex slaves, the party plans escape... but not without the treasure.

1973 was a busy year for Jess Franco, a year in which he made some 12 feature films This one was made on Madeira (according to Robert Woods who just snickered when I asked about details and confirmed it was made in about a week, simultaneously with LES EXPLOITS EROTIQUES DE MACISTE DANS L'ATLANTIDE, a week of very long work days in the heat of that summer.

The frenetic quality of the film, speed-freak editing of wildly composed angles in the thick bush with thumping drum and lounge xylophone accompaniment endears it to this viewer at least. Thrusting into the sensual flesh and bursting fauna with breathless zip-zooms which find cubist spaces not unlike certain films of Jean-Marie Straub (the connection with Straub is also mentioned in a CAHIER DU CINEMA sidebar reproduced in Alain Petit's original MANACOA FILES). Having admired and met Straub in 1976, along with the late Danielle Huillet, and having had the opportunity to question Jess Franco at length I can state that both filmmakers are concerned with a raw, direct exploration of extra-realistic spatial possibilities, or other dimensions, to the point of totally abandoning any interest in attempting to reproduce what is generally agreed up as "ontological" reality, or recognizable space, in a cinema which wants us to enter into it without danger, imagination or the resulting rewards of hard fought adventure. In the casst of Straub-Huillet, or in this case, Huillet-Straub, the motivations are dialectical and political, illustrating the ideology of cinema space. In Franco's case it's a matter of aesthetic exploration, one thinks of Valequez's LAS MENINAS.

No, I refuse to condemn this film or throw it to the dogs of lazy film criticism. One only has to study and enjoy three sequences: the worship of the talking icon as Yuka kneels before it as a zoom back from its mouth to long shot and up into an dazzle of tree tops; the stimulation of Montie Prous's nude privates by Yuka once again as the zoom takes us back from the wise cracking icon to spiral over the massaging by tree branch and once again diving into the sky not unlike the final shot of Robert Altman's NASHVILLE (1975) {BTW, Franco was very much impressed and influenced by Altman's films of this period, which also use the telezoom as an aggressive investigatory/distancing/commenting tool}, finally the recapture of the party in which sudden telezooms into the female archers and then away from them, camera tilts of Maciste's struggle and Pygar's sprint which becomes a fall into a brush filled chasm. And there is absurd genre parody as Wohlfahrt drums his naked chest after a bare-assed wrestle with the wicked queen.

A deliriously entertaining 73 minutes full of belly laughs, fascinating Z-grade mise en scene, tragedy and the promise that Maciste will fight another day. He did in the even more experimental sister feature which I'll be reviewing here in the future under its alternate title, LES GLOUTONNES.

The very absurdity of this enterprise is its saving grace in Franco's hands.  He zooms right into the that absurdity, literally and figuratively. The zoom lens becomes a voyeuristic eye racing through the jungle foliage of the location toward the erotic configurations formed by the Amazons as they forage for men to make into slaves. Featuring a feminist subtext where women rule and men are there for pleasure toys. And the music sounds like something from a children's television show of the 1950s! Both of the 1973 Maciste adventures need a HD release.

[Source print: VSOM video dub from French VHS]

(C) Robert Monell, 2017[ New Version Updated 6/11/19]

ENRIQUE FRANCO MANERA (1920-2009)

The brother of Jess Franco, Enrqiue Franco Manera, the respected Spanish music critic and composer, passed away 27 April 2009 in Madrid. He supported his younger brother's studies in composition and music performance in the 1930's and 40s.
Spanish correspondent Nzoog adds: "He was the music critic in the EL PAIS newspaper for a long time and did lots of sleeve notes for classical LPs form the Ensayo label."     Belated condolences to Jess Franco.     Thanks to Nzoog and Alex.

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Those Spanish Kiosk DVDs

One of the few images we can publish from the notorious EL OJETE DE LULU (1985). My new review of this outrageous hardcore epic is now up on CINEMADROME along with a Spanish newsstand DVD discussion. Hit the link below to check out both.


Thanks to Francesco Cesari I've managed to collect one Jess Franco film on a so-called "Spanish newsstand DVD" GEMIDOS DE PLACER (1982), one of the director's most interesting Golden Films Internacional productions of the early 1980s. He was also kind enough to send several others copied onto DVD-R.
 
Here is a list compiled by Nzoog
 
[The hardcore titles are as follows:

- LILIAN, LA VIRGEN PERVERTIDA.
- ENTRE PITOS ANDA EL JUEGO.
- EL OJETE DE LULU
- EL MIRÓN Y LA EXHIBICIONISTA.

The softcores from Edider-Mercury are the following:
- LAS ORGÍAS INCONFESABLES DE EMMANUELLE
- GEMIDOS DE PLACER.
- HISTORIA SEXUAL DE O
- MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE]
 
Some of them, most surprisingly the hardcore EL MIRON Y LA EXHIBICIONISTA (1985) have excellent video quality.
 
There's been an interesting, informative ongoing discussion of these collector's items over at my www.cinemadrome.yuku.com site. It's now a featured topic.
 
Thanks to Nzoog and Francesco Cesari.
 
 

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESS FRANCO!

Jess Franco with his Goya award...

THE LUIS BUNUEL FILM FESTIVAL IS COMING TO THIS BLOG SOON!

Rare photo of Bunuel on the set of his 1959 political melodrama FEVER RISES IN EL PAO.





"Bunuel, Fritz Lang, Godard, they're not outmoded."
character in Jess Franco's SUCCUBUS/NECRONOMICON


I'll be presenting what I call a LUIS BUNUEL FILM FESTIVAL here soon: comments, images and reflections on some rarely seen films of the great Spanish Surrealist director who gave us UN CHIEN ANDALOU, LOS OLVIDADOS, Mexican comedies, VIRIDIANA and THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, among other masterworks.

Follow My Micro-Mini Reviews on TWITTER/William Shatner Quiz

In search of...





Hot Rods To Hell!



Yes, along with what seems like everyone else in the world, I'm on Twitter. I've challenged myself to write micro-mini film reviews within the 140 character restriction. Enforced brevity is always good discipline for any writer.

How do I get the movie's title, date, some information and a comment in without going over the limit? That is the question.

Today's movie is Roger Corman's 1963 THE YOUNG RACERS, with Mark Damon (whom DVD SAVANT claims in his DVD review was dubbed by William Shatner [!]) and William Campbell as jousting race car drivers on the Euro-Grand Prix circuit. What I couldn't fit in on Twitter is that this also co-stars the great Patrick Magee (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) as a "critic of life." It showed on TCM today at 3pm EST and I caught it totally by accident. A more than interesting cast and movie with a literate script by R. Wright Campbell (who also wrote Corman's 1958 Z budgeted prehistoric epic TEENAGE CAVEMAN and appears in this film along with his real brother William).

Speaking of William Shatner: I wonder why they didn't write him (like Leonard Nimoy) into the new STAR TREK? I wonder how he REALLY feels about that? Also, considering the topic of this blog I thought of a quiz: In what movie does Shatner appear with a bunch of actors who also appeared in Jess Franco films? Name the actors and the JF films in which they appeared?

How's that for a pop-quiz on top of some self promotion?

To follow my Twitter reviews just look over at the left sidebar or FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER....

And be aware that WILLIAM SHATNER is also on Twitter!

FAVORITE KLAUS KINSKI CHARACTERS [Continued]

Face to face with Jack the Ripper...



Kinski's first Arthouse triumph...



The soft-spoken, deadly Tigrero (Klaus Kinski) meets Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) in Sergio Corbucci's Spaghetti Western masterwork.




Dr. Sturges (Klaus Kinski, far right) makes a disturbing discovery...


Dr. Orloff in Jess Franco's JACK THE RIPPER (1976): "I was able to sense that he was almost as terrified as his victim."
 
Don Lope de Aguirre in AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (1972): Kinski won international acclaim as the mad imperialist leading a search into the heart of darkness of a South American rain forest.
 
Dr. Sturges in LA MORTE HA SORRISO ALL' ASSASSINO (1973): Kinski's baffled examination of Ewa Aulin is an example of how he was a master of mute simplicity. An almost wordless performance in a supporting role, he nonetheless steals the show in Joe D'Amato's non linear Gothic masterwork.
 
Dr. Francis Clay in SLAUGHTER HOTEL (1971): KK is quite amusing (and seems crazier than the actual killer) as the chain smoking psychiatrist who falls in love with target-for-murder Margaret Lee in the midst of a bloody massacre by a maniac with an array of medieval weapons.
 
Lorenz Voss in DER RACHER (1960): Kinski's first appearance in an Edgar Wallace inspired "Krimi" is another example of a fascinatingly minimalist performance which is nonetheless hypnotic. As the "frustrated genius" Lorenz Voss, Kinski's incremental gestures and fear frozen gaze would become the template for numerous future prime suspects in subsequent Krimi roles.
 
Tigrero in THE GREAT SILENCE (1968): "All according to the law..."
 
The Marquis De Sade in JUSTINE (1969): Kinski's "Divine Marquis" is a wordless, theater-of-cruelty-style tour de force, squirming in frustration, furiously writing out his fantasies, in a cell crowded with his taunting "victims" in Jess Franco's big budget [for him], star-studded adaptation of Sade's infamous novel.
 
Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald in FITZCARRALDO (1982): Another Werner Herzog imperialist attempts to bring Opera to the Amazon.
 
 

Keeping this list down to 10 was very difficult considering the richness of the acting career of Klaus Kinski (1926-1991).

(C) Robert Monell, 2009

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FAVORITE KLAUS KINSKI CHARACTERS (Part 2): BLACK KILLER

Lawyer James Webb (Klaus Kinski) stalks the villains of Tombstone with his deadly law books in the delightfully trivial 1971 Spaghetti Western, BLACK KILLER.


I could watch Klaus Kinski doing next-to-nothing forever!


Lawyer James Webb (Klaus Kinski) is the Black Killer of the title. A suspicious character who rides into Tombstone with a stack of large format law books. He doesn't read the tomes, though, he hides guns in them, and has special mechanisms which can fire the weapons without the Counselor at Law having to worry about cracking a book.
 
An ultra low budget Spaghetti Western directed by "Lucky Moore" aka busy Italian character actor Carlo Croccolo (DIABOLIK). A fun little item with edgy camera angles courtesy of DP Franco Villa, who also lensed KK in SLAUGHTER HOTEL the same year. In fact, KK wears the exact same shaggy hairstyle in that sleazy giallo. Kinski seems to be quietly enjoying himself as he awaits another paycheck but I find him endlessly fascinating as does little more than stare out of windows as he prepares for his next deadly lesson.
 
Kinski makes this film both watchable and enormously entertaining by his simple presence. He skulks around the balsa wood sets eyeing the villains, the "O'HARA" gang, who seem like your typical Mexi-bandits (named O'Hara?!), gathering evidence against the local corrupt judge (Dante Maggio) and laying low while the new Sheriff (Fred Natural Born Star Robsahm) teams up with an abused Native American woman (Marina Malfatti) to wipe out the gang. This movie is briskly paced and has a very amusing sub Morricone score which more than helps make up for its no-budget aesthetic. Oh yes, and Marina Malfatti is white hot in her Native American garb and gets nude at one point!
 
A lot of action scenes from this number were subsequently used as stock footage in Joe D'Amato's 1972 BOUNTY KILLER FOR TRINITY, another poverty-stricken affair featuring "Jeff Cameron", but no KK. Cameron, KK and Joe D'Amato (as DP) would team up in Demofilo Fidani's FISTFUL OF DEATH, also made in 1971 with Kinski sporting the same hairstyle and black wardrobe, this time as "Reverend Cotton." We'll be looking at another Joe D'Amato-KK collaboration featuring a favorite Kinski character.
 
Watching KK lovingly handle his loaded law books as he takes care of business is a pleasure beyond words.

Thanks to Squonkmatic for helping me see the razor-sharp Franco Cleef restoration of BLACK KILLER and to Nzoog for the screencaps.

(C) Robert Monell, 2009

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MY 10 FAVORITE KLAUS KINSKI CHARACTERS

John Alexander nervously smokes up a storm to deal with his emotional/sexual frustrations as the key suspect in his wife's murder as a friend looks on in the underrated 1969 Riccardo Freda Krimi/Giallo, DOUBLE FACE.



*This blog entry is inspired by 10 Characters I Love @ CINEBEATS. I decided to go with my 10 favorite characters created by the late, great Klaus Kinski, who remains my favorite actor. He appeared in about 150 films in a career which spanned four decades. There was no other 20th century actor quite like him. He has been called the last German star and an Enfant Terrible. His offscreen antics and affairs sometimes overshadowed his prodigious talents as an actor.
 
He appeared in everything from European Trash Cinema (VENUS IN FURS; NOSFERATU IN VENICE), Spaghetti Westerns (Sergio Leone's FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE) to International Epics (DOCTOR ZHIVAGO) to Arthouse classics directed by Werner Herzog (NOSFERATU; FITZCARRALDO) to Hollywood mainstream (Billy Wilder's BUDDY, BUDDY; George Roy Hill's THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL).




Here are my choices in no particular order:

JOHN ALEXANDER in Riccardo Freda's Double Face (Italian: A doppia faccia, German: Das Gesicht im Dunkeln), a late entry into the Krimi cycle, was a West German coproduction. It actually is more of a Giallo with Krimi undertones. Given that Kinski became famous for his Krimi roles, starting with DER RACHER/THE AVENGER (1960).
 
In DOUBLE FACE he effectively underplays the role of John Alexander, a wealthy, emotionally distant businessman whose decadent wife (frequent KK costar Margaret Lee) is murdered. Kinski telegraphs the conflicted emotions of a man who grieves his wife while dealing with strong feelings of sexual frustration along with the fear that he will be accused of the murder by the police.
 
This is certainly the most understated KK performance I have seen and it really gives the film the boost it needs. As we shall see in my other selections Kinski has a much broader range than he is sometimes given credit for. He wasn't always over-the-top, and some of his best film performances, like this one, were studies of men living in quiet desperation.
 
This title really needs a quality US DVD presentation in OAR with language options so that it can be properly evaluated and Kinski's outstanding, uncharacteristic performance can be fully appreciated.
 
I'll be adding more Kinski titles and images throughout the week.

(C) Robert Monell, 2009

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EUROWESTERNS/BLOG UPDATE

I want to recommend two new excellent reviews by Nzoog of the rarely seen Eurowesterns YANKEE, directed by Tinto Brass, and Demofilo Fidani's Il suo nome era Pot...ma...lo chiamavano AllegriaIl suo nome era Pot...ma...lo chiamavano Allegria.
 
The reviews are up on www.cinemadrome.yuku.com EUROWESTERNS forum. There are now dozens of reviews by Nzoog and myself, some with posters, artwork and screengrabs. So when you have some time, check out the backlog. Even if you're not a big Eurowestern fan you might find some interesting information there.
 
A quick blog update. I'm preparing a special blog in the near future on my 10 FAVORITE KLAUS KINSKI CHARACTERS, including BLACK KILLER, also reviewed on the EUROWESTERN forum. Kinski is my favorite actor and it's a tough choice since there are so many outstanding Kinski performances.
 
And remember that May 12th is coming up! So prepare your Jess Franco birthday greetings or send them to my email so I can publish them on the Big Day.
 
monell579@hotmail.com
or
renegovar@yahoo.com
 
 
 
 
 
 

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QUIZ: NAME ALL THE FILMS INCLUDED IN THESE COMPOSITES!

A werewolf, two mummies, and Lon Chaney, Jr. meet Jerry Warren!






How many films did you edit together to make this one, Lucio?



Jerry Warren's FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF (1964), Jess Franco's THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME (1980), Lucio Fulci's 1990 NIGHTMARE CONCERT (A CAT IN THE BRAIN). What do these all have in common? You already know the answer. There are all "composites" made up of footage from several films which the directors stitched together to create a new feature.

I enjoy the chaotic ambiance of FACE... even though Warren is always roundly condemned as a hack, as Franco often is, certainly Fulci has had that term often applied to him. I'm not going to get into the "hack or genius" argument again but I will pose an interesting quiz question: Name all the individual films that were edited together to make each of the three features in question, FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF, THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME, NIGHTMARE CONCERT (A CAT IN THE BRAIN).

BTW, the new GRINDHOUSE 2 DVD set of A CAT IN THE BRAIN is a must-have considering the feature presentation's quality and the raft of fascinating extra features. I'll be reviewing the GRINDHOUSE DVD and will be discussing CAT... in relation to Franco's SADIST... in a future blog.

Westerns... All'Italiana!

Tom Betts takes aim at the Eurowestern genre...
 
 
I am adding a permanent link on the sidebar to the excellent Eurowestern blog, WESTERNS...ALL'ITALIANA!, created and written by Tom Betts, the world class Eurowestern expert and Publisher-Editor of the essential Westerns...All Italiana! fanzine, the world's oldest zine dedicated to Eurowesterns, founded in 1982!
 
Tom's blog regularly features news about Eurowesterns past, present and future as well as technical details, full credits and synopses of the films. Rare artwork, photos, screen grabs are also included. Reviews of Eurowestern related CDs and other items also appear. Obits and birthdays of Eurowestern personnel and much, much more are featured. This blog is highly recommended to students/researchers/fans of Eurowesterns and European cinema
 
www.westernsallitaliana.blogspot.com/
 
 

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MARILYN CHAMBERS (1952-2009)

Product choices...


Drive-in culture...



56 is too young to die.

That was my first thought upon hearing about yesterday's death of Marilyn Chambers.
 
Born the same year as myself (1952) I remember her image on the boxes of Ivory Snow and saw her breakthrough film BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR at a local adult theater when it first came out in 1972. I wasn't really that impressed with the film or her. I did find it better than that other 1972 hardcore cultural landmark, DEEP THROAT, and found her a more mysterious and fascinating presence than the also late Linda Lovelace.
 
Then came a summer 1977 drive-in visit to David Cronenberg's RABID. I was immediately taken by the way she made the disease carrying Rose, the main character, sympathetic and ultimately tragic. Her performance was compelling, moving and haunting. I still think it's one of Cronenberg's best and most subversive films, in a career of subversive, personal, fantastic cinema.
 
I wish she had appeared in more films like RABID. But she was a singular presence and brought something unique to erotic cinema.

[Two corrections and a comment: The Mitchell Brothers movie was BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR not BEYOND... and her image appeared on containers of Ivory Snow. So much for my memories of 1970's iconography! I read the NEW YORK TIMES obit today and was reminded that she was replaced as the wholesome Ivory Snow lady. Her image as a "pure" mainstream mother was tarnished forever in their estimation. BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR, though, also projected her into mainstream consciousness with a polar opposite image. That was when hardcore managed to get a degree of mainstream acceptance. After RABID she found that she couldn't finally, in her own words, "cross over." That was the mainstream's loss, in my opinion. Given that RABID was perhaps the first AIDS allegory-horror film she gave it a human heart playing the tortured soul at its center. She displayed a wide range of emotions, from confusion to desperation, as she seduced and "stung" her victims with a phallic-like stinger in her armpit. It's grotesque to watch but it's also a clever reversal of act of sexual intercourse with the female as the penetrator. The Canadian Somerville House disc is highly recommended and features an interview with Cronenberg who discusses how Chambers handled herself on the set.]

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SPANISH NEWSSTAND DVD SURVEY

The amazing first shot of GEMIDOS DE PLACER. We're still waiting for an English subtitled R1 DVD of this.



MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE, the visually stunning remake of NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT.

Here's a post from Nov. 2008 which our Spanish correspondent Nzoog put up on my WORLD OF JESS FRANCO FORUM [@ www.cinemadrome.yuku.com] listing the Jess Franco Spanish "Newsstand"/Kiosk DVDs released and available at various outlets in Spain. Thanks to Nzoog for this list and information.
 
I would interested in knowing how many of these DVDS blog readers have collected so far. The ones I have surprised me by their better than average video quality, especially EL MIRON Y LA EXHIBICIONISTA and LILIAN. The problem is that they are rather difficult to acquire. Any comments on these would be welcome.
 
Here's Nzoog's post:
 
"The newsstand releases were part of two separate collections. The softcores were part of a softcore collection that still rotates around with different covers. The hardcores were attached to issues of INTERVIU, a men's magazine. The hardcore releases have been rarer in their reappearance: I once saw them at the FREAKS store in Barcelona at prohibitive prices. Reportedly, they reapparared occasionally in Euro stores owned by Chinese immigrants.

The hardcore titles are as follows:

- LILIAN, LA VIRGEN PERVERTIDA.
- ENTRE PITOS ANDA EL JUEGO.
- EL OJETE DE LULU
- EL MIRÓN Y LA EXHIBICIONISTA.

The softcores from Edider-Mercury are the following:
- LAS ORGÍAS INCONFESABLES DE EMMANUELLE
- GEMIDOS DE PLACER.
- HISTORIA SEXUAL DE O
- MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE

The Edider-Mercury softcores have, as I said, rotated in the kiosks with different presentation, and they may otherwise be found at flea markets, second hand stores, and at e-bay. I have no news of further releases from these sources."
 
Thanks to Nzoog and Francesco Cesari.
 
You can list your Spanish Newsstand DVDs in the comment area.

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THE EROTIC WORLD OF JEAN-MARIE PALLARDY: EMMANUELE 3 (1980)

Check out one of the single DVDs first....



before you go with THE EROTIC WORLD OF JEAN-MARIE PALLARDY Halopark 5 DVD boxset.



Journal érotique d'une Thailandaise, Le (1980)
... aka Emanuele 3 (International: English title: dubbed version) (UK: DVD title)
... aka An Erotic Journal of a Lady from Thailand (International: English title: literal title)
... aka Carnal Times in Thailand (International: English title: informal alternative title)
... aka Carnet intime (France)
... aka Carnet intime d'une Thailandaise (France: X-rated version)
... aka Clitò petalo del sesso (Italy)
... aka Emmanuele 3
... aka Porno bordella (Italy: informal alternative title)
... aka Super porno bordella (Italy: informal alternative title)

BTW, there is no character in this version named "Emmanuele"!




I've just made my way through this.  I'm hoping to see one of the MVD/Le Chat Qui Fume Pallardy DVDs now available for comparison. This DVD is one of five contained in THE EROTIC WORLD OF JEAN-MARIE PALLARDY boxset available from www.haloparkpictures.com. I found the set for under 60 dollars at a local CD outlet, but it's listed for up to $100 online and seems to be either sold out or about to on some online sources. The Le Chat Quui Fume/MVD Pallardys (EROTIC DIARY OF A LUMBERJACK; TRUCK STOP) have an interview with Pallardy and stills from his personal collection as extras. I'm not sure about the sources for those but a review I have read of one indicates it looks like it was mastered from a video.
 
EMMANUELE 3*
The "plot" is a pretext for JM Pallardy's specialty, softcore sex-within-a-travelogue-with-some-Eurocrime-elements structure: Paul Vernon (Pallardy) is a Parisian photographer whose fashion photo shoots are excuses for him to get into the model's undergarments ... or whatever. That's the set up. Then he takes several of the models, including Eurotrash icon Brigitte Lahaie (FACELESS, FASCINATION) [billed as Brigitte Lahaye on the English language credits] to Bangkok where he ends up getting thrown out of Thailand because he takes a local massage parlor girl (Silvia Castell) out for the afternoon. They go sightseeing via pedicab, visiting the local zoo among other places. In between shots of crocodiles and more tourist footage Pallardy gets his butt kicked by the Thai mob for messing with the hooker.
 
That's the whole deal and it's not exactly a well-made film. It's more like a down-market imitation of the superior Joe D'Amato sex-in-the-tropics epics (cf EMANUELLE IN BANGKOK) without the stylish photography. But Pallardy does have the good sense to employ D'Amato's sometime composer (EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD) Marcello Giombini, who provides a catchy score.
 
This is middle-range Eurotrash, fun while watching, but not essential. Pallardy may be his own best asset in that he's an avuncular, attractive leading man, a bit ragged around the edges but likable enough. As both actor and director one could describe his style as both laid back and disheveled. It is probably not really fair to judge Pallardy's talents as a director by this admittedly compromised, abbreviated presentation.

Lahaie looks terrific both clothed and nude but is pretty much wasted here. Silvia Castell seems self conscious and is visibly uncomfortable on camera.  

Look out for Marilyn Jess and Mike Monty in small roles. The highlight for me was when the legendary Dick Randall (who co-produced) shows up as a horny, brothel-crawling (literally) tourist. He seems like an extension of his outrageous character in FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT (1970) as he squirms around with half a dozen nude hookers (thankfully, he remains clothed!.
 
"Even more than went before...
 
more EROTIC!!!
 
more SENSUAL!!!
 
more EXCITING!!!
 
The Halopark box for this one doesn't specify "anamorphic" as does the box for the previously reviewed A CERTAIN WOMAN (1979), but it sure looks like another video sourced production, although with somewhat better video/audio quality, at least there aren't any dropouts! But there is a good amount of motion blurring and other artifacts.

This is the 73m softcore version [a hardcore reportedly runs around 90m], the English dub is credited to Larry Dolgin. English language only; 1.66:1; All Region. I had fun but can't recommend this unless you can find a single REAL cheap. On second thought, I do recommend it to those who have to see EVERY mutation of the Emmanuele/Emanuelle mythos.

A trailer for Pallardy's EMMANUELE GOES TO CANNES is included. Now, That One I really want to see.

*It should be noted that there are at least two other films with the title EMMANUELE 3. Check out the listings on the IMDB.

Reviewed by Robert Monell (C) 2019

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THE RETURN OF PAMELA STANFORD?

Are you in a Pamela Stanford state of mind?



Who is the woman behind the mask? Pamela as a double agent in BLUE RITA (1977).



Pamela and Lina Romay in Jess Franco's LES GRANDES EMMERDEUSES (1974)


Wow! I just got this reply from Kim to my June 3, 2007 blog: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PAMELA STANFORD?

[Are you still looking for Pamela?
She is well and alive, and a friend of mine.
She is a wonderful person.
She has been asked to write about her life, and she's not sure.
Maybe you could convince her?
I hope we'll hear from you soon!
kim]

Thanks for your response, Kim. The answer to your first question is a big YES! I have been looking for Ms. Stanford for what seems like decades. It's wonderful to hear she is alive and well. I definitely think she should write a memoir of her experiences making 1970s European exploitation/Cult movies. There is a definite international audience base for this kind of book. She has loyal fans here in the US, in Europe and I'm sure in many other parts of the world, especially considering that her work has been distributed on various DVDs over the last decade.

It would be fascinating to hear her reflect on how these movies were made and her encounters with Jess Franco, Howard Vernon, Robert De Nesle, Lina Romay and the cult movie figures with whom she worked; what she thinking then and what are her thoughts now. What a typical workday was like on the sets of films like LORNA, THE EXORCIST, BLUE RITA, DIE TEUFLISCHEN SCHWESTERN, CANNIBAL TERROR.

I would love to be able to convince her to write a memoir or autobiography. There are many unanswered questions about her life before and after the bulk of her film work from the early 1970s to the early 1980s.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to see Kim's response in my inbox to an almost 2 year old blog!

Do readers of this blog feel the same way I do?

Kim, please email me at monell579@hotmail.com.

I'M IN A JESS FRANCO STATE OF MIND AWARDED THE PREMIO DARDOS

Thanks to Holger Hasse who has awarded I'M IN A JESS FRANCO STATE OF MIND the Premio Dardos award on his excellent HAMMER AND BEYOND [www.hammerandbeyond.blogspot.com/] site.

The Premio Dardos is "given for excellence in the Blogging field" to a blog by other bloggers.

Holger is a former winner of this award and I have a number of favorite blogs which I'll be nominating in the near future here.

This recognition is very much appreciated.

[Robert Monell]

AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO: versions

One of the best Jess Franco films not available on DVD...


I recommend readers check out The Franco Lounge at THE LATARNIA FORUMS for some interesting information on the various 35mm and video versions of the 1973 film AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO and its alternate French version, LE MIROIR OBSCENE (1974). The address of a possible rights holder has been posted.... hopefully the original 35mm elements still exist in superior condition and can eventually be part of a definitive DVD reconstruction.
 
I would like to see both versions presented on a double DVD with a commentary by actor Robert Woods, whom I interviewed a few years ago and has some fascinating stories to tell about the making of this film.
 
I always save a place on my 10 Best Jess Franco Films for AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO, which I have still only seen via a dub of the Spanish FQ video. Screengrabs from that vintage vhs are also on the forum.  
 
www.latarnia.com
 
 
 
 
I was wondering if any other readers have seen the Spanish version and are as anxious as I am to have an English friendly R1 DVD presentation from original elements.

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ETRANGE FESTIVAL LYON: Second Edition

Thanks to blog reader Nicolas for this information on the Second "Etrange Festival Lyon" which is coming up this April 1. This strikes me as possibly the world's only yearly Film Festival dedicated exclusively to Fantastique. Wish I could be there! [RM}




 

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To: monell579@hotmail.com
Subject: l'Etrange Festival Lyon (second edition)
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:49:52 +0100

Dear Robert,

 

You will find below the link for the second edition of the "Etrange Festival Lyon" in Lyon, France.

After Joël Seria and Jean Rollin, this year our guest are Jean-louis Van Belle, Gérard Kikoïne, Pete Tombs, Antoine Pellissier...

 

http://www.zonebis.com/etrangefestival/2009/

 

Thanks for reading.

 

nicolas

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FIRST JF VIDEO?

Have you saved the 1980's Wizard Video prerecord of DEMONAIC aka THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME?



I saw my first Jess Franco film, SUCCUBUS [NECRONOMICON], theatrically in 1969 (at a local, long gone, Adult theater) and then THE BLOODY JUDGE (1969) under the title NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST at a drive-in double bill in 1971. I drove out on the Franco film, disappointed and bored. After that I saw COUNT DRACULA (1970) and THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (1969) via TV broadcasts sometime during the 1970s and pretty much wrote JF off as a director I was interested in.




 
It was the video boom of the 1980s which got me back into his work, first renting out video cassettes from retail outlets. I think my first JF video was Wizard Video's DEMONIAC {THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME-1979}. I do remember being impressed with the stark visual quality and Franco's performance as the mad killer. I had no idea that it was a composite which included a lot of footage from EXOCISME (1974) and thought that the changes in the main character's appearance were due to bad make-up! How little I knew back then. I was also impressed by the artwork on over sized box in which it packaged.




 
It took me another half decade to catch the full version of SADIST and the original EXORCISME, along with its XXX variant. I still go back and forth on which version I like the best, while knowing the director prefers SADIST... as his personal statement on cultural alienation [from Spain] and his stand-offish relationship with the Catholic Church. I always find it interesting that the actor who plays the Notre Dame priest Franco's character visits, Antonio De Cabo, is not credited in any version I have seen. De Cabo is also in Franco's DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN (1971), DEVIL HUNTER (1980), CECILIA (1980) and plays the lawyer who reads the will in A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (1971).



 
I sometimes wish I still had that old Wizard Video in its over sized box with b&w stills on the back cover.
 
Do readers remember what their first JF home video experience was?

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DILLINGER IS DEAD Lives!

A Girl Is A Gun: Michel Piccoli embarks on a strange adventure in Marco Ferreri's DILLINGER IS DEAD.


OOP PAL DVD



Get over it! Dillinger is coming!


Marco Ferreri's DILLINGER E' MORTO (1969) is a film I've only had the opportunity to see via what looks like a 6th generation video dub from an Italian TV broadcast in the 1980s. I've had this now ancient video for about 20 years.

The good news is that this unsung masterwork has finally had its belated US theatrical debut in New York City [it first had a MOMA showing in 1970] last week and a 35mm print from Janus is going to be making the rounds. I kind of doubt that this limited theatrical release will include where I live but I'm sure hoping that a much deserved new DVD presentation from these elements will follow in due course.

I was rather irritated by the New York Times review which blasted this 40 year old film for its treatment of women and allowing the protagonist to get away with... Well, hopefully you can see the film. It may be politically incorrect in today's world but the film is a sharply ironic illustration of everything which was socially "correct" in sexual roles when it was made. Manohla Dargis may find the film flawed by "tedious high jinks and rank sexism" but the film luxuriates in its structural daring and questioning of sexism as a symptom of a smug culture. The review goes on to ridicule the film's evocation of the theories of Herbert Marcuse and Orphic symbolism, concluding "All this might be tolerable if Mr. Ferreri's attitude toward women were not as ugly as his sloppy visual style."

Well... I beg to differ. This "relic" from the 1960s is just as spot-on today as it was back then about the ongoing war (has a truce ever been declared?) between men and women. Visually the film at times resembles a Warhol canvas of that era representing familiar pop cultural icons. Gas masks play in key role in the story and iconography (cf Jess Franco's BLUE RITA).


Ferreri (1928-1997) is as dead as Dillinger and as easy a target. Remember, here's the man who gave us the gourmand's delight, LA GRANDE BOUFFE (1973), which I saw in Paris that year along with a stunned audience. Here was a director who gave you the sense that he liked to make people squirm as a prod toward transformational thought or any kind of thought.

The great Michel Piccoli is magnificently "closed" as the demented Glauco who spends most of the running time preparing a meal as a radio blares pop songs and vintage local adverts. A "plot" never emerges, only a droll track of seemingly random, odd moments which move toward something violent while unfolding in unpredictable increments... . Some find it maddening, I find it enveloping. The final image, which finds Glauco transported toward an unimagined new reality, is a stunner.

And the fact that there's hardly any dialogue in the film along with the exquisite, narcoleptic presence of Anita Pallenberg earns it extra points from me. Oh yes, the folksy John Dillinger himself makes an appearance during Glauco's long night of the soul. DILLINGER E' MORTO would make a fascinating late-1960's-take-on-1930's-gangsters double bill with Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967).


Other favorite and recommended Ferreri films include the 1981 Charles Bukowski adaptation TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS (the fearsome Pauline Kael was one of its few advocates) and the round-the-bend 1974 anti-western DON'T TOUCH THE WHITE WOMAN!

Jean Luc Godard was one of the few critics to praise DILLINGER E' MORTO and he should know something about annoying the status quo. Ferreri, who made several films in Spain (EL PISITO; El Cochecito), was also a sometime Jess Franco crony.

See DILLINGER IS DEAD if it shows up where you live and hope for a DVD as soon as possible. End of rant.

(c) Robert Monell, 2009

LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ON THIS DVD

I'm looking for some information on this "alternate" version of Jess Franco's DAS BILDNIS DER DORIANA GRAY (1976). Is this the non-hardcore version? If anyone has seen or owns this DVD please reply in the comment area. If anyone has a copy of this PAL ABCDVD and is willing to trade a copy please contact me. Thanks.

THE JESS FRANCO ONLINE HOME VIDEO GUIDE

Visit THE JESS FRANCO ONLINE HOME VIDEO GUIDE at www.cinemadrome.yuku.com. Just hit the link at the top of the sidebar at right. I will attempt to individually log all the Jess Franco VHS and DVD releases since those formats began. Select Grey Market items will also be logged. Each post will cover a single presentation and since many films have numerous DVD/VHS incarnations this will be a pleasantly ongoing enterprise. They will not be sequentially ordered, but I'll go according to my mood, what I have and can find out about. There will be as much technical information as I can find/cut and paste in. I'll try to include vintage covers whenever possible. Everything from the 1980s WIZARD VIDEO videos to the most recent DVD releases will be included along with screenshots from the presentations when available.



I'll also be giving each presentation my own rating for the film itself, audio & video quality of the presentation. Please feel free to add any corrections or information by hitting reply. Comments are welcome and encouraged. This will not be a listing or review of ALL JF films, it will just attempt to gather as many of the VHS/DVD releases of his films as possible in one place with some commentary. Discs and videos from all regions will be included.

In the meantime I'm looking for the alternate X rated [not hardcore] OOP [at Xploited, at least] R0 PAL DVD of DORIANA GREY [Label: ABCDVD]. If anyone can help me out please contact me by email or comment below.

Robert Monell

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JESS FRANCO DVD QUIZ

Here's a menu screen for a DVD presentation of a Jess Franco film. Name the film and the company which is responsible for this DVD.

GIANNA MARIA CANALE

Gianna Maria Canale contemplates the illusory youth and beauty of Giselle Du Grand in the landmark Italian horror classic, I VAMPIRI...



The spider and her prey...


According to the IMDB and some blogs Italian actress Gianna Maria Canale died in Florence, Italy on Feb. 13, 2009. There doesn't seem to be any official confirmation of this from Italy but it's a good excuse to remember and celebrate her career... and if she's still with us that would be wonderful. Just as long as she's not forgotten. There's no actress quite like her in contemporary cinema.

A stunning, imperious beauty, she appeared in about 50 films, from her first significant role in Riccardo Freda's AQUILA NERA/THE BLACK EAGLE (1946) to THE AVENGER OF VENICE (1964). She became the muse and lover of legendary Italian genre director Riccardo Freda, appearing in 13 of his films.

She had an onscreen erotic presence which seemed to overwhelm all the actors around her, tempered by a brittle romanticism along with a patrician grace. Perhaps not a great actress but a supremely compelling one.

Of her films with Freda my favorite GMC roles were in SPARTACO/SINS OF ROME (1953), as the woman who drove Spartacus (Massimo Girotti) to distraction, THEODORA, SLAVE EMPRESS (1954), in which the titular temptress drove Georges Marchal to more distraction, and as the self-obsessed Giselle/Duchess Du Grand in I VAMPIRI (1957), a financial flop at the time but the film which was handwriting on the wall that the Italian Golden Age of Horror was at hand.

Since reports of her death still seem to be unconfimed I'm leaving it as a bracketed question mark. In the meantime, discover or rediscover Gianna Maria Canale in any of these recommended films:

REVENGE OF THE BLACK EAGLE (1951)
SPARTACO/THE SINS OF ROME (1953)
TEODORA, SLAVE EMPRESS (1954)
I VAMPIRI (1957)
GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES (1961)

Here's something interesting from the www.astrotheme.com astrology site:

Map of the Heavens, Planets, Astrological Chart, Horoscope
Gianna-Maria CANALE,
born September 12, 1927 at 12:00 PM (unknown) in Reggio di Calabria (Italie)
Sun in 18°41 Virgo, Moon in 1°43 Aries
Chinese Astrology: Fire Cat
Numerology: Birthpath 4