Robert Monell Terrific cast. I'll put up a link on my two Jess Franco blogs ASAP.
22 July, 2016
BOTAS NEGRAS, LATIGO DE CUERO (1982)
BOTAS NEGRAS-LATIGO DE CUERO
1982--89 MINUTES Directed by Jess Franco; Written by Clifford Brown Jr.
European Trash Cinema (U.S. import); KING VIDEO VHS (Spanish VHS)
Cast: CANDY COSTER (Lina Romay), ROBERT FOSTER (Antonio Mayans), IDA BALIN, ALFREDO KIER, MIGUEL INFANTE, ROCIO FREXIAS.
(a.k.a. BLACK BOOTS AND LEATHER WHIPS)
Jess Franco would return to film episodes in the life of the Spanish PI Al Pereira throughout his career. He first appeared as a spy played by Eddie Constantine in the 1966 spoof CARTES SUR TABLE, one of the director's most successful genre riffs. The character would be played by Howard Vernon and Franco himself in LES EBRANLEES (1972) and DOWNTOWN (1977), micro budgeted thrillers which unfolded in fallen tropical destinations. But Antonio Mayans is the definitive interpreter of the character and Franco's very last film would feature Mayans as Pereira in AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES (2013), a kind of mixture of the director's 81/2 style auteur fantasies and a lot of softcore sex episodes. A post mortem follow up is in the works, with Mayans as the completion director of the unfinished REVENGE OF THE ALLIGATOR LADIES, the film Franco was shooting at the time of his death in 2013.
Antonio Mayans, the definitive Al Pereira....
One of Franco's favorite characters, private investigator Al Pereira (Robert Foster, a.k.a Antonio Mayans), has the addiction and he's got it bad. The kind where he just can't keep it in his pants no matter what. It's gotten him in trouble before, but this time it will be the end of him.
It opens as Al is frantically packing, trying to get away from trouble with sex/women/money, and all the people who are after him. Then Candy (Lina Romay) walks in. She's bleach blonde, wide eyed, and those long legs under her trench-coat seem like they just can't wait to wrap themselves around their next victim, who this time around happens to be Al.
She just wants him to pick up some dirty money stashed in a wrecked car at the local car cemetery, that's all. But Al doesn't bargain on having to kill two thugs, just so he could get back to his seedy apartment, where Candy waits with her legs spread wide. He doesn't bargain for the strip-club where she works and Candy's male friend, who likes to wear make-up and women's clothing.
Then there is the phony Dr. Rosenthal and her friends, who play S&M games with black boots and leather whips. When they make Al strip after trapping him in an office and start beating him, he really loses it and begins shooting. An act of sheer rage and another impulsive mistake. So, running from the police and the mob he drives to end of a misty bayou, where he meets and makes love to Candy one last time. As the seagulls scatter overhead, stirred up by Candy's cries of pleasure, she pulls a small pistol out of her trench coat pocket (she's nude underneath) and pumps a few slugs into Al's side. "Puta" is the only thing he can get out as he falls to his knees, pants still around his ankles. Death was coming to the party, and Al will be the guest of honor.
As with Robert Mitchum in the classic American noir OUT OF THE PAST (1947), he plays the sap right to the end. The burning, wet feeling in his side has finally made the lump of flesh between his legs go soft. He always called the nude playmate taped to his wall, "mi madre"... but where was she when he really needed her? Or was he just another pathetic Mama's Boy? The bitch of it all was that Candy, who was long gone, hadn't gotten him, the mob hadn't gotten him, the cops hadn't gotten him. He got himself. Bogart would have gotten out of this mess. But Al isn't that smart and lucky.
BLACKS BOOTS AND LEATHERS WHIPS is the blackest panel of Franco's career spanning series of films about eternal fall guy, Al Pereira. It's a Spanish neo noir rendered in the saturated tropical shades of orange, lemon and aquas of the glittery, trashy Costa del Sol. As embodied by Mayans (in one of his most dead-on performances in his extensive Jess Franco portfolio), Al is a frantic, at times charming and boyish, womanizer who has a deep seated problems with obsession, compulsion and self image. He even attempts to radically alter his appearance, but it doesn't solve his real problem.
Romay's femme fatale is lush, slutty sexuality with an icy edge, her devious agenda is barely perceptible to the average male voyeur and totally invisible to Al. This time around, Al resembles a doomed character out of Jim Thompson novel,* and his grim finale is inevitable for a man whose thinking capacity never rises above his waist.
Daniel White's urgent score is perfectly appropriate for this rush-toward-death cautionary tale. Franco and Juan Cozar's neon color scheme has never seemed quite as ironic and becomes a post-modern Costa del Sol equivalent of those liquid black nights and mean streets filmed by Robert Siodmak (THE KILLERS-1945, one of Franco's all time favorites), Edgar G. Ulmer (DETOUR) and Joseph H. Lewis (THE BIG COMBO).
*When I interviewed Jess in 2004 he told me he was a great admirer of the "black writing" (noir writing) style of Jim Thompson (THE KILLER INSIDE ME, THE GETAWAY) and wished he had filmed on of his stories.
(C) Robert Monell
1982--89 MINUTES Directed by Jess Franco; Written by Clifford Brown Jr.
European Trash Cinema (U.S. import); KING VIDEO VHS (Spanish VHS)
Cast: CANDY COSTER (Lina Romay), ROBERT FOSTER (Antonio Mayans), IDA BALIN, ALFREDO KIER, MIGUEL INFANTE, ROCIO FREXIAS.
(a.k.a. BLACK BOOTS AND LEATHER WHIPS)
Jess Franco would return to film episodes in the life of the Spanish PI Al Pereira throughout his career. He first appeared as a spy played by Eddie Constantine in the 1966 spoof CARTES SUR TABLE, one of the director's most successful genre riffs. The character would be played by Howard Vernon and Franco himself in LES EBRANLEES (1972) and DOWNTOWN (1977), micro budgeted thrillers which unfolded in fallen tropical destinations. But Antonio Mayans is the definitive interpreter of the character and Franco's very last film would feature Mayans as Pereira in AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES (2013), a kind of mixture of the director's 81/2 style auteur fantasies and a lot of softcore sex episodes. A post mortem follow up is in the works, with Mayans as the completion director of the unfinished REVENGE OF THE ALLIGATOR LADIES, the film Franco was shooting at the time of his death in 2013.
Antonio Mayans, the definitive Al Pereira....
One of Franco's favorite characters, private investigator Al Pereira (Robert Foster, a.k.a Antonio Mayans), has the addiction and he's got it bad. The kind where he just can't keep it in his pants no matter what. It's gotten him in trouble before, but this time it will be the end of him.
It opens as Al is frantically packing, trying to get away from trouble with sex/women/money, and all the people who are after him. Then Candy (Lina Romay) walks in. She's bleach blonde, wide eyed, and those long legs under her trench-coat seem like they just can't wait to wrap themselves around their next victim, who this time around happens to be Al.
She just wants him to pick up some dirty money stashed in a wrecked car at the local car cemetery, that's all. But Al doesn't bargain on having to kill two thugs, just so he could get back to his seedy apartment, where Candy waits with her legs spread wide. He doesn't bargain for the strip-club where she works and Candy's male friend, who likes to wear make-up and women's clothing.
Then there is the phony Dr. Rosenthal and her friends, who play S&M games with black boots and leather whips. When they make Al strip after trapping him in an office and start beating him, he really loses it and begins shooting. An act of sheer rage and another impulsive mistake. So, running from the police and the mob he drives to end of a misty bayou, where he meets and makes love to Candy one last time. As the seagulls scatter overhead, stirred up by Candy's cries of pleasure, she pulls a small pistol out of her trench coat pocket (she's nude underneath) and pumps a few slugs into Al's side. "Puta" is the only thing he can get out as he falls to his knees, pants still around his ankles. Death was coming to the party, and Al will be the guest of honor.
As with Robert Mitchum in the classic American noir OUT OF THE PAST (1947), he plays the sap right to the end. The burning, wet feeling in his side has finally made the lump of flesh between his legs go soft. He always called the nude playmate taped to his wall, "mi madre"... but where was she when he really needed her? Or was he just another pathetic Mama's Boy? The bitch of it all was that Candy, who was long gone, hadn't gotten him, the mob hadn't gotten him, the cops hadn't gotten him. He got himself. Bogart would have gotten out of this mess. But Al isn't that smart and lucky.
BLACKS BOOTS AND LEATHERS WHIPS is the blackest panel of Franco's career spanning series of films about eternal fall guy, Al Pereira. It's a Spanish neo noir rendered in the saturated tropical shades of orange, lemon and aquas of the glittery, trashy Costa del Sol. As embodied by Mayans (in one of his most dead-on performances in his extensive Jess Franco portfolio), Al is a frantic, at times charming and boyish, womanizer who has a deep seated problems with obsession, compulsion and self image. He even attempts to radically alter his appearance, but it doesn't solve his real problem.
Romay's femme fatale is lush, slutty sexuality with an icy edge, her devious agenda is barely perceptible to the average male voyeur and totally invisible to Al. This time around, Al resembles a doomed character out of Jim Thompson novel,* and his grim finale is inevitable for a man whose thinking capacity never rises above his waist.
Daniel White's urgent score is perfectly appropriate for this rush-toward-death cautionary tale. Franco and Juan Cozar's neon color scheme has never seemed quite as ironic and becomes a post-modern Costa del Sol equivalent of those liquid black nights and mean streets filmed by Robert Siodmak (THE KILLERS-1945, one of Franco's all time favorites), Edgar G. Ulmer (DETOUR) and Joseph H. Lewis (THE BIG COMBO).
*When I interviewed Jess in 2004 he told me he was a great admirer of the "black writing" (noir writing) style of Jim Thompson (THE KILLER INSIDE ME, THE GETAWAY) and wished he had filmed on of his stories.
(C) Robert Monell
14 June, 2016
GEMIDOS DE PLACER: Spanish DVD [Updated]
GEMIDOS DE PLACER: [Spanish DVD]
A female predator (Rocio Freixas) moves toward a fateful encounter in Jess Franco's GEMIDOS DE PLACER (1982), a remake of PLAISIR A TROIS (1973), credited as "based on the writings by the Marquis de Sade." The impressive villa where the action is set was owned by the film's producer, Golden Films Internacional S.A. founder/CEO, Emilio Larraga.
Franco has said there are approximately 20 shots in this film, but I have counted over 30 at various times based on my viewings of the old Caliente Video from Million Dollar Video Corporation (cropped at 1.33:1) Spanish language VHS and this 2006 Spanish DVD. This DVD version is part of the CINE EROTICO ESPANOL series- CLASIFICADA "S", licensed from VIDEO MERCURY FILMS S.A., Formato 4:3 [non-anamorphic, and it shows]; Mono; Multizona "0"; DVD5; aprox. 83 min. Genero: Erotica; Boutique Multimedia S.l. Grupo Edider 88, S.L. there's even a Madrid ground mail, and this web address www.internacionaldersa88.com
"REMASTERIZADA DIGITALMENTE CALIDAD"
"Una presumible orgia con un desenlace soprendenta" [or, as I said to Jess when we first met: "Lo siento, no hablo Espanol"]
Back copy: [Un liberal matrimonio quieren probar a realizar un trio sexual con una amiga de ambos. Pero en relaidad la utilizan para matarse el uno al otro con argucias y todo tipo de artimanas. El desenlace es sorpendente."]
Anyone who has seen it knows it's a great film, one of Franco's most personal and experimental works. It unfolds in flashback, narrated by mentally challenged guitar player, Fenul (DP Juan Soler Cozar, dubbed by Jess Franco himself]. The extended takes suggest a link to Hitchcock's ROPE, also a story of murderers and their victim. The opening take, zooming slowly back from a yacht in Alicante Bay to pan over the villa, its swimming pool and a floating dead body (cf SUNSET BOULEVARD), is a tour de force. A tale told by an idiot signifying the corruption of its four main characters, two of whom will die in paroxysms of sexual violence during the course of the film.
This opening immediately recalls the stunning plan sequence which opens Orson Welles' noir masterpiece TOUCH OF EVIL. The constantly probing camera here is as much of a character as the occupants of the villa. Like Hitchcock and Welles, the director wants to make us complicit in the following action, which is a study in casual amorality. The camera is always a voyeur in any film, but Franco takes this concept to its absolute limit here. With very little dialogue and an overwhelmingly toxic ambiance, offset by Fenull's wandering guitar improvisations, the film becomes a kind of Sadean daydream ending in death, decay and a silent scream recorded from a final God's-eye camera angle. As the mesmerizing instigator of the increasingly complex erotic games, Rocio Freixas emanates an powerful ambiguity which immerses the proceedings with a slow burning sense of danger. At any given moment she seems capable of anything and appears to exert a kind of mental control over the participants.
Still, it looks very good compared to the DVD-R's and videos going around, it's acceptable, but not ideal, and, of course, there are no English options of any kind.
So, let's see if there's any interest in a new anamorphic 2.35:1 OAR R1 release w/English subtitles available.
I wish for a new, HD transfer of this. That's why I keep bringing it up here.
Thanks to Francesco Cesari for sending this DVD and the screenshot.
(C) Robert Monell, 2008-2016 [Updated]
11 June, 2016
Favorite Jess Franco CDs/soundtracks
O
I can't narrow mine down to just one. But Jean Bernard Raiteux's Trafic Pop Logere would be high on the list, including a lot of cues heard in LES DEMONS (1972). Also AMBIENZA ACOUSTICA, containing many Daniel White-Jess Franco/Pablo Villa cues from his later 1970s and 80s period.
An all time favorite soundtrack would be the Bruno Nicolai cues heard in NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT. A mix of experimental, jazz and rock interludes.
I can't narrow mine down to just one. But Jean Bernard Raiteux's Trafic Pop Logere would be high on the list, including a lot of cues heard in LES DEMONS (1972). Also AMBIENZA ACOUSTICA, containing many Daniel White-Jess Franco/Pablo Villa cues from his later 1970s and 80s period.An all time favorite soundtrack would be the Bruno Nicolai cues heard in NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT. A mix of experimental, jazz and rock interludes.
Nightmares Come at Night - Opening Credits
The
bizarre opening credits for Jess Franco's haunting psychosexual
thriller "Nightmares Come at Night". Don't be fooled by the ...
Nightmares Come at Night 1970 Music by Bruno Nicolai - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82xTi2jO0zI
Apr 12, 2015 - Uploaded by Lynn Endersson
Nightmares Come at Night 1970 Music by Bruno Nicolai. Lynn Endersson. SubscribeSubscribedUnsubscribe ...09 June, 2016
DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER Bluray!
This second film in Jess Franco's long running Dr. Orloff series has recently been set for a HD release.
Posted 1 day ago
The Redemption label has confirmed that it will release on Blu-ray cult Spanish director Jess Franco's film The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll a.k.a. Dr. Orloff's Monster (1964), starring Hugo Blanco, Agnès Spaak, Perla Cristal, Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui, and Pepe Rubio. The release is expected to arrive on the market later this year.
The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll Blu-ray
Posted 1 day ago
The Redemption label has confirmed that it will release on Blu-ray cult Spanish director Jess Franco's film The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll a.k.a. Dr. Orloff's Monster (1964), starring Hugo Blanco, Agnès Spaak, Perla Cristal, Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui, and Pepe Rubio. The release is expected to arrive on the market later this year.
06 June, 2016
Podcast: Dorado Films upcoming Jess Franco Blu-ray Double Bill!
This week on the Dorado Films Podcast, we phoned writer/blogger Robert Monell ("I'm in a Jess Franco…
doradofilms.libsyn.com
12 May, 2016
11 May, 2016
Two Jess Franco films coming on Bluray from Dorado Films!
These
two rarely seen, early 1970s Jess Franco directed thrillers are being prepared for
Blu-ray+DVD release by Dorado Films, a company with which I’m familiar
for their very good Eurospy/Eurowestern DVDs. They will be presented in Spanish language with English subtitles. This will be the HD debut of both features...
www.franconomicon.wordpress.com
02 April, 2016
A TRIBUTE TO JESS FRANCO: 3 YEARS ON...
Of course, Jess was preceded by his wife/key collaborator/frequent lead actress/editor/director Lina Romay, who died much too young. It's difficult to think of him or his career without thinking of her. It's also difficult not to think of his other films and career arc as one watches any single one of his films. They all resonate within and across his filmography. They also are flooded with resonances of Bunuel, Lang, Godard (three of his masters mentioned by a character in NECRONOMICON). They are also infused with the poetry of Robert Siodmak (whom Franco himself frequently mentioned as a personal inspiration) and the B film maestros Erle C. Kenton and Reginald Le Borg. I first became aware of Jess Franco via an article about SUCCUBUS I read in 1969, the year of its US release, in an Adult magazine. It would take about another two decades before I could finally see the film, and even then it wasn't exactly in HD. I did see COUNT DRACULA (1970) and THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (1969) on local television in the early 1970s. I wasn't impressed. It took me another 20 or so years and the advent of VHS, then DVD and finally HD to become a serious student and collector of his work. His highly polished early 1960s films (GRITOS EN LA NOCHE, LA MUERTE SILBA DES BLUES, THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS, MISS MUERTE) are quite different in visual style and tone than his Pop Art colored work of the late 60s (ROTE LIPPEN/SADISTEROTICA, SUCCUBUS, LUCKY THE INSCRUTABLE, VENUS IN FURS) and his early 70s Z budgeted masterworks EUGENIE DE SADE and A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD. The obsessive use of the telezoom in his mid 1970s work (DRACULA, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN, FEMALE VAMPIRE) is less apparent in his films for Erwin C. Dietrich. His 1980's Golden Films Internacional period is especially ripe for discovery with gems like GEMIDOS DE PLACER and THE SINISTER DR. ORLOFF (both 1982) awaiting HD release. He often remade is earlier films, with surprisingly fascinating results. For instance his BROKEN DOLLS is as interesting as it's 1982 model LAS CASA DE LAS MUJERES PERDIDAS, while being totally different in visual style, sound design and interpretation by the actors.
As a director who favored on-set improvisation, he was more interested in the process, preparing the film and shooting it, than the result. The final forms of his films were often determined by others, including the sound editor, Gerard Kikoine, who worked on many of his Robert De Nesle projects, adding sound, music, dialogue and coherence where there was none. Film is after all a collaborative medium, but Franco was the captain on set, even when the front office delivered orders, as in some of his Harry Alan Towers, the fur worn by Maria Towers in VENUS IN FURS was there because of studio commands and he couldn't cast an African American (Miles Davis?) involved in an affair with a Caucasian woman, he had to flip the races.
There are as many ways to watch a single Jess Franco film as there are Jess Franco films. His oeuvre is rich and layered, each film is a beckoning hall of mirrors, awaiting our delighted entry. Jess Franco lives!
(C) Robert Monell April 2, 2016
31 March, 2016
Excellent Podcast on Jess Franco's Female Vampire Films...
Fascinating discussion on Jess Franco and other Female Vampire films. Check it out...
Daughters of Darkness Podcast
Daughters of Darkness Podcast
Download MP3 | Download OGG In the second episode of Daughters of…
diaboliquemagazine.com|By Samm Deighan
Joe D'Amato's Jess Franco composite...
This 1979 composite(aka JUSTINE), supervised by Italian porn king Joe D'Amato [rn: Aristide Massaccesi], is pretty delirious stuff. D'Amato cut Jess Franco's JULIETTE DE SADE (1975), a hardcore starring Alain Petit and Lina Romay, into shreds and then inserted scenes from two other 1975 Franco productions, MIDNIGHT PARTY and SHINING SEX, the former a comedy, the latter a sci-fi tinged erotic fantasy. He then rescored the newly christened Frankenstein monster of a film with cues written by frequent musical collaborator, Nico Fidenco. The result was... I'll be doing an expanded blog on this in the near future.
25 March, 2016
Jess Franco Actress': Who is "Shirley Knight"?
"Shirley Knight/Night" is actually a Croatian actress featured in such Eurocine co-productions as Jess Franco's CANNIBALS/WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN, Pierre Chevalier's PANTHER SQUAD, Jose Jara's OASIS OF LOST WOMEN, Andrea Bianchi's COMMANDO MENGELE aka Angel of Death. Nzoog has informed me that her real name may be Dragica Steiner.
Commando terrorista (1990) directed by Luis Colombo. With Draguy Steiner,…imdb.com, is an additional credit and alternate name pointed out by Francesco Cesari on the EL FRANCONOMICON Facebook group. Luis Colombo was the DP on CANNIBALS, on which Knight/Steiner also worked. There is also a "Draky Steiner" credited among the production crew of Jess Franco's 1980 EUGENIE, UNA HISTORIA DE PERVERSION. Does anyone know anymore information about her filmography or background? Not sure if she is the same person as "Draky Steiner" (see low quality screen cap below) or if she had anything to do with EUGENIE....
She appears as Barbara Shelton in CANNIBALS/WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN (1980). There is no further information on her on the IMDB. All the above films were shot at least partly in Spain, but I'm not sure whether or not she is Spanish. Aka Shirley Night.
This image at the bottom of this post is from OASIS OF LOST WOMEN (1982), in which she plays the warden of a tropical brothel where kidnapped women are forced to work. This is another typically sleazy, cheap Eurocine composite with footage included from at least 4 different different films, Jess Franco's OPALO DE FUEGO (1978), Pierre Chevalier's THE HOUSE OF THE LOST DOLLS (1973), another unknown French thriller, Gianpaolo Callegari's 1967 Eurospy AGENTE SIGMA 3-MISSIONE GOLDWATHER, with Jack Taylor, along with newer footage shot by Jara (sometimes credited as John O'Hara) featuring Knight/Steiner and Yul Sanders [Claude Boisson] as the headsof the kidnap ring. The late Francoise Blanchard appears as a kidnapped heroine. Both THE HOUSE OF LOST DOLLS and OASIS... are mixtures of Eurospy and Women in Prison tropes.
Thanks to Nzoog and Francesco Cesari for adding pertinent information.
(C) Robert Monell, 2016
Commando terrorista (1990) directed by Luis Colombo. With Draguy Steiner,…imdb.com, is an additional credit and alternate name pointed out by Francesco Cesari on the EL FRANCONOMICON Facebook group. Luis Colombo was the DP on CANNIBALS, on which Knight/Steiner also worked. There is also a "Draky Steiner" credited among the production crew of Jess Franco's 1980 EUGENIE, UNA HISTORIA DE PERVERSION. Does anyone know anymore information about her filmography or background? Not sure if she is the same person as "Draky Steiner" (see low quality screen cap below) or if she had anything to do with EUGENIE....
She appears as Barbara Shelton in CANNIBALS/WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN (1980). There is no further information on her on the IMDB. All the above films were shot at least partly in Spain, but I'm not sure whether or not she is Spanish. Aka Shirley Night.
This image at the bottom of this post is from OASIS OF LOST WOMEN (1982), in which she plays the warden of a tropical brothel where kidnapped women are forced to work. This is another typically sleazy, cheap Eurocine composite with footage included from at least 4 different different films, Jess Franco's OPALO DE FUEGO (1978), Pierre Chevalier's THE HOUSE OF THE LOST DOLLS (1973), another unknown French thriller, Gianpaolo Callegari's 1967 Eurospy AGENTE SIGMA 3-MISSIONE GOLDWATHER, with Jack Taylor, along with newer footage shot by Jara (sometimes credited as John O'Hara) featuring Knight/Steiner and Yul Sanders [Claude Boisson] as the headsof the kidnap ring. The late Francoise Blanchard appears as a kidnapped heroine. Both THE HOUSE OF LOST DOLLS and OASIS... are mixtures of Eurospy and Women in Prison tropes.
Thanks to Nzoog and Francesco Cesari for adding pertinent information.
(C) Robert Monell, 2016
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