31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: VENUS IN FURS (1969)

Vintage poster

The witness

The victim

The killers

The sadist

Jazz musician Jimmy Logan (James Darren) is drawn into a realm beyond time and space after witnessing the murder of playgirl Wanda Reed (Maria Rohm).

Jess Franco's psychedelic fusion of jazz (scored by Manfred Mann), horror, erotica and destiny. 

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: DEVIL HUNTER (1980)

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: DEVIL HUNTER (1980) A starlet (Ursula Buchfellner) is kidnapped for ransom on a tropical island. Al Cliver goes to the rescue. But the real menace is a giant, nude, cannibal zombie (Burt Altman?). Ugly, delicious entertainment.

She got what she deserved.

European Trash Cinema aesthetics

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: LAS VAMPIRAS

Alternate Spanish version of VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970). This is the covered/censored cut which also has a different musical score (co-composed by the director) and some striking images not seen in VAMPYROS LESBOS.  

Princess Nadine Korody

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: BLOODY MOON

Alicante, Spain. The International School of Languages. Coeds are stalked by a bloodthirsty psycho-slasher. Who is the killer? 

German version. Jess Franco directs a slick, early 80s era slasher flick in the style of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN and Brian De Palma.

Dr. Domingo Aunous (Jess Franco)

 releases the suspect from his institution.

Opening gore

A little persuasion....

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: LA COMTESSE NOIRE

Island of Madeira, 22nd of February, 1974. The Countess Irina of Karlstein seduces and drains a woodsman of his vital fluids. A visiting writer (Jack Taylor), the local medical examiner (Jess Franco) and the occult expert Dr. Orloff investigate.

A deliriously romantic love story which takes us into the realm of the undead who live in the world beyond the mist.

One of the director's key works is known under numerous titles (EROTIKILL; FEMALE VAMPIRE; LES AVALEUSES: THE BARE BREASTED COUNTESS: LADY DRACULA: THE LOVES OF IRINA) and has countless alternate versions.

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: LA TUMBA DE LOS MUERTOS VIVIENTES (1981

First viewing: WIZARD VIDEO- OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES

See the Spanish version which has better music, more interesting photography and superior performances by Lina Romay and Eduardo Fajardo.

DVD

Is that Jess Franco in the upper left corner shot?

Nazi zombies attack coeds!

Don't forget to watch our homage/sequel to this, the 3 part web series RETURN OF THE BLOODSUCKING NAZI ZOMBIES http://www.cinemadrome.yuku.com 

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (1971)

DVD

Scene from alternate version

French poster

A young woman travels to the remote family castle for the reading of her dead father's will only to find that all her relatives are zombies!

A heartfelt attempt at poetic horror blending the living dead, morbid eroticism and experimental B genre cinema.

The family unit is a matrix of horror and dysfunction leading into a hallucinatory vortex of arcane symbolism, sex and death. 

Memorable images: Ann Libert as Death, Britt Nichols with the scissors and the pink shirt of "Jesus Manera." 

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: LA NOCHE DE LOS ASESINOS

Jess Franco proves he can make an old fashioned, Gothic murder mystery set in an old, dark mansion.

Spanish Version

The next victim?

DVD

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: MACUMBA SEXUAL

A ray of light will lead you

To the realm of Princess Tara Obongo.

She will seduce your body, mind and soul;

She will make you her total slave.

She wants to control the world

There is one more thing you should know about the Princess:

She has been dead for a long time....

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: LA MALDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN (1972)

"My head hurts me!"

Dennis Price operates on the head of the Spanish Frankenstein monster, played by the hulking

Fernando Bilbao, also a notable Eurowestern villain (FASTHAND IS STILL MY NAME) of the era. Bilbao also played the creature in DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN (1971). Note the spray painted silver body 

make up.

This live action adult comic is a hoot and a must-see. Franco himself told me his preferred cut is the nude version, of course. The Image RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN DVD is the longer, "covered" version, which was made to please Spanish censors. It considerably dilutes the transgressive impact.   

aka THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (UK VIDEO)

      

31 Jess Franco Horror Films for October: AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO

A young woman is haunted by the memory of her father, who committed suicide when he learned of her impending marriage. She is driven to commit a series of murders at his command from the world on the other side of the mirror.

Perhaps Jess Franco's best horror film with an award winning performance by Emma Cohen in the lead. Featuring Howard Vernon, Alice Arno, Wal Davis and Philippe Lemaire, Francoise Brion. Definitely in my top 10 and in dire need of a HD DVD presentation.

See the Spanish version.

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN (1971)

DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN (1971) always makes my top 10 JF film lists. It's the director's feverish homage to Universal's HOUSE OF DRACULA, only done in a deliberately comic-book style with spray painted colors and a very aggressive use of the telezoom.

This really needs to be seen in its 2.35:1 Techniscope OAR, but both the Spanish DIVISA and the US IMAGE DVDs are cropped to 1.78:1, ruining Franco's careful compositions.  Also, both are incomplete, abrupty cutting off the atmospheric organ finale. 

31 Jess Franco Horrors for October: JACK THE RIPPER (1976)

JACK THE RIPPER-DER DIRNENMORDER VON LONDON

Klaus Kinski is Dr. Dennis Orloff aka Jack the Ripper. Enough said!

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: DAS BILDNIS DER DORIANA GRAY (1976)

This 1976 female vampire film is a quiet, disturbing affair, kind of a minimalist version of Franco's 1973 LA COMTESSE NOIRE aka FEMALE VAMPIRE. Imagine if Ingmar Bergman directed a horror film using a sitar for

musical accompaniment. Doriana Gray (Lina Romay) wears a long pink chiffon gown as she sucks the life fluid from her victims during erotic encounters. Frigid, Doriana's sexual experiences are somehow telegraphed to her siamese twin sister, locked in Dr. Orloff's clinic. 

From the first shot of Doriana's castle towering above the jungle this is a visually entrancing film, perhaps the director's most stylistically accomplished and consistent in tone. It's very downbeat and mysterious, composed in a much more melancholy key than VAMPYROS LESBOS or the more recent SNAKEWOMAN. The Official Jess Franco Collection DVD* presents the hardcore version, and I find this the very best of the director's work in that genre. The sitar-like musial, the sounds of the jungle, the classic architecture all create an uncanny mood.


Highly recommended for the discerning Jess Franco collector. There reportedly exists a softcore version which I have yet to see. 


*Elite Films AG VIP Entertainment, 2003.

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: KISS ME, MONSTER

Aka: CASTLE OF THE DOOMED/DAS SCHLOSS DER GEHENKTEN

The Red Lips detective agency (Janine Reynaud and Rossana Yanni) investigate a mad scientist (Michel Lemoine) who is creating an army of mutants for eventual world domination. An interpol agent (producer Hoven), a lesbian cult and an organization of black hooded figures are also on the trail. Look out for two separate Jess Franco cameos.

Our third entry is this really odd parody of Gothic Horror films made in 1967 back to back, or maybe simultaneously with TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS aka EL CASO DE LAS DOS BELLEZAS, preferred title ROTE LIPPEN-SADISTEROTICA. The Spanish version of this Aquila Films/ Berlin (Adrian Hoven-Pier A. Caminecci) copoduction with Spain's Films Montana is 83 m and very different from the English language version available on US DVD. It has an alternate, superior score and is missing several scenes which were added by the producers/distributors which Franco did not film (ie: the opening car chase is from another film and there is a jazz fest sequence which was lifted from an unknown source) but are included in the English language export version. The six additional minutes are mostly dialogue/transitional scenes. 

The Spanish version BESAME, MONSTRUO is also "covered" but seems to reflect the director's original intent more accurately. 

In any version a weird mix of horror, science fiction, mystery, crime, Eurospy, lounge interludes, striptease, slapstick and encoded musical motifs.

Thanks to Francesco Cesari for helping me see the Spanish version, BESAME MONSTRUO.

DEMONIAC: 31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors

The second entry into our October survey of 31 Jess Franco horror films....

I first experienced Jess Franco's 1979 EL SADICO DE NOTRE-DAME, a key title in the director's filmography which composites footage from his 1974 EXORCISM with updated scenes shot in Paris, via this censored Wizard Video in the late 1980s. Little did I know how much had been cut out.

 EL SADICO... has yet to get a HD uncut North American/R1 DVD release but the cover art for this box was used for the Synapse DVD of EXORCISM.

If you can find a complete version EL SADICO... is highly recommended for the serious Jess Franco collector.

31 Jess Franco Horror Films for October

October is traditionally the month for ghosts, goblins, witches, black cats, tricks, treats and horrors films. And it culminates with Halloween....

I'm going to try to watch a Jess Franco horror film each day this October. I'll attempt to put up an image and a brief comment or factoid on each film. Franco is one of the few directors to have actually made 31 horror films in his nearly 200 title filmography.

How many Jess Franco horror films have you seen?

The first title presented for your consideration is KILLER BARBYS VS. DRACULA (2002), the director's second horror film featuring the Spanish punk band Killer Barbies. The first KILLER BARBYS (1995) was sort of a MTV Gothic with lots of gore. This one was shot in the Costa Del Sol's Tivoli World, an elaborate Western-themed amusement park location. It features Spaghetti Westerns icons Aldo Sambrell (NAVAJO JOE), as a greedy promoter, and Dan Van Husen (CUTTHROATS NINE) as a classic vampire hunter in town to stake the unleashed Count Dracula, whose body is on loan from Transylvania.

 In an atypical role Lina Romay appears as a Transylvanian cultural official who acts like a cross between a dominatrix and a Gestapo officer. There are actually two Draculas on the premises, one played by the late Peter Martell (THE BLOODY JUDGE), another 1960s and 70s Spaghetti Western veteran. Katja Bienert, the lead in Franco's 1980 EUGINIE...HISTORIA DE UNA PERVERSION is a reporter trying to sort out who is the real Count and just what the hell is going on. It all takes place amid pseudo Walt Disney icons. It seems as if Donald Duck, Pinocchio and Mickey Mouse emerged full blown from the director's fevered cinema-unconscious as slightly altered, plaster cast Jess Franco versions of the real thing.. Dan Van Husen is very amusing as Dr. Seward and Silvia Superstar is Killer Barbies very sexy lead singer.

Lensed in bursting, sun drenched colors on Betacam SP video and printed on 35 mm film. The result is one of Franco's better looking Digital films. I like this one better than most observers and find the band's songs rather catchy. It's unpretentious, fast moving fun and you don't have to be a fan of Killer Barbies to enjoy it. It's also one of few films from the director's digital period which doesn't feature extensive erotic content and long sex scenes. 

WIZARD VIDEO: MANDINGA

Here's the vintage WIZARD VIDEO of the Italian blaxploitation epic, MANDINGA, discussed in the previous blog. 

Those Wizard VHS tapes could have poor video/audio quality, were often censored, always cropped and missing footage but they knew how to do covers. I really miss the Exploitation VHS era. We'll be reviewing some Jess Franco VHS covers soon.

Jess Franco's MANDINGA

Racist, blaxploitation or just Eurotrash?

Before it was made by an Italian director, this was a Jess Franco project initiated after the US produced MANDINGO (1975) proved to be a reasonably successful item. Talk about exploitation!

Alain Petit tells the story in THE MANACOA FILES: Franco and his small cast and crew were to shoot in Montpelier, France. The director left equipment and cast members in a chateau and went to Italy to secure co financing from Sefi Cinematografica [Eurocine was co-producing in France]. In the meantime the French police showed up when called to resolve the unpaid hotel bill. They questioned Franco's staff and William Berger (who was to play the white slave owner) reported that the police then confiscated/impounded some equipment. Franco disappeared and the film was not completed. Berger also states in his interview in OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO that a significant amount of footage was shot. Set in the mid 19th Century deep South,  Lina Romay is cast of a slave woman who is raped by Berger's plantation owner, she gives birth to a daughter, also played by Romay.. The daughter is then raised as a white woman. Petit speculates that up to 45m of film may have been shot. That story may be more interesting than the film itself if it was completed. Certainly the 1976 Mario Pinzauti film of the same title is as sleazy, racist and offensive as exploitation gets. A trashy mixture of sadism, blaxploitation and sexual torture. 

Franco also attempted to produce a thriller (L'ASSASSIN PORTAIT DE BAS ) simultaneously with the MANDINGA shoot, utilizing the same cast and crew (minus Berger) and locations. It was also left undone in the wake of the financial chaos and police raid.

Soledad Miranda in Jess Franco's JULIETTE (1970)

Thanks to Amy Brown for this image from Jess Franco's unfinished 1970 Soledad Miranda film, JULIETTE. I've seen other shots framed like this but not with her in this pose. Along with the presumed lost Soledad Miranda-Franco title SEX CHARADE (also 1970), it has taken on semi-legendary status among Jess Franco collectors.

I did get a chance to speak with co-star Paul Muller a bit about this fascinating project and will be reporting on our talk in future blogs. 

EPISODE 3: THE SINISTER DR. ORLOFF

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82rU9D3xJdU

Here is a link to EPISODE 3 of the web series RETURN OF THE BLOODSUCKING NAZI ZOMBIES

The sinister Dr. Orloff

Howard Vernon despatches an assassin to Dr. Orloff's lair.
Dr. Orloff receives one final order from Dr. Mabuse - to destroy the towers, releasing Black Matter.
Who will survive the disaster?

RE: New Jess Franco Book!: IL CASO JESUS FRANCO

I was honored to have been invited to write the Foreward for Francesco Cesari's new Jess Franco book, CASO JESS FRANCO, which is a spin-off on a Jess Franco conference he organized in Venice, Italy. It is a multi-lingual book, as indicated in Francesco's email to be below. I wrote on his FACEBOOK wall that the cover image is a perfect example of Jess Franco's melding of Sade and Walt Disney! The book is being published in Italy in a limited run and should be available on some Italian online bookstore sites.

---

From: cesarfra@tin.it
Subject: Re: CASO JESUS FRANCO. All the authors of this book write in their own language: Italian, Spanish and your forward in English. This could sound strange but I like this, since JF films are multilingual too.

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

EPISODE 3: THE SINISTER DR. ORLOFF--COMING SOON!

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

Here's a striking grab from RETURN OF THE BLOODSUCKING NAZI ZOMBIES--EPISODE 3: THE SINSITER DR. ORLOFF. The Episode will be up here soon!