Jess Franco Quiz: Who is this actor?

Can you name this actor? He appears in numerous JF films from the 1970s and 1980s. A tougher question: Can you then name ALL the JF films in which he appears? The second question is kind of tricky.

He also has appeared in a great many Italian films of a certain genre from the 1960s onward. If you can name them all, you're good... real good.

THE EROTICIST DVD

Lucio Fulci (1927-1996) baits his hook with human meat in NIGHTMARE CONCERT (CAT IN THE BRAIN), his 1990 post modern satire of himself and his horror films (cf Wes Craven's SCREAM).

After working as a screenwriter/assistant director for his master, Steno, he began directing comedies with the legendary Toto and the popular comedy team Franco and Ciccio before moving onto the Spaghetti western genre (the excellent MASSACRE TIME-1966) and making his first giallo (UNA SULL' ALTRA-1969).

Made after the delirious, psychedelic-fueled UNA LUCERTOLA CON LA PELLE DI DONNA (1971) he returned to comedy with All'onorevole piacciono le donne (Nonostante le apparenze... e purché la nazione non lo sappia), a 1972 bawdy satire on contemporary Roman politics, sexual hypocrisy, the Vatican and the Italian police state, a huge agenda fulfilled with style, sophistication, artistic daring and targeted jibes at the mass media. It was finally released in the US in 1975 as THE SENATOR LIKES WOMEN [!]. Now we have it on a superior, revealing R1 DVD presentation as THE EROTICIST.

Senator Puppis (Lando Buzzanca) finds himself neck and neck with an older, conservative politician in a high stakes Italian Presidential race. A hard working Liberal with a progressive agenda Puppis may just pull off an upset when a watchful television technician finds evidence that the Senator has a secret: a shocking predilection for "feeling out the South." No, it's not a political strategy, but a sexual compulsion wherein the Senator finds himself unable to resist reaching and touching women's backsides. Any and all women become targets of his addiction: female politicians, nuns, the wives of colleagues, even the occasional Scotsman in a traditional skirt!

THE EROTICIST is that rare thing, an intelligent sex comedy that provokes deep, liberating laughter while making one think. It has a lot in common with the work of the great Spanish Surrealist filmmaker Luis Bunuel, especially THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL and THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, which take a similar, corrosive attitude toward the public and private absurdities of Church, State, and human nature. One has to only examine the opening sequence, an in-depth televised political discussion is broadcast through a bank of public televisions which no one is watching, the crowd is gathered in front of the local soccer telecast instead. This is matched by the final scene in which President Puppis' dramatic appeal for National Unity is preempted by a popular TV game show. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Senator Puppis is in the midst of self destructing as a powerful Cardinal (the always overblown Lionel Stander), his personal confessor (a sinister minister amusingly played by Renzo Palmer), a randy nun (a pre-scandal Laura Antonelli) heated up by the Senator's abusive night at her convent, along with various advisers, police officials, military intelligence, political rivals struggle to hasten/exploit his demise. It's all monitored by the always scandal-hungry Italian news media, depicted as a cutthroat horde. Look out for Anita Strindberg (the voracious Julia from A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN) as an ambassador's wife who Puppis drags into the bushes during a public event. This is all very politically incorrect and that's what makes it tick so inexorably.

Buzzanca was an inspired casting choice. He wisely underplays Puppis' sexual addiction to the point where it becomes a kind of game to notice it. He uses his eyes and small gestures to indicate the Senator's downward spiral. Wearing a combed back wig, spectacles and conservative business suits he's a subterranean freak in the midst of the media madness which was Italian politics then and international politics now. The fact that the film has a special relevance to the affairs of Bill Clinton and the US Congress of the last few years attests to its prescience and durability.

Buzzanca's clever make-up and a Felliniesque fantasy episode [cf JULIET OF THE SPIRITS] involving a giant tree entwining nuns and the fondling of forbidden fruit in a cloudy empyrean are courtesy of the great Giannettto De Rossi, the future creator of the innards orgies of Fulci's ZOMBIE and THE BEYOND. De Rossi, Buzzanca and DP Sergio D'Offizi (CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST), whose zesty, candied colored compositions give the film a radically different look than Fulci's more well known gialli and horrors, are interviewed in a 43m documentary, A HISTORY OF CENSORSHIP, an extra on the new Severin DVD. The luminous 1.85:1/16:9 transfer of primo vault elements couldn't be better and showcase the careful craftsmanship of all involved. Presented in Dolby Digital Mono Italian with Optional English subtitles, the original soundtrack is highlighted by Fred Bongusto's ironic, popular music score, which enhances the layered satire.

One of Lucio Fulci's best films, THE EROTICIST is the notorious director's barbed commentary on and deconstruction of the hugely successful Italian sex farces of that era, a revelation for those unfamiliar with his work in comedy, which, as everyone here knows, is a much harder genre to crack than straight drama or horror.

Severin's excellent DVD is highly recommended for regulars, newcomers, and collectors of Lucio Fulci's films.

(c)Robert Monell, 2007

BLACK EMMANUELLE, WHITE EMMANUELLE: Images

Emanuelle and co. explore the land of the Pharaohs. One of the numerous well composed images in VELUTTO NERO, the original Italian title of BLACK EMMANUELLE, WHITE EMMANUELLE [why is her name spelled with two M's on the cover art?]. Can you name the all the actors in this composition?

The arid North African locations are artfully captured by director Brunello Rondi and his crew in this superior non-Joe D'Amato entry into the series.

Thanks to Eric Cotenas for the screengrabs. We've been discussing how we both consider this to be on the best, perhaps the ultimate, Black Emanuelle titles due to the striking cinematography, multi dimensional characters, excellent cast and outstanding score. One of the three Black Emanuelle titles getting their R1 DVD debut on Severin Film's new Limited Collector's Edition-BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX: Volume 2.

We'll be back with some more screenshots.

THE PSYCHIC DVD delayed until Dec. 4

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE PSYCHIC
Audio error on preview copies:
Street date postponed until December 4.

LOS ANGELES, CA, November 13, 2007 – Severin Films today announced that due to an authoring error resulting in very low levels on the feature audio they will be destroying all copies of the first press of THE PSYCHIC. The levels that were authored to preview copies of the DVD were unacceptable and therefore have to be corrected prior to release. This has meant postponing the street date until December 4.

# # #
Thank you for your patience.

Contact:

Garnier Public Relations: Danielle Garnier
danielle@garnierpr.com

THE PSYCHIC: The Severin DVD

Although dubbed into English, the main titles for THE PSYCHIC unfold in Italian on the new Severin DVD, which is definitely a big step up from the cut, fullscreen VHS presentation by which I was first introduced to this 1977 murder mystery.

Virginia (Jennifer O'Neill), a clairvoyant, appears to be happily married to wealthy Francesco (Gianni Garko) when their life is disrupted by a series of disturbing, fragmented visions she has of a woman being murdered and walled up in an unidentified house. She finds proof of the crime when she goes to decorate the interior of her husband's country villa and is compelled to suddenly smash open a wall, revealing a woman's skeleton. Francesco is summarily arrested for murder after he reveals he had an affair with the victim.

Is Francesco guilty? Is Virginia going insane? Are the recurring visions of a murder which happened in the past or of one which will happen in the future? And who will be the next victim?


Virginia investigates the Red Room, one of the striking visual links in a chain which leads her into a murderous plot, in Lucio Fulci's SETTE NOTE IN NERO [THE PSYCHIC].


Make no mistake about it: SETTE NOTE IN NERO is a good, well built giallo, very much in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA, SUSPICION and SPELLBOUND, with elements of Poe's THE BLACK CAT (which Fulci would film in 1981) thrown into the mix. It obviously has a lot of plot and character elements which can be found in his earlier gialli (cf PERVERSION STORY-1969; A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN-1971): false assumptions, transference of guilt, erroneous points of view, characters who are not what they seem to be. Unlike those films, which were drenched in late 1960's-early 1970's psychedelia and featuring copious servings of nudity, THE PSYCHIC (the US theatrical release retitling) plays out in a more realistic mode, is remarkably chaste (for a Fulci film) and doesn't have his signature helpings of gore featured in his more violent gialli such as DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972), THE NEW YORK RIPPER (1982), and his early 1980's unrated horror titles (THE BEYOND, THE CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD). What it does have is an intelligent use of color, camera angles and music. For instance, the color red, the use of overhead shots and the titular seven notes chiming on a watch, all become repeated motifs which are used to create suspense, indirection and finally unravel the mystery. The story structure, editing, direction, camerawork, acting and music all work in perfect unison during the first introduction of the psychic visions which occur as Virginia drives through a series of tunnels. We experience the disorienting, frightening images in synchronization with her and are left to work them out, as she does, for the remainder of the film.

The clever elaboration of the plot (while not exactly airtight or particularly plausible), low key direction and solid acting are what make the film work. Ms. O'Neill's vocal performance (which is preserved in the English language dubbing) may be stronger than her physical one, but she's good at projecting the character's arc of rising anxiety and she's surrounded by a first rate supporting cast including Gianni Garko (Sartana himself), Gabriele Ferzetti (L'AVVENTURA, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST), Marc Porel (VENUS D'ILLE), and Evelyn Stewart (MURDER MANSION) are all well cast and it's fortunate that the English dubbing/voice casting is quite adept.

The camerawork of longtime Fulci DP Sergio Salvati is top notch and the pop/disco stylings, fateful chiming and more ominous patches of the Bixio-Fabio Frizzi-Vince Tempera score will please fans of the sounds of the 1970's while providing an appropriate musical commentary. The film's quietly anxious tone is quite effectively maintained and really pays off. As long as one is not expecting an outrageous gorefest this film really does its job well. Repeated viewings reveal a continuation of Fulci's sharp criticisms of prejudice, social class structure and blinkered law enforcement.

Severin's DVD presentation shines a much better light on this underrated film than previous home video incarnations. The 1.85:1/16:9 transfer is sharp and colorful, although the night scenes, especially in interiors, sometimes betray a slight murkiness that may have something to do with the way the film was shot.

A more serious issue is the English Mono soundtrack, presented in Dolby Digital. Its rather low audio levels and inability at times to layer/separate dialogue and music tracks sometimes make the heavily accented lines of certain characters difficult to make out (I had to replay Gabriele Ferzetti's crucial hospital revelation scene twice in a row to get it) unless the sound level is adjusted a considerable distance upwards, where is begins to manifest a slight buzzing. Maybe it's my system and the fact that I was listening with headphones, but it may indicate a remastering problem.

Extras include the vintage US theatrical trailer ("Jennifer O'Neill is THE PSYCHIC!"), complete with grindhouse scratches and speckling, along with a 27 minute featurette, VOICES FROM THE BLACK, featuring audio interviews with screenwriter Dardano Sachetti, costume designer Massmio Lentini and editor Bruno Micheli, who discuss their memories of working with Fulci, illustrated by clips from the film. All seem to agree that Fulci was a difficult to please taskmaster.


NOTE: It's a good thing I initially neglected to mention that today [Nov 13] was the original street date. The breaking news is that Severin has announced that they are pushing back release of this DVD until December 4, 2007. Hopefully, this will give them time to work on the audio problem. It should be worth the wait.

www.severin-films.com/


(c) Robert Monell, 2007

Severin's BLACK EMANUELLE 2 DVD

It's taken me exactly one week to get through the movies, extras and music on Severin Film's BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX: Volume 2. This four disc Limited Collector's Edition boxset, along with the first BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX [below] constitutes one of 2007's major R1 DVD events. Guaranteed hours of viewing and listening pleasure for the connoisseur of what one might fondly term European Trash Cinema from the 1970s.

The final verdict is in: You Must Have BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX Volume 2! That is, if you are as compulsive a collector of Nico Fidenco/Laura Gemser/Joe D'Amato movies as I am... Wrapping up our in-depth coverage is a look at the R1 DVD debut of the first BLACK EMANUELLE sequel, Bitto Albertini's EMANUELLE NERA 2.

Dr. Freud (Angelo Infanti) probes the unconscious of Emanuelle Richmond (Sharon Lesley) in his private New York City psychiatric clinic to discover the trauma which has trust her into amnesia. Was it her proximity to war action in 1970's Beirut, too much sex, or was it that brutal encounter with the vicious motorcyclists? Neglecting his frustrated wife (Dagmar Lassander) the Doctor is determined to cure his patient while her concerned father (Don Powell) and the man who wants to marry her anxiously pace in the waiting room.

The last (and least) of the three BLACK EMANUELLE films in Severin BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX Vol. 2 under consideration is Bitto Albertini's BLACK EMANUELLE #2 (onscreen title), the 1976 afterthought to his vastly superior EMANUELLE NERA, which initiated the series a year earlier. That film had exotic locations, engaging characters, a terrific score and, most importantly, Laura Gemser in what would become her signature role. BLACK EMANUELLE 2 unfortunately contains none of those elements. Laura Gemser IS Black Emanuelle, accept no substitutes. Presumably, she wasn't available due to her being busy filming the Joe D'Amato BE films, but there was really no excuse for going ahead without her. They should have waited for her or not made the film.

Sharon Lesley (rn: Shulamith Lasri) in her only known screen role (you will quickly understand why after watching her for a few minutes) just doesn't make it in the role or as an actress. She, and the film, are what no BLACK EMANUELLE film should ever be: DULL. Angelo Infanti (Fabrizio in THE GODFATHER) looks more like a third level gangster than an expensive shrink. The sex scenes are best described as perfunctory.

Flashbacks to the war in Lebanon, gang rape, lesbian encounters and a silly episode of body painting don't help raise this above the level of a mildly diverting softcore romp. Even the once alluring Dagmar Lassander can't save it. Albertini (directing under his Albert Thomas beard) can be a stylish, energetic director, as EMANUELLE NERA proved, but he can't do anything here with the mostly indoor sets, the New York clinic looks like a few modified hotel rooms, and the obviously unenthusiastic and unattractive cast. Cinematographer Gugliemo Mancori shows little interest in making anything the least bit visually interesting. Joe D'Amato aka Aristitde Massaccesi understood the potential of Gemser, along with the concept itself, and would take the series in wild and wonderful directions. This entry is mainly for the Black Emanuelle completest. However, Severin Films has given it a razor sharp, colorful 1:85:1/16:9 transfer from glossy vault elements. It looks absolutely terrific, too bad the film isn't.

The only extra is the featurette DIVA 70, a video interview with an unrecognizable Dagmar Lassander, who discusses her work in such films as FEMINA RIDENS and with director Mario Bava (A HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON). The feature is presented with its [badly] dubbed English language Mono track. I doubt the inclusion of an Italian track would have made any difference.

The music soundtrack is by the late composer/actor/Spaghetti Western singer Don Powell, whose stirring baritone rendition of his theme song for Antonio Margheriti's...AND GOD SAID TO CAIN (1969) was quite memorable. He also wrote/sang the themes for such Eurowesterns as TEXAS, ADIOS (1966) and A FEW DOLLARS FOR DJANGO (1966), among others. His most effective music and performance were in Osvaldo Civriani's 1973 Voodoo Sexploitationer IL PAVONE NERO, featuring EMANUELLE NERA's Karin Schubert. His role here is inconsequential, as is everything else about the film. His musical score is an uncompelling blend of soft rock, mild disco and a dreadful exit song performed by The Peppers [who?]. Powell seemed more at home scoring Spaghetti Westerns. He reportedly committed suicide sometime after his last film work in the mid 1980s. The blandness of the music underlines the originality and importance of the Nico Fidenco scores for his BE assignments.

As with Severin's first BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX we get high quality transfers of two better than average entries and one bottom tier title, supported by an impressive array of extras and a very welcome CD collection of Nico Fidenco cues. I personally prefer the movies { VELLUTO NERO; LA VIA DELLA PROSTITUZIONE } and the Fidenco scores included in this compilation to the films and music contained in the first boxset. But considering you get a total of 6 High Quality R1 DVD debuts of vintage EuroErotica, along with two newly mastered Nico Fidenco CD's, they are both must haves. Highly recommended.

One can only hope for a third BE Boxset including the essential 1975 template, EMANUELLE NERA along with the Joe D'Amato oddity UNLEASHED PERVERSIONS OF EMANUELLE, a 1980 composite featuring footage from most of the previously mentioned BE titles, with a completely new Eurospy storyline imposed by a post-dubbed dialogue track. Joe D'Amato was a genius at double dipping!

BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX: VOLUME 2 streets Nov. 13th.

http://www.severin-films.com/

(C) Robert Monell, 2007

EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE DVD

Nico Fidenco, the composer of the the delightfully odd score for LA VIA DELLA PROSTITUZIONE (EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE). The briskly paced entry, directed and photographed by Aristide Massaccesi aka Joe D'Amato (below), was the last official BLACK EMANUELLE title and now is getting its R1 DVD debut in a rough and ready transfer from Severin Films.

Aristide Massaccesi aka Joe D'Amato was the King of Italian sexploitation for three decades until his death in 1999. Just before his sudden death from heart failure he had completed yet another XXX film shot in the US. A shrewd businessman, noted cinematographer (WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO SOLANGE?), maker of hundreds of horror films, westerns, comedies, softcore and hardcore features. He could be considered the Italian equivalent of Jess Franco.

EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE (1978) may not be the best, or the most outrageous, of the BLACK EMANUELLE series, but it could be the most entertaining. Laura Gemser is back in her signature role as the exotic ace journalist who arrives in Kenya hot on the trail of Rivetti (Venantino Venantini ), "a gangster on an international level" who is hiding out on a remote estate. Going along for the ride is her nymphomaniac friend, Ely Galleani (FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON). D'Amato goes easy on the violence and seems to take a sleazy abandon with this one, taking time out to chronicle Galleani's sexy encounters underneath her Land Rover with a local mechanic before getting her and Gemser dressed up in Kenya Airlines stewardess gear (of course, they find time for an erotic clutch in the shower). It's nonstop goofy fun which isn't spoiled even by a detour from Africa to the white slavery operation of BLACK EMANUELLE regular Gabriele Tinti. It's always good to see the late actor in one of his suave villain roles, although he can also play rough, as he does in the impressive VELLUTO NERO. Tinti was married to Laura Gemser from 1976 until his death in November, 1991.

The film's second half details the inner workings of the slave trade: a closed hooker auction attended by wealthy, ruthless bidders; Emanuelle's requisite job interview; glimpses into "specialty" rooms at the high end San Diego bordello; the emphasis on secrecy and a transvestite security chief. It's all very amusing considering the grim realities of the white slave trade in the real world. Favorite scenes include a kung fu showdown in a bowling alley and Emanuelle's last minute escape from being lobotomized only to end up on a fishing boat with a group of weathered fisherman who want to know how she's going to pay her fare. She once again rips off her clothes as Nico Fidenco's wildly enjoyable "Run, Cheetah, Run" kicks up on the soundtrack.

Prime EuroTrash, EuroSleaze, EuroErotica....just don't call it Eurocult! [For an explanation of my distaste for that term, just type it into this blog's search engine].

Moving from Kenya to New York City to Southern California, Massaccesi shoots with his usual skill considering the economic conditions. It's one of the most downmarket of the Black Emanuelles and probably the funkiest, thanks in no small part to the musical genius of Nico Fidenco. The outre score, odd by even Fidenco's standards, is included on the bonus DVD.

Severin's new DVD is, at 89m, the longest version I've seen. Presented in 1;85:1/16:9 it's certainly an improvement over the years of duped PAL videos on which I've experienced of this film. But this is what I term a Grindhouse print, slightly worn, visibly marked here and there, with highly variable color and sharpness. It's not exactly what I would call a High Definition presentation but it's probably the best this obscure feature is ever going to look. If it appears at times unsharp with colors not as luminous as they are in, say, the DVD of VELLUTO NERO, it may be because of the way the film itself was shot, often in difficult locations with available lighting, on the run in terms of budget and schedule, with portable equipment and processed in Telecolor. It looks gritty, down and dirty, the way it should look (at least to my somewhat skewed tastes) considering the atmosphere, subject matter and sleaze factor.

One of the last of the series, but, as we shall see in a future blog, not the exact endpoint of the D'Amato BLACK EMANUELLE endeavors. Curiously, this is presented in English language only, complete with slightly off kilter post-synchronization, but is nonetheless endearing (at least to me) as it presents our heroine as sounding something like a chipmunk [!] on the Mono dubbing track.

Bonus materials include the original Italian language trailer and AFTER HOURS WITH JOE D'AMATO, a twelve minute interview with late filmmaker camcorded in 1994 right after his appearance at a UK Eurofest convention. This curious affair transpired at "a local flat" (somewhere in England) where several unidentified, very scruffy looking, and quite inebriated, young males grill the laid back director and the ins and outs (literally!) of making hardcore movies. The youths (who look barely out of their teens) swill down huge cans of Fosters, asking him about the bestiality scenes in his CALIGULA and EMANUELLE IN AMERICA, among other hot topics. This is valuable, I guess, as an amusing record of a stratum of fandom from a gone era. And also as a portrait of the director relaxing with fans who are too wasted to do anything but throw softball questions at their hero. He appears to appreciate the rude informality, lights cigarettes and proves remarkably patient with his drunken young admirers.

Judge the print and transfer for yourself but, for me, this was a very acceptable package.

Next we'll be looking at BLACK EMANUELLE 2, with Sharon Lesley taking over the title role from Laura Gemser, directed by the creator of the series, Bitto Albertini.

BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX Volume 2 streets November 13th.

http://www.severin-films.com/

(C) Robert Monell, 2007

BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX: VELLUTO NERO

BLACK EMMANUELLE/WHITE EMMANUELLE: Velluto nero / Emanuelle in Egypt / Black Velvet White Silk / Smooth Velvet Raw Silk
BLACK EMANUELLE 2: Emanuelle nera no 2 / The New Black Emanuelle
EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE: La via della prostituzione / Emanuelle et les filles de Madame Claude

"The velvet on which the pleasure and vice of mankind lie is black as night."

Emanuelle (Laura Gemser), "the most famous model in the world," arrives at the desert palace of the wealthy and manipulative Crystal (Susan Scott) with her sadistic husband-photographer (Gabriele Tinti) in tow. In the midst of numerous erotic encounters, and a dangerous series of photo shoots, she will discover pleasure, pain, the meaning of life and herself. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The locale is the land of Ramses II, the costumes and settings (elegantly designed by Walter Patriarca) are different, there's a new supporting cast, including LAURE's Annie Belle [Brilland], but this is basically Emanuelleland, only viewed through a strikingly different lens and played in a gentler tone than the famous collaborations of Joe D'Amato and Nico Fidenco {cf: EMANUELLE IN AMERICA; EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS}.

As a Federico Fellini collaborator (LA DOLCE VITA) writer-director Brunello Rondi obviously inherited some of the master's taste for outre human behavior and locations. One sequence here, filmed near a huge Egyptian temple site, has much of the same mixture of surrealism, historical irony and erotic mystery as certain scenes in FELLINI-SATYRICON. Without the guidance of Bitto Albertini or D'Amato one would fear the series would go off the rails, but VELLUTO NERO re imagines the character and situations in a kind of metaphysical key. The opening sequence of a slave delivering a flower up a long stone staircase as the imperious Susan Scott awaits has the sense of an ancient ritual which immediately demands attention. Like the above quote from "Babylonian" texts, it may be spurious, but it creates a environment of classy intrigue and sets up an atmosphere of erotic adventure. And that's all it really needs.

D'Amato's BE entries immediately inserted animal and human gore sequences into the equation, especially in EIA and EATLC. But although Emanuelle gets a ritualistic bloodbath here there's nothing to compare to the infamous gore scenes in those titles. The characters are well written and played, while there is a thematic undercurrent well illustrated by Rondi's teeming, but always aesthetically balanced, 2.35:1 scope compositions, delicately lit by Gastone Di Giovanni. The strength of VELLUTO NERO is that is how effortlessly it seems to maintain its heavily stylized look while rapidly moving along (the efficient editing was by future Eurosleaze director Bruno Mattei).

I must admit a fetish for Susan Scott (rn Nieves Navarro), whose gaze can melt down the strongest of men, and women. She is all about hot, sweaty sex which can get very nasty if she's not being properly matched. Full-figured, sexually voracious, when seen next to Gemser and Belle, anorexic in comparison, Susan Scott is an Actress, but so are Laura Gemser and Annie Belle. Gemser's Emanuelle is more on edge, less in control, this time around, and Gabriele Tinti really lets it rip as her sadistic director, who forces her to pose in erotic tableaux with dead animals and massacre victims. Bitch slapping and raping her when she resists. these scenes have a startling, primal edge which keep this from being just another soft focus softcore effort in an exotic locale. In fact, Rondi often builds his erotic sequences around the anticipation of sex, rather than wallowing in extended close ups of writhing bodies. The sex scenes have an architectonic quality within the Northern African architecture of Morrocco and Egypt. With her frosted, pixie hairstyle Annie Belle seems to have wandered in off the set of LAURE but has a better role here as Scott's competitive daughter. Italian horror fans will note the presence of Al Cliver (Pierlugi Conti) [ZOMBIE 2; THE BEYOND] as Antonio, Susan Scott's guru/boytoy.

The gorgeous ochre and violette palette is given its full due in Severin's luminous 2.35:1 transfer. Those only familiar with the previous video incarnations will feel they are seeing it for the first time. The film can be watched in Italian with English subtitles or in original with its English Mono track with some addition scenes in Italian with English subs available. The rich, Middle Eastern tinged score of Dario Baldan Bembo is an engaging mixture of mid 1970s rock anthem stylings orchestrated for electric guitar, flute, Hammond organ and choral interludes. This unique musical environment nicely counterpoints the specific situations and settings and provides an interesting alternative to Nico Fidenco's personal approach to his Black Emanuelle assignments. The overall impression is of a lavish erotic desert fantasia, Emanuelle Meets Lawrence of Arabia. After adjusting to the unique look, sound and mood of VELLUTO NERO it ranks as one of the top tier titles in the Black Emanuelle series.

Bonus supplements include the original theatrical trailer and BLACK VELVET, an 18 minute video interview with Al Cliver which includes audio commentary by Gemser and Belle on the making of VELLUTO NERO.

http://www.severin-films.com/

Next we'll be considering the DVD presentation of LA VIA DELLA PROSTITUZIONE [EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE-1977]

(C) Robert Monell, 2007

BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX Vol. 2 ARRIVES!

Run, Cheetah, Run, Severin Film's BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX, VOLUME 2, is now in my grateful hands! Nico Fidenco scholars can probably discern that I've begun my investigations by listening to a favorite remastered cue from LA VIA DELLA PROSTITUZIONE (1976), the film is also getting its R1 DVD debut in this box set. I really had to go right to BLACK EMANUELLE'S GROOVE Volume 2, the Bonus CD which features 25 Nico tracks from the three mid 70's Emanuelle epics, including EMANUELLE E GLI ULTIMI CANNIBALI and EMANUELLE NERA IN AMERICA.

They all sound terrific, and those who have not yet discovered the movie LA VIA DELLA PROSTITUZIONE or its music are in for a treat.

And I haven't even broken into the actual movies yet! As I did with Severin's Vol. 1, I'll be conducting a real time tour this weekend, and probably into next week, through this Eurotrash extravaganza. I have numerous features, interviews, trailers, featurettes and three rare BLACK EMANUELLE titles to consider and you'll be discovering information and commentary about them as I carefully navigate through the gates of Emanuelle once again. I'm not particularly fond of the fait accompli-DVD-review format and there are so many elements here that I find it more fun to tease them out, extending the enjoyment of discovery. Emanuelle would understand...

The feature films included in the box are Brunello Rondi's BLACK EMMANUELLE, WHITE EMMANULLE (1976), Bitto Albertini's BLACK EMANUELLE 2 (1976) and Joe D'Amato's EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE (1978).

I'll be expanding on this blog, and there will be at least one subsequent one, adding some images.

Then we'll be looking at Severin's new discs of Lucio Fulci's THE EROTICIST (1972) and the much anticipated R1 DVD of his underrated 1977 giallo, THE PSYCHIC....

It's like the title of Track 24: Too Much Again!

It's going to be a busy week but I promise a Sweet Disco Funky Ride.

Stay tuned for much, much more...

(C) Robert Monell, 2007

CORMAN-FRANCO-POE-USHER

Roger Corman, the most dangerous director alive, takes aim at Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale in his 1960 AIP production, HOUSE OF USHER.

It's Halloween evening and I'm watching Roger Corman's HOUSE OF USHER on TCM with a recent viewing of Jess Franco's 1983 version of the same story fresh in mind. It must have been quite a shock for Corman's fans, if he had any back in those days, who were familiar with such B minus fantasy entries as NOT OF THIS EARTH, THE UNDEAD, BUCKET OF BLOOD and ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, all b&w no budget wonders filled with compelling images and ideas. They were unusually inventive trash, delicious exploitation. But HOUSE OF USHER is almost Art, with an emphasis on the "almost."

I don't think this film, or his subsequent Poe titles, would be as fondly remembered without the spectral presence of Vincent Price, who seemed to have been waiting his entire life to fit into the haunted shoes of Corman's Poe protagonists. He certainly dominates and finally obliterates the rest of the cast in HOUSE OF USHER.

Beside the intelligent, bold use of color, which may have influenced such later horror directors as Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda and Dario Argento, the element I like the best about HOUSE.. are the cracks in the house. Small cracks suddenly apparent, and a huge fissure revealed by shock cuts to the looming exterior of the mansion.

Jess Franco's USHER has more stones and rocks than cracks and replaces the final conflagration with a earthquake represented by shaking the camera (Jess operated his own system) and showing a few said rocks tumbling. Hmmm.... Well, it's Jess Franco.

And I must admit that I prefer Antonio Mayans to pretty boy Mark Damon as the young intruder, named Dr. Alan "Hacker" in the English language export! I guess they meant Harker, and there's a "Dr. Seward" [Daniel J. White] involved, a frequent name in many Franco horror films. Damon's hair is done up in a lavish wave slicked by the lights of Floyd Crosby. Mayans looks ready to burn out. Speaking of Floyd Crosby, Franco wanted to make an Expressionist homage to F.W. Murnau but Corman actually had Murnau's cameraman onset, a distinct advantage. And, as is often quoted, Corman understood that the house was the monster, something that Franco also comprehends. The Spanish castle in the Franco film seems to absorb Hacker like a giant, stone amoeba, only to spit him out at the end.

Roderick Usher (Vincent Price) suffers from a "...morbid acuteness..." to just about everything, but especially sound. "I can hear the scratch of rat claws within a stone wall." Reminds me of a stay in a very shaky hotel in Saltillo, Mexico over thirty years ago. In any case, Howard Vernon can be considered the Euro counterpart of Price, especially in terms of physique and vocal recognition. Compare the opening of Corman's version with Franco's. Both consider, in long shot, the lonely ride of the protagonist through blasted landscapes toward Usher. Corman emphasizes dead trees (New England, Hollywood style) while Franco makes no attempt to disguise or alter the desolate terrain of southern Spain. Both directors use color and camera movement as an equivalent of Poe's interior prose.

Franco's self proclaimed Expressionist experiment, EL HUNDIMIENTO DE LA CASA USHER exists in at least three different versions. Usher (Howard Vernon) drinks fresh blood (or rather licks it fresh off knives) compared to Vincent Prince, whose Roderick Usher resembles a drink of blood, tall, thin and glimmering in his crimson smoking jacket.

The Spanish version of this project is radically different than the export version, known as REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER on US video and DVD [NEVROSE, from IMAGE].

Try to avoid watching it in English language, the voice casting is painfully poor. In fact, see this alternate version if you can. I know of no English language version but it runs under 80 minutes, a definite bonus considering the tedium of the overlong export version [made worse by Eurocine added sequences featuring Francoise Blanchard as Usher's daughter and Olivier Mathot as a new Morpho and the use of stock shots from GRITOS EN LA NOCHE-1961). The stock footage goes on and on but illustrates an interesting contrast and demonstrates how Franco's cine-Expressionism developed over several decades. And Howard Vernon is an even more chilling obsessive 20 years on.

I must admit, seen in Spanish, I can't make much of Franco's USHER. I don't know what the hell is going on outside of the fact that Vernon is a blood drinking, murdering fiend. It's overwrought, but in a way I really appreciate, like Roderick Usher in Corman's HOUSE OF USHER.

And Jess Franco's Spanish USHER really does need an R1 OAR DVD presentation in decent video quality, with English subtitles available. Produced by Madrid's Elite Films, it doesn't appear to be owned by Eurocine. The DVD-R I have doesn't have a main title and is in pretty poor condition in terms of image and sound. Alain Petit notes that there was an earlier version, never released, which Franco had to change (adding several violent murder scenes) at the request of the Spanish producer.

Thanks to Francesco Cesari.

(C) Robert Monell, 2007

THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER

Unacknowledged masterwork, deservedly obscure Spanish slasher flick or something in between? Don't plan to pick it up at your local Best Buy to check it out, it won't be there for some time.

The lovely, talented, troubled Jean Seberg plays Ruth Miller in Juan Antonio Bardem's underrated Spanish giallo.

I'm looking forward to picking up the recent Criterion edition of Jean Luc Godard's Nouvelle Vague classic, A BOUT DE SOUFFLE/BREATHLESS. One of the more significant extras is Mark Rappaport's 1995 film FROM THE JOURNALS OF JEAN SEBERG, a memoir of the actress who became an instant international star, along with Jean Paul Belmondo, with the 1960 release of Godard's film. One reading of Seberg's subsequent career is that it was a long downward spiral from there until the day in 1979 when she was found dead in Paris from a barbiturate overdose. To die in Paris, the same city which Godard followed her through with his hand held cameras in A BOUT DE SOUFFLE two decades earlier... there's something poetic in that. And, of course, tragic. But we're not here to go into the details of her demise, but rather to take a look at an often misunderstood and underrated mid 1970's Spanish psycho-thriller which some say she did only for the money.

LA CORRUPCION DE CHRIS MILLER is almost impossible to see today in its scope shooting ratio and in its uncut 107m form. Here's hoping for an uncut OAR DVD release of this film, which remains ripe for reevaluation. As it stands today even Spanish horror fans who gather on the internet either don't know about it or don't have access to it in proper format.

Reading the usually discerning Vincent Canby struggling to find some value in it and coming up empty in his 1976 NYTIMES review, when it was finally released here some three years after it was made, gives some insight into the problem. He finds a possible allegory of General Franco's Spain but can't believe anyone would bother. Some reviews incorrectly file it away as Jean Seberg's last film, it wasn't, but it does feature one of her most interesting performances as the frustrated matron, Ruth Miller. At times one gets the feeling that she may be doing something beyond method acting. But there's a lot more to this film than a snapshot of Seberg on her way to oblivion.

As written by Santiago Moncada, the dynamo who is credited with the scripts for two key Spanish horror films of the 1970's, Claudio Guerin Hill's LA COMPANA DEL INFIERNO (1973) and Joaquin Romero Marchent CONDENADOS A VIVIR (1971). The prolific writer also worked with Manuel Cano (THE SWAMP OF THE RAVENS), Mario Bava (A HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON) and wrote two of Jess Franco's most compelling 1980's films JUEGO SUCIO EN CASABLANCA (1984) and LA ESCLAVA BLANCA (1985). Both Franco films have never had a North American theatrical release or video presentation on any format. Picking through Moncada's busy career (try to spot his name in Tarantino's DEATHPROOF) one might detect a casual nihilist with a taste for irony and a penchant for self destructive characters. CHRIS MILLER may be his most ambitious, and conflicted, work, combining numerous elements from previous horror films and thrillers: PSYCHO, THE NIGHT DIGGER, PERSONA, to name but a few.

During a rainy 1970's Spanish summer, a remote region is terrorized by a serial killer who slaughters his victims with extreme prejudice before robbing them. But the rain is something more than a freak weather pattern and the killings illustrate a kind of brutality born of pain. It's a bit disconcerting that the most sympathetic character is a serial killer whose motive turns out to be a quietly devastating comment on the banality of evil. The two central relationships in the film, between Ruth and Chris Miller (Marisol), and Barney (Barry Stokes) and Ruth, are based on power games which endlessly ping-pong until they flame out in spasms of ultra-violence. The kind done with common kitchen knives, blunt instruments and whatever is at hand. As with Hitchcock's PSYCHO (heavily quoted throughout the film), explaining the plot is not enough and finally unfair. One finds patterns: the dysfunctional family unit formed by Ruth, her stepdaughter, and drifter Barney finds ironic counterpoint in another family. They become known as the Farmhouse Family in the national media when they are massacred in the film's central sequence, which is staged with the chilling precision of Hitchcock at his best. The fact that the fatal intruder appears as a "monk" with a scythe evokes another 1970's Spanish horror memory, Amando de Ossorio's "Blind Dead." The victims are a "healthy" functional family, with the mother and father relaxing in front of the fire as the children sleep upstairs. One really feels a sense of violation as they are efficiently slashed to death. The random nature of violent crime has rarely been illustrated with such clarity.

When the killer is caught, Ruth and Chris go to work to hide another crime, their own. In the film's final images a cycle of secrets uncovered and regenerated leaves the two women in a kind of suspended animation, somewhere between guilt and denial. Director Bardem resists every temptation to turn this into an erotic film, although the lesbian undertones of Ruth and Chris's relationship are obvious, if never exploited.

Lavishly shot on location by Juan Gelpi with a haunting score by Waldo de los Rios, THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER is not an auteur film in the strictest sense. Directed by early Jess Franco employer, the late Juan Antonio Bardem (COMICOS), it can be seen as an elaboration on the Bardem's DEATH OF CYCLIST (1955), on which Franco worked as an assistant director and was critically noticed at that time for a depiction of the Spanish class system hiding something criminally deceptive. CHRIS MILLER seems designed as an exploitation film which allows itself a series of gory epiphanies, given the Spanish censors displeasure with too much sex. But the film is not as gory as it might seem on first viewing. While Bardem seems definitely more at home with violence than sex he also understands violence has something of a sexual component and, perhaps with Moncada's templates in mind, locates the trigger for crime in childhood trauma and adult resentments.

THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER may or may not be a masterwork of its form, but it is a film which will make you think. Over the years I have made a number of 10 Best Spanish Horror Films lists and it always makes the final cut. What I like the most about it is that there are no happy endings or tidy explanations for what has happened. We are left feeling drenched in ambiguity.

And you won't forget the rain...

(C) Robert Monell, 2007

FAVORITE HALLOWEEN FILMS

The Wolf Man (Brandy) attacks Dr. Exorcio in Jess Franco's Die Nacht der offenen Särge [DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN].

The above image, from one of my digital films, is a trick. But what is a Halloween treat?


DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN is definitely a Halloween favorite simply because the Dracula and Frankenstein monsters are so patently false, they look like actors dressed up as classic Universal monsters, and that's the charm of it. Halloween is all about dress up and make believe and so are Jess Franco's essential films. He's influenced by NOSFERATU, fumetti neri, popular comic strips and Hollywood B minus cinema where the wires on the vampire bats are visible.

Sticking with JF, another favorite is his BLOODY MOON (1980), simply because it begins as a Costa del Sol version of John Carpenter's original HALLOWEEN... and you get to see Jess himself as your friendly mental institution director (THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI anyone?)

Other favorite films I tend to watch around Halloween:

DANSE MACABRE (1964), Antonio Margerhiti
THE CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980), Lucio Fulci
NECROMANIA (1971) Ed Wood
THE WIZARD OF GORE (1970) Herschell Gordon Lewis
THE MONSTER HUNTER (1981) Joe D'Amato [Another HALLOWEEN rip-off]
KILL, BABY, KILL! (1966) Mario Bava
ZOMBIE LAKE (1980) Jean Rollin [Even a kid could do a better make-up job!]
THE VOODOO MAN (1944) William Beaudine [Actually, I watch it every day of the year!]


[Forget all the HALLOWEEN follow-ups, especially the recent Rob Zombie fiasco]

I'll add some more later...

What are your favorite Halloween films?

JESS FRANCO'S CUBIST DE SADE

Cubism: n. An early 20th century school of painting and sculpture tending through geometrical reduction of natural forms to establish independence of all imitative intention. [THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE]

I have about 20 dictionaries in various languages on hand at any time and that was the nearest. So I grabbed it and got the above paperback dictionary defintion of CUBISM, one of my favorite styles of painting, sculpture and architecture. Maybe that's why I've always had a special appreciation for the films of Fritz Lang, Edgar G. Ulmer and Jess Franco. Their films almost always have a cubist infrastructure. I've been discussing Franco's Sade adaptations and his much criticized use of the telezoom in previous blogs, but allow me to submit for your approval a brief examination the way cubism has influenced his style . Or at least in the period from 1970 to the early 1980's, wherein he discovered the architectural structures of Ricardo Bofill [SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY; THE PERVERSE COUNTESS: EUGENIE, UNA HISTORIA DE UNA PERVERSION] and purified his earlier Expressionism (see GRITOS EN LA NOCHE) into a kind of personal rough-hewn cubism. Also see Godard's LE MEPRIS, featuring Lang himself, as an extended excursion into cine-cubism. But Franco spent more than a decade delivering cubist canvases on film.

A good example of this is the above image from PLAISIR A TROIS [can you name the actors?], which I think is my second favorite Franco Sade adaptation. The action and actors are always crowded into a tightly formed triangulation within the box of the frame: the mental institution, the villa, the basement of horrors and even the garden seen above, although an exterior, is a trap. Everything in Sade is a kind of trap, especially Language, and Jess Franco's language is the cinema and in this film he reaches a new level of visual sophistication in composing an image, or series of images, of the Sadean trap. There are two separate plots summed up in this image, two of the characters are plotting the demise of the other while a third assumes a solution to the mystery. Only one of the three assumptions is correct. But which one?

This is actually the best quality image I have ever seen from this very painterly film, my own VSOM antique is poor quality at best. I have since been able to speak with the director, author and a a lead actor in the film and have learned a lot about its making. But it's the finished product which I find fascinating, cubism in motion. Franco would develop his cine-cubism throughout the 1970s and 80s until the point of GEMIDOS DE PLACER (1982) a remake of this film, in which dialogue and plot exposition are almost entirely dispensed with in favor of extended plan sequences/pure cinema.

Does that make is Art? Perhaps not. But it's something to consider the next time you see a Jess Franco film.

(C) Robert Monell, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK TAYLOR!

Jack Taylor, in what is perhaps his signature role, as Baron Von Rathony in Jess Franco's LA COMTESSE NOIRE (1973).

Born October 21, 1936 as George Brown, this American actor has played roles in over 100 films in a career spanning four decades; including eleven major parts in Jess Franco films, from NECRONOMICON/SUCCUBUS (1967), as the suave club owner who betrays Lorna Green (Janine Reyaud), to the Soviet spy Jack Haus in VOODOO PASSION (1977).

After working in Mexico in the late 1950's, including a role in the Mexi-horror classic THE CURSE OF NOSTRADAMUS (as Grek Martin), he then emigrated to Spain, appearing in numerous genre titles, including the Amando de Ossorio Spanish western, LA TUMBA DEL PISTOLERO, where he changed his name to Jack Taylor. He would later appear in the director's 1970's horror classics, THE NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS and GHOST GALLEON (1973) and work with Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy in such films as DR. JEKYLL AND THE WOLFMAN and THE MUMMY'S REVENGE (1973). More roles would follow in Spanish horror films, making him one of the most familiar faces of the 1970's Spanish horror boom.

I particularly appreciate him in NECRONOMICON, where he creates a mood of nuanced menace, and LA COMTESSE NOIRE, my favorite of his performances, as the melancholy Austrian writer, stranded on the island of Maderia, fated to fall in love with the deadly Countess Irina Von Karlstein.

He has also appeared in more mainstream productions, such as Roman Polanski's THE NINTH GATE and worked as Art Director on several films, including Franco's THE BLOODY JUDGE.

I look forward to seeing him in the upcoming Jose Sanchez documentary, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JESS FRANCO, which is now reportedly in the post production phase.