THE NAKED SUPERWITCHES OF THE RIO AMORE/ORGIA DE NINOFOMANAS (1980)

AKA DIE NACKTEN SUPERHEXEN VOM RIO AMORE; LINDA; THE STORY OF LINDA; CAPTIVE WOMEN (US Video)

I first saw this film on VHS around 1990 after renting it out of an extinct «Mom and Pop» Video store. It was part of the «Captive Women» VHS series. Each was numbered. I think this Jess Franco Women in Peril film was CAPTIVE WOMEN 5. There was also Eurocine’s FRAULEIN ELSA SS, with Pamela Stanford, which was CAPTIVE WOMEN 4, if I recall correctly. The box credits were minimal and I wasn’t even sure at that time if this was indeed a Jess Franco film. It’s very difficult to find a complete version, even in today’s DVD/Blu-ray market.

Several versions, including the Dutch and US DVDs, omit some minor transitions and entrances along with the opening pre-credit sequence depicting the attempted escape of a woman from the Rio Amore, a white slave operation, ruthlessly managed by the lethal Madame Sheila (Raquel Evans), hiding behind an upscale hotel resort of the island of Madeira. There aren’t any super witches as the German title indicates, but Sheila could certainly be termed a jealous, tyrannical, vindictive  Super Bitch.

The pre-credit scene, which is in the old CAPTIVE WOMEN VHS as well as the Spanish video, shows the woman (SADOMANIA’s Andrea Isabelle Guzon) being chased along a deserted beach by a jeep containing several thugs who force her into the vehicle and return her to the brothel. The exclusive club features erotic group sex shows in mafu glass cages filled with tranquilizing gases (cf FUTURE WOMEN/THE GIRL FROM RIO, DAS FRAUENHAUS), whippings, disco scored erotic displays and other adult entertainments for upscale male clientele.

BELOW: Funchal airport, Madiera. Ursula Buchfellner in the mafu cage.

This is a strangely bifurcated film, telling two separate narratives about sisters Linda (Katja Beinert) and Betsy (Ursula Buchfellner), the former a runaway from an all girls school run by an order of nuns, the latter an employee of an exclusive resort hotel. Shot partially on the island of Madeira, the setting of Franco’s 1973 erotic vampire masterpiece, LA COMTESSE NOIRE, this is a sometimes visually entrancing film, especially in the Rio Amore love drug episodes involving caged women who are being officially «punished» by Sheila, the the queen bee of the brothel. Much of the film is taken up with her troubled relationship with hotel employee Ron (Antonio Mayans), who is carrying on a secret affair with Besty. When Sheila discovers this she has Betsy kidnapped and forced to work in as a white slave in the Rio Amore. At times the action resembles a racy version of any number of US cable TV series of the era.

The story of Linda opens in Germany with footage from Hubert Frank’s VANESSA (1977), a softcore featuring Olivia Pascal, the final girl in Franco’s gory US-style «slasher» epic. Pascal doesn’t appear here, but VANESSA, LINDA and BLOODY MOON were all German co-productions with Erich Tomek’s LISA FILMS, Munich. In fact Tomek is listed as the scriptwriter of ORGIA… on the Spanish video credits and he hid under the name «Rayo Casablanca» when he wrote Franco’s BLOODY MOON.

When Linda finally arrives on Madeira she sports a black Mickey Mouse T shirt, the negative of the white Mickey Mouse shirt she wore in Franco’s much more personal 1980 Sade adaptation, EUGENIE, HISTORIA DE UNA PERVERSION. Both films are indeed opposites in terms of tone and atmosphere. ORGIA… being a simple WIP, while EUGENIE … is an oppressive, dark, obsessively detailed study in madness, incest, murder and fetishism. ORGIA… registers as a kind of Jess Franco fable of Sacred and Profane love, with happy endings for Linda, Betsy and their lovers. Sheila is a literal Jess Franco scorpion woman, who unleashes the stinging insects on Ron (cf Pamela Stanford in LORNA, THE EXORCIST-1974)  before a disgruntled employee bursts in, finishing her off. Evans, born in Santiago, Chile in 1956 as Arlene Guevara Gatica,  was a well known Clasificada «S» performer at the time and she manages to act up a storm as the manipulative femme fatale, constantly keeping an eye on her slaves, meting out punishments and even doing an erotic dance number accompanied by a disco vocal included in the fun Gerhard Heinz score, which is available on CD. Evans also appeared in Vicente Aranda’s 1980 erotic thriller, THE GIRL WITH THE GOLDEN PANTIES, Ignacio Iquino’s EMANUELLE AND CAROL (1978) and Manuel Esteba’s crime-sleaze thriller, SITUACION LIMITE (1982).  Bea Fiedler has an amusing turn as Mitsy, the «Champagne Girl» who is desperate to bag customers before the other women can and attempts to seduce DP Juan Cozar, who cameos as a nervous John. German actor (BLOODY MOON)/producer/director (BABY STRICH IM SPERRBEZIRK-1982) appears as the lead bouncer-thug of the brothel.

Not a bad Franco Women In Peril effort, but far from tier one consideration. It mainly lingers as one of numerous international softcores of that era. Obviously it kept the director busy fulfilling his German co-production deal which also included DEVIL HUNTER and SADOMANIA (both 1980). Franco is credited as «Jack Griffin» on some prints of this and the other German co-productions. Some versions also cut some of the sadistic torture material.

(C) Robert Monell, 2016

Jess Franco Does Bryan Edgar Wallace

Jess Franco as a knife throwing specialist called in to find a killer in  DER TODESRACHER VON SOHO, a 1971 adaptation of a Bryan Edgar Wallace story previously filmed in 1962 by Werner Klingler. Artur Brauner’s CCC company produced both films. DER TODESRACHER …was filmed in Spain and Germany, and was co-produced by Arturo Marcos’ Fenix Films, Madrid.

Below: 1962 version. This version was mostly shot in England and features an atmospheric score and photography. The story involves a knife throwing killer, features Senta Berger, and leads to the exposure of a gang making an illegal drug in a secret factory. Neither this version nor Jess Franco’s follow DEATH PACKS A SUITCASE, the Bryan Edgar Wallace novel closely, which is more of an espionage thriller.  It was the first of BEW’s «Bill Tern» novels. Thanks to Nzoog for this information.

Franco’s version, set in London, is in color and notable for its stylized camera work with wide angle lenses, striking compositions and atmospheric lighting in the nightclub scenes. Fred Williams (COUNT DRACULA) is the Scotland Yard investigator. Dan Van Husen, Barbara Rutting and Horst Tappert appear as villains, and their presences add a lot to the atmosphere. Tappert was also in Franco’s Edgar Wallace adaptation, THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA (1970) and Rutting appeared in a number of German Krimis of the 1960s. Tappert would go on to fame in Germany as a detective in the hit television series, DERRICK.

Elisa Montes (99 WOMEN, THE GIRL FROM RIO) is the female lead, a role Soledad Miranda probably would have played if she had lived. This is more carefully made and engaging than Franco’s THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA. The German DVD I saw for review was not English friendly.  Both versions are worth seeing.

(C) Robert Monell, 2016

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Jess Franco does Edgar Wallace

This is a fun, micro budgeted affair, supposedly based on the writings of Edgar Wallace.  

Since I haven’t read SANDERS COME FROM THE RIVER, the Edgar Wallace story on which SANGRE EN MIS ZAPATOS is supposedly based, I can’t vouch for its relation, if any, to the novel. It may be that Wallace was more of a general inspiration, than a specific source for the various Franco films which claim to be adaptations. I also have not read the book on which THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA (1970) was based. That zoom powered adventure featured the very last performance of the late, lamented Soledad Miranda. The script for that one was credited to Ladislas Fodor, who adapted some of the earlier German lensed, Artur Brauner produced Wallace films. It remains a convoluted  affair enlivened by Miranda’s slow motion strip tease and another catchy score by VAMPYROS LESBOS composers Siegfried Schwab and Manfred Hubler.

The script for SANGRE EN MIS ZAPATOS was by Franco (originally written in the early 1960s, according to Alain Petit in THE MANACOA FILES*), and has notable similarities to the 1970 DER TEUFEL KAM AKASAVA. In SANGRE Lina Romay is a nightclub performer who is pursued by agents on the trail of plans for a nuclear device. Of course, in AKASAVA Soledad Miranda was also a nightclub performer, albeit a stripper, working undercover while investigating the theft of radioactive materials from a mine. Both films also feature Howard Vernon in a prominent role. In this film Vernon is Professor Von Klaus, who has fled the USSR with the plans for a nuclear missile, which he seeks to hand over to a European contact. A musical code is also involved in the complicated narrative, recalling the musical codes in such films as KISS ME, MONSTER (1968) and LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS (1981). Jess Franco loves secret codes, especially if they are musical. Antonio Mayans plays agent Carlos, who teams with Romay as she flees an unfriendly agent (Daniel Katz). There’s some, maybe too much, comic relief, such as bumbling agents hiding in Romay’s small apartment, in the style of a 1940s Bob Hope-Bing Crosby ROAD movie, etc. A blog correspondent has since informed my the British made version of SANDERS is much closer to the original EW novel. Thanks to Doug Campbell for posting this link to information on the 1935 Paul Robeson-Zoltan Korda film version on the FACEBOOK El Franconomicon group: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanders_of_the_River

Sanders of the River – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

There are some entertaining close calls and a final scene in which our absconding protagnoists are menaced with an aircraft attack by the heavily armed counter agents (cf NORTH BY NORTHWEST). Of course, Jess is not Hitchcock, but the scene is briskly staged and leaves one smiling. A breezy, unpretentious, fast paced programmer in the Eurospy vein which Franco returned to so often. Antonio Mayans and Lina, Franco’s favorite acting team of that period, seem to be enjoying the ride here. Stylishly shot by Juan Soler, the brightly colored, luminous compositions are easy on the eye and go a long way in making this is a minor but appreciated delight. Franco’s other mid 1980s Edgar Wallace adaptation, VIAJE A BANGKOK, ATAUD INCLUIDO (1985). also with Howard Vernon, is also quite visually entrancing, maybe more so, but remains a rather talkative, murky affair, more of a color remake of CARTES SUR TABLE (1966). A Manacoa production, produced by the director in an attempt to create or follow a commercial trend which didn’t really catch on in the action-saturated market of that era.

Also Edgar Wallace related is DER TODESRACHER VON SOHO (1971), which is credited as an adaptation of a novel by Bryan Edgar Wallace. This registers as a relatively action packed mystery featuring German stars Fred Williams (the male lead of DER TEUFEL KAM AUS AKASAVA) and Horst Tappert (DERRICK). This is another visually distintinguised film, this time using wide angle lenses and creative lighting designs to generate atmosphere rather than the telezoom. If she had lived Soledad Miranda might have played the female lead in this Artur Brauner co-production with Fenix Films, Madrid. Once again Ladislas Fodor and Paul Andre are the credited screenwriters, as they were in AKASAVA.

 

The supposedly completed, but unreleased VOCES DE MUERTE (1984) was an adaptation of Wallace’s THE CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED LADY, which was capably made by Alfred Vohrer in 1963 with Klaus Kinski, but remains to be seen.  Franco spoke of remaking THE CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED LADY again toward the end of his life in 2013. VOCES DE MUERTE was shot in the striking Ricardo Bofill structures which were the setting for the director’s essential EUGENIE…(1980) and ranks high on my most wanted list of unavailable Jess Franco films.

[Here’s a helpful mini-survey of the Franco versions of Edgar Wallace stories from a member of the EL FRANCONOMICON FACEBOOK GROUP: Andre Malberg The above mentioned «Sanders of the River» might use Wallace’s characters but it is very different in tone – which means it takes itself far to serious – when compared to his novels. In fact I consider the Wallace films of Franco and the great Alfred Vohrer to be very faithful in spirit, they might change the basic stories significantly, but then again those are mostly just skeletons that Wallace uses to tell us about many other and sometimes quite different things. Like these two directors he has a penchant for what I call meta-krimis, he often reflects upon the structure of the genre itself (some of his works are furthermore just a tad away from outright parody), has a hell of a time playing with the gender roles of his day and a deep-rooted love for the petty outcasts of society. Sexual and other human desires do also play a large role in his many novels – no wonder Franco liked him. All this is reflected quite beautifully in his and Vohrer’s films – a sharp contrast to most of the British adaptions, which tried to cling to the storyline a lot – a hopeless endeavor.«]

 

(C) Robert Monell, 2016 – with thanks to Andre Malberg and Doug Campbell.

EL SEXO ESTA LOCO

 

Sex, Science Fiction, Satire, «S»

Sex is crazy cinema in this freeform fall into experimental erotica …  A science fiction comedy which only Jess Franco could have made.

• Jesús Franco – The Film Director
• Antonio Mayans – Baxter/Mr. Martinez/Martian
• Antonio Rebollo – Flanagan/Mr. Gutierrez
• Lina Romay – Mrs. Foncesca

Jess Franco must have had a lot of fun directing this high spirited satire of the Clasificada «S» sex film genre in which he was working, science fiction scenarios (STAR WARS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, INTERRUPTED JOURNEY), which is filled with practical jokes, bawdy humor, strange sexual situations, silver skinned aliens, group marriage and a film-within-a-film being made by The Film Director (Jess Franco). Cyclical rather than linear, the film opens with hordes of nude aliens grouping in an elaborate mirrored space with a glittering glass ball overhead. A naked female on a pedestal calls out directions to the aliens who have brought in a human abductee (Candy Coster aka Lina Romay). A male alien «Pito One» mates on the stage with the abductee producing an alien offspring in a matter of seconds. Electronic sounds and a voice informs us that this is how birth is accomplished on the planet Goyas.

It’s then all revealed to be a performance staged for a group of monstrous aliens who look like they have wandered in from the space saloon sequence in STAR WARS. But wait, there’s more…

Then Mrs. Fonseca, the lead performer, the abducted woman in the show, is seen in her dressing room being massaged by her parrterner Flanagan (Tony Skios aka Antonio Rebello) as we see Jess Franco and his camera crew in the mirror photographing the film we are watching. Is the director breaking the fourth wall or is it another film he is making?  Just one of the many questions this film leaves open. Mrs. Fonseca is then drugged by Flanagan, who takes off. Waking up from the drug’s effects Mrs. Fonseca tracks him to the Europa amusement park where she locates him in a card game run by…. Jess Franco. She is then tied to a chair and tortured under the director of Mr. Martinez (Antonio Mayans) by nude Argentinian exotic dancers. And all this is only the first part of this multi-section conundrum. This is all revealed to be Mrs. Fonseca’s dream as Jess Franco enters the frame to give a line reading to Mrs.Fonseca and another lover, Martinez (Mayans). Lynn Endersonn, an accomplished comedienne, enters this phase as Flanagan’s new partner. All four players are then married by the film’s DP Juan Soler. They all spend time in bed together reading comic books. And then there are the appearances of Rosalinda , who is identified as the producer’s girlfriend. It all results in the emergence of the cult of Cucufati, which demands the sacrifice of Mrs
Fonseca. Finally the aliens arrive in a giant silver spaceship and it ends as it began. One of Jess Franco’s most personal and entertaining films which fulfills the requirements of the S circuit and the director’s private agendas. My favorite scene shows Jess Franco executing one of his trademark telezooms reflected in a mirror…(C) Robert Monell 2016

Podcast: Dorado Blu-ray release of Jess Franco double bill!

Dorado Films Podcast: Dorado Films Podcast #003 – Un silencio de tumba & Los ojos siniestros del…

This week on the Dorado Films Podcast, we phoned writer/blogger Robert Monell («I’m in a Jess Franco…

doradofilms.libsyn.com

We’ll have a review up as soon as this is released. In the meantime listen to the podcast. Link above…

THE GIRL FROM RIO versions

FUTURE WOMEN
Hard to find Liberty Home Video / VCI VHS
aka Rio 70/La Ciudad Sin Hombres
1969 – Dir: Jess Franco

There are a number of alternate versions of this 1968 Jess Franco-Harry Alan Towers crime/spy/adventure, shot in Rio and and Spain, featuring Richard Wyler, George Sanders and Maria Rohm. The BU Blu-ray is probably the best looking alternative but I actually prefer the shorter German version with alt footage not in the English language versions, including an opening Armored Car heist which is one of the best action scenes Franco ever directed. It also has alt credits and score. I’ll be posting more on the various version here in the future, along with some caps.

Thanks to Bill Knight…

C Robert Monell, 2016