Runtime: I saw the 90 minute cut
Directed by: Jesus Franco… mostly
Starring: Christina von Blanc, Carmen Yazalde, Anne Libert, Rosa Palomar, Howard Vernon
From: A few different European countries
This is one of those reviews I feel embarrassed to link to on Twitter due to the title! Then again, this isn’t the title that director Jesus Franco wanted to use anyhow but someone else bestowed that on the movie. To be clear-as there’s confusion for various reasons including there being multiple cuts of this out there-what I watched on Arrow’s streaming site is the 90 minute movie released in ’81 which included additional footage added by another bird of the same feather, Jean Rollin. Note that there’s an additional version which has XXX footage, which is not present here. In terms of Franco, I liked his The Awful Dr. Orlof from ’62 as that was subdued-comparatively speaking, at least-compared to his early 70’s Nightmares Come at Night (what a title), which was a dreadfully dull tale cobbled together from two different movies the director did not complete.
This movie was not something I really liked; sure, it’s weird but I need far more than that. In fact, while I thought the Rollin footage was rather bad, even if that was removed my opinion on this wouldn’t be too high. Thank goodness the Bruno Nicolai score was quite good; that was what kept me the most engaged w/ this nonsense. OK, “nonsense” is harsh as the general idea of the story is unique and could have made for something awesome. I realize what I’m saying here w/ this old European genre film but it sometimes doesn’t make a lick of sense and at times it felt quite overlong at only an hour and a half. At least there were moments… and I don’t mean the copious amounts of full frontal nudity! It definitely wasn’t the unsexist sex scene I’ve ever seen that was in the first act, nor the sexual assault in the final act.
If the title didn’t hint at the plot, the current description on Letterboxd certainly did. A young lady has to go to a mansion deep in a valley for the reading of her father’s will. Weird moments happen (including someone declaring that a character is delirious after… looking at a thermometer?!) the family is even weirder and various moments occur-it’s best if I don’t attempt to scrutinize the plot. At least the general idea makes sense… I do get why people like this although perhaps most Franco and Rollin just isn’t for me. Although, this may be the most European of the old European genre film in that this has a mute character-played by the director himself-AND a blind person. At least I can admit that it had an actual poignant ending which was unexpected.
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