Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (1968)

I'm a softie. I feel, when watching any random movie with Paul Naschy, that he was something special. One of the few really passionate geeks out there, on the same level of geekiness as Luigi Cozzi and Mario Bava. Fans of all thing genre, especially the non-realistic, fantasy-injected genre cinema with more heart than money. Frankenstein's Bloody Terror isn't a Frankenstein-movie. The American distributors added a very, very, very silly pre-credit which explains that the Frankenstein family evolved into the Wolfstein family and that's it - the monster of a mad scientist suddenly becomes a supernatural wolfman.

The story is simple. Two gypsies accidentally awakens a werewolf, who - after killing them - goes after the villagers and infects Naschy, doing his old Waldemar Daninsky part, and makes him the new wolf in town. He seeks help from a famous doctor, who turns out to be a vampire and the battle beings. There's also something with a young loving couple and some old farts (their fathers) rambling stiff lines to each other.

Yeah, it's a bit of a mess - but it's also Naschy's first foray into werewolf-cinema (I just don't count that other "lost" movie, I seriously doubt it got made) and he sprinkles the story with the soul of American horror comic books rather than the old Universal monsters. It's basically lit like a story right out from EC Comics and with a story so wild it could be one of those poverty row monster flicks, but with more colour and very fake RED blood. I love it. It's god damn hard to NOT love, because there's so much fun stuff going on.

Naschy himself is big and bold and takes a big bite from every scene he's in. When he's a werewolf he's just furious and aggressive and just a marvellous fucking monster. One of the best. Maybe THE best werewolf ever existed (yeah, even better than Lon Chaney Jr). I think it's because Naschy goes so far down in the animalistic rage, the sexual tension between him and all the victims. Naschy just doesn't bit people, he almost rapes them - men and women - with his whole body and bodily fluids spurting in every direction. Naschy IS Waldermar Daninsky, he owned that part.

What I miss with this crazy production is - actually - the more straight forward storylines that he used in later movies. Daninsky is such a good and interesting character that he deserves something more than just chaos. Frankenstein's Bloody Terror is a fine movie, fun and silly and filled with love and coolness, but it's still the first trembling step of a master.

Give it a go. But remember that there's a lot of other adventures with Daninsky that's better and bloodier. 

Attack of the Werewolves (2012)

I don't like horror-comedy. I think horror should be serious and - most of the time - humorless. That makes interesting movies. But there's a few - very few - movies that mixes horror with comedy in a good way. Shaun of the Dead, Tucker and Dale vs Evil and Cabin in the Woods for example. I know that the last one isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I don't give a f**k about that. They're comedies, but the horror is real. People die, the monsters is scary or the situations serious. That makes a good horror-comedy. Attack of the Werewolves, also known as Game of Werewolves, is a new Spanish production - released this summer in it's country and now on blu-ray in the UK. It's also one of the few horror-comedies that works.

Tomas is coming home to his old village, where he lived until he was 15 years old. He's invited to talk at some fancy occasion, because he's a famous writer - well, not that famous actually: he wrote on book that sold nothing and now he wants to write a second one. But the villagers has other plans for him and suddenly he finds himself facing a werewolf... and the only way to stop the werewolf is if it's eats Tomas! This won't end well...

It works because the danger is real. There's not slapstick-monsters, just real dangerous ones. I love that. Attack of the Werewolves is also packed with excellent actors, and the leading man - yet another semi-failed Spanish men with dream, just like in Torremolinos 73 - played by Gorka Otxoa both manages to be touching in his dreams to write another book, and handles the slapstick and gags at least as good. His former best friend Calisto (Carlos Areces) is extremely funny, a real character still being over-the-top. The same thing can be said about the third protagonist, played by Secun de la Rosa, probably the most annoying and most incompetent literary agent ever shown on screen.

The real success is the simple - but very effective script - with a couple of great twists and a storyline that just goes up! Up!! UP!!! all the time until they do stuff that people only think about but then trash because it's too much or too silly, but here they do it and it makes it even more awesome. Like Shaun of the Dead it still stands firmly on the ground of reality, but set in a landscape of absurdity. The violence is violent (but less gory than I thought it would be), the comedy is broad and the drama is big drama. Like all good movies want to have more when the movie ends, because you like the characters and it's open for so many more adventures.

Spanish comedy is special, not for everyone, and pretty close to the even more outrageous Italian comedy. But I think the Spaniards is better at mixing some seriousness into the story, with less shallow characters and more interesting storylines. Of course there's bad comedies to, but I guess the legacy of Almovador and De Iglesias has left a lot of inspiration to other filmmakers also.

Oh, but how's the werewolves? Let me tell you one thing: you won't be disappointed! These are big, brutal classic werewolves. Part Naschy, part Chaney, part animal. The make-up is extremely good, among the best I've seen - especially in something that probably don't have the biggest budget in the world. They're violent creatures to, and shows it in graphic ways - but it could have been even more nasty if you ask me. Somehow, when watching it, I feel that Paul Naschy himself would have played on of the old men in the village if he was still alive. His spirit is all over the story, either they meant it that way or not.

Good, fun, charming werewolf-movie!

The Man with the Severed Head (1973)

I've poured a couple of whisky's in my poor, poor body and now I'm gonna try to write a few words about The Man with the Severed Head, aka Crimson. Forgive me if it's incoherent! This is an interesting movie 'cause of several reasons: it stars Paul Naschy, one of my favourite horror stars and it's also produced by Eurociné, the legendary cheapo production company owned and controlled by Marius Lesoeur (and later his son Daniel Lesoeur). They're mostly famous for a couple of extremely cheap Jess Franco production but also the notorious Zombie Lake, a movie poor Jean Rollin directed just because Franco never appeared to do his job!

A band of thieves gets in big trouble after their leader gets a serious brain injury after a failed robbery. To save him they go to a famous surgeon, who happens to don't have any working hands after an accident, to make a god damn brain transplantation! They need a new brain of course and kills some other gangster - who happens to be a raving psychotic - good choice, lads! Anyway, they make the transplant, but of course everything goes wrong!

It has some good parts - but mostly really bad and boring parts. The best thing with the production is the awesome cast, from Paul Naschy in a supporting part and the always excellent Claude Boisson and the reliable character actor Víctor Israel, who also gets killed in the masterpiece Horror Express. Olivier Mathot has a bit of an underwritten role, but he's a welcome presence in any of these movies. The women are there to look pretty and nice, but has very little to do - it's a man's world, as usual.

What's good with The Man with the Severed Head is the brain-transplant part, which is something from an American fifties horror movie or maybe one of Franco's Dr Orloff adventures. It's cheesy and fun and colourful with a cool lab and a lot of unrealistic science explained in very serious ways. The rest is, unfortunately, not that good. This is one of those movies you'll watch because of the cast and nothing else. Well, at least if you're an un-experienced Eurociné-viewer. For us who love, adore and worships this very special production company this is one their most slick and expensive (well, everything is relative)) productions with some really nice cinematography, good directing by Juan Fortuny and a script that holds together, even if nothing much happens.

The biggest disappointment with it is how they take a fun premise and they never do anything good with it. If I did a movie with a brain-transplant I would let the patient run amuck really good and not just run around like a drunk reality soap contestant and not do much more than that. Why not let him roam the French countryside, perform some creative kills and THEN die. Now the final is just a bad episode of some German detective-show.

The Man with the Severed Head is only for us who needs to see either everything starring the talented Paul Naschy or produced by Eurociné. You rest... well, stick around and I'm sure there will be something more interesting for you to watch. 

Werewolf Shadow (1971)

Yeah, Naschy is without a doubt the best werewolf actor ever. He's mixing the classic werewolf with the more modern, animalistic creature without resorting to exaggerated make-up effects. He just doesn't need it, this athletic weight-lifter who was more focused on being an director and writer than acting, but when the production company of his first werewolf-movie found out that Lon Chaney Jr was too old, too fat, too alcoholic and too sick to work again the only solution was Naschy himself. And we should be eternally grateful for that. Werewolf Shadow became on of Naschy's biggest hits and it's easy to understand why. The story is tight (but hardly original) and it delivers some cheap and fun gore, gorgeous directing by the master León Klimovsky. It's a very handsome and attractive production, from the talents behind the camera to those in front.

Two beautiful chicks goes on a road trip to some distant parts of France, looking for the grave of a famous crazy medieval princess/fucked-up serial killer - and maybe even a vampire! On the road they meet Polish nobleman (and werewolf) Waldemar Daninsky who offers them to stay in his house for a couple of days. What they don't know is that the crazy vampire princess is an old enemy of Danisky and soon she's back from the grave, spreading her vampirism and the only solution is for Daninsky to fight her once again - in the shape of a bloodthirsty and uncontrollable werewolf!  

You see? The story is simple and fun and an excellent excuse to show a lot of werewolf-attacks, nudity and slow-motion vampires running in forests. The first scene is Daninsky laying in the morgue, ready for autopsy. According to Naschy himself they shot that in a real morgue and moments before there was a real, bloody body laying there, a young man killed in a motorcycle accident. They just flushed the blood away and Naschy was ready for his scene! This is one of the best-looking Paul Naschy's also. He's strong, looks vibrant and virile and he practically owns every scene he's in - even with beautiful women clinging around his neck.

But he really comes alive as Waldemar Daninsky, in a raging fury (that could be a cool 80's action film with ninjas: Raging Fury!) and with a foaming mouth he rips people to death, chewing on their throats and rolling his eyes it was his last day of acting ever. And it's SO convincing. The make-up is cool, it's simple compared to other movies, but there's no need for more. It's all about the acting, how the body works, the eyes. Naschy knew how to do it and he did it extremely well. But what to expect from a guy who wanted to be The Wolfman since he first saw him in the cinema as a teenager?

I'm not expert, but somehow it seems like Naschy was one of the first filmmakers to introduce graphic gore to the Spanish cinema. That doesn't mean it's much of it in any of his films, but Werewolf Shadow had a couple of graphic scenes that I totally forgot from the first time I saw it. The most surprising thing is when he chops a head off a vampire woman, all in one take - the effect itself isn't that good, it's primitive, but I was expecting them to cut away to a reaction shot of Naschy, because it felt like it should be like that. But instead we see him chop it off with a couple of whacks! No cuts, nothing. Not convincing either, but it's the thought that counts in cheap horror movies like this.

Now I've been writing about shallow, cheap things like gore and nudity and werewolf-attacks, but that's what Werewolf Shadow is about. I mean, for fucks sake, the alternative title is "The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman", which kinda says it all. It's extremely well-made entertaining with Paul Naschy in top form.

This is a timeless, slightly trashy, classic. A must in every collection of eurocult! 

Panic Beats (1983)

The first time I saw Panic Beats I didn't like it so much. It was okay and that's it. So after a few years, and a weekend spending in front of Paul Naschy's fine autobiography "Memoirs of a Wolfman" I decided to give it a new try, hopefully with a couple of years of experience and maybe, mentally, a bit more mature. Well, who am I kidding? I will never grow up! Panic Beats on the other hand was a bit of a revelation this second time, especially after reading about how it was made in Naschy's book and I would say it's a damn fine and fun horror movie after all.

Paul Naschy is Paul who's deeply in love with his sick wife. They're travelling to his family's old villa where they're gonna spend some time so she can relax and feel better. But what she doesn't know is that Paul is one horny motherf**ker and it doesn't take long until he's after the young maid! Soon weird things starts to happen in the villa, can it be old bastard Alaric de Marnac who's back from the dead to harvest victims again!

One thing I repressed after the first time is how many twists this little film have. It's far from the typical Naschy horror, and a owes a lot more to the giallos of Italy - including black gloves and something sinister happening somewhere in the background of the story. There's at least two, three... maybe four, twists coming at ya and it works and makes a movie that could have been very traditional work very well. Naschy, who also directs, delivers a good surprising character who's actions is very hard to predict.

It takes a while for Alaric de Marnac (which also makes this an original sequel, spin-off to Horror Rises From the Tomb) to show up, but when it happens its with full power and quite surprising. Something that's been very overexaggerated over the years - probably with the help of hyperactive fan boys hugging their rare, now totally worthless, x-rentals - is the gore. Sure, it's violent, but there's actually only two really graphic kills - and both of them are more or else off-screen for the time. The effects is cheap and simple and the blood is plenty, but still... Naschy have done much gorier films through the years.

Panic Beats was shot in General Franco's old villa and Naschy have told how the whole places was filled with photos and letters, just abandoned and forgotten - like the pathetic but yet so dangerous former owner. Veteran actress Lola Gaos, who does a wonderful performance as the housekeeper Mabile, was one of those being terrorized by the fascists and that added to the tension of the acting and atmosphere of the set. Naschy himself was a socialist and it's easy to read in some of his movies - but I still haven't seen the highly political movies he made during the end of the seventies, for example the assassination thriller El Francotirador. I think it was a decision he made, both to mock the fascist regime and use them to produce something provocative and entertaining, like a good old horror movie.

My favourite Naschy film is still the gritty, sleazy and gory Seven Murders for the Scotland Yard (and Hunchback of the Morgue of course), but Panic Beats isn't far away. It's a good story, it delivers some nice kills and nudity for those who like that and foremost: it looks very good and truly prove what a good director Naschy was. 

Anguish (1987)

When I was around ten years old my father rented Anguish. One weekend every month I stayed with him and we watched scary movies, just like many other kids with divorced parents. The Swedish title was, apparently, Nakna Ögon ("Naked Eyes") and it seemed like a normal thriller... but it wasn't. At all. I have no memory of us watching the whole movie, but the dark atmosphere and depressing story stayed with me for my whole life... so I felt it was time to get the movie an watch it again, now uncut and on DVD!

John (Michael Lerner) is eye care professional who lives with his dominating mother (Zelda Rubinstein), a twisted old woman who's obsessed with snails and birds! She's hypnotizes him and somehow, real or not, she's communicating with him telepathically through a seashell! Eager to make his mother happy he goes out and kills people and gouge out their eyes in a cinema... until we understand what we're watching is a horror movie being shown in a real cinema! The story jumps to two teenage girls and the appearance of yet another, real, killer entering the cinema to find new victims! The stories on the screen and in the real cinema gets even more mixed up and sure not even the characters are sure what's real or not...

I can imagine how Anguish confused the audiences at the time, those who probably was expecting just another slasher or a normal thriller. What we have here is maybe the ultimate meta-movie, a movie about a movie... or are we watching a movie about people watching a movie about people watching a movie? In a way this reminds me of Giuliano Montaldo's highly original Italian TV-thriller Closed Circuit from 1978, about murders inside a cinema - conducted by one of the characters on the screen! Anguish is both a tribute to the horror films as a deconstruction of fictional horror vs real horror - and what the darn IS real anyway? Who can we trust? Media? Movies? Cops? Our fellow humans? Or are we all in a movie someone else is watching?

There's been a lot of movies-within-movies in genre cinema, for example in Brian De Palma's Blow Out (check my example here), but more or less all of them are parodies, satires, spoofs of horror. Made to make people laugh and not be taken so seriously. In Anguish we have a movie-within-movie who actually is extremely good, and well-made, like it was meant to be its own movie at one point, but then director and writer Bigas Luna decided to turn it all around. Michael Lerner is another one of those brilliant character actors that never became a huge star, but in this film - like everything else he's done - he delivers a perfect performance. Zelda Rubinstein is playing the same character she always played, but she's awesome... and odd. And weird. And really fucked-up. Brilliant casting. They are also the stars of the film, and outshines those in the other wraparound film. A small bonus is American veteran actor Craig Hill in a very small part towards the end, as a doctor. Odd part for a one time very famous actor, but I guess everyone needs to make a living...

As a horror/thriller it works very fine and delivers a lot of nasty scares and blood and some gore. But what makes it unique is the twisted storyline and the even more twisted characters. Also watch out for clues everywhere, not especially hidden ones: for example, the movie they're watching is called The Mommy and is directed by Anul Sagib, which sounds like an Egyptian or something but is just the real directors name backwards. End credits is rolling over the screen at a third cinema, with another audience watching and walking away one by one. Which makes us wonder if everything we've seen was  movie within a movie, which goes really mind-fuck when we're watching it ourselves. I would have loved to see this in a cinema!

Anguish is a masterpiece of Spanish horror. An original treat for us who demands a little bit more and still wants our blood and violence on unhealthy doses!

Knife of Ice (1972)

As some of you might have noticed, Umberto Lenzi is one of my favourite filmmakers. A versatile director, able to jump from genre to genre without any hesitation, sometimes a hired gun - but what a hired gun! A pro, from classy cop movies to trashy horror. Like most Italian genre directors he also did a couple of gialli, among them the fairly obscure and not so popular Knife of Ice. Not sure why, but I've stayed a way from it for years - even of the DVD was quite easy to find. Anyway, here's the review - finally!

Martha (Carroll Baker) is mute since childhood, when she was traumatized in a train accident. She now lives with her uncle Ralph (George Rigaud, who also played the weirdo priest in Lenzi's Eyeball) in a nice countryside villa. Her cousin Jenny (Ida Galli) comes to visit them, but soon she falls victim for a serial killer who roams the area. More murders follow and - believe it or not - soon Martha seem to be the killers next victim!

Knife of Ice is a very basic thriller, a co-production between Spain and Italy and far from the craziness of Eyeball or the darkness of Spasmo, but like most films by Lenzi is works pretty good even if the story hardly is unique and the production values just is a villa and some forest and nothing else than that. The story is generic and we've seen it before, but Lenzi elegant use of camera tracking and - as usual - superior editing makes this giallo stand out a little more than I thought.

The cast is very good. Carroll Baker is excellent and Ida Galli, in a small part, is cold and shallow - egocentric, but not so she becomes annoying. George Rigaud has more to do in this one, a less silly character than in Eyeball, works with a character that usually is quite boring for any actor to work with. Visually Knife of Ice is competent, but the location is boring and the story very rarely moves around outside the area, so the film seem a bit flat. Lenzi seem aware of this and tries to liven up the interior shots with smart use of the camera to a certain degree.

I like the story, the script isn't bad at all, but it lacks "it" if you know what I mean. That extra little thing that would make it stand out. A couple of gory murders would have spiced up the story of course, but remember that Lenzi never been a fan of gore (much like Lamberto Bava) and when he used it's mostly because the producers wanted it. The murders here is completely bloodless and off-screen, a pity, but we have to accept what maestro Lenzi wanted with his production.

Marcello Giombini's score is brilliant, the best thing with Knife of Ice. A clear strong melody, emotional cues and just that melodrama we love so much with Italian scores. I need to see if it's been released on CD. A must in my collection!

Knife of Ice is a good little giallo, but maybe mostly for fans of Lenzi - like me!

Assignment Terror (1970)

I've read a lot of bad reviews about Assignment Terror, and more than a few of them has compared it to Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, in that meaning that it's on the same level of crappiness. The thing is that Ed Wood's classics is not that bad, it's just very cheap and very rushed - its made with love and talent, but overshadowed by it's Wood's enthusiasm for filmmaking than his talent. Assignment Terror has a similar storyline, which is hard to deny - but with that nice, sexy eurocult flair that we love so much.

An alien species, lead by Dr. Odo Warnoff (Michael Rennie, without silver underwear), arrives to earth because their own planet is dying. They need a new place to live. The problem is how they're gonna take over earth without destroying it! Warnoff has a brilliant idea: use the superstitions of mankind! So he and his team searches for famous monsters: the werewolf Daninsky, the Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster (which more correctly is doctor Farangslang or something similar...) and of course Dracula! They take control over them and plans to - somehow - multiply their powers with injecting humans with their blood or something and create a monster army to take over the world!

Assignment Terror is as silly as it sounds, but far from bad. It's just another cheesy spin on the old Universal monsters (much like Jess Franco did with The Erotic Adventures of Frankenstein and Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein), but with a little bit more blood and stupid dialogue. The most interesting thing is of course Paul Naschy's character of Daninsky, who once again is raised from the dead to suffer under his werewolf-curse. Also written by Naschy, Daninsky is also the only character that gets some depth and also gets a change so fight all the other monsters. Good old Naschy, he knows how to steal a movie!

And do I even need to say that Naschy is the highlight here? When many of the other actors just is doing their jobs and cashing in their paycheck, Naschy is ready for action and dominates the scenes he's in. What a guy! He left this rotten world way too early...

It's impossible to take this film seriously, but why should we? It's a matinee, and a very good-looking matinee with gorgeous locations and splendid, but a bit gritty, cinematography. The comedy is more or less unintentional, but never disturbing - it's just a movie made of cheese, accept it or watch Transformers 3 instead.

What more to say about this film, not much really. Just don't take it serious and get the beautiful DVD from Germany company ArtFilm, who together with magazine Creepy Images put together a nice package including a cool 3D card and a special issue of Creepy Images, only with posters and other promotion materials from the movie. 

Eyeball (1974)

Even I find it odd that I haven't reviewed Umberto Lenzi's Eyeball (aka the more fancy schmancy Italian title Gatti Rossi In Un Labirinto Di Vetro!). Lenzi is one of my favourite directors and Eyeball is, without any regrets, one of my favourite gialli. That doesn't mean it's one of the best, because I mentions dozens of Italian murder mysteries that's both smarter and better-looking. But none of them is Umberto Lenzi's Eyeball, and I think even Cat O'Nine Tails wakes up in the middle of night, having angst over that fact and going back to sleep with anti-depressant mixed with J&B Scotch Whisky wishing tomorrow will be a better day...

A slightly stupid group of tourists is on their with on a bus through Spain, among them a fishy priest, a big-mouthed American tourist with family, a lesbian couple - yeah, the usual gang of suspects. Their guide is a man who looks a little bit too much on the teenaged girls. On the bus is also Paulette (Martine Brochard) who's gonna meet her boss, Mark (John Richardson). They stop in Barcelona and visits a local market - but suddenly one of the girls is getting brutally stabbed to death and one of her eyes is gouged out! Without much hesitation the group continues, after the usual interrogations by the police, until yet another murder happens - this time in a funhouse, and her eye is also removed! This won't stop our dear tourists and they continue together. But soon the paranoia grows - who's the killer, and why is he/she taking the eyes from innocent young women?

I know, I know. The story is actually beyond stupid - but I DON'T CARE! :) It's friggin' Lenzi and he's going crazy with the giallo-concept. Except not so smart idea with having every victim going by the same bus even if they know they will get killed, the rest of the story isn't bad at all and delivers on of the most entertaining films in the genre ever. First of all, the kills - while not extremely gory - is very violent and sadistic. Very stylish stuff, especially the bathroom-murder (the bloodiest of the bunch also). The killers look, a red raincoat is also very effective and gives a totally different look to the murders than the usual black clothes. It's a brilliant visual idea and makes this a stand-out among giallo-killers.

Eyeball also stands out because it's one of the most unsubtle thrillers I've seen. People scream and over-act like never before, but it fits the hysterical set-up and I think Lenzi just decided to fuck around with the usual stereotypes and create a giallo that would scream it's way through the cinematic flesh of all the other thrillers of the time. Hey, even the music - by Bruno Nicolai is big and bold and slightly tacky, but it all comes together in the end. This is a movie made not for the small details but for the bigness of it all.

In this crazy romp there's some fine, fine performances also. I've always liked John Richardson and he's good here, vulnerable actually - quite far away from the typical macho men inhabiting these movies. George Rigaud as the priest is perfect. He takes a very adorable character and makes him the "probably paedophile" priest we love so much, years before the Catholic Church made it trendy. Best of them all is Martine Brochard, who has a lot to do and do it very well.

I need to force you all to see Eyeball, not because it will make your brains explode because how smart it is, but it will make them explode because of how passionate, how fun and entertaining it is. So grab your sharp knifes, take my hand and get on the bus dammit!

Eugenie... the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion (1970)

This will be the last film of Jess Franco I will review for a while, mostly because it's hard to find new superlatives for each new text. Franco often revisits same themes and ideas and that makes many of these movies seem a bit similar after a while, so I will end it for this time with another fantastic movie, Eugenie...the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion, as the DVD title says. The original title is Marquis de Sade's 'Philosophy in the Boudoir', based on de Sade's text by the same name, but honestly, both titles works very fine in the end. I have a tendency to prefer Franco's dark sexual dramas before his lighter movies and this is no different. Eugenie is a mature, intelligent drama with lots of nudity and a wonderful cast. The story is as simple as genial...

Marie Liljedahl plays plays Eugenie, the daughter of the rich businessman Mistival (Paul Muller). Mistival's mistress is Madame Saint Ange (Maria Rohm) and she makes him allow her to bring Eugenie to her private island for a weekend. There her perverted stepbrother Mirvel (Jack Taylor) awaits them, and what begins as a childish, drunken and weed-smoking day soon becomes more sinister when a cult worshipping de Sade arrives and watches the Madame and Mirvel sexually use and abuse the young Eugenie...

Being a story based or inspired by de Sade (I never read any of his works) Eugenie is a tasteful trip down sexually lane with some light spanking and whipping, tits and asses, drug use and an intercourse or two. Quite far from the excessive sleaziness Franco shot during the later seventies. This is both good and bad. Good because it gives Franco more time to shoot a stunningly beautiful drama and bad because maybe someone wants more sex when it comes to a movie like this. For me, it doesn't matter. This is high-quality sleaze with some kind of ambition to do more than just give the audience a hard-on.

Eugenie is a trip to one of the circles of hell, an almost supernatural story about living in a world about sex. Franco never says if this is a good or a bad thing, there's not judging at all and the open, almost surreal, ending both reminded me of The Beyond and Nightmare City, if you get my point. It also echoes the later Countess Perverse in style and concept. I would love to have been a fly on the wall on this shoot. First of all we have the cast, the very talented Liljedahl, a Christopher Lee that had no idea (yeah sure!) of what was going on, the producers wife, the wonderful Maria Rohm, making it out with Jack Taylor, a gay man that probably have seen more pussy than few other gay men!

Even today, in 2012, Eugenie, feels very fresh and modern. If it had more gratuitous sex maybe, but still. This is a movie that survived the years and still makes an impact that fits both the cult squad and the arthouse-aficionados. It's interesting how Franco had such a bad reputation from the beginning, because most of his works I've seen is actually quite classy - and they easily would gain more attention than his trashier production if we, the cult movie fans, would demand more of our movies than just boobs, gore and goofy action scenes.

Eugenie... the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion is another masterpiece, yeah, a perfect piece of arthouse-sleaze. 

The Devil Came from Akasava (1971)

First of all, I would lie if I said I actually understood the story of The Devil Came from Akasava, but in some weird way I think that's the point with it all. It's a spoof, a send-up, a caper with a lot of humour and of course made by Jess Franco. Officially another Edgar Wallace story, but I'm not so sure it's really one from the beginning. Maybe something Wallace's son wrote down on a napkin once, just an idea,  a few words and somehow the German producers of got their hands on it. So what's it about? I'll give you the basic structure, but that's all.

Somewhere on a tropical location (really Alicante, Spain and the garden of an hotel) a couple of scientists - Horst Tappert for example - find an amazing stone, or metal, that both create huge damage to the people handling it, but also can transform normal metals into gold - or something like that. Suddenly everyone wants this stone, and one of the scientists goes missing and so is the stone. A relative to the scientist, Rex (Fred Williams), starts to investigate but soon finds out that everyone wants to kill everyone in this confusing mess of a story!

I can't say that The Devil Came from Akasava is Franco's best movie, not by a long-shot, but it still holds a certain charm to entertain me. The best thing with it is the cast, from Horst Tappert doing is normal robotic routine as Horst Tappert to Soledad Miranda, in a quite small part, as a thief and maybe even a secret agent. She's cool and beautiful, as usual! Paul Müller and Howard Vernon shows up later in the story and both is perfect in their small parts. Fred Williams, who was that guy? Anyone who knows? He looks good and had some talent, but he's lost as an interview object. I want to hear his story! Someone, please?

The problem - or maybe the point - is that the script is so damn convoluted. Everyone is fucking up things for everyone else, friends becomes foes and foes becomes friends and in the end... I'm not sure how it ends. This could be a part of the concept of course, the movie has humour and a generous twinkle in the eye. One part I really love is the Kiss Me Deadly-reference, the bag with the mysterious stone that kills people with a strong light. The film could be a unofficial goofy sequel to Robert Aldrich's classic noir-masterpiece...

Franco made this at the same time as Vampyros Lesbos and She Killed in Ecstasy and it differs a lot from the two other movies. It's also one of those Franco films that looks less thought through, cheaper and yeah, sloppier. We have the traditional hotel garden standing in for a jungle, there's editing that even I can do better - sometimes - and uglier lighting. It's easy to see that the heart of Franco wasn't involved all the time, this was a normal gun for hired-project.

Still, quite entertaining and a nice cast. A cozy feeling, a movie to look at when you're very tired and just want to see handsome and cool people walking in and out of hotel rooms doing nothing special.

The Sinister Doctor Orloff (1984)

Many regards the 80's (and 90's, 00's, 10's....) the downward spiral of Jess Franco's career. In a way they might be correct, because he started to make more... utter trash. Porn, ultra-cheap action movies without any love or passion. But here and there, in-between such movies as Falo Crest and Golden Temple Amazons, Uncle Jess churned out some very personal and passionate projects. One of them is yet another Orloff-movie, The Sinister Doctor Orloff (not to be confused with 1973's The Sinister Eyes of Doctor Orloff). Like the 1987 classic Faceless this is another take on the Orloff-mythology and as usual Franco blows me away with his talent. It's a f**king crime this isn't out on DVD! So what's it about? Well, it's the same old story...

Alfred Orloff (Antonio Mayans), the son of the legendary and controversial Doctor Orloff, lives with his old father (Howard Vernon, of course!) in a huge, spectacular house (created by Ricardo Bofill as usual) in Alicante, Spain. In the basement his mother Melissa (Rocío Freixas) is laying dead and frozen in time and he's obsessed with trying to resurrect her. The old Orloff has given up, but Alfred wants to continue his fathers legacy by stalking the streets after prostitutes to use in his experiments. Inspector Tanner (Antonio Rebollo) is as usual around the corner, getting closer and closer in his investigation!

Yeah, it's a very basic premise and we've seen it in many the other movies directed by Uncle Jess - but The Sinister Doctor Orloff goes further in creating a dark and menacing atmosphere. The scenes where Alfred is stalking the streets in his car reminds me a lot about Taxi Driver, but the similarities ends there. Everything is drowned in an amazing score written and performed by Franco himself. It's a mix between ambient experimental stuff and freaky and very alternative jazz. Never heard anything like this in a Franco movie before, and it's just another sign how different this production is.

While the story is very traditional - Orloff lures a woman come with her and then his literary eyeless brute Andros kills her, the story is so filled of dread and darkness. The loveless relationship between the bitter, insane old Orloff is a damn tour-de-force by Howard Vernon - very low-key, hardly speaking a single line - but so powerful. But you know what, the person who steals every scene is Antonio Mayans. It's rarely I write something like that regarding him. He's a good actor, but often a bit uninterested in his work - but here, wow... he's burning. Never seen him so intense, so cold. The sadness because of his mother, maybe even a incestuous feeling - something that seem to create a jealousy in hi father. This is top-shelf Franco, with out a doubt.

The ending is strange, odd, totally unexpected - and downbeat as hell.

This is always how it ends. I watch a Franco and I get stunned by how good it is. Franco is a smart man, one of the smartest people I've heard. But when he makes movies it's more about the EQ than the IQ, the Emotional Quote. He knows which buttons to push and he often gives a fuck about the small details. Why bother with stuff no one cares about when he can create a movie based on the wholeness, something very few other directors can.

The Sinister Doctor Orloff look great with great cinematography, editing and directing - not to forget the fantastic cast and original score. This is on my top ten Jess Franco movies from now on and I wish more of you could see it. Mondo Macabro, please... DVD?

Ninja Dixon Talks: Commando Mengele (1987)

My first - and maybe only - audio review! And of course I had to talk about one of my favorite flicks, Andrea Bianchi's Commando Mengele! Hope you like it. If I'm not too crappy I might do it again :)

The People Who Own the Dark (1976)

From the deranged mind of León Klimovsky comes this oddity, The People Who Own the Dark, a doomsday-vision starring Alberto de Mendoza (the crazy priest in Horror Express!) and our beloved Paul Naschy, here on each side of the morality - Naschy being the baddie of course. I've never seen it before but Jocke has talked about it so many times that I've started to question my own sanity! Can Jocke be right? Well, usually he's right - and I'm happy I bought this one directly from Code Red! Why? Let's see...

A troupe of rich bastards - politicians, doctors, businessmen etc - goes to a villa out on the countryside for a weekend of sinful lust á la de Sade, complete with role playing in the cellar and gluttony like it was their last day alive. But when they're just gonna start the orgy a terrible explosion shakes the land and not long after they hear that it's a nuclear war out there. The next morning they goes outside and takes the cars to the next village to try to get some supplies. But what awaits them is hell, all people has gone blind and they're very aggressive! After some scuffle a couple of the blind people are dead and our heroes head back to the villa - but during the night they're attacked, the blind people wants their revenge and they do anything to get inside!

It's starts off like a simpler version of Pasolini's Saló, then becomes a post-apocalyptic thriller and finally enters the horror world with the nightly invasion. The atmosphere is more similar to George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, but much of the interaction reminded me more of Boris Sagal's The Omega Man. This is of course very good, but Klimovsky sets his own stamp on the movie and in the end it's an original take on the world after a nuclear-tomorrow. The characters are cynical and the story itself is bleak, both visually and thematic. This is a tale of the corrupt bourgeois and how they're punished for being soulless people. But we all know that the bourgeois is just the middle man, and there's also a government that shouldn't be trusted in the background, which makes this movie even more dark and interesting.

The cast, lead by de Mendoza and Naschy is excellent. They do a perfect walk on a line between totally fucked-up and quite human. One of the characters suffers a nervous breakdown for example, believing he's a pig and can only walk on all four for the rest of the movie. Isn't that wonderful and bizarre detail! A young Antonio Mayans, seen in many Jess Franco movies, makes a good performance also - and don't forget the always stunning Maria Perschy in another part.

The scariest thing with the antagonists, the blind people, is that they seem very sane. You can talk with them, discuss, they almost seem friendly - but still, the only thing they want is revenge. Their lack of sight has suddenly gotten them extra sensitive hearing, and maybe even sensory, making them to killing machines when they feel that someone is in the room trying to get away. How they find the house I have no idea, but when watching the movie it's nothing you react to. They're just the enemy and they're obviously very good at it.

It's not a graphic movie, but people die and the overall feeling is that it's a violent and dangerous world and it's easy to die - from the blind people or from someone inside the house. Everyone is dangerous in situation like this.

If you like your movies from the 70's with bleak endings and Paul Naschy doing one of this best performances, this is the movie for you. It's on a nice DVD from Code Red and it's a must buy!

The Ghost Galleon (1974)

I wonder what went on in the mind of Amando de Ossorio when he wrote The Ghost Galleon? I'm not sure he even wrote it properly, maybe just scribbled down a few notes on the back of a napkin and hired and old ship to shoot his third epos in the Blind Dead series. I refuse to say it's a bad or boring film, but it's INCREDIBLY stupid. It's the Dawn of the Mummy of the Blind Dead's or maybe more Bruno Mattei's Zombies: The Beginning. The set-up is extremely silly and doesn't work at all, the body count is low - but it has a few very redeeming factors.

In a not so smart PR-stunt the owner of a boat-factory hires two super models to be lost at sea for one month - we're talking two women with perfect make-up in an open boat here - in more than one day! After thirty days the plan for them is to be found by a ship, but they have drifted into a fog and the only ship they see is a weird, abandoned ghost ship. A friend of one of the models forces herself into the adventure and after a while she and the PR-staff is getting trapped on the ghost ship - exactly when our heroes, our friends and loved ones - the blind eastern knights - rises once more!

Somehow de Ossorio manages to pad out the whole movie with people walking around on the boat without getting killed and a very, very stupid sub-plot about another super model being held prisoner so she can't tell media about the PR-stunt. Yes, she's more or less kidnapped - like that would help the boat-manufacturer (played by the always fantastic Jack Taylor by the way) afterwards when the girls is supposed to be rescued from the boat. It's not much going on at all in The Ghost Galleon and most of the characters act like very slow redneck farmers.

Don't even mention the boat miniature used for the ghost ship. It looks like something like this...

...but less realistic.

So what's good about The Ghost Galleon? Well, first of all the cast is very nice - specially my favourite man Jack Taylor in an awesome striped polo. The ladies looks good and screams like a real scream queen should and everyone seems happy about their pay check. The blind knights looks better than ever, really. They are less stiff, have more thought-through movements and the hands is - for the first time in the series - convincing. Kinda anyway. Another fine detail is the ship - if it's a set or a real ship I don't know, but here de Ossorio uses the locations in an excellent way. Lots of atmosphere, smart directing and lots of fog. If he could have put the whole movie, every scene, on the boat and added a few more deaths this would have been a classic in it's own little way.

The deaths yeah. Not so much to talk about except one very graphic kill of one of the ladies. Cheap, but as usual very bloody and effective - and the scene when she's chased is the longest and slowest ever filmed, but it looks great and she makes fine job looking scared shitless!

The movie is saved by the stunning last scene, when... I'm not gonna tell you, but it looks great and powerful. I just wish the whole flick was better as a whole. There's certainly good things with it, but yeah, I need to come out from the closet to say it's the weakest of the Blind Dead films...

Return of the Evil Dead (1973)

Here we have my favourite part, the second, in Amando de Ossorio's highly original Blind Dead-franchise, Return of the Evil Dead. Conservatives will always love and cherish the first movie, but you know how it is: hates gonna hate! ;) There's several reason why I love this part, even if it's not in the same league as the first one, and I will get to that very soon. With something that looks like a bigger budget de Ossorio tells us more about the eastern knights and their revenge!

Tony Kendall plays a pyrotechnics expert, dealing with fireworks and hired by a small town to help them with the annual celebration of how their forefathers killed the eastern knights. Well there he notices that the girlfriend of the greedy fat mayor is an ex-girlfriend, which causes some tension between him and the mayor's henchmen. But what's even worse, the local village idiot is a rapist and serial killer and manages to kill a young woman so violently that her dripping blood awakes the dead knights again and they (what else?) attack the festivities, demanding blood as revenge for those who killed them!

Return of the Evil Dead has everything in more does. More gore and blood, more blind zombie-knights, more extras, more action and just bigger feeling. And I love this. The originality from the first movie is lost, but the pacing is higher and de Ossorio splashers RED paint... uh, blood everywhere to make this bigger and bolder than the first one. He reuses some footage from the first movie, but it's mostly stuff when the knights are walking around, riding their horses and rises from their graves - the rest is new. And of course there's a scene when someone is hijacking a zombie-horse and rides away, but I'm not gonna comment on that right now...

Another fine part of the movie is the character played by Kendall, Fernando Sancho (the mayor) and the girl between them, Esperanza Roy. That little triangle brings some tension into the otherwise generic human drama that often populates movies like this. Here it brings some extra thrills because Experanza wants to leave the nasty mayor and run away with Kendall, and this is stopped by the blind dead, but that won't stop them from run away - or try to anyway. Kendall and Roy is a fine and sympathetic couple and the evil mayor is the perfect antagonist.

When watching this movie it's also very easy to see that this could be a perfect franchise for a reboot. Why hasn't that happen yet? I mean an official new Blind Dead movie would be extremely cool, and I think it would work very good even today. Shoot it in the same locations, in Portugal, as a tribute both to old-school horror and give Amando de Ossorio some love. I know there's been some unofficial versions of our dear knights, but we need the real deal! Maybe I'll give the not so official La Cruz del Diablo a spin later this week, just to get some more zombie-knights to hug.

Messy review, I agree. Not happy at all. But this is a movie you should see for real, and not read about it in another rambling, crappy review by me.

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)

This co-production between Spain and Portugal might be one of the finest and original horror movies of the seventies, but it took me some time to realize that. The story is a bit confusing and to be honest, quite odd, but everything falls into place when I finally took the time to give a new spin. Why is it odd? Well, it refuses to follow the expected storyline and almost gives is a Psycho-twist, killing of a main character very early and also an interesting and unexpected lesbian intrigue that I totally forgot since last time. So what's Tombs of the Blind Dead about? Just continue to read...

Virginia (María Elena Arpón) accidentally meets her former classmate Betty (Lone Fleming) at a sea resort and they immediately decides to hook up again after all these years. But Virginia's male buddy Roger (César Burner) suggest to Betty that she should follow them to the countryside for a weekend of relaxation. Virginia gets jealous and when they're on the train she jumps of and takes shelter in an ancient, abandoned, city. But what she don't know is that it's curse and that a gang of blood-thirsty zombie knights comes out from their graves every night to kill and kill again!

That's the set-up of the movie, but it has a lot more and that makes it so much more interesting. It would be very easy for Amando de Ossorio to just make another Night of the Living Dead clone but he didn't, and we should be grateful for that - he used that concept in the second movie instead! The interesting storyline which is most of the time quite far from the cursed city keeps the movie entertaining and gives us a few goodies here and there until the great final when the living dead knights finally unleashes their power over our heroes and a train!

What's even more interesting is that Tombs of the Blind Dead isn't that gory. It has one very juicy scene, very graphic,  but that's about it. The rest is mostly blood coming out from mouths, simulating bites, and off-screen sword-hits. The atmosphere makes it work and it seems more violent and gory than it really is. But make no mistake, this is not a kids movie - this is vintage, high-quality Spanish horror. The knights themselves looks extremely cool and it's so effective to shoot them in slow-motion every time they ride their horses. It certainly brings a spookiness to those scenes and makes us forgive the not-so-good day for night-effects.

It goes into Mario Bava quality a couple of times, in the scene at the morgue and the classic sequence in the mannequin factory. These are also a welcome addition to what makes this movie a lot more fun to watch than letting the story be in the cursed city all the time. Here the colours comes and both morgues and mannequin's is scary by themselves. I heard that de Ossorio really wasn't fond of the Blind Dead movies, which is a pity. Maybe he had other dreams, something more "serious", but could only get financing to these ghost- and horror-stories. But every frame of Tombs of the Blind Dead shows what a fantastic talent he was and he clearly made his mark in movie history.

But... I've always wondered how one of the characters can steal an undead horse? In my imagination the horses is also evil spirits, damned monsters from hell - so how can they allow the character to take control of one of them and ride away?

But fuck that. Like Joachim said: "Do not question the gospel of De Ossorio!". And I guess I need to behave...

The Crimes of Petiot (1973)

I'm pretty fond of the giallo-lookalikes that the Spaniards produced during the seventies, often with Paul Naschy in the lead or in a supporting part. The Crimes ofPetiot is another of these "Spanish giallos", and this is quite an original thriller with some ideas I haven't seen in similar movies before this one. I'm not sure it's been released on DVD or easy to get VHS anywhere, so I had to watch a subtitled bootleg. But this is one of those thrillers that deserves a restored, English-friendly release.

Set in a snowy Berlin, The Crimes of Petiot tells of a sadistic serial killer in a black coat, gloves and hat who executes - with a gun - young loving couples while getting nazi-flashbacks! The killer also films his evil deeds and send the filmed material to the police! A journalist, Vera (Patricia Loran) takes interest in the case and starts her own investigation. She involves her antique-dealing boyfriend Boris (Paul Naschy) and a couple of other friends. During a stake-out in a park the killer attacks them, but doesn't kill them. Instead he drugs them and leaves a message - he will kill them one by one when they least expect it!

The Crimes of Petiot might not be the smartest thriller in the world of European cinema, but it's not bad. It takes the plots and makes everything so simple - too simple - without any complications and pretends to be serious - but in the end it's just another cheap giallo-rip off with a few very good ideas. The lack of knives and other sharp objects makes it a not so bloody movie, but the executions is powerful and the nazi-flashbacks makes it even harder to watch. It's also a lot more classy than the director's, José Luis Madrid,  earlier collaboration with Naschy, my personal favourite and sleazerpiece Seven Murders for Scotland Yard, but also looses the exploitation-vibe that we all loves so much.

What feels fresh, for it's time, is the theme of the murders and the snuff movie aspect of the show. The script is filled with twists and never gets boring - and I also like the idea of a female journalists that involves her friends and lover in the case, which somehow seem even more realistic than just keeping the case for yourself like in every other murder mystery. This is more like Woody Allen's brilliant Manhattan Murder Mystery than Deep Red, if I can make that comparison - but without the comedy.

Maybe a movie who concentrates more on the plot twists than characters, which means that the actors more or less seem to be left alone with their characters, it's surprisingly effective. Especially Naschy, who as usual gives a lot more energy to his performance than he probably had to. With small gestures and a low-key performance he's the highlight of the movie - without casting a shadow on the other talents.

I understand my review is... all over the place, but it's because it's hard to evaluate The Crimes of Petiot. It's original and still quite generic, with Naschy stealing the show. But it's hard to avoid mentioning that it has a lot of very original and interesting ideas and is competently told by the director and screenwriter José Luis Madrid. I would suggest you give it a try and then tell me what you thought of it. Because I liked it, but maybe I'm wrong as usual?

The Bloody Judge (1970)

It's hard to beat a classic like The Witchfinder General, and maybe somewhere The BloodyJudge was planned to be a rip-off of Michael Reeves near perfect classic, but in the end it's a very different movie that focuses more on the politics and characters around the actually witch-hunt and comes out as a fairly interesting drama with a few scenes here and there of graphic nudity. It's a serious Franco, maybe too serious for some, but I kinda liked it.

Most of the story tells us about "The Bloody Judge" himself, Judge Jeffries (Christopher Lee) who's clearly a coward. He judges innocent men and women to torture and death but never witnesses the violence himself. Instead he acts like the hand of god and being the perfect puppet master of the stupid peasants around him. After ordering the execution of Alicia Gray (Margaret Lee) Jeffries more or less signs his faith, because her sister Mary (Maria Rohm) has no plans to let Jeffries go free and he must stop her before she becomes to much trouble...

The Bloody Judge is a slow movie, slow for being Franco - which means it's extra slow. I would say it's even to long for it's own good, and it would have been a much more powerful movie if it lost 20 or so minutes of talking and walking. I'm not saying it's a bad movie, it's actually very well-made and presents a whole bunch of interesting characters, specially Jeffries, but never live up to the directors legendary sleazy-factor. Sure, there's nudity and blood and a good battle scene with some nice stunts and pyrotechnics, but too much of the time is spent with talking heads and "suggestive eye movements" (to quote that famous religious movie site).

In a few scenes the true Franco comes alive, most notably the short sequences when Mary stands looking at the forest, hears the battle in the distance and sees the smoke slowly coming at her through the trees. It's a quite moment and once again shows the visual poetry Franco loves to treats us viewers. He surely know how to put the camera, and the whole movie look gorgeous and is very stylish. It reminds me of a Hammer-drama with less budget and more nudity.

For the you have problems with slow movies, the cast is well worth watching the movie for. Sir Lee is of course great, but watch out for the wonderful trio of Maria Rohm, Margaret Lee and Maria Schell, all excellent. Howard Vernon drops his suits and good manner and gives us a wonderful, almost cartoonish, hangman with a huge belt and a black hood. Leo Genn has an advanced supporting part and also do a nice job.

The Bloody Judge is a good movie with slow pacing. Franco is a pro and gives the best movie I could have directed during these circumstances, but it's also a movie far away from his favourite themes and lacking his usual acting ensemble. But it's worth watching, just don't expect something out of the ordinary.

The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966)

Me watching a Jess Franco movie often ends in a huge amount of superlatives. I always seen Franco has a master storyteller and depending on the budget the visual style of the movie differs from century to century. The sixties was a fantastic period on Franco's career. He churned out semi-gothic classics, kitchy spy adventures and sleazy dramas like there was no tomorrow. The Diabolical Dr. Z very effectively follows his adventures with Dr Orloff and Baron Von Klaus, feels like a spin-off to Orloff - the character is mentioned and his scientific work as a surgeon is used in one of the twists.  But Franco pulls off a great and original twist, worthy of Hitch - and beware of spoilers - Dr Z is just a MacGuffin, it's his daughter that we should focus on.

Yes, the Diabolical Doctor Zimmerman (Antonio Jiménez Escribano in a deliciously over-the-top yet sensitive performance) dies quite fast, just after showing us one brutal human experiment. His daughter Irma (Mabel Karr) decides to take revenge on the people responsible for his death and fakes her death and uses his technology to take control over her maid and a serial killer the good doctor earlier took control of. But the final masterpiece is Miss Muerte (Estella Blain), an exotic dancer with long sharp nails who can lure the stupid men into Irma's trap!!!

There's absolutely nothing bad with this movie. I've said it before, way too many times, but when Franco had the resources he created something very similar to perfection, without getting pretentious and boring like Kubrick. He mixed his favourite exploitation themes (female revenge, surgery gone bad, Orloff) with a stunningly beautiful and arty thriller. The set-pieces is nothing short of spectacular and the kills are similar to what the Italians did in the seventies, but not as gory of course. Shadows and light, rapid editing and a clever use of music makes this one stand out from the rest of the bunch. The most impressive sequence is the fist-fight between Philippe (Fernando Montes) and Hans Bergen (Guy Mairesse), which stats in the basement in a fantastic one-take fight through a long corridor, and then cuts and goes up into the mansion. If I ever make a movie again I will steal that idea, and it will make be rich sooner or later.

I often hear complains about the acting talent of Franco. As usual, because I'm Fred and I'm Ninja Dixon at the same time, I can't agree on this. Here Franco has a quite big part, as one of the polices trying to solve the murders and makes a great team together with composer Daniel White as Inspector Green. Boy, they seem to have a lot of fun and it shows - both on them and the resulting movie and wonderful jazzy score.

Masterpiece is a word I use all to often, and I'm gonna use it again here. Because The Diabolical Dr. Z IS a masterpiece, (another) one of Franco's fantastic movies from the years that some people claim was his best. I can't agree on that either - that the sixties was his best - but this is a masterpiece.

See, I used "masterpiece" no less than three times in that last paragraph. It's worth it, believe me.