KISS ME, MONSTER!
This article originally appeared in MONSTER!
INTERNATIONAL #2 (1992) and is copyrighted © 1992 by Kronos
Productions.
There are countless instances when a director has his or her
work clearly misunderstood. Undertakings of surrealistic wonder are often
criticized by those who don't comprehend, and labeled "so bad it's
good", a moniker which, sadly, is all too often attached to the works
of Jesús (Jess) Franco.
Like so many other Euro-directors of genre films, Franco is habitually hailed
as the master of schlock or rubbish. When a video of his is rented, borrowed,
booted or bought, much of the audience awaits to be assaulted with all sorts
of inane mischief, predominantly sado-masochistic sex play. Regardless,
those diligent enough to explore beyond the brutal and zoom-crazy camera
skills of this Spaniard will discover that he indeed has a vision
albeit a strange and kinky one.
Following an avenue of filmmaking different from his fellow countryman,
Paul Naschy, Jesús Franco discards the conventional affinity for
the traditional, Universal-style monsters to fuel his carnal creativity.
He despises the work of Hammer's Terrance Fischer, and ignores that studio's
creative output. Whereas Naschy populated his homages with Universal-inspired
creations like a suave Dracula ( DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE, 1972), a revenge-minded
mummy ( MUMMY'S REVENGE, 1973), a rough and tumble monstermash (
ASSIGNMENT TERROR, 1969 see last issue for the review), and his ever
popular Waldimar Daninsky the Werewolf sagas ( WEREWOLF'S SHADOW,
1970, etc.) his love for the creature features of the 30's and 40's very
obvious Franco fashions a world of his own. Although Naschy's characters
are great lovers (see his Dracula and Werewolf projects), they lack any
real active sexual conviction. Franco, on the other hand,
has very dynamic creatures which interact all the time as,
or with, sexually active characters. These monsters are prime fodder
for adult, erotic horseplay. The choice example of this is the pleasure-driven
sexual vampiress in his LA COMTESSE AUX SIENS NUS (1973, better known
as THE LOVES OF IRINA, and also released in a less-sexually explicit
but more violent version on video as EROTIKILL). Countess Karlstein
is cursed with a particular brand of vampirism. She is doomed to consume
her lovers during vigorous acts of amour (vaginally, orally or otherwise),
and ends her life before she can kill another suitor. And in the films THE
SCREAMING DEAD, THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN , and A FILLE
DE DRACULA (moreso the latter two than the former) sex plays an important
role although not a very healthy or orthodox one.
Bordering on the ill, Franco habitually wallows in sadistic fancy which
, at its most barefaced, would have you think he is insane. In his frightful
DEMONIAC (1979) Franco goes as far as featuring himself as the irrational,
blood-thirsty killer "The Sadist Of Notre Dame". However, that
and films such as JACK THE RIPPER (1976) and the uncut FACELESS
(1989), feature no true monsters and the eroticism in them is limited to
carnage via knives and so forth. For a man who is so well known for his
forays into carnal cinema his renowned love of the buttock is noted by many
scholars Franco's monster movies reflect his need to break the barrier that
few directors before him had erected. There have been sex and monsters in
the cinema before, but none were as wildly processed and adroitly manipulated
as those by Franco (save the few vampires films by artist-gone-sour French
director Jean Rollin).
Concentrating solely on three of his better known monster mashes, you may
begin to understand what Franco was after. Although there are many different
versions of these films around, the three regarded here are available through
assorted alternative tape dealers and should be understood as introductory
projects to the man's wonderfully warped fancy.
Franco's first two pseudo-monster flicks featured ameliorated human corpses
as automatons. GRITOS EN LA NOCHE/L'HORRIBLE DOCTEUR ORLOF
/AWFUL DR. ORLOFF (1962) and EL SECRETO DEL DR. ORLOFF/LES
MAÎTRESSES DU DR. JEKYLL /DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER (1964) were
reported to feature little in the way of erotic sensations (not all of his
later films were sex and violence, and his 1969 COUNT DRACULA is
proof positive that he can make a very dry film). Early in his career
Jesus Franco made a film which stands out as possibly one of his best. His
MISS MUERTE /DIABOLICAL DR Z (1965) incorporated the super-science
of brain surgery, the popular motif of the day skin-grafting/face mutilation
(which Franco stole from Georges Franju's 1959 LES YEUX SANS VISAGE/THE
EYES WITHOUT A FACE and which he and others would exploit often), and
sex via the skimpily-clad "Miss Death" who is a woman/slave bound
to kill the men who "murdered" her mistress' father. Sleazy and
very entertaining but no monster to speak of. Still, this one film would
seem to be the isthmus for Franco's fascination with the sexually bizarre.
It was here that the man could have stuck to the critic's guns and made
"artful" films, but instead, bless him, Franco chose to expound
hi s sick sense of the perverse much further.
THE SCREAMING DEAD 1972
Original Spanish Title: DRÁCULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN
Original French Title: A DRACULA PRISONNIER DE FRANKENSTEIN
Those people lucky enough to have bought or rented this video back in the
early to mid 80's when companies like Lightning Video and Wizard were cranking
out monthly Euro-trash releases, or can still find the oversized box of
THE SCREAMING DEAD on their video store shelves, have access to the
only film in this trilogy that was released in the U.S. THE EROTIC RITES
OF FRANKENSTEIN was released in Britain in an English form by Go Video,
while LA FILLE DE DRACULA exists untranslated into our language,
and in this case, is in French. At any rate, as stated before, those auspicious
few who have encountered THE SCREAMING DEAD probably reacted as I
did. I was flabbergasted. Having grown up on a heavy diet of Universal and
Hammer, I was wholly unprepared to swallow the artsy ambience and insane
non-linear storyline of this, Franco's monsterfest. What must have been
an incredible wide-screen experience when viewed in the cinema, chockful
of Franco's patented zooming camera work and oddball angles, was reduced
to the non-scanned video ratio. I was stupefied to say the least. Years
have gone by and I recently re-scrutinized the film with some ambition and
insight, especially after witnessing THE LOVES OF IRINA and MANHUNTER.
Although both of those films, and others like COUNT DRACULA and THE
OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES, have been scoffed off as junk (which they aren't
), I feel that his French co-productions need another look, and I will begin
with his first corollary production.
Publicity
still of Howard Vernon as Dracula
Imagine if you will a horror film that exists within various boundaries.
In one domain it is the typical monster-laden "House" film with
rampaging creatures terrorizing the countryside and a mad doctor responsible
for everything that is evil. In another sphere THE SCREAMING DEAD
prevails as an exercise in surreal stupefaction, where what little plot
prevails is tossed to gale-force winds. Possibly a cock-eyed comparison
would be to the works of Jean-Luc Godard, in which are full of visual
allegories if you care to decipher them. Franco's first outing into monster
territory is equally as visually chaotic, if not more so . Old Karloff and
Lugosi fans would be advised to take note and not to criticize Franco's
manipulation of their most cherished childhood memories. Nostalgia is the
first victim of Franco's films, and rightly so, as he is shaping the old
to make something new. Take for instance the film's first scene which is
a sequence when Dracula attacks his hapless female victim. It begins with
a horse-drawn cart rattling down a cobble-stone street. A dog barks (or
you assume it is barking as the pint-size mutt ambles down some stairs,
mouth clamped shut for all intents and purposes), a kitten arches its back,
and the female victim absently begins to disrobe as a bat bangs against
her bed room window. Suddenly Dracula is at the threshold of her room. She
screams. Her brother hears the cry from his room, but goes back to his work
as a storm blows up and thunder and lightning begin. With each stroboscopic
flicker, the vampire advances on his victim, driving her to the floor and
biting her. Franco zooms into the gnawing assault, and with each consecutive
flash of light we are just a bit closer to the bloody wound and the sucking
vampire. Then, as Dracula finishes supping the image shakes and blurs as
the camera jiggles and goes out of focus. This neat bit of apparent
ineptitude on behalf of the director not only makes us aware that we are
watching an oddly photographed horror movie, but the shaking camera work
is highly reminiscent of the hurried, care-free type of cinema verité
footage typical of late night news. There is a breakdown between
what was supposed to be a scene of cinematic horror and what then resembles
a cheap bit of mondo grue. There are other such tantalizing occurrences,
although they are less powerful, less canny. Unlike his indirect sequel
filmed the very same year Franco's THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN
is linear, without the disturbing cross temporal elements from the
first film (such as a taxi cab pulling up to a castle along side a horse-drawn
carriage, a jukebox in a tavern, etc.). RITES is practically a mainstream
work, even more so the third chapter in this trilogy, LA FILLE DE DRACULA,
while Franco's THE SCREAMING DEAD flirts with insanity. Franco wins
hands down as a director who could have been a great mover and shaker that
is, if he cared.
The crazed Dr. Frankenstein (Dennis Price) revives a blue-faced Dracula
(Howard Vernon, doing his best to bring a new dimension to the vampire's
persona, that of a wooden-faced, mostly inactive corpse) to help in the
restoration of his already completed man-made monster. Along the way Dr.
Steward (Alberto Dalbés) occupies himself with various plots in which
he can eliminate Frankenstein, his monster, Dracula, and his hoard of vampiric
female attendants. Along the way Steward is clubbed by a revitalized monster
(under the control of Dracula via threats by Frankenstein) and is brought
back from the brink of death by a band of gypsies. One of the villagers
is a werewolf who assists Steward in eliminating the monster while Frankenstein
double-crosses Dracula and destroys him and his bride (Britt Nichols). However,
before the ultimate showdown can occur between the two scientific giants,
Frankenstein manages to slip away from Steward and escapes.
Very little in this modern-day (?) monster rally is very erotic, although
there are scenes which border on the sexually -deviant. In an early sequence
Frankenstein siphons the blood of a young virgin (Anne Libert) into a chemical
vial containing a live bat. After draining the poor woman of her life and
in the process reviving Dracula, the cackling Price instructs his manservant
to eliminate the body. Of course, with a still fresh female torso available
to him, his assistant greedily molests it before popping the corpse into
the castle's furnace. Other scenes only hint at what could have been a delicious
romp through the profane. Apparently overseas prints do contain some nudity,
although that has yet to be seen. However, Franco was going to hold us in
rapt attention for only a few months as he readied his sequel...
THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN
1972
Original Spanish Title: LA MALDICIÓN DE FRANKENSTEIN
Original French Title: LES EXPÉRIENCES ÉROTIQUES DE FRANKENSTEIN
Dr. Frankenstein returns for another round of monster mashing in Franco's
sequel, THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN. Totally ignoring the mixed-up
time frame in which the first film was set, we are in an era of horse -drawn
carriages and a mysterious cult lorded over by a madman with supernatural
powers. Franco tossed aside temporal links, making this movie a prequel
of sorts. If you remember in THE SCREAMING DEAD, Dr. Frankenstein
and his monster were (or are, depending on which time zone you're
in) rivals to Dr. Steward, a man who wanted to see the world rid of monsters.
This time around Franco ignores all, picks up everything and plunks his
characters down sometime around 1890. Despite this sudden jerk of temporal
poise, and a readjustment for those who had seen the first film and who
cared something about the plot, Franco has come up with a very linear film
a far cry from THE SCREAMING DEAD. It's as if Steward and Frankenstein
were eternal protagonists destined to confront each other throughout space
and time. However, I really doubt the director had anything as bold
and mystical as that in mind when he made THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN.
Franco, no doubt bored with working in the 20th Century, probably wanted
to use the Frankenstein monster in as many bizarre scenes as possible. And
use him he did! There is one particularly bizarre scene where the monster
is being used as an inhuman whipping machine. The creature, a huge, muscle
man his body made-up with silver grease paint and sporting a tortured quasi-Universal
Frankenstein monster block head, is seen beating two naked victims with
gleeful frenzy. Disturbing but in a way very neatly done. Utilizing what
he had available he gathered up his repertoire, rented the same castle he
did for the first film, and spent a fraction more on the make-up for the
monster. Surprisingly, the film is pretty good, and for Franco lovers, it
is full of bizarre characters and impossible images. Where else would you
have a crazed, blind, half-human bird-woman who screeches like a gull and
hungers for human flesh, and the Frankenstein monster resurrected
just to torture innocents and mate with a newly created she-creature? Astonishing
stuff.
During a bold, brain drill experiment to give his monster the gift of speech,
Dr. Baron Frankenstein (again played by Dennis Price) has his operation
interrupted by the appearance of the odd blue-feathered and capped vision
of the mutant bird-woman Melissa (Anne Libert aka Josiane Gibert) and her
manservant (Luis Barboo, who played the servant of Frankenstein in the first
film). The foul creature attacks Frankenstein, savagely mauling the scientist.
The doctor's greasy-hair, moustached assistant (Franco himself in cameo)
attempts to go for help but he receives a fatal blow as well, knifed in
the gut by Marline's chauffeur. With Frankenstein on the floor bleeding
from his wounds, Marline covets the monster (actor Fernando Bilbao under
the assumed name Fred Harrison) and has it shipped to the castle abode of
her master, the mysterious and quite mad Cagliostro (Howard Vernon). Cagliostro
abhors humanity and has devious plans of creating a super race with the
aide of the Frankenstein monster and a female creation the mystic has in
the works.
The odd blue-feathered and capped vision of the mutant bird-woman
Melissa
Dr. Jonathan Steward (the role once again played by Alberto Dalbés),
man of science and chronicler of Frankenstein's work, discovers the body
of his guru on the examination table in his office. The torn and bleeding
Frankenstein tries to tell Steward about his assassins, but expires before
anything useful can be passed on. Mystified about the death, Steward attends
the burial of his idol and there introduces himself to Vera Frankenstein
(Britt Nichols), the Baron's daughter and noted scientist in her own right.
She snubs the man, and later that night unearths the coffin of her patriarch.
With the help of her female assistant (Beatriz Savon) she successfully reanimated
her father's corpse by using the experimental "deep incision ray"!
After congratulatory remarks from the undead Baron, he relays to his daughter
the whereabouts of his monster and insists that she revenge his murder and
retrieve his creation. The Baron sputters and perishes again. Vera and her
servant set off to Cagliostro's castle.
The film is full of varying degrees of insanity from here on in, and the
best sequences pop up when you least expect them. Cagliostro kidnaps various
women and has them dismembered and then reassembled into one "perfect
woman" for the Frankenstein monster to mate with. In one delightfully
creepy sequence the mad mystic calls upon his rejected experiments, those
pitiful and skeletal creatures he created while dabbling in the alchematic
art of bringing life to dead tissue, to be at his side while he announces
his plans of uniting the Frankenstein monster with his female fabrication.
These ghouls (many just actors in sheets with rubber or paper maché
masks, while others are just classroom skeletons with shawls attached to
them) shuffle through the dank bowls of Cagliostro's castle and gape at
their master as he instructs his henchmen to behead women and so forth.
Despite the shoestring budget that Franco had to work with, even these scenes
correspond well within the fantastic framework he has set up. Cagliostro
himself is a wonderful conglomerate of those Gothic, alchematic madmen who
populated various 19th Century short stories. His dabbling in human semen
and animal tissue resulted in the creation of Melissa, the man's half -human/half
bird daughter, and his history of being a 400-year-old magician reincarnated
over and over adds to the film's whimsical air.
The film kicks into high gear when Steward utilizes the "deep incision
ray" to reaminate Baron Frankenstein to get more information out of
him. The Baron blurts to life once again, warns Steward not to interfere
with his plans, then resumes being a corpse. As the dejected scientist turns
his back, the baron returns from the dead on his own and attacks him! Luckily,
Steward's manservant is there to douse the zombie with sulfuric acid, thus
rendering the reanimated corpse headless! When Vera's servant is discovered
alive though traumatized after being attacked by Melissa, she is hypnotized
by Steward and reveals that her mistress was kidnapped by Cagliostro. Packing
a revolver he and his aide-de-camp head toward the castle.
Meanwhile, Cagliostro plays with Vera, breaking down her will by stripping
her naked and having her bound with one of the mystic's unfaithful and equally
exposed manservant. The two are placed on a bed of poisoned blades, with
just enough foot room to stand without being impaled by the deadly daggers.
If that isn't enough, Cagliostro exerts his animal magnetism and using Melissa
as a focal point, orders the Frankenstein monster to whip the two unclothed
captives! This scene goes on for an uncomfortable three or four minutes
of screaming victims, snapping whips, a bellowing monster, and the crazed
laughter /bird-screeching of the downy-blue Melissa. It's an eerie episode,
and one of the film's more "erotic" if taken in that word's purest
definitions. (Note of interest: the Spanish edition lacks any nude
scene such as this one featured in the English-language variation. Instead
of the chilly sequence of Nichols and Barboo being whipped in the buff we
see the actors wearing ridiculous blue underwear. Then too, where Cagliostro's
she-monster is completely nude, the actress is draped with a blue cloth.
These re-shot episodes, probably for distribution in prudish markets, disable
the film's real sexuality and render it rather chaste. Oddly enough, Franco
inserted various scenes featuring Lina Romay and an old woman which weren't
in the English copy.) Vera survives the ordeal and is brow-beaten into submission
by a silent Cagliostro and his cackling interrupter Melissa. Unable to think
for herself, Miss Frankenstein uses the "deep incision ray" to
animate the female monster and readies her father's creation for the mating
ritual.
The whip-weilding monster of Frankenstein
Luckily for the world, the ceremonial joining of the two homunculi
is interrupted when Steward sneaks into the castle and makes his way into
the dungeon. Just before the monster is about to the consummate the "wedding"
Steward cries out, "Avenge your creator! These people killed your master!"
Something clicks in the silver brute's malformed brain and Cagliostro's
spell is broken. Melissa jumps at the monster, but she is reduced to a pile
of feathers and broken flesh in a matter of seconds. Frankenstein's creation
goes berserk and attacks the ghoulish enclave, scattering the ready-made
critters helter skelter as it tries to reach a fleeing Cagliostro. The mystic
is able to elude the monster when the brute is distracted by the screams
of Vera. Picking up his master's daughter, the monster lumbers through the
castle until Steward puts a bullet in its brain. Cagliostro escapes the
castle in a carriage, but goes over a cliff and plunges into the sea laughing
all the way, knowing that in nine months his soul will be reincarnated once
again.
Undoubtedly the most complex monster film next to THE LOVES OF IRINA,
Franco's EROTIC RITES is the perfect balance between what is horrific
and what is titillating. Included are scenes depicting the frightful rending
of a young man chained to a dungeon wall by the squawking Melissa. The nude
and feathered form of actress Libert clawing away in pure orgasmic bliss
at the writhing prisoner is very disturbing. The English print of the film
has copious amounts of frontal nudity (male and female, i.e. a model posing
nude for a painter and when Vera strips for her maid), as well as Franco's
patented fetish "zoom to the crotch" and "focus on the butt"
shots. As well as those kinky sequences the film features the director's
talent for capturing the lush beauty of landscapes when his camera pans
the countryside. EROTIC RITES is Franco's poignant example that monsters
and sex are a potent combination.
THE DAUGHTER OF DRACULA
(unofficial English Translation)
1972
Original Portuguese Title: A FILHA DE DRÁCULA
Original French Title: LA FILLE DE DRACULA
Original Spanish Title: LA HIJA DE DRÁCULA
LA FILLE DE DRACULA is the third and final installment in Franco's trilogy
of terror. As with the prior productions, this film features many of the
same actors and actress, and is shot in similar location and utilizes oodles
of the identical sets and on-location sites. Plotwise less interesting and
dynamic than either of its companion projects, "The Daughter of Dracula"
borrows less from the augmented and twisted Universal creature catalogue,
and in turn is a re-telling of the Karnstein/lesbian vampire tales, a subject
which Franco essayed in 1970 with VAMPYROS LESBOS, Hammer was to
exploit that same year with THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, and which Roger Vadim
sampled with his ET MOURIR DE PLASIR/BLOOD AND ROSES (1960).
More talk and less action is the rule here, which probably makes sense when
you consider that the story from which it is based (J. Sheridan LeFanu's
1872 novella "Carmilla") isn't one of rampaging monsters but of
a lone, slyly seductive and lesbian-lean ing vampire. Still, giving Franco
the benefit of a doubt, you would expect something out of the ordinary,
given that reprise, he does deliver some surprisingly disturbing
chills although they are sparingly scattered throughout this paltry production.
As becomes a monster movie, we are witness to the brutal fanging of a young
woman by a voyeuristic vampire. The woman strips and readies for her bath
during which a bloodshot eye followers her every move. She slips into the
tub, gathers up soap and towel and begins lathering herself up in the lazy,
suggestive manner which typifies the victim before the slaughter. The slender
hand of the voyeuristic intruder pushes open the bathroom door, the bathing
maiden screams, and the vampire strikes.
Throughout the rest of this overly talky production, Franco manages to instill
some feeling of sexual ambi ence. Even though the sex scenes within are
pitifully slow and at times mundane, they are at least shot with the moist,
care-free feel for which the director is noted. There is a violent, action
scene involving a vampire, but the resulting all-too -brief encounter is
muddled and poorly composed. By the end of the film you are sleepily cheering
the dispatching of Howard Vernon by the monster hunters as they drive a
silver needle into his forehead. As they torch the coffin you feel a bit
cheated, but vindicated knowing the film has ended.
Structurally, LA FILLE DE DRACULA is the simplest of the series.
It is a plain dealing rendition of the Karnstein myth (in the film the family
name is Karlstein) with very little real spunk. Naturally, as becomes a
film of this type, the lesbian/sex/vampires motif is the only redeeming
quality save the waxy-faced male vampire (Vernon more-or -less reiterating
his Dracula role from THE SCREAMING DEAD ) who lays on fatal hickies
from within his coffin. For the most part, the frugal sex scenes
and monster mayhem aside, there are endless minutes of dull conversation
woefully delivered in emotionless monotones (by Franco regulars) and flatly
manipulated by an uninspired Franco. To make matters worse, there is only
a French-language version available, and that doesn't make it any easier
to follow those talking heads (unless you know French, of course!).
Britt Nichols stars as Maria Karlstein who, when given a key to the family
crypt by her dying mother, learns that she is the "daughter of Dracula".
Entering the tomb she discovers and releases the blood-thirsty fiend. Once
she is bitten by the Count, her latent lesbian leaning becomes a sexual
force which she uses as guide for feeding. Her first victim is her new lover
Anne Libert.
Howard Vernon's nominal (although pivotal) non-role as the vampiric Count
Dracula is the film's saving grace. Between his very unanimated interpretation
of a vampire, and the very energetic antics of his lesbian bloodsucker lackeys,
there lies the uneasy feeling that the monsters in the film are the only
ones (beside the viewer) who are aware of their other-worldliness. Nobody
else treats them with any sort of real emotion. The only earnest scream
in the film is from the first victim's guttural cry as she has her blood
siphoned off by Nichols . When the vampire's lodgings are discovered he
is routinely destroyed without as much as a "how do you do." It's
as if the monsters are a burden which are phlegmatically remedied. What
of the vampires themselves? Nichols is a pretty lethargic denizen of the
night. She makes love and feasts on the female cast without much relish.
There are lazy breast nuzzling scenes wherein Nichols moves aside strands
of Libert's locks which have obscured the camera's choice view of an erect
nipple (of course, Franco dives in for a blurred close-up). It's only when
hunger pangs set in that she then dispatches her lover, again in an exceedingly
unsavage and lackadaisical way. Whereas Lugosi's Dracula was a card-carrying,country-clubbing
trend-setter, and Lee's interpretation was a spunky, bloody go-getter, Vernon's
corpse-like and semi-dormant vampire has just enough energy to clamor half
way out of his coffin to feast on some ready made human snacks. It's a slow
film all around.
It can be said that Franco is a master when it comes to the sensually sick.
It is without a doubt his monster movies exude their sexuality. Recently,
Franco has been active in the action and war dramas. He has yet to re-embrace
the monster movie, no doubt due in part to the decrease in that genre's
overall popularity. However, randy bastard that he is, Jesus Franco
is a man not to be under-estimated.
Special Thanks goes out to Horácio Higuchi and Craig Ledbetter
for all their help in getting information and illustrations for this article.
Kronos Productions
snail mail: MPO Box 67, Oberlin, OH 44074-0067 USA
E-mail: KronoScope@aol.com
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Publicity
still of Howard Vernon as Dracula
The whip-weilding monster of Frankenstein