MURDEROUS PASSIGNS THE DELIRIOUS CINEMA OF JESUS FRANCO VOLUME 1: 1959-1 974 by Stephen Thrower with Julian Grainger Murderous Passions The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco ISBN 978-1-907222-31-3 First published by Strange Attractor Press 2015 IC Stephen Thrower and Julian Grainger 2015 Stephen Thrower has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers. Strange Attractor Press BM SAP, London, WClN 3XX www.strangeattractor.co. uk Printed in China Design and layout by Stephen Thrower. Front and back cover artworks for the Special Edition created by Ania Goszczynska. The author dedicates this book with love, gratitude, and the distant sound of screams, to Ossian Brown. ｾ＠ Photo credits (numbers refer to the whole page unless otherwise specified): CHRISTOPHE BIER - 19, 46. 2nd Colour Section: 2 (top-r), 4 (top; bottom-I), 5 (top-r), 6 (bottom row), 9 (top), 10, 12 (mid-I; bottom-I), 15 (top-r). JEAN-PIERRE BOUYXOU - 2nd Colour Section: 3 (top-r), 4 (bottom-r), 5 (mid-I), 9 (bottom), 15 (top-I; bottom-r), 16, 407 (top-r; bottom-I) . THOMAS EIKREM - 5, 30 (top), 130, 136, 167 (bottom-I), 184, 193, 194, 359 (bottom-r), 360 (top). Isl Colour Section: 5, 11 (top-r). 2nd Colour Section: I (top; bottom-I), 5 (bottom-I). DAVID GREGORY - 372. 2nd Colour Section: 12 (top). BRUCE HOLECHECK - 139 (bottom), 144 (top; bottom-I), 287. UWE HUBER - 7, 10, 20 (bottom-r), 43, 114, 127, 128, 133, 134, 139 (top), 140, 143, 144 (bottom-r), 145 (top; bottom-r), 146, 173, 174, 175 (bottom row), 176, 188 (top row), 210 (all except bottom-I), 240, 255 (top-I). Isl Colour Section: 1, 4 (all stills), 6 (still), 7 (artworks), 7 (still). ARMIN JUNGE - 63 (bottom-I), 64, 69, 288, 292. 1st Colour Section: 10 (Sumuru stills). 2nd Colour Section: 2 (bottom row). LUCAS BALBO - 49, 52, 63 (top), 70, 76, 83, 86, 91, 92, 105 (bottom-I), 119, 120 (upper), 145 (bottom-I), 222-223, 265, 266, 299, 300, 312, 324 (mid-r), 334, 338, 346, 357, 360 (bottom), 365, 371, 380. 1st Colour Section: 11 (top-I), 12 (top row), 13 (stills). 2nd Colour Section: 8 (bottom), 12 (bottom-r), 13 (top; bottom-I), 14 (top-r; bottom-r). MARC MORRIS - 1, 32, 104, 109, 167 (top; bottom-r), 168, 183, 199, 201 (top row), 202 (bottom), 215, 234, 239, 245, 246, 249, 250, 274-275, 279, 282, 304, 315, 316, 329, 385, 386, 389, 390 (top), 407 (top-r). Isl Colour Section: 2, 3, 4 (poster), 6 (artworks), 9 (poster and bottom-r), 11 (Fu Manchu stills), 13 (posters), 14 (smaller pies), 15, 16. 2nd Colour Section: 1 (bottom-r), 3 (all except top-r), 5 (top-I; bottom-r), 6 (bottom-r), 7, 8 (top), 15 (mid-I; bottom small pies). GERO NAUMANN - 242, 426. GUISKARD OBERPARLEITER- 20 (top; bottom-I), 25, 37, 63 (bottom-r), 120 (bottom-I), 160 (all except top-r), 175 (top), 187, 188 (bottom), 200, 210 (bottom), 202 (top), 209, 210 (bottom-I), 224, 229, 230, 233 (main pie), 241, 255 (all except top-I), 256, 324 (mid-I), 349, 351. 1st Colour Section: 8, 9 (except poster and bottom-r), 10 (Justine stills), 12 (bottom row), 14 (main pie). 2nd Colour Section: 2 (all Akasava stills). PETE TOMBS - 103, 105 (top; bottom-r), 106, 160 (top-r), 294, 323, 324 (top row and bottom-I), 330, 333, 337, 341, 342, 345, 390 (bottom row), 390, 397, 398, 400. 2nd Colour Section: 9, 11, 13 (bottom-r), 14 (top-I; middle row; bottom-I). Flyleaf Janine Reynaud as the mysterious Lorna Green, in Succubus (1967). Facing page: Maria Rohm as a rape victim incarcerated for murdering her attacker in 99 Women ( 1968). DATES AND TITLES In order to avoid confusion I've chosen to use shooting dates instead of release dates when referring to Jess Franco's films . For instance, Gritos en la noche aka The Awfal Dr. Orlof was shot in October and November 1961: it will therefore be referred to in the text as The Awfal Dr. Orlof (1961) even though it was first released in cinemas in 1962. Most reference sources would opt for the release date, and usually it would make more sense, but Franco's career is unusual; if a man makes ten films in a year, some of which are patched together over two or three shoots, several months apart, what can be done to preserve the proper sequence? Add to this a situation where some films sit on the shelf for three or more years waiting to be released, and you can see how things can get messy. (For an example of the pitfalls, take a look at Franco's current IMDb entry: two films that were shot back to back in 1973, Kiss Me Killer and Tender and Perverse Emanuelle, are separated in the filmography by no less than 37 film entries, simply because Kiss Me Killer's only confirmed cinema release happened to be in 1977 !) To avoid such calamitous misunderstandings and to keep the films in consecutive order, it is therefore better to use shooting dates for orientation. In cases where the shooting was spread out over time (as in the case of Female Vampire, begun in the summer of 1973 but finished in the spring of 1974) I have used the earlier date. Whilst this throws Murderous Passions out of step with other reference sources, I hope that the internal consistency of my decision will assuage inconvenience and reduce ambiguity. Titles are another problematic area. Throughout the text I use the best known English language title where there is one (usually the DVD or Blu-ray title, or failing that the British cinema release). Where there's no English-language version at all I've gone for the original foreign language title, prioritising the chief financial backer in the case of international co- productions. In some cases anomalies create exceptions: for instance, it seems pedantic and tedious to refer to Sax Rohmer's "The Blood of Fu Manchu" (the correct onscreen title) when The Blood of Fu Manchu is easier on the eye and less cumbersome. Similarly, Vampyros Lesbos - Erbin des Dracula has entered circulation as Vampyros Lesbos, a shortened title used only on video and DVD covers but not present on any theatrical print. However, as this is the most widely circulated title for the film I have opted to use it. Author's Foreword "The storyline's not so hot bui all of the details are absolutely authentic and some of them are quite extraordinary." Paul Vogel Gess Franco)', in Exorcism How on Earth do you begin to write a book about Jess Franco, the Well, we have tried very hard, and I think we've worked wonders, world's most prolific filmmaker? The answer, in my case at least, is although such aims are still partially out of reach six years later. to lie to yourself until it's too late to turn back! We send this book to the printers with gaps and questions still It all began so innocently. In 2008 I posted a few reviews to an nagging at our nerves; who is the man outside the chapel of Saint online chat group, in which I explored my feelings about a handful Cecilia in A Virgin among the Living Dead? Why, when he turns up of recently viewed Franco titles. The informal setting and the in virtually every Portuguese shoot .between 1971 and 1974, does swiftness with which I wrote the pieces suggested to me that doing he never receive a screen credit? Who the hell plays 'The Monster the same for all of Franco's films might not be such a daunting of Duranstein' in Les Grand.es Emmerdeuses? Or Donen's murdered task. No need for too much detail; the project would simply be a wife in She KiUed in Ecstasy? And will we ever see Sex Charade, collection of (hopefully insightful and amusing) reviews, delivered that most frustratingly inaccessible Jess Franco film, made in 1969 with style but without the heavy lifting of critical biography or in- with the mesmerising Soledad Miranda and still missing from the depth historical study. If I wrote three reviews per week - keeping archives of the world? How can we bear to publish this book when it light, and skirting the can of worms labelled 'research' - such a such questions remain? The answer, although it tugs at my vitals book could be finished in eighteen months. A quickie, something I to say it, is that there will always be loose ends. Waiting until one's could slot in between the two volumes of my ongoing major work, every question is answered would result in a 4000 page monstrosity, Nightmare USA. Yes, you read that right. I actually convinced myself probably published in 2030, and I'm not sure I'll live that long. Even I could write a 'quickie' book about Jess Franco. Which just goes now, Murderous Passions demands a two-volume structure: the total to show that you should never underestimate the capacity of the page count for both is around 850, which is commercially impractical human mind to delude itself... for a single book.