From my favorite movies..

A Disappointing Continuation

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

With a director who provokes such extreme reactions as Jess Franco – he's often either revered or reviled – the truth concerning the quality of his output is usually somewhere in the middle. In my view, the appeal of 'Sadist Erotica' drifts closer to the 'disappointing' end of the spectrum. The fault does not lie entirely with Uncle Jess – both the English version of the script and the dubbing itself are pretty appalling, and any attempts at humour are truly squashed by this double-barrelled attack.Comedies are not really Franco's forte. Or perhaps I should simply say that this style does not appeal to me. I would count his latter day 'Red Silk (1999)' as amongst his worst and, I'm sorry to say, this exists in a similar league. Having said that, it is easier to watch this once you have got used to its limitations, which hit you from the very start.'Sadist Erotica' works best as an exercise in nostalgia, a time of unconcerned casual sex and no repercussions. Main players Jeanine Reynault (as Diana) and Rossanna Yani (as Regina) form the Hot Lips detective duo. Two strong-minded, independent women who nevertheless spend most of their time fantasising over men. As detectives, it is difficult to imagine a squad less likely. Their 'kooky' sixties lifestyle is appealing and carefree, and the locations in which they live are rarely less than charming. The story soon becomes lost in the sea of extravagant characters and unengaging performances, but it seems a growing number of attractive models are going missing. The culprits may be hard-to-kill werewolf-like Morpho (Michael Lemoino) and his shady Master (Adrian Hoven).A definite positive is the soundtrack, Jerry van Rooyen's jazzy soundtrack sweeps alongside the eccentric series of events and scatty set-pieces. The whole is a bizarre and vaguely appealing mess of ideas and tones, veering from lazy thriller, tepid horror and badly translated comedy. Whilst more than a sum of its parts, 'Sadist Erotica' is nevertheless not Jess Franco's most engaging production."I really think it's time to bring this farce to an end," to quote one character, is a little harsh perhaps, but a point of view that does provoke a certain sympathy.

This amusing but failed film is starred by two lovely ladies of the 'Red Lips' detective agency , both of whom are on the track of missing people . "Red Lips" are two female agents (Janine Reynaud as Diana and Rosanna Yanni as Regina) attempting to find abducted models and dancers . Two tough as well as scantily dressed detectives , the world's deadliest and most dazzlingly female spies , including their lipstick kiss as their trademark . A pop artist called Klaus (Adrian Hoven) aided by his right-hand , a hirsute werewolf-like assistant, Morpho (Michel Lemoine) , the latter a villain who cruelly kidnaps and murders his victims , result to be the main suspects for the missing and killings . At the end takes place a twisted surprise about the murders . Colorful but mediocre rendition about European spy subgenre , an usual genre during the sixties , not taking any situation seriously ; being realized in similar style to famous strip-cartoon thrillers as Modesty Blaise , Diabolik and Barbarella . This very campy picture contains thrills , action , phantasmagoria , tongue-in-cheek , absurd situations , but being middlingly developed . The picture was made by the time in which Franco directed nice movies such as The sadistic Baron Klaus , Rififi En La Ciudad , Miss Muerte or Diabolic Doctor Z , Necronomicon and Gritos en la Noche , developing a consolidated professionalism , as his career got more and more impoverished in the following years, but his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror to erotic films . The main and support cast -with everyone having fun- is passable , but they are really wasted . The best of the interpretation results to be Adrian Hoven in a double role as a cunning villain and sporting an eye patch, including some enjoyable moments . Furthermore , a sympathetic Manolo Otero , he was a Latin lover as well singer , early deceased , who married Eurotrash goddess Pilar Velazquez , in fact here he sings a charming song . And other uncredited actors in brief appearances as Claudia Gravy , Pilar Clemens , Marta Reves , Julio Pérez Tabernero and even writer Vicente Molina Foix . Atmospheric original music by Jerry van Rooyen , including jam session , disco music and a catching leitmotif . Evocative cinematography by Jorge Herrero being filmed on location in Manga Del Mar Menor , Murcia and Andalucia . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Jesus Franco and was followed by a sequel titled ¨Besame Monstruo¨ or ¨Kiss Me Monster¨ shot back to back with similar casting and technical team . Jesus Franco was a Stajanovist filmmaker who realized 203 movies . However , here he doesn't use his trademarks , as he pulls off a traditional narration , without zooms , neither lousy pace . As the picture belongs to Franco's first period in which he made passable flicks . Jesus uses to sign under pseudonym , among the aliases he used, apart from the names Jess Franco or Franco Manera, were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune , Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough , among others . Franco used to utilize usual marks such as zooms , nudism , foreground on objects , filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY and managing to work extraordinarily quickly , realizing some fun diversions, and a lot of absolute crap . Many pictures had nice photography , full of lights and shades in Orson Welles style , in fact , Franco was direction-assistant in ¨Chimes at midnight¨ and edited ¨El Quijote¨ by Welles . He often used to introduce second , third or fourth versions , including Hardcore or Softcore inserts or sexual stocks many of them played by his muse Lina Romay . In many of the more than 200 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. His first was "We Are 18 Years Old" and the second picture was ¨Gritos en la Noche¨ (1962) , the best of all them , also titled "The Awful Dr. Orlof" , it's followed by various sequels such as El Secreto del Dr. Orloff (1964) aka "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll" , " Orloff y el hombre invisible (1970) aka "Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster" and finally "Faceless" (1987) . He also directed to the great Christopher Lee in 4 films : "The Bloody Judge" , ¨Count Dracula¨, ¨The Blood of Fu Manchu¨ and ¨The castle of Fu Manchu¨ . Jesús's influence has been notable all over Europe . From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema and often releasing several titles at the same time. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older films . Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government administration. He broke up with all that and got the independence he was seeking. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals . But time doesn't pass in vain, and Jesus' production has diminished since the 90s ; however he went on shooting until his recent death .

As Tim Lucas has pointed out, Jess Franco has made some of the best and some of the worst of European exploitation. The man made so many films that the majority fall somewhere in between, usually falling on the negative side of the spectrum. Two Undercover Angels is one such film. On the plus side are a terrific soundtrack, some good photography, and the occasional moment of genuine Franco lunacy. The downside: everything else. That the storyline is a mishmash of genres wouldn't be so important if Franco knew what kind of spirit or tone he wanted to aim for. The editing alternates between avant-garde and sloppy. But absolutely inexcusable are the English-language script and the dubbing. I have a high tolerance for much of the Franco dialogue that some critics refer to as "relentless and risible," but this was too much even for me. The banality of the dialogue seems inherent to the material: the dubbing-script translation makes matters worse by making much of it incoherent. As far as the technical aspects of the dubbing are concerned, there are repeated scenes in which characters speak but the actors' lips don't move. While not a disaster, this is a far cry from such amazing fare as She Killed in Ecstasy and The Bloody Judge.

Sadisterotica is a great title for a film. Sadly, the title is more or less the only good thing about this effort. This is a real mish-mash of ideas. It's part horror, comic-book hero, comedy, sexploitation and mystery. And really, it doesn't do justice to any of these genres! The plot follows a couple of women investigating a series of murders connected to a mysterious artist.This is a Jesus Franco film, so expectations have to be lowered accordingly. The man has made some decent flicks such as Vampyros Lesbos and Count Dracula but he's also made an awful lot of dreck. This baby fits into the latter category I'm afraid. Technically it's terrible with a succession of badly photographed scenes roughly edited together. The actors are unappealing and the storyline dire. The version I watched also happened to have truly diabolical dubbing which did not exactly help matters.The comedy is hopeless, the horror completely unscary, the nudity unerotic, the mystery uninvolving; the only positive I can offer is that it is pretty weird. Other than that I'm really struggling to think of anything kind to say about this. Franco is an acquired taste and this is not one of his best.