*Careful with that sex…. Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion (1970)

Can't you leave me alone? Questions, questions, all the time. I can't meet anybody, go anywhere, do anything, without you wanting to know everything! I'm old enough to do what I want to when I please!

I have previously watched and enjoyed the atmospherics of Vampiros Lesbos and I have to say that Jesus “Jess” Franco is very good at building a mood especially in the warmth of a Mediterranean summer. In VL this is the perfect supernatural complement to the brooding sexuality of the main characters but here, there is something missing and that something is sexual sympathy.

You know what you’re going to get with a Jess Franco film and Eugenie is indeed full of many of his winning ingredients: beautiful female leads in the form of the incredibly pretty Marie Liljedahl and the striking Maria Rohm, creepy men with dubious mores, tick Jack Taylor and a surprising classy cameo, here from Christopher Lee. Lee plays the master of a group of sexual adventurers and moral iconoclasts who, frankly, just want to have fun if, that is, you accept murder and torture as “fun”.

This was the director’s second adaptation of the works of the Marquis de Sade after 1969’s Justine (not the Koo Stark version!) which featured Hollywood legend Mercedes McCambridge as Madame Dubois as well as Maria Rohm and Klaus Kinski as the Marquis. This follow up relies heavily on Lee to add gravitas but he only spent a day or two recording his part and seems to be in a different film from the scattergun debauchery all around him inserted much to his surprise during post production editing.

Christopher Lee

This film was adapted from de Sade’s Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795), and it's uneven but not a stinker – I am only flesh and blood after all. That atmosphere and excellent cinematography from Manuel Merino together with the undeniable beauty of the aforementioned Marie do maintain the interest – but the pure cruelty of the story is neither startling nor erotic. Rohm plays Madame Saint Ange who, with her brother Mirvel (Jack Taylor) run extraordinary parties on their lonesome island in the Med.

Madame has been nurturing the friendship of a beautiful young woman Eugenie (Liljedahl) who she has been leading on a Sapphic path – I know right, saucy! - and makes sure she persuades her father to let his daughter spend time with her in isolation off the coast and far away from his gaze in Barcelona. Interesting that this international co-production was based in Catalonia, a more liberal haven away from Franco’s censors in Madrid. But unlike say Vicente Aranda of the Barcelona School who used arthouse and genre films to make subtle political points, Franco is only really aiming to amuse and titillate.

Maria Rohm

So it is that we see Madame gradually seducing Eugenie with the aim of enabling her brother to also engage with the young women whilst she is under the influence of certain intoxicants. She convinces Eugenie that she has dreamt everything which to modern eyes is more date rape than erotic play. The “dreams” get wilder though as Dolmance (Christopher Lee) arrives with his gang of deviants to complete the games in as perverted a way as possible.

Dusty Verdict: Now, I’ve not read de Sade and I’m not so convinced of the appeal of his theories of sexual freedom but what we see here are long sequences of slow-paced sexual encounters that rely a lot on suggestion and are accompanied by exotic vocalise composed by Bruno Nicolai. The driving cruelty behind Madame’s plan is not erotic but uncomfortable – maybe I’m just squeamish!

Jack Taylor, Marie Liljedahl and Maria Rohm

Maria Rohm is superb though and thoroughly believable as the perverse countess whilst Jack Taylor is so effective he’s more horror than anything else and it’s this mix of the unpleasant with the beautiful that undermines enjoyment of a film with so much visual appeal. Marie Liljedahl is very beautiful but also not in the same class as these two as an actor making her abuse the most gratuitous thing in the whole film – not her nudity.

The sadistic sect is also a bit hammy despite Lee’s best efforts and it contributes to an uneven film that may well have been far sexier if Franco had simplified the plot and laid off the actual deathly violence: S&M does not stand for Sadistic Murder after all. It’s a game not a crime scene. Franco also adds an element of implausability when after a climactic development he flashes back to an earlier scene... has it all been a dream (oh no!) and is it all still to come or not as the case may be.

Anyway, Eugenie… has merits and maybe I should have put on a smoking jacket, drunk some port and smoked a few Cuban cigars before watching. Jess, don't be cruel to a heart that's true, uh-huh-huh?

*Sorry to anyone under 50… that’s a reference to Careful with that Axe, Eugene one of Pink Floyd’s greatest tracks from the post-Barrett period and fabulous live in Ummagumma. A template for post-rock and the likes of Mogwai and Mono!

 

 

Dilys dances again… Theatre of Death (1967)

This is the third part of my Dilys Watling series and is the first in colour, as it needs to be for a story with the alternate title of Blood Fiend! Dilys does a fair amount of dancing in this film but is some way down the cast list as Heidi a member of a Grand Guignol theatre company that specialises in the uncanny and sexually provocative occult themes. If nothing else it shows the kinds of gigs you could get in this early stage of the actress’s career and it is a genre film cashing in on the Hammer craze with the focus on action and suspense and the psycho-dramatic dramas of the central players. As a consequence, Heidi is the least rounded character she plays in these films but at least she moves…

Directed by Samuel Gallu and enlivened by a score from avant composer Elisabeth Lutyens, the film stars the always enigmatic Christopher Lee as Phillipe Darvas, who is following on from his father as director of the Theatre de Morte. Phillipe is very dedicated to the off-Pigalle project as if there’s more truth in horror dancing than people expect. It may be the family business but you’d think he’d be aiming somewhere posher… but then again, naturally enough, we suspect his motives from the get-go a) he’s Mr Lee and b) it’s, literally, called the Theatre of Death.

Christopher Lee makes sure Dilys Watling gets the point..

Patron Mademoiselle Angelique (Evelyn Laye) asks for a preview at the opening night party and he asks experienced Dani Gireaux (lovely Lelia Goldoni) to perform with a nervy newcomer, Nicole (Jenny Till) who Darvas hypnotises before they begin. The dance is about the Witches of Salem and as it progresses Nicole is more and more lost in the role and we are convinced she’s actually living it as she draws closer to a red-hot poker glowing in the fire and which her character intends for Dani…

Before reality can be confirmed against performance – and this is a genuinely sweaty palmed moment – Dani’s escort, Charles Marquis (Julian Glover) steps in just before a smiling Darvas was about to conclude the show. For those who don’t know, Glover is Robert Wyatt’s half-brother and one can well imagine them discussing this one after a The Soft Machine gig at the Roundhouse, Middle Earth or UFO Club… far out!

Anyway… Gallu directs this story well and manages the tension and the rather deceptive narrative well. Casting is also key but I’m not telling you why!

Jenny Till

Charles is a police surgeon recovering from a hand injury, yet also involved with the police investigation into the deaths of three women, who have all been murdered in the same way: stabbed in the neck, drained of blood in a manner suggesting the killer was either fetishizing vampiric “theatre” or has genuine hematophagy and needs to feed on the blood on the living! The murder weapon resembles the knives used in one of the performances at the Theatre of Death, and so Charles – as do we – naturally suspects Darvas.

The film settles into an unsettling rhythm with murders continuing and, Charles, along with Inspector George Micheaud (the not at all typecast Ivor Dean!) pursues Darvas as the chief suspect. He’s a devotee of magic and rituals, ostensibly as material for the theatre but, perhaps, he is not only taking it too far on stage, but he may also be conducting brutal research beyond… Darvas is certainly a strange fish and takes a Svengali interest in the innocent Nicole, soon asking her to move in with him in his apartment at the theatre so that he can develop her technique to perfection.

Naturally Dani – who has been rooming with Nicole is concerned but we soon learn how ruthless Darvas is when he dismisses her as a burnt-out failure following a nervous breakdown at the ballet she previously worked. Christopher Lee is of course excellent at this kind of exegesis and Lelia Goldoni is also very emotionally controlled. I’ve not seen much of her before but she has had a long and distinguished career including  John Cassavetes's ground-breaking film Shadows (1959) and Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) by way of Danger Man!

Lelia Goldoni

Then Darvas seemingly disappears and things go quiet, Nicole moves back in with Dani and we all wait for the inevitable re-appearance… Strangeness keeps on taking place and again the atmosphere is built with care and intensity.

Dusty Verdict: This film was far more nuanced than I expected and enlivened by good performances as well as the atmospherics of direction, design and Lutyens’ score.

And that’s not to forget the contribution of our Dilys who is there for the grand finale as well as adding to the glamour and clamour of the theatrical scenes. The closing Voodoo sequence is breathless with drumming provided by the frantic beats of The Tony Scott Drummers and specialist risqué frenzy from dancer Evrol Puckerin.

 

Julian Glover and Lelia Goldoni

There was actually a theatre called the Grand Guignol in the Pigalle area of Paris which specialised in naturalistic horror shows from 1897 to 1962. The theatre would feature short plays about the underworld of prostitutes, criminals and the city’s poorest often mixed with comedies to lighten the mood between the horrors.  

Paula Maxa was one of the Grand Guignol's best-known performers and from 1917 to the 1930s, she was known as "the most assassinated woman in the world”, murdered more than 10,000 times in at least 60 different ways and raped over 3,000 times.

That’s entertainment I suppose…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trouble under the big top... Circus of Fear (1966)

Suzy Kendall

This film opens with an audacious six-minute sequence showing an armed robbery on a van trying to ferry money across Tower Bridge in the early hours. It’s fast-moving, almost completely dialogue free and gives some great views of the working docksides on both sides of the Thames in the sixties… twenty years later they’d all be either turned into flats or knocked down but here, between the City and Bermondsey the capital was still taking a lot of sea-bound freight.

Director John Llewellyn Moxey clearly had a plan for this dynamic opening and in this new Blu-ray edition Ernest Steward’s cinematography is crystal clear and the background depth of field is almost more interesting than the action in focus. The robbery itself involves a group of well-drilled mobsters who close off the Bridge early in the morning as one of their number, Manfred (Klaus Kinski  - always out of place in these British B movies), takes out the controller so that he can raise the bridge preventing escape for a van taking money across the river.

Dirty old town...

The gang force the security officers to open the van and, as they steal the contents one of the drivers makes a break for it only to be gunned down by his co-driver Mason (Victor Maddern – who, as usual, has cracked under pressure). The men look grim knowing that this increases the severity of their crime and, as they make their escape via rope down to a waiting boat, things look very short-term for Mason…

There are recriminations back at the gang’s lair but the mysterious mastermind seems to offer Mason a second chance as he asks him to bring his share of the money to a remote village… well, what do you thinks going to happen? Just as he waits to meet the mastermind, Mason gets a knife in the back… no ordinary weapon but a circus knife thrower’s blade

Victor Maddern cracking under pressure

Cue a shift of scene to a big top… Pursuing his original criminals, Chief Inspector Elliott of Scotland Yard (Leo Genn) goes looking for the kind of place you’d find such a knife and arrives at Barberini’s Circus (they used Billy Smart's Circus). Here the film changes pace completely and a whodunnit evolves among a cast of intriguing if a tad cliched characters. Let’s see, we have Mr Barberini (Anthony Newlands) who, despite his opulent cigars, is struggling to make the business work. Then there’s a barely married couple, hot-blooded *knife*-thrower Mario (Maurice Kaufmann) and his curvaceous wife Gina (Margaret Lee, who is the epitome of mid-sixties Brit-bombshell), who row continually over her fidelity… what can she have expected marrying an Italian who throws sharp objects for a living?!

No suspicious characters here, oh my, no.

There’s a dwarf called Mr. Big (Skip Martin) who seems to know everyone’s business and is ever open to being paid to keep their secrets and ring master, Carl (Heinz Drache) who watches all very intently. As for the lion tamer Gregor (Christopher Lee), he keeps a mask on to supposedly hide scarring from a lion too far, surely, he’s got much to hide and the nervousness of his daughter Natasha (sixties icon Suzy Kendall) confirms as much.

As the characters snipe at each other Gina is almost killed after being trapped amongst the lions, Gregor comes to her rescue but is that only for appearances? It’s only a temporary reprieve though as Gina is despatched by the same kind of knife as Mason, a sad departure from a film she does much to enliven! It’s got to be her jealous husband but not, it’s far too early for that resolution surely?

Besides, what about Gregor and his mask? What is Carl really there for and surely it can’t be Mr Big given the angle of the knives in peoples’ backs?

Daggers drawn: Maurice Kaufmann and Margaret Lee

Dusty Verdict: The story is based on an Edgar Wallace detective novel and it shows, not in a bad way but it’s a classic police procedural that is full of detailed red herrings and actually quite light on action. There’s also little in the way of “fear” and so this is not the Christopher Lee horror circus you may have been looking for. The Anglo-German cast do well though and it is an enjoyable if not especially gripping, tale even though it fails to follow up on the excellent opening action sequence.

The performers try their best and Skip Martin is excellent, Klaus Kinski is magnetic, as is Margaret Lee who gives it her all as the blonde bombshell trapped at the sharp end of her knife thrower’s jealousy. It’s always a pleasure to watch Suzy Kendall and Christopher Lee even if the latter does much of his work underneath a cloth mask…

But London, the dirty old port, is the star of those opening moments.