I guess it would only be fair to say that French Quarter is a fairly atypical sexploitation film from b-movie producers Crown International Pictures. It's pretty unusual in that it's oddly ambitious for such an obviously drive-in oriented movie. The plot structure is the reason for this where we have two parallel narratives, one set in the contemporary 70's and an earlier thread set in the early 1910's. Both take place in the Storyville red light area of New Orleans, otherwise known as the French Quarter of the title. The modern segment features strip clubs settings, while the historical part is set in a bordello. All of the characters feature in both stories as different yet similar people. They all seem to have been reincarnated by voodoo
or something.
So what we have is an erotic melodrama with supernatural plot elements. It's fairly original I guess and it should be given some definite credit for being so, especially given that most low budget drive-in features are more genre specific and less adventurous artistically. That said, I can't honestly say that it's necessarily a great movie. Its story wasn't really all that interesting and it did drag somewhat in places. So I would have to file this one under 'admirable yet lacking'.
