The Devil Came from Akasava

"The Devil Came From Akasava", more an exotic adventure than a spy movie, is one of the slickest-looking Jess Franco movies I've seen so far, though Franco (over)uses the ZOOM function of his cameras so much you'd think he was a kid who had just discovered them and couldn't resist fooling around with them. Nonetheless, his greatest failing - one that can easily be associated with many of his movies - is his inability (or maybe his indifference) to tell a coherent story: I watched this movie twice and I'm still mixed up on more than a few whos, whys and hows. As a an adventure film, "The Devil Came From Akasava" never gets exciting. Still, it's worth a look for the astonishingly beautiful Soledad Miranda, whom Franco films fetishistically, and who can blame him - the woman is sheer perfection. However, the script gives her little to work with, and as a result her character is shallow - as is the entire film. ** out of 4.

Due to a lack of research on my behalf, I didn't know "The Devil Came from Akasava" was a Krimi instead of the more regular type of sleazy exploitation flick that director Jess Franco usually delivers. No harm done, really, except that (at least for me) a Krimi requires a different type of mental mood to watch. Krimis are films based on books or stories by Edgar Wallace (or by his less talented son Bryan Edgar Wallace) that are entirely produced in Germany but supposedly take place in London, and they are full of crazily implausible twists and dim-witted humor. They were hugely popular - and still quite good - during the late fifties/early sixties, but embarrassingly poor by the end of that same decade already. The notorious Jess Franco does add some fresh elements to the old and outworn Krimi-formula, like exotic locations and shameless nudity, but I regret to say it remains a daft movie.

All my fellow reviewers seem to unanimously agree on one thing, though, namely that lead actress Soledad Miranda is one of the most beautiful women in cinema history and that her role alone is worth seeking out the film. I'm not convinced. She was a natural beauty, yes, and obviously I wouldn't kick her out of my bed. But Mrs. Miranda wasn't exceptionally beautiful or exceptionally talented, and the fact she's so loved is undeniably linked to her unfortunate and tragic death at age 27. Everybody always assumed she was on the verge of a promising international career, but we can never be sure of that, can we? She might also had continued working together with Uncle Jess and ended up in the porno industry.

In "The Devil Came from Akasava", Soledad Miranda depicts an agent from the British Secret Service (sure...) assigned to trace the whereabouts of a stolen mineral and its missing discoverer. The mineral is a unique stone able to turn other materials into gold, but its radiation also instantly kills people, or tuns them into green-faced zombies. The stone and Prof. Forrester went missing in Africa, near Mombasa, and is believed by both the Secret Service and Scotland Yard to be smuggled into England. Agent Jane Morgan (Miranda) is sent over to identify all the naughty people, and - of course - the best way to do so is by performing as an exotic nude dancer in a local bar and willingly sleep with all kinds of perverted males.

Like the older wave of Krimi movies, or even slightly worse, "The Devil Came from Akasava" is a tiring movie, what with all its unnecessary and clichéd plot twists. Villains/suspects turn out to be undercover agents and, vice versa, trustworthy characters turn out to be evil villains. The attempts at humor are also pitiable, especially with poor old Siegfried Schürenberg repeating his same old role of clueless Scotland Yard supervisor. In fact, the highlight of the film are mere details, like an elderly lady who uses her cane like a samurai sword or Franco's old pal Howard "Dr. Orloff" Vernon as an unconvincing hired killer. Franco awarded himself with a cool supportive role, and he's honest enough that his character's sexual advances are rejected several times by Soledad.

Before watching "The Devil Came From Akasava" (1971) last night, I'd seen two earlier pictures from director Jess Franco--"The Awful Dr. Orloff" (1961), a fun horror outing, and "Venus In Furs" (1968), an extremely surreal, ultimately unfathomable but nevertheless professionally made film--and this may be part of the reason why "Akasava" proved such a disappointment to me. This picture somehow doesn't seem professionally made at all, featuring as it does lazy directing (Franco is inordinately and tiresomely in love with his zoom lens), slipshod editing, and a plot that is often downright confusing. The story here concerns a mineral that is discovered in the fictitious African country of Akasava--one that can turn base metals into gold--and the various criminal parties that vie with the British Secret Service (in the person of the gorgeous Soledad Miranda) and Scotland Yard for possession. Despite the film's title, this is not a horror outing at all, but rather a poor man's secret agent caper that strangely features little action to speak of. The picture is guilty of the worst crime a movie can commit: It is boring. With the exception of some groovy psychedelic music, laced with trippy sitar (non sequitur as the music often is), and some lingering shots of Miranda (who, sadly, like other beautiful actresses such as Francoise Dorleac, Jayne Mansfield and Claudia Jennings, died in a car crash, right after "Akasava" was shot), this film does not offer much. Don't blame the fine folks at Image Entertainment, however. The DVD itself looks great, and offers some excellent subtitling for those of us who don't speak fluent German. But it would take a lot more than a nice-looking DVD to turn this base film into solid gold!

I've seen close to twenty Jess Franco movies now and my all time favourites are 'Eugenie De Sade' and 'Vampyros Lesbos', both of which starred the stunningly beautiful Soledad Miranda. Miranda acted in both movies using the pseudonym Susann Korda and died tragically in 1970 before 'Vampyros Lesbos' was released. 'The Devil Came From Akasava' is another Franco movie from this period, and while it isn't as good as the aforementioned it's still highly recommended viewing if you're a Franco fan. It's based on an Edgar Wallace thriller and the plot concerns a missing scientist, Professor Forrester (Angel Menendez) who has allegedly discovered The Philosopher's Stone, that is, a mysterious radioactive mineral which can turn objects into gold. Miranda plays Jane Morgan, a British Secret Service agent who is sent to Akasava posing as an exotic dancer. When she tries to uncover the whereabouts of Forrester and his discovery she finds herself embroiled in a confusing situation where nobody is what they appear to be. The plot isn't what makes this movie so bewitching. It's very Bond lite, and similar territory to Franco's earlier 'Sadisterotica'. What makes 'The Devil Came From Akasava' a pleasure to watch is Soledad Miranda's beauty. Her face and presence are hypnotic and when combined with the ultra groovy score (chock full of fuzz guitar, electric sitar, harpsichord,etc.), man, that's all you need to know! Miranda steals every scene she's in, but the supporting cast includes Ewa Stromberg, who co-starred in 'Vampyros Lesbos', Fred Williams, Horst Tappert, Franco regulars Paul Muller and Howard Vernon, and Franco himself as Tino Celli. I can't say that this is Franco's best movie, but it's as entertaining as all hell, and a pretty good introduction to his amazing output (180+ movies!).

Soledad Miranda plays a British spy in this movie and is not believable in the slightest; but thank God she is in it because if she weren't, this Krimi-style James Bond send-up would have been a complete dead loss. This movie is rather strange all round. It's based on an Edgar Wallace story and therefore is shot in the same style as the popular Krimi films from the sixties and seventies; but it's directed by Jess Franco, who is more famous for his trashy euro-exploitation flicks, and it takes obvious influence from James Bond; although the suave spy featured here is a sexy female. The plot is complete nonsense of course and focuses around some mineral that has been discovered by some researchers. It has unique properties; it can turn ordinary metal into gold and...wait for it...humans into zombies. Naturally this mineral becomes pretty sought after and it is soon stolen. Shortly thereafter, Scotland Yard sends spies to investigate its disappearance and stop whoever has stolen the mineral.

Soledad Miranda made a handful of films with Jess Franco before her untimely death in 1970; and it's unfortunate really that this had to be one of them. She was in her element in films like She Killed in Ecstasy and Eugenie De Sade, whereas here she's out of her element and it's not really a very good performance. One of the most noticeable things about this film is the score. It's groovy and entertaining, but it's also constant and it does become a bit grating after a while. The madcap plot starts to wear thin rather quickly also and to be honest I was getting bored long before the movie ended. The whole zombie plot might make you believe that there'd be some horror element to the movie, but this is hardly touched on...although that might be a good thing as the quality of this production is very low even without that. It all bubbles up some stupid conclusion that fits the movie well. Overall, The Devil Came from Akasava is not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination. Soledad fans will of course want to track it down, however, and it is worth seeing just for her.