(1972)
REVIEWED BY-STEVE GENIER DIRECTED BY-JESS FRANCO CAST-DENNIS PRICE, HOWARD VERNON, ANNE LIBERT, BRITT NICHOLS, ALBERTO DALBES, LUIS BARBOO and LINA ROMAY. SOURCE-X-RATED KULT DVD R2 PAL (2004)
Dr. Frankenstein (Dennis Price) with the help of Morpho (Jess Franco) have just created their monster. Just putting the finishing touches on him, when a storm rolls in carry the plight of evil. Melissa the bird women and Caronte break into the castle and kill both Frankenstein and Morpho, stealing the monster to do their master, Cagliostro’s bidding. Cagliostro’s aim is to himself creating another monster with his own hands, a female companion for the already created monster. Dr. Frankenstein’s daughter, Vera will stop at nothing to carry out revenge for her father’s murder. As her vengeful path carries her right into the evil grip of Cagliostro.
I must first confess that Jess Franco is a hit and miss with me and that I’m not here to solely attack his credit ability as a director on a whole. Now, in the case of X-Rated Kult’s release of Franco’s THE EROTIC RITES OF DRACULA, I was quite disappointed. Not with X-Rated’s job on the disc or their restoration of the film itself, but Franco’s vision. Now, I can handle some of what is thought to be Jess Franco’s bottom of the barrel offerings, but I had trouble keeping interest in this often wanderery film. Once again, Franco is often notorious for using material (cut scenes etc) from other films, his of course and editing them into other offerings. That is very evident here as for the involvement of Lina Romay is from an entirely different source. From what I understand LA MALDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN to be exact, the Spanish version of the film in which Franco shot extra scenes of Romay with a very old Methuselah women. Though the scenes on their own are quite eerie, they tend to work against the overall flow of the movie on a whole. On the X-Rated Kult DVD, there is clearly no English audio for these scenes, obviously so given Franco only shooting these scenes for the Spanish version. So, they are presented with a German language track that seems very much out of place.
Given the fact that I have pretty much just pointed out the negativities of THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN, though I did skip the fact that this is the "longer clothed" version, hence still cut. There are some great elements to this as well. Like many of Franco’s classic such as THE AWFUL DR.ORLOF and THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS, he manages to capture some great atmosphere. Very gothic, steep in tradition and most of all lustful in nature. All of which is capped by a very suiting score provided by longtime Franco sidekick, Daniel White. Though there are many scenes that for the first time Franco-fan would easily get lost, for example the white cloaked being making their way slowly their a vast are of forestation, drenched in think fog, very effective, but would have many scratching their heads as to exactly they are. No need to explain though, just sit there and enjoy the visuals.
The main element or character of the Frankenstein monster played by Fernando Bilbao, really had his work cut out for him trying to get that silvery paint off his skin after shooting the film. I’m guessing he was a naturally big man, given the fact that little make-up was given to this creature, except for the odd face prosthetic. Poor guy doesn’t get lucky either, or at least in the clothed version, for in the scene where his about to get lucky with his female companion, the lovely Britt Nichols, they are rudely interrupted. The other cast of this odd Franco tale pretty much plays out like many of his other films. Of course what would a film of this nature be like without the presences of Howard Vernon, and that of the antagonist, Cagliostro. That’s right, just give him a hairy chin and some Greek like garb and viola. Hey and who Vernon faces off with or at least the beginning, yet another Franco regular, the late great Dennis Price as the brilliant Dr. Frankenstein. He himself tends to comicly re-animates from time to time giving others like his own daughter, played Beatriz Savon secret information on who killed him. Of course that’s a secret until you watch this.
The X-Rated Kult DVD release is again one with much class. Of course once again in it’s hard boxed over sized cover and with the option of collecting one or all three of it’s limited different covers. I had the pleasure of nabbing cover B, with a surprise resemblance of the Karloff Frankenstein monster on the cover. Both visually and audio wise this restoration is quite good, though there is the odd nicks and scratches, though during the cheaply shot Romay scenes are quite rough from time to time, It’s overwise well worth the pick up. Presented in anamorphic widescreen, with English, German or Spanish audio options. Like I mentioned before, the Lina Romay scenes are presented with German audio lined out with English subtitles. Once again some great extras as well are provided to extend the fun of this disc. Tons of the trailers, alternative opening credit sequences and a very recent Jess Franco interview. Franco discusses everything except the film at hand, but it is neat seeing and hearing Franco trashes those Hollywood bigwigs. From Ben Affleck to Angenlina Jolie acting like puppets to his classic STAR WARS Part 250. Jess Franco at his best!
A big thanks goes out to David Zuzelo and Francesco Cesari for valuable info!
STORY- 2.5 BITCH SLAPS AUDIO- 3 BITCH SLAPS VIDEO- 3 BITCH SLAPS EXTRAS- 3.5 BITCH SLAPS OVERALL DVD- 3 BITCH SLAPS Buy this DVD or others at X-Ploited Cinema.
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