[a.k.a. El Caso de las dos bellezas / Rote Lippen / Two Undercover Angels]
(Spain / West Germany 1967)
Reviewed By-Kit Gavin Directed by Jess Franco Starring Janine Reynaud, Rosanna Yanni, Michel Lemoine and Adrian Hoven Source: Anchor Bay Entertainment [UK] DVD PAL Region 2
Two beautiful detectives, a firey redhead Diana [Reynaud] and a sexy blonde Regina [Rosanna Yanni] operate under the pseudonym "Red Lips", with a lipstick kiss as their trade mark. Diana also doubles as a cat burglar in a pair of tight black leather pants and mask. They also have an accomplice / patron in the form of an Italian millionaire as their services for solving crimes do mot seem to be funded by the police nor any other official body.
At a bridal shop, presumably somewhere in Europe, one of the models, an attractive Oriental girl is assaulted and then kidnapped, having stripped down to her lingerie and wedding veil by an apeman. She is then taken to a nearby gallery, with a pseudo chamber of horrors, where the poor girl is throttled to death by her perpetrator. All of this is captured on film by a photographer. The police, on the hunt for the girl and other young women who have vanished but none of the bodies having been found, suspect foul play.
One of the duo, Diana, suspects that the art gallery has something to do with the girls’ disappearances, as it contains a "Gallery of Horrors" showing girls dying in various brutish ways. The duo discover that the paintings are by an artist of the name of Klaus Tiller. She dresses up her sidekick, Regina, as a wealthy countess, who infiltrates the museum and attempts to seduce the director in order to glean information, especially regarding some of the more macabre artwork on display. Unable to seduce the director in the gallery, Regina lures him back home, where unfortunately he is killed, by being shot with a blow-dart, before she can find any information at all. The murderer seems to be a dark mysterious figure wearing an eye patch.
Later, at a nightclub frequented by topless dancers, the same eyepatched assassin picks up one of the topless exotic dancers and lures her back to his domain where she is molested by the apeman Morpho. The Red Lips duo, meanwhile, back at the art gallery, have discovered the identity of the eyepatch wearer. Later Regina is picked up by the killer and lures her back to his studio, for he is an artist and wants to use her as his model. Back at the studio Diana is confronted by the apeman Morpho, who is the artists sidekick, leaving Regina to save her friend and claim the reward for the capture of the two criminals.
The film has been released in fullscreen and sadly Anchor Bay seems not to have made an effort to lay their hands on a bright fullscreen master. The film was clearly shot in widescreen and much of the information seems to cropped on either side of the screen. Certainly the film is not up to the standards of the other releases in the collection which were taken from the original elements in Switzerland by their producer Dietrich. Nor even up to the standard of other AB releases previous. Also the film seems grainy at times, fuzzy and blurry and others, but mercifully it seems to be damage free and uncut. Had the film been released in widescreen rather than the full-screen print which distributors provided Anchor Bay with (much like the earlier release in the UK through Redemption) and if the colors had been brightened up, the film might have been more pleasing to the eye presentation and some of the oversight in the storyline might have been forgiven for the domestic market.
It is unlikely that seeing the film in Spanish or German would have improved the film in any which was, and the English track is serviceable. The soundtrack is crisp and clear and seems to be undamaged by age (given that the film is close to 40 years old now). The dubbing, done in Germany is not bad, and for the most part the voices seem to fit the characters that they are dubbing pretty well. Sadisterotica is rather a talky film so dialogue is an integral part of the viewing experience (not often the case with films of this ilk). Some of the voices do sound contrived and at times, it does seem like all the male characters have been dubbed by the same two (or possibly one) male voice artist, trying to improvise with each and every character. Unlikely to be the case but very possible to save on costs, etc. The jazzy score is most enjoyable and compliments the film well.
The two leads, the French Janine Reynaud (and the then Mrs. Michel Lemoine) and the Argentinean born Rosanna Yanni are great fun and very attractive as the Red Lips pair. Indeed, were it not for the charisma, beauty and enthusiasm that the two imbue the film with, Sadisteroica would, without doubt be a very flat boring affair indeed. Adrian Hoven, as Klaus Tiller, the eye patch wearing bad guy and Morpho [Lemoine] equally add a degree of campiness to proceedings. The wolfman makeup on Lemoine is laughably awful unfortunately and adds ridicule rather than suspense to proceedings. Indeed Reynaud, Hoven and Lemoine had appeared previously together in the superb dreamlike SUCCUBUS [also released through Anchor Bay UK in this series]. There is and was so much potential within this story, the novelty of the two female characters leaving a lipstick kiss as their trademark, who catch the bad guys yet at the same time do not work alongside the police all add to the quirky appeal of what should have been a mini cult classic, but sadly this wasn’t to be.
Sadisterotica is an unusual film in that it treads the path of being more on the lines of a farce-like thriller with comic book elements (which were very much in vogue in Europe following on from such titles as DIABOLIK, MODESTY BLAISE, BARBARELLA and later on with ISABELLA DUCHESS OF THE DEVILS) but also the detective farces which were popular at the time featuring detectives such as Matt Helm in the United States, and Bulldog Drummond in the UK. Here Franco and his co-writers try to meld the two successful genres into one film, and not entirely with success. However, part of what adds to Sadisterotica’s "charm" is it’s comparative innocence when regarded next to some of Franco’s later works which descended into the realm of being pure hardcore pornography in the early 1980’s, also the film has that groovy 1960’s feeling which became popular once again, thanks to the like of Austin Powers.
At the same time however Sadisterotica is considerably more accessible than his latter-day efforts which would often feature Franco’s longtime companion Lina Romay usually in various wild fetishistic situations, such as being trussed up on a cross and tortured. Also Franco’s latter efforts would feature plentiful use of a zoom lens and leering close-ups of female crotches, none of which appears here. In fact, the film is notable by it’s more "restrained" nature yet at the same time in features a number of familiar Franco motifs, such as the presence of Morpho. The film certainly is entertaining yet fans of Franco, expecting the directors usual thrills and spills will probably leave feeling somewhat disappointed. With the exception of Succubus, which is a truly visionary and beautiful film much loved by fans of the Iberian director, it would another year or so, before Franco shrugged off his repressions and started to be more daring with visions of violence and eroticism which would become another regular stable trademark of his work.
Apart from some nicely designed menus, the DVD release really is nothing special as regards the extras either. There are two trailers, one for the film which is quite funky, and another for it’s sequel KISS ME , MONSTER. There also is a Jess Franco bio as well, but there are no interviews with either Franco nor with it’s two stars, so that is something of a let down in what is generally quite an interesting if not as sleazy, trashy nor erotic as some of Franco’s latter output. Also interesting is the presence of German star Adrian Hoven, who also assisted in the production of the film, of who’s films in the late 60’s (the most infamous having been MARK OF THE DEVIL) were generally marked with a noticable Sadean feel and atmosphere which seems sorely lacking here.
Anchor Bay have re-titled the film Sadisterotica, utilising a freeze frame and a newly imposed title over the opening credits where the original export title of "Two Undercover Angels" would have been. The title Sadisterotica was the title under which this together with the other three Jess Franco titles in the series were submitted to the BBFC in the early 1990’s when they had been acquired for distribution by the video label Redemption (with the film’s sequel having been cut and rated 18, and Sadomania having been rejected outright!). It would have been nice to see a more definitive version than the full screen release which seems to be par for the course these days when this film is released. In conclusion, a fairly uninspiring release of a fairly uninspiring film. A missed opportunity both at the time of it’s initial conception but equally now in the digital age.
Story: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS Audio: 3 BITCH SLAPS Video: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS Extras: 1.5 BITCH SLAPS Overall DVD: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS Discuss this DVD in our forums.
