2024 Days at the Grindhouse II Nov. 16th:

 

For over 20 years now, I am a member of this filmclub.  It's a secret one, so I won't tell you the name. The members of this filmclub go down into forgotten movie archives to unearth prints of very obscure or interesting movies. These prints then are shown in an old art-deco cinema-palace, that still has 35mm and 70mm projection. This takes place on a saturday morning and only members are allowed. 

This time it is Hollywood all the way. Before the first movie, we get three trailers, all of them pretty unconvincing:

"Miami Story" from 1954 has such a bad trailer that now, 6 hours later, I cannot remember anything from it. And thank God I wrote the title down, otherwise I would not have remembered this one either. Well, well. Obviously it is about an attorney that wants to bring down a mob boss. I read that in Wikipedia. 

"Make haste to live" stars "Spiral Staircase" victim Dorothy MacGuire, considerably older looking than the 10 years that had passed since the Siodmak movie. The trailer makes it clear that she is the main attraction in this obviously cheap noir about a man returning that had been to prison for alledgedly killing her 20 years ago. This seems to play like "Cape Fear" but the trailer could not raise my interest.

"Time Lock" is about a boy, trapped in a bank-safe with less air than he needs to breath through the 24h until the safe can be opened. This too is much too unexciting and seems to be more of a children's movie than a Noir. Whatever.

KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL 1952

Then we get to see a theatrical print of Der Vierte Mann/Kansas City Confidental 1952, a tightly scripted robbery-noir that even spawned its own little series.

A hooded figure hires three crooks, who do not know each other to rob a money transport, unsing the car of a flower-delivery service as a disguise. During the robbery, which works well, all of them wear masks and cannot see each other. Before they split, each one gets half a playing card to identify once they get back together to divide the money after a year or so. 

The driver of the the flower-delivery service car has no idea about this, but as he had already served a term in prison, he is prime suspect and manhandled for a week or so until the "fake" flower-service car is found and he is aquitted.

Naturally he himself now wants to find out who the robbers were and want to get even (which is a bit flimsy, because they had never intended him to be a suspect). Well he gets to know the whereabouts of one of the guys, a notorious gambler.

In a very cleverly directed scene, our hero now gambles with him which makes him nervous and they have a fight. Our hero wins, takes the half-card and the telegram that announces the meeting place for the 4 robbers.

The gambler is then killed by the police. Using his identity our hero now arrives at the hotel, where the meeting will take place, as do the other ones, each uncertain who the others are.

Now we get some very clever scenes of charades until it all boils down to da showdown on the boat where the money is being kept.

This is a very enjoyable and cleverly scripted movie, only let down by the love-interest that is so unnecessary that it is annoying and a not-so-good final that is basically not very sensible.  A smart move is to make this whole thing play like a game of poke: Who is bluffing, who holds which cards, who folds to early, who goes all in. Very cleverly done indeed.

Photography is good and the leads are up to B-standard. Nothing fancy here but a good, good and enjoyable film noir. The 70 year old print looked quite good and was not too much worn out. Very preferable to the many public domain sources of this movie.

None of the actors, though made me wish to inquire more. Ah yes. a very young Lee van Cleef is in there too as the womanizing crook.

The three trailers that come before the second feature were:

"Angel Town" Obviously the trailer was not convinced of itself so the name of the movie has to be repeated over and over again and of course each time with more echo. This one stars one "Oliver Gruner" who obviously is big on MA, hitting his kicks everywhere. Actually nothing but the same kicks. Versatility is not his thing. I have no idea what the movie is actually about, the trailer was not very clear about this. But angel town --- ANGEL TOWN --- ANGEL TOWN -- AN-A-GN-EAGN-EL T-OWOWOWNNNNNN....

"Excessive Force" however goes to the exact opposite, containing only highly stylized 80ies videos aesthetics and no spoken line at all, except for "Feel to be killed" or something like this. I am mildly intrigued by the trailer and tempted to watch this one, just to increase the current 20% rating on rotten tomatoes. 

But then we get "Death Warrant" (1990) starring cutie-pie JCvanDAMME and looking good. He has to infiltrate a prison an gets beaten up until he gets up to beat up. There are seriously no women in it, so it's one for the boys and the beer.

STONE COLD 1991

So we get to the second feature:

That is is the overwhelming, surprisingly well made and thoroughly entertaining bad taste movie of Stone Cold 1991. 

Produced by Michael Douglas (it is on the German print), this is about your beefed-up Miami Vice undercover cop (Brian Bosworth), complete with reptile housepet who has to investigate the morder-plot of a biker gang led by Lance Henriksen. Well to say that this movie is cliche-ridden and all over the place is a complete understatement.

It is a banger. The script is ridiculous but camera-work and stunts are top-notch and the rowdy rock music is on spot. Very intriguing female lead Arabella Holzbog is the only one that is allowed to keep her shirt on (at least in our print) and this movie just smelles of all the cocaine that must have been available on the set.

Naturally, it is unnecessarily violent, but who cares with a good-time-sixpack-movie like this. The print was very sharp and the whole experience was a pure delight. We got a bad wrestle-match that spoils the fun but then we got a nice motorcycle-through-helicopter scene. Generally the physical effects are first class.

The scenes where the biker gang storms a court-building reminded me very eerily about the White-House intrusion after the Trump speach. 

Very rewarding for the last remaining braincells after some long drinking stunt.

GRINDHOUSE NIGHTS PART V Jan 10th 1986

You can jump HERE to the previous parts of this series.

So finally we get back to what I started this blog for in the first place: Remembering those special nights in the cozy "Stachus-Kino-Center", this run-down multiplex in the cellar of Munich's Stachus Venue with the stained red carpet, smelling of old cigarette smoke and beer....

This is january in a new year, the movies shown here won't make anybody (except me) crawl out of their cosy and warm living spaces, except for those that don't have these. So this evening (and I remember it vividly) had more than the usual amount of drifters and wildsiders in the audience. They surely slept through the whole thing. But not me. Wide-eyed I sucked it all in, all the strange tales of cannibalism, mercenaries and blossoming body parts. Let's start our journey, shall we:

1. Der Tätowierte Adler  /   Kid with a Tattoo, The  HK 1980

One of those many, many Kung-Fu comedies, this is about a young guy who has to revenge the death of his Kung-Fu teacher that had been killed by an opium-smuggling organisation. Plenty of stupid humor and standard fight scenes make this a very uninspired experience. Have you seen one, you've seen them all. 

Verdict: No!

But then, I am probably the wrong person to judge....

2. Die Todeshand des gelben Adlers / The Kung-Fu Instructor HK 1979

... movies like these. To get myself over the boredom, I began to actually pay attention to the plot in this one. So here we go: The Zhous and the Mengs are hated rivals whose mutual hostility is slowly destroying the city in which they live. While the Zhous are otherwise peaceful, the Mengs are consumed by the desire to control the city and are willing to end the feud by fair or unfair means. With this in mind, her boss travels to a distant village to secure the services of well-known instructor Wang Yang (Ti Lung) and gain the upper hand in the conflict with the Zhous. However, the honorable Wang Yang is reluctant to leave his homeland and is even less willing to get involved in the difficult clan war, but a diabolical plan by the leader of the Mengs ultimately forces him to do so. Although Wang Yang is now the official instructor of the Meng clan, he cannot accept the aggressive behavior of his new students and refuses to teach them the hidden secrets of his style. Further complications arise when Yang accepts Zhou Ping as his student, ignoring the long-standing rivalry to the chagrin of his employers. The murky politics of the situation increase the venerable master's stress, as does the gradual realization that the problems he faced in his previous residence may have been artificially created.

Although the story is different and the movie boasts the remarkable feat of being the first Shaw-production to use a Steadycam, most of the Shaw-flaws are there: zero characterization or development, this is just produced by the numbers and a missed opportunity.

Verdict: Another one

3. 5 Kämpfer aus Stahl / The Flag of Iron HK 1980

_Ahem.....

In a Chinese city in an earlier era there are two clans: The master (Wong Ching Ho) of the respected and revered Iron Flag Clan (an association that uses spears with flags as weapons) receives an invitation from the leader of the Eagle Clan to come can resolve the current tensions. The two fighters "Iron Leopard" Lu Xin (Philip Kwok) and "Iron Monkey" Yuan Lang (Chiang Sheng) are skeptical because they found out that the Eagle Clan abduct young women and then force them into prostitution. In order to settle the dispute, the master accepts the invitation. Of course, the iron flag delegation comes to the meeting without weapons - as agreed. But very quickly everything turns out to be a deadly trap. The master is murdered from behind by the contract killer "Spearman" (Lung Tien Hsiang), but this is only solved much later. After the cowardly ambush, Luo Xin's best friend Cao Feng (Lu Feng), known as the Iron Tiger, is chosen as his successor. Since there were more losses among the eagles (their devious master was also killed) and they blame the attack on the iron flags, Luo Xin voluntarily goes into exile for a few months. This is enough atonement for the authorities and Luo Xin works in a hostel in the province during this time. Tsao Feng offers to send him money, but the money never arrives, only killers who constantly try to take Brother Lu Xin's life.

Lu Xin's loyal companion Yuan Lang also visits him at the inn and tells him that he was thrown out of the clan and that Cao Feng has changed extremely. He has merged the two clans and earns a lot of money from the abducted girls who have to work for him in the brothel. Luo When there is another assassination attempt in the hostel, the then killer Spearman suddenly positions himself on the side of the good guys...

Remake of 1971s "Duel", this is ok. 

Really. 

It's ok. 

I did not mind. 

At all... but now let's go over to cinema 2 where I had been ....

4. Der Todesschrei der Kannibalen / Primitif  FIL 1978 

This movie started for me with the biggest WTF-moment in my entire movie-going history. The opening credits roll, some random shots of rainforest green. But the background music is Kraftwerk "We are the Robots" in the german version "Wir sind die Roboter". WTF? What does the german distributor try to tell us (I doubt that it is in the other country's duplicates...). Did Kraftwerk give their permission? How much had they been paid for this. I seriously doubt that Kraftwerk knew at all about this audacious move by the german distributer. Well and then.... nothing. I mean ... nothing. A group of people is running around in the jungle, two or three animals are killed. They are being taken captive and that basically is it. No violence, no gore, no nudity ... nothing. With a few cuts this could be shown on children's tv, but it won't because everything about this abomination of a movie is lousy. This is the stillborn vision of an entrepreneur who has none other than making money. This is the worst movie I ever saw. Period. Original title: "Primitif". That says it all.

Verdict: Not even primitive, just bah!

5. Mad Drivers / Ratas del Asfalto MEX 1978

Ok here's your local streetgang that obviously has it all under control, driving Corvettes and using the local groupies for their pleasure. Life could have been so good for Tony, the leader of the pack, but then, the mysterious George and his hyped-up vehicle come along, challenging Tony and his gang. Things turn brutal and then they decide to have an all-decisive street-race. This is not going to end well. This was far too mexican for me. As I can see that this movie might be seen very favourably in its country of origin, there are faaar too many moustaches here, far too little depravity and too much bad disco music. This is neither engaging nor very clever. And in the end just a time-waster if you do not have too many sentimental memories for these movies. Which I do not have.

Verdict: Nice to know, but not must-have seen!

6. Söldnerkommando 2 / Shen tan guang tou mei/ Dragon Force HK 1982

Ninjas have captured the daughter of some asian "King" and a group of western mercenaries (well actually one caucasian guy and the rest is not)  have to liberate her.  Of course they (the ninjas) do it while she is in a cheap motel bathtub. Then they do some acupuncture on her naked body to establish mind-control on her. Wow, what a concept. This is marketed as follow-up to the much more adorable "Kill Squad", but aside the asian-american production mix, there is not much similarity. The german dub goes strictly for laughs with some memorable one-liners and jokes that make the movie barebal. Otherwise, I would urge you to do some knitting instead. "Star" Bruce Baron was an america ex-pat living in the Filipines and doing some martial-arts-ninja movies in the 80ies before switching to SC-thrills and leaving it all behind in the 90ies. Good choice.

Verdict: Not worse or better than the rest!

Der Gnadenlose Vollstrecker / Killer Constable / Wan ren zan HK 1980

Uh, what do we have  here. This is an unusual crime/martial arts combination at a higher quality than most Shaw productions. Sometimes I am really happy that I have to watch the movies I missed back then for this blog. I never thought much of the endless stream of Shaw-productions, but this one here is a worthwhile movie in itself, apart from being a HKMA flick.  When the Emperor's treasury is stolen, a detective has got to get it back. As simple as that is, the movie plays a bit like "The Maltese Falcon" with noirish undertones and pretty deep characterizations. This is not your run-of-the-mill productions. This one was made with care. If I would have watched it back then, maybe I would have stayed in the cinema for more. 

Verdict: Good!

Like this one:

Todesduell der Tigerkralle / Death Duel HK 1977

... which is even better. Man, did I have fun watching these two movies back to back and did I regret not having seen them in the cinema back then. This time it is about the quest to become the best swordfighter in the realm. Simple as that, three warriors follow different paths, finally leading to a big showdown. This is a dreamlike/fairytale movie, made with much care and attention that grabs the spectator and totally immerses him. This must be one of the best Shaw-Productions ever. I am not an expert on these things, but this was very, very entertaining.

Verdict: Very Good!

Der Tiger von Kwan-Tung / Ten Tigers of Kwantung HK 1978

The secret society of the "Tigers of Kwantung" has to be annihilated, decrees the governor of Kwantung, as they had killed his father back then. No easy thing to do as they themselves had feared the backlash and had trained their sons accordingly. So this is basically a flimsy plot just to entertain you with an all-star-cast of 20+ martial arts fighters. The endless row of fights without any character development make this unwatchable without distraction. This is more like structured like a porn-movie. The fights, although, are pretty bad-ass.

Verdict: Best-Of.

Sündige Lippen / Superclimax ITA 1980

Just when you think it is safe to sink into the cosyness of the red-velvet cinema seat, along comes Joe D'Amato with this stinker. And no: Linda "LACELOVE" (!!!) does not participate other than that an old movie of hers is being shown in the actual film-plot. That is about the nymphomanic wife of an architect, looking for fulfillment as a call-girl for her pleasure. This has to be the first HC picture directed by Aristide and is incredibly hard to come by. I was able to view the unspectacular non-penetration version, but there is a german VHS out there that obviously has all the good stuff in and features a guy on a motorcycle.... a plot device I am unaware of. But that VHS goes for $200 and I am not willing to go THAT far to watch THAT movie....

Verdict: Completely uninspiring

Paris Intim 4. Teil /Les Caprices d'une souris F 1983

As above, we get a SC-cut from an HC movie, this time it is "Tout fait jouir Barbara", a movie about a movie director who sleeps with and casts young girls to get an idea for a new movie. That's the kind of brainstorm I would like to have, but then, I am just the spectator. This is pretty unexciting although the 1980s fashion AND the original opening credits song do bring a tear to my eye....

Verdict: The main theme is all worth listening to.

Intime Stunden auf der Schulbank / "Intimous hours on the schoolbench" ( GER 1981

Featuring Peter Steiner, one of the veterans of the Reportfilm from way back when and Christa Ludwig who, at that point, had already been "in it" (=HC) for a good decade (though being in her mid-20ies in THIS movie....). This of course is about dreamsex and realsex that schoolgirls want from her young and old teachers. This comes in VERY, very late in the School-girl-report cycle. Well. Competently filmed, with only a hint of a story, this -again- is available in HC-glory ("Sex mit Sechzehn") as well....

Verdict: Last of its kind.

KRIMI! The Magazine Preview

 On Nov. 29th 2024, the first, experimental, issue (#0) of KRIMI! The Magazine for Continental European Crime Cinema Cultur will be published on AMAZON (worldwide).

The stats:

80 Pages

Letter Format

Full Color

English Language

20 Pages of source material and movie posters

Price: US-$/€ 8.99

Here are two pages of the finished product:

Women in Krimi (V): Elisa Montés, the real girl from Rio...

 As I am finishing the last touches to our KRIMI! magazine, the last article I wrote was about "Todesrächer von Soho" co-star Elisa Montés, just to find out that she died yesterday, (Oct, 9th 2024) at the age of 89. 

Elisa Montés was born in Granada as Elisa Rosario Valeriana Angustias Francisca de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Penella , December 15 , 1929. She was the  daughter of the  fascist politician Ramón Ruiz Alonso but the family had a strong artistic background. Her father was a staunch supporter of  Generalissimo Franco and left Spain a few days after his death and moved to the USA.

At a young age she decided to dedicate herself to the world of acting, debuting on the big screen in 1954 with the film Elena, by Jesús Pascual and she won an award for her performance.

Throughout the decade of the 1950s she worked assiduously in the cinematographic medium with remarkable interpretations, but her movies were almost never internationally distributed (outside of the spanish-language world, that is).

With her daughter Emma in 1961, she seperated from her
husband in 1970 and divorced in 1982. Her daughter lived
with the father.

With the emergence of the german-spanish-italian co-productions she and her "exotic" looks get some roles in peplum and western movies. 

The joyous spanish only Krimi la Cuarta Ventana
sees her and her female buddies (her actual sisters
Emma Penella and Teresa Pavez) entangled in some
strange crime...

She starred in 

the Eddie Constantine movie "As if it was raining"

the Hildegard Knef-vehicle Geheimagentin in Gibraltar /"Female Spy of Gibraltar"

the Viking-epos (!) "Erik the Viking"

the peplum "Samson and the Mighty Challange"

the spaghetti-westerns: "Django the honorable Killer", "Mutinity at Fort Sharpe", "7 Dollars to kill", "Texas Adios", "The Taste of Vengeance"

the hollywood-made Return of the Magnificent Seven

In "The Return of the Magnificent Seven"

the spy movies "An Ace and Four Queens" and "The Cobra"

the extremely obscure German-Spanish horror film Das Geheimnis der Todesinsel by German schlockmeister Ernst von Theumer...

... and of course she became a regular actrice for Jess Franco, starting with

99 Women

Girl from Rio 

Poor Irene, what is Sumuru going to do with her??

In Girl from Rio she played Irene, the secretary of Sir Marcius, who is captured and tortured by Sumuru. Ironically, Irene is from Rio while Sumuru is not. So I assume that the movie is about Irene and not Sumuru or Ulla ;-)

Her last big-screen appearance would be in the Jess Franco-Bryan Edgar Wallace movie Der Todesrächer von Soho where she played alongside krimi-heavyweights Horst Tappert, Barbara Rütting and Siegfried Schürenberg a woman called Helen Bennett, the wife of one of the suspects...

Above: Montés scenes in "Todesrächer"

Subsequently, her appearances in film and television gradually decreased, although in spain she stayed popular through her role in one of the best spanish tv-novellas ever: Verano azul (1981). She played the mother of two teenagers on summer vacation in a small costal town; the 19-part series drew 20 million viewers and has become part of Spain’s common cultural memory. 

She did extensive stage-work throughout the 1980s and returned to the big screen in spanish productions in the early 1990s and then retired. Her daughter Emma Ozores became a TV actress too. 

Receiving a life-time award in 2017

Montés at the Almeria Spaghetti-Western Festival

Woman No. 97

With her daughter

Lost Krimi Places: CCC Filmkunst Studios in Berlin

 

Pictures are HUGE, you have to wait a little until
they load

 On September 16, 1946, Brauner founded the Central Cinema Comp.-Film GmbH with Joseph Einstein with a share capital of 21,000 Reichsmarks. Just two months later, Einstein left the company and Brauner became the sole shareholder.

The first film produced by the CCC was the 1947 comedy The King of Hearts, directed by Helmut Weiss. In 1949, he began building a film studio on the 35,000 square meter site of a former chemical weapons testing facility in Spandau. Initially, work began in two halls of 400-500 square meters.

The site thus became one of the most modernly equipped film studios in Europe. Television stations from the USA took advantage of these opportunities and regularly produced programs there.

Most of the Krimis were shot here as Brauner himself had the Bryan Edgar Wallace and Dr. Mabuse franchises going and Horst Wendlandt of Rialto (the "real" Edgar Wallace Krimis) had been executive director of the studio-complex for Brauner before joining Rialto.

 As early as 1965, Brauner had to significantly reduce the size of his studio premises when ZDF (Germany's national TV station) stopped producing there and moved completely to Mainz. This partially ended the Bryan Edgar Wallace and Mabuse series, although Brauner desperately tried to find new, international partners for his franchises (and found one in Salvatore Argento....).

At the beginning of the 1970s, Brauner closed his studios and laid off the last remaining 85 employees.

Parts of the studios still exist and are still in operation under the name Filmatelier Haselhorst. Instead of continuous film production, Brauner and the CCC focused on individual projects. The area with the former dubbing studios on it no longer belonged to the CCC Studios and was demolished.

Please visit www.modernruins.de for more information.

Jess Franco, the walking death of Eurocrime (Part VIII): The case of Ilsa, the Wicked Warden

     The Thesis: Every Eurocrime-Franchise that Jess Franco touched, had to be buried afterwards. Basically his movies are the sleazy epitaphs of once-well-regarded serials and characters: the last chance to squeeze some money out of an already dead topic.

Jump to each chapter HERE 

Residing in quiet Zurich, Romay and Franco seem to finally get their lifes together. Switzerland is known for discreet but bottomless sex experiences for sale. No wonder the OPEC and the IOC reside there. With Erwin C. Dietrich, Franco finally has found a producer who can handle him and the result are 15 movies in 2 years. And most of them pretty good. 

Dietrich, freed from the burdon of directing himself (except for the very special "Rolls Royce Baby" Lina Romay feature), puts his energy into distribution and acquires the rights to distribute two movies about the inner workings of prisoner camps in unwieldy surroundings for the german-speaking market. 

These sincere psychological studies, made by the renowned company of CINEPIX, of female behaviour when put in a situation of power (and powerlessness) obviously tingled something deep inside of Herr Dietrich (= he smelled money, big time).... 

The Franchise: Ilsa, Greta, Wanda

Ok, this is a far stretch. Ilsa, is of course not a european franchise but a canadian one, but then it is based on Ilse Koch, who was German anyway, so I just have the liberty to include the series here. Forgive me. Furthermore, this is a european film as only Thorne is from overseas. Adding to this is the statement by Dietrich himself who always considered the german-language versions as the original ones. And as we will see at the  end, it was Dietrich himself, who started this whole SHE-Thing of the SS in the first place....

The first one "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS" is distributed OUTSIDE of Germany by Dietrich as "Ilsa, die Hündin von Liebeslager 7" (Ilsa, the bitch of Love-Camp 7) and becomes a huge hit. In tiny Switzerland with 3 million german-speaking inhabitants 180.000 curious alpine moviegoers wanted to be informed what exactly had gone on with their neighbours 30 years ago. (if you scale that, that would be 12.000.000 tickets at the US-Box-office in 1975 - which would have secured a Top 5 spot on the US-charts!!!!). 

Ilsa is said to be "based" on the the real-live KZ-witchbitch Ilse Koch, but even the american perception of her was deeply distorted and the camp version is even more. I would love to see a good movie be made about her interesting life. Giving Thorne's character red hair in Greta brings her historically closer to the real Ilse Koch.

I have absolutely no idea (joke!), why Dietrich missed the opportunity to distribute this valuable documentary  in Germany itself. But let's be real: he obviously did not need another police intervention. 

There is this myth about the movie being banned in Germany, which is  not true. Of course it would have been, if it had been released there, but as it never crossed the Swiss border, no action could have been taken. Still, today, the movie is available with its german-language dubtrack in Switzerland, easily to be imported to Germany without any customs etc.

Word of mouth spreads though and when Dietrich shoved part II into the german cinemas, ticket sales were very, very satisfactory. This time, Ilsa had applied at the OPECs HR-Department as coach for their UFC team and runs a beauty parlor. Again, sad old Ilsa is completely misunderstood and has to suffer terribly for her services to mankind.

Ok. If  you check my NIGHTS AT THE GRINDHOUSE, you will know that, at 18 years of age I witnessed a complete night consisting of 12 EC Dietrich-distributed films back in 1985. Man was I excited... I had heard rumours about Ilsa and when I finally saw impressive Dyanne Thorne with the oilsheiks I was underwhelmed. Aside from her, everything else felt cheap and bland. When I got lucky later to get a VHS copy of "She-Wolf" in a Belgium seaside-resort movie-shop (german with flemish subs) I could see the appeal of the eery fake-authenticity of "Hogan's Heroes" sets for US-viewers, but "Harem Keeper" was kind ofa bomb. Worse, though, much worse was "Tigress of Siberia". Now that is an absolute loser of a movie and a waste of everything, including my time (I actually watched it three times because the verions I saw HAD to be cut.... well they are not - the movie is simply worthless).

But hey, we're still with Dietrich and "Harem Keeper". His nose following the gold-trace and hearing that his canadian partner André Link (co-founder of CINEPIX and another one of the many east european exilees to be found in post-war cinema) was not too happy with Thorne he quickly made an offer: Thorne in a WIP-Ilsa-style movie directed by the inventor of sleazy WIP soft-erotica himself: Jess Franco. Congratulations, Erwin. Well done.

And it is so easy: Show the two previous films to Jess and tell him that all he has to do is to incorporate this into his next WIP he is preproducing anyway. And that he can shoot in Portugal.

The only problem was that André Link did not want Dietrich to use the name  of ILSA.

Ok, let's get to the bottom of it by logical deduction. It is known that Link "lends out" Thorne to Elite/Dietrich - this could only been done if she would have been under exclusive contract with Cinepix. That contract could only been sealed after "She Wolf" as the success was not known beforehand. So they do "Oil-Sheik" with Thorne as part of a multi-picture exclusive.

After Oil-Sheik, Link lends out Thorne to Elite but does not allow Elite to use the name of Ilsa, although they are going to distribute the movie in the US. This is odd. Only if Link would not have been able to give Dietrich the rights to the ILSA-character this would make sense somehow. But maybe Thorne had something to say in ILSA too...

So maybe they were already selling/transferring the rights to Corman/Reitman for "Siberia". Or there were two seperate deals - one on Thorne and one for the rights and Dietrich simply did not want to pay for the latter - which would not astonish me a bit.

You can say about Jess Franco what you want, but this guy had been around. Instead of fantasyzing about Ilse Koch in cheap hollywoood sets done by ex-hippies on drugs, he had seen things. Living in fascist Gerneralissimo Franco-Spain was no joke and as strange as it may sound: The strength of Franco's WIP movies were an expression of the conditions in a) Spain b) Portugal c) South America at that time. Paired with his love for the female body, his WIP-films are something different. They just hit harder than the italian processed productions and american irreality.

I have in person witnessed half of the audience leaving, sickened at a secret theatrical screening of "Woman of Cell Block 9" although it was obviously all "fake". 

So here we have him with very good human ressources (Lina&EC-Dietrich crew&Thorne), well-funded sets and obviously a carte blanche by Dietrich to go all in. 

Case opened: Greta, Haus ohne Männer (Greta, House without Men)

The Plot: Murder, needle torture, flogging, mass rape of lobotomized women, licking a diarrhea-ridden butt, a cat fight, vagina torture, suffocation with a plastic bag, torture by electric shocks, disfigurement, cannibalism. Great fun for the whole family, which, as Dietrich noted with delight, was just as successful in the cinemas as "The Omen", which had been released just three months earlier. He truly was a real gold-digger.

Ilsa/Greta here has the red hair of Ilse Koch and things move different. We have a very hairy undercover agent who tries to solve the mystery of lost girls and goes in as inmate into a forensic asylum. We have Thorne, giving her rare evil comedy performance and a strong one by Romay. Even Franco himself is not that bad as witness. 

The movie looks good. Not a single distorted take, no cringe moments, even the zooms are kept to a minimum. Franco could take his time here concentrating on untamed bodyhair and cold showers, sadistic set-pieces and sex. 

There are stylistic differences between the first two Ilsa-movies and this one, but in all regards, (except for the strinking image of Thorne in a SS-Uniform), the canadian movies are inferior. 

I am pretty close to calling this movie Franco's best, because this is a carefully constructed piece in a field where the director felt comfortable. Some might rave about "Shining Sex" and I absolutely admire his "Blue Sumuru (hehe!)" venture. But this here is his natural habitat. A complete vision of sex, torture and ... fun. Nothing distracts, nothing is loose and if you can stomach the positively spoken cartoonish effects the only thing regrettable is the little screentime Thorne has.

I have always wondered about the title "Greta, Haus ohne Männer" (still accepting that this is the original title of this movie - as told by Dietrich). This seems such an odd choice. The wallonic-french one "Greta, the torturer" comes much closer. The german title translates as the harmless "Greta - House without Men" which at the end is not even true.

So let's try to find out about that: There was a 1970 french exploitation sex/crime sleazer about a lesbian and a homosexual that capture and torture a young girl. The movie is about torment and voyeurism and sexual desires. Well. It was directed by our beloved Max Pécas who I will feature extensively in the future as his crime/sleaze movies are of a special breed. It was called "Claude et Greta" (Claude and Greta) in the original french and "Greta - Die Fremde kam nackt" (Greta - the stranger came naked) in Germany. In the US it was distributed under the title of "Her and She and Him". Well - I could draw some parallels, one episode in this movie includes voyeurism, one sadism, Greta is red-headed and played by the german Astrid Frank. But then that' s a bit thin. Maybe the process of filming "Greta" started off with this movie. Maybe it was the movie Jess Franco and Dietrich were working on anyway when the opportunity with Cinepix came.

Eeexcuse me??? I did not get this at first.
"Irving" C Dietrich!!!!! oh man.

And then there is Dietrich's own venture into Nazi sadism "She Devils of the SS/Frauleins in Uniform", made in 1973 and OBVIOUSLY an inspiration to "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS". Based on the two books "Gretchen in Uniform" and "Gretchen out of Uniform", this is the first real deal of Nazi Sexploitation and distributed in Canada by.... CINEPIX. This now comes full circle as "She-Devils" was made under the original name of "Eine Armee Gretchen" "An Army of Gretchens" playing with the idea that the nazis "created" sexually willful female slaves to pleasure the soldiers. That name refers to the girl "Gretchen" in the play of "Faust" by Johann Goethe that - out of idealism - becomes a "fallen girl".

Gretchen, here, Greta there...

"Gretchen" is the diminuitive form of Margarete and the short/but not diminuitive form of Margarete is "Greta".  Nice. 

But the "House without Men" I still don't get.

This movie has so many titles, from Greta, to Wanda and then finally to Ilsa when Cinepix themselves gave it up and put the movie correctly into their franchise. Best title of all, however, must be the bulgarian: "Ilsa, the whistleblower-theorem" obvioulsy depicts the most scandalous of all the plot elements: Franco as a whistleblower!!!

So did Jess Franco kill Ilsa/Greta ?

No, that was done by cinepix themselves. They did not know what to do with their asset. Or maybe they had trouble with Thorne. Somebody should research the strange license-situation around Ilsa in 1976-77 and why nobody (except for "Werewolf-women of the SS") has revived it yet. The death stroke to Ilsa was not Greta - in fact she was the best thing in this series- but the ill-concepted "Tigress of Siberia" vehicle which is a bad joke.

Acquittal

but can someone tell me  what Jess Franco did with all  the footage he shot when he did keep the camera rolling after the take was done? Did he keep it for his own pleasure? Did he produce secret exclusive loops for private financiers?? One wonders in whose vaults those lost "outtakes" still lie around, acetating themselves into oblivion....

So here I come to the end of my small journey. Starting from a question: "How come, Jess Franco was involved in the last movies of all of my favourite series" I ventured into the shady realm of eurolicenses and personal business networks, shake-hand-agreements and quid-pro-quo deals. I made so many notes for future things to explore and have met a lot of very, very nice people personally and online on the way. I really, really enjoyed that.

And no. Jess Franco did not kill the licenses off. He was not even cynical about it (maybe Dr. M - but I do not count that as Mabuse anyway).He was just put into the position of a pallbearer by the producers, not eager to revive, but to exploit the already dead corpses of their franchises.

I have to admit that I was not a huge (like HUGE) fan of Franco before this series started. But now I can fully understand the appreciation and admiration he gets. 

If you have not read the other chapters of my journey-journal about how Jess Franco killed off Eurocrime... here they are:

1. Jess Franco vs. Lemmy Caution

2. Jess Franco vs. Dr. Fu Manchu

3. Jess Franco vs. Sumuru

4. Jess Franco vs. Edgar Wallace

5. Jess Franco vs. Bryan Edgar Wallace

6. Jess Franco vs. Dr. Mabuse

7. Jess Franco vs. Jack the Ripper

8. Jess Franco vs. Ilsa

All of this will be expanded with future knowledge and extended with the bits and piece I left out here in further installments of KRIMI!... See ya.

another case of
shameless self-
promotion....

French: Prison Ward of the perverted Women.

Flemish: The Sadistic Greta
Wallonic: Greta the torturer

Strange they are, those bulgarians. "Ilsa, the whistleblower-theoremistress"
obvioulsy depicts the most scandalous of all the plot elements: Jess Franco
as a whistleblower!!! - but maybe it is some kind of wordplay that I don't get.