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Once declared by the Catholic Church to be one of the most
dangerous filmmakers alive, the controversial and highly prolific
Spanish director Jess Franco gained his infamous reputation
as the auteur of a seemingly endless series of low budget
exploitation films. Collected here are eight of his movies
from a career that has seen him produce over 180 films...
Collections
are always difficult to produce. The content, especially when
there are so many movies to choose from, is never going to
please everyone. Anchor Bay seems to have managed to pick
out a mixed bag of Jess Franco's (or to use his full birth
name, Jesús Franco Manero)
work - not that that actually means much as he has produced
some real stinkers throughout his career.
Sadly
this collection represents everything that is bad about Franco's
career. Many of the movies here are set in prison, or women
only institutions and have varying degrees of nudity and violence.
What
should have been the greatest movie in the collection, Jack
the Ripper, falls flat on its face. And that seems to
be a common thread running through all the films collected
here.
Extras
are fairly standard, with all movies have a collection of
production stills and anamorphic transfers so that widescreen
TV owners can get that proper cinematic experience.
On
Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun we get a featurette
documentary on the restoration of the film, cast and crew
biographies, extensive production stills gallery, theatrical
trailer. On
Jack The Ripper there is an audio commentary by producer
Erwin C. Dietrich, behind the scenes documentary with exclusive
never before seen footage, featurette about the restoration
of the film, deleted scene and the international theatrical
trailer.
Ilsa the Wicked Warden, Barbed Wire Dolls, Voodoo
Passion and Blue Rita all offer a collection of
interviews, featurette on the restoration of the film, trailers
and cast and crew biographies. On
Love Camp we get a behind the scenes documentary, international
theatrical trailer and cast and crew biographies. On Sexy
Sisters we get a behind
the scenes documentary, trailer gallery, poster gallery, cast
and crew biographies.
Checking
with the BBFC's website I discovered that some of the movies
here, most notably Ilsa the Wicked Warden, have had
scenes cut to ensure they received a rating - I don't even
want to know what was cut to be honest.
Franco
fans will be impressed at this collection. Eight movies, with
an interesting line up of extras, for under £30 is almost
too good to be true. However, for the rest of humanity out
there - those of us who believe that movies should have believable
acting, strong storylines and should not depict women as pieces
of meat - this collection will be too much to stomach.
Nick
Smithson
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