As if the chaos of April, 2013, wasn’t enough for me, I’ve decided to start a new project. I plan to watch every Jess Franco movie I can get my hands on, in chronological order, and blog ’em all in the Brain Drops section of my site. You know — because life is just too darned long and comfortable.
In case you’re wondering why I’d attempt something so questionable for my health and sanity, here’s a little background. And, since the journey off every cliff begins with a single step, here are my first couple of entries:
1959
Tenemos 18 Años
1960
Labios Rojos — not reviewed (lost?)
La Reina del Tabarín
1961
Vampiresas 1930
Gritos en la Noche/The Awful Dr. Orlof
1962
La Muerte Silba un Blues
La Mano de un Hombre Muerto/The Sadistic Baron von Klaus
I figure at this rate, my project is likely to take a year to complete. However, since this is one of those situations where the going just gets rougher the further you go, my guess may be wildly optimistic. Wish me luck!
Will Laughlin is the Braineater.
#1 by blake on June 4, 2013 - 9:02 pm
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Good luck!
I watched “The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus” in French (with Spanish subtitles) last week. As I commented on the BMMB, it’s not the best movie to watch at 1 a.m. when you’re dying of sleep deprivation, but it wasn’t bad. I found it to be a little more memorable than “The Awful Dr. Orloff,” which I watched only a few months back and have a hard time remembering.
#2 by Braineater on June 15, 2013 - 11:05 pm
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You’ve summed it up nicely. I have more to say about Klaus and sleep deprivation when I get to 1972.
Was the print you saw the full French version, with the pre-credits murder sequence? I was under the impression that version had been lost. At any rate, I’ve been unable to track it down.
#3 by Luke Blanchard on June 15, 2013 - 10:44 pm
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The musical GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 was known as VAMPIRESAS DE 1933 in Spanish. (The IMDB says VAMPIRESAS 1933, but the poster images Google found for me all have the ‘de’.) I have to guess the title of VAMPIRESAS 1930 was a play on the earlier film’s.
#4 by Braineater on June 15, 2013 - 11:03 pm
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That’s right, though the content is much more heavily drawn from Singin’ in the Rain and Some Like it Hot. The funny thing is, at one point I ran a block of Spanish text through Google Translate, and the phrase “Vampiresas 1930” came back “Gold Diggers of 1930”. I have since been unable to duplicate the phenomenon, and I don’t remember which text fragment I was looking at.
#5 by Luke Blanchard on June 15, 2013 - 11:36 pm
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In Arthur B. Reeve’s novel THE FILM MYSTERY (1921) the vamp parts an actress specialises in are called both ‘vamp’ and ‘vampire’ roles. ‘Vamp’ is also used as a verb.
To judge by the advertising images I could find, the Spanish titles of GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 and GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937 dropped the ‘de’. I found advertisements for the former as VAMPIRESAS 1935 and VAMPIRESAS 1936.
#6 by Luke Blanchard on June 16, 2013 - 12:31 am
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Apparently there had also been a Spanish stage musical comedy called VAMPIRESAS 1940. Spanish Wikipedia has a page on its librettist, José Muñoz Román.