Jess Francos Forgotten Films

On paper, Jess Franco is one of the most prolific directors who ever picked up a camera. He's shot over a hundred films under various pseudonyms, worked around the world, collaborated with Orson Welles and even picked up a Goya Award, Spain's highest artistic honor, in 2009. But it's the kind of films Franco made that has relegated him to the sidelines when it comes to critical recognition. After all, 50% of his work is made up of soft-focus shots of women's genitalia (the other half is unforced zoom-ins of the the same...I kid!). To most serious cineastes, he's a hack. But to a select few, those with the courage to sift through the dreck and go with the flow of counter-culture headtrips like Venus in Furs, Franco catalog offers a world of obscenely forbidden pleasures.

What makes Dorado Films latest release - a double feature presentation of The Silence of the Tomb (1972) and The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff (1973) - so interesting is they catch the director in a rare period of mainstream ideas and execution. In fact, both are tame even by TV standards of the time, with only a brief flash of nudity and a few drops of blood. Yet it's exciting to see Franco work within the confines of such formulaic fare, if only to see if he's up to the challenge.

The Silence of the Tomb is only one pair of black gloves away from falling into a traditional giallo category. An unlikable group of celebrities and hangers-on get together at the isolated island estate of a self-obsessed movie star, Annette, and her mentally unstable sister, Valerie, whose been serving as a substitute mother for Annette's son. But when the boy is kidnapped and held for ransom, it's obvious one of the party guests is responsible...but whom? The list of suspects grows shorter as one murder after another whittles away the cast, leaving Valerie to question her loyalties and her sanity.

Lifting much of its plot (but leaving behind the style) of Mario Bava's Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970), which in turn was just another take on Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, Franco's film is populated with sluts and cads, all of whom have a motive. As a viewer, it's just a matter of trying to keep track of the clues and guess the surprise ending. In this case, Franco's originally scripted ending (included as an extra) was far more clever, but the film delivers a satisfying level of suspense, especially in the final act with some cool blue lighting and an unsettlingly discordant soundtrack. Actress Montserrat Prous is the film's ace-in-the-hole, with her Disney-wide eyes and hypnotically dreamy expression.

Her look is put to even better use in The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff, which finds her character, Melissa, caught between two step-relatives planning to have her committed and steal away her inheritance. Confined to a wheelchair, she is visited by Orloff (William Berger), a mysterious psychiatrist, with an agenda all his own: to use Melissa as a tool for revenge against the family that stole his true love. While under hypnotic suggestion, Melissa rises from her chair and viciously murders all those named on Orloff's hit list. With a perfect alibi - lacking the use of her legs - Melissa and Orloff work their way through the family...only to have a curious neighbor threaten to ruin the far-fetched plan.

At a brisk hour and 14 minutes, Orloff races through its sci-fi supernatural set-up, emulating the much more polished adventures of Vincent Price in the Dr. Phibes films. But Franco, whose camera can barely contain itself from peeking under nightgowns and leering down dresses, keeps the story together nicely. Once again, there's a curious lack of blood (ostensibly to keep things safe for future TV broadcasts), but his cast gives it their all, and the film barrels towards a just-in-the-nick-of-time conclusion that has echoes of Franco's early black-and-white gothic oeuvre.

Under the banner of Jess Franco's Forgotten Film, this Ultimate Edition (limited to 1500 copies) includes an exclusive booklet with essential writing from authors Franceso Cesari and Roberto Curti. A regular Collector's Edition has the same two feature films and extras including the aforementioned scripted ending to Tomb, plus trailers and a video chat with Robert Woods. The set is a win-win for Franco initiates and non-Franco fans alike, showcasing his dalliances in mainstream cinema while restoring in hi-def (from 4K elements in their correct aspect ratios) two obscure films from a director whose work is finally getting the attention mainstream critics claim it doesn't deserve.