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This is one of John Frankenheimer's breathless gems--all marvelousaction that never lets up. Burt Lancaster plays a French train engineer during the waning days of the German occupation who tries to prevent Nazi colonel Paul Scofield from transporting a precious art collection back to Germany. Utilizing sabotage and cunning deception, Lancaster and his Resistance colleagues stall for time with the Allies on their way. It's a brilliantly made film, showing off Lancaster's acrobatic skills (he performed all of his own stunts) and Frankenheimer's sense of pacing and brilliant use of space. It's choreographed with the utmost precision (those are real explosions during the pivotal strafing sequence) and extremely authentic in its details. Lancaster is in rare minimalist form, and Scofield manages to extract intelligence and sympathy. A firecracker action film shot in crisp black and white, with yet another telling audio commentary by the always instructive director. --Bill Desowitz ... Read more

Reviews (41)

One of the Best
An engrossing WELL-WRITTEN story (Hollywood, PLEASE take note), excellent cast, superb acting on the part of all the actors (not just the leads), painstaking staging and Frankenheimer's direction blending all these essential elements into a thoroughly enjoyable movie. What can you say about a rousing action movie that also makes you think? You can say it's rarely found in today's films. The primary quandry here is just what is the value of art in terms of the human lives that must be expended to preserve it? Is it truly a country's heritage or just oils on canvas for which the people who will have to die for it have little or no real appreciation? Is it worth saving because of its beauty or its value? And when does the cost of saving it become too high? The movie works on all levels, but the characters (and the actors portraying them) are exceptional. The stand-outs: Burt Lancaster, the yardmaster/resistance leader who really doesn't want to do this one last (and seemingly unimportant) job so close to the end of the war; Paul Scofield, the intense German colonel who loves (obsesses over) the art and is taking Lancaster's attempts to thwart his plans for it very personally; Wolfgang Preiss, the "good German officer" who does not agree with his superior but does his duty until he can do it no more; Jean Moreau, the pragmatic French hotel proprietress who has had to comfort one too many fellow widows and Michel Simon, the old engineer who fondly remembers dating a girl who posed for Renoir and decides to make this fight his own. No one who loves a good movie should miss this film. It's not just for action/war movie fans.

Underrated war actioner--art for whose sake?
_The Train_ has held up well since its release in 1965. Dismissed as an improbable shoot-em-up then, it tells a much richer story than the special-effects vehicles in the genre nowadays. Burt Lancaster isn't especially gallic as the Frenchman Labiche, but his acting talent and intensity soon steamroller any resistance the viewer may have. Paul Scofield is perfectly cast as a cultured monster, the Nazi colonel who is bent on spiriting the paintings away into Germany. One can easily picture him murdering hostages between sips of cognac.

Shot in black and white, the film is dark and greasy-looking. The screen is filled with churning railroad machinery much of the time, which dwarfs the people around it. The wheezing, snorting engines are also stars in this movie. Even the sky looks dirty in the daylight scenes. Oh yes, there's a sensational train wreck, too. Definitely less mindless than your average Rambo flick, but no less exciting.

The Train
Is a work of art worth a human life?
We are near the end of World War II. It's August 2, 1944, the "1511th day of German occupation" of Paris. German Colonel von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) enters a dark museum and turns a spotlight on a painting. He stares at it with the eyes of a lover beholding his best beloved. He turns another spotlight on another painting. The Hun is humanized, and we sympathize with his quiet passion.
It comes as a bit of a shock when he announces that he is taking the paintings, hundreds of Miros and Picassos and Matisses and others, with him when the Germans evacuate Paris. A resistance group, led by railroad worker Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster), is enlisted to stop them. Labiche initially refuses. It's one thing to blow up a train, dangerous enough - it's another to stop a train without damaging what's inside it. National heritage or not, men will die. There are more important targets than a train filled with art. Things change, though, and eventually Labiche and the remnants of his resistance group find themselves trying the impossible.
I've always been a little leery of Burt Lancaster. Maybe I was traumatized by viewing THE RAINMAKER or ELMER GANTRY at a young and impressionable age. He sometimes seems all horse teeth and braying charm and dis-tinct e-nunc-ee-a-shun. Not so here. In THE TRAIN he's restrained and natural and completely convincing. Scofield is equally strong as his brutal nemesis.
Sometimes the extras on a dvd aren't worth the bother, but I loved the director's commentary by the late John Frankenheimer. It was like taking a course in the art of film making.
Frankenheimer tells us he was trying to give the movie a realistic feel, which I understood before listening to the commentary track but didn't really understand how he went about it. One trick he used was to open the f-stop on the camera and keep everything in focus, something that would have been impossible if THE TRAIN wasn't shot in black and white. Everything is kept in focus and he keeps the background action busy and interesting.
Frankenheimer is an unabashed fan of Burt Lancaster, with whom he made five movies. Not only does Lancaster do all his own stunts in this one, including a dangerous backwards fall off of a moving train, he even fills in as a stunt double for another actor. The original stuntman made a fall off a roof look like an "olympic jump," and 'realism' was the keyword in this one. Lancaster did take a nice tumble off the tiles, but you've got to wonder about the wisdom of it all. Lancaster was injured during the filming of THE TRAIN; on his first day off in weeks he played a round of golf and twisted his knee when he stepped into a hole. His right knee swelled up 'like a basketball.' Frankenheimer shot Labiche in the leg halfway through the movie to explain the limp.
The only phony movie aspect to this movie is the dubbed voices of some of the French actors. You can't hide dubbing very well, and Frankenheimer doesn't have much to say about it. I wouldn't knock a star or even a half-star off because of it. This is a tremendously entertaining film.

Great movie.
There are an amazing amount of action films these days. Each one of them attempts to beat the last one's visual effects. And in this competition, hollywood has lost track of what makes a truly great action film... Skill. Most of the action films these days are entirely uncreative, and many of them are very, very boring. Who really want's to see a dozen tiles fall to the ground and break in slow motion, as films such as "the Matrix" use this technique constantly. But this film is different. It carries raw emotional power, and it's star, at age 50, did all of his own stunts, and even drove the locamotives that his character drives. This movie is awesome, and I highly recommend you buy this DvD. And by the way, this music track is a lot of fun to listen to when you're sick.

Perfect film on less- than- great DVD
The audio on the MGM DVD was lacking the full spectrum of audio, in my opinion. If you don't care so much about audio, it would be a 5 star DVD, but for those feeling that audio is an important factor, a star must be deducted. Bass and treble just weren't tweaked in DVD production which made the audio seem really flat, and I know that MGM could have produced a better job. It seems that a good number of the MGM DVDs lack the care and attention of producing consistently superior products.

The DVD gives the viewer options to listen to music only and has an option for director's comments during the film. I was at first dismayed because at the beginning of the movie, director John Frankenheimer just wouldn't open up. But he started sharing some interesting things as the movie progressed. There is also an 8- page booklet that gives some interesting production notes and history.

The video quality from, I think, an original film print is pristine. Frankenheimer's locations and times of filming were very effective in evoking a very dismal feeling as the European conflict was drawing to a conclusion. I love Frankenheimer's use of deep focus -- which is using wide angle lenses to have both near and far- away characters and scenes in focus -- to give a vision that many other filmmakers fail to incorporate effectively.

I'm glad that there was explanation in the film about why people were more concerned with paintings than people in a story that was loosely based on an actual event. Many westerners like Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) would not care about the value of crates of artwork in a time of war, but schooling by caretaker Miss Villard (Suzanne Flon) expressed the passion and pride that the French feel for such paintings. This helped explain why some would scarifice their lives to save the crates. (Ms. Flon, born in 1918 is apparently still alive and acting, too.)

It's quite a story of saving "priceless" paintings at the expense of one's life. It seems like a WWII action film (which has its share of blowing stuff up), but its story actually weighs the value of art against the value of life. Labiche from the very beginning of his introduction battles Col. von Waldheim (Paul Scolfield), who wants him to deliver the art to Germany AND The Resistance, who want the art protected from the Nazis. Labiche is actually alone in his own beliefs as an American, being tugged by both sides while ultimately struggling with making sense of the conflict over the art.

The movie is well- developed from Lancaster asking Frankenheimer to direct "The Train" after original director Arthur Penn abandoned the project a week after production. I only say that because everything that was directed by Frankenheimer was terrific. The choice of the players, scenery, editing, camera placement and post production yielded a perfect war film that wasn't simply about war. It was about the value of life and what people value in their lives.

Watch for the one scene of a runaway train's derailment -- one of a dozen cameras mounted to film the scene -- came within inches of being wiped out by the locomotive's wheels and the scene has become a classic in filmmaking history. ... Read more

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An appealing, free-floating lunacy fuels What's New Pussycat?,and there's enough of it bubbling around to carry the movie past its manydefects. The cast is like a collection of terribly attractive people stumblingover each other at a disorganized cocktail party--they aren't always witty, andsome of them are drunk, but there's enough going on to keep you distracted.Peter O'Toole plays a swinging London womanizer seeking help for his addiction,who makes the mistake of consulting one Dr. Fritz Fassbender (Peter Sellers), ademented psychoanalyst. Woody Allen made his movie debut here and wrote thescript (much altered, to Allen's chagrin, in the filmmaking process). This movieand Casino Royale--which also features Sellers, Allen, Ursula Andress,and a Burt Bacharach song--are overstuffed '60s artifacts, brimming with modchaos. Alas, neither film is as funny as it should be. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (24)

Typical sixties flick
Funniest movie ever made, besides Casino Royale and
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. I used it to write a grad psychology paper. Got an A. Everybody in the movie has a diagnosible mental illness. Ursula Andress (pictured on the cover) is a nymphomaniac. Peter Sellers (also on the cover) is bipolar. Peter O'Toole is Narcissistic. Capucine is Histronic Personality Disorder. Romy is Borderline Personality Disorder.
The wife is Bulemic (she is 300 pounds and wears a viking helmet with horns, chestplate and spear). Woody Allen is Dysthymic Personality Disorder. (We used to call this disorder Neurotic). There is also a pyromaniac. Funnier than Analyze This.

Old Cat
What's New Pussycat is a dubious start for the great Woody Allan, but it is an important film because after this disaster was released Woody vowed to never let anyone again direct a film he had written.What's New Pussycat starts off with a lot of promise.The animated titles with the song of the same name as the film sung by a young Tom Jones sets you up for a fun time.The opening scene with Peter Seller's as a mad psychiatrist fighting his Wagnarian wife is very funny.Then What's New Pussycat goes off the rails.Scenes of two drunks slurring their words and staggering around waking up the neighborhood are slow, boring and as unfunny as the real thing.Peter O Toole and Peter Sellers just go through the motions.The scenes with Woody Allan are good, but these moments don't really fit the film.What's New Pussycat goes about an hour too long.
Although the director clearly focusses his attention on madcap lunacy rather than the plot, it is interesting to wonder what Woody actually intended What's New Pussycat to be.The film as it stands is so different to anything else he worked on (disregarding Casino Royale, because his input on that was minimal).If he had directed this film I suspect scenes would have been tightened, the dialogue more realistically delivered, the slapstick would have been staggered and not overwhelm everything else, and Peter Sellers, if he had any respect for Woody as a first time director (which is doubtful), may have beem induced to really shine.Even so, I can't see What's New Pussycat being among his best work, but it would be a lot less boring than what it is now.
Although I have panned this film I gave it two stars because some scenes are genuinely good and it is of historic significance.

Yes, a forty-year old movie blah, blah, blah
I love reading reviews by my God and Goddess-like contemporaries. It's so easy to pass judgement on distant bits of culture from our high and holy PC Olympus! I imagine if the Puritans had had the opportunity to write movie reviews they'd have had about the same tone.

Back in the Sixties (which, oddly, had a history other than that involving Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and Feminism) folks were shaking themselves loose of the straightjacket that had been on them since, at least, the Great Depression, at most, the 13th Century. People wanted fun, color, and wackiness, and they enjoyed getting it. Why else would big no-nonsense film companies interested in profits sink dough into plotless wonders like this film and, say, Casino Royale?

This is kind of a fascist age. Folks of all political stripes are into no-compromise black and white ethics. Everyone's got an opinion. Everyone knows what's right for you. A movie like this is just great for those of us who find all this SERIOUSNESS tiresome, just as it was great for our kindred sisters and brothers back in the Sixties who were sick of their parents lecturing them (Nowadays it's our kids that sound like our dopey tight-[censored] parents--how did we let that happen?). There's no relevancy here, no addressing of pressing social issues--it's just mindless incorrect stupid fun. Buy it and hide it before the young'uns get around to burning it. Watch it while half-listening for the sound of jack boots on the front porch.

this is my fave of all time
One has to enter into the spirit of the thing: this is a B-movie and doesn't aspire to be anything else.I love the ambiance, the actors, and many of the quirky lines.One of the reviewers said that beautiful women were throwing themselves at Allen, Sellers, and O'Toole, but it's really only O'Toole (it may be the only film where Allen is rejected as much as he would be in real life were he not rich and famous).I admit that as a feminist I have to suspend certain principles, but it's too fun not to love it regardless.My favorite line is the stupidly charming "You are a monster and a monster in that order" by the long-haired psychoanalyst played by Sellers.This is the only movie where Sellers doesn't annoy me to death and is more and more the only one in which I can watch Woody Allen without wanting to strangle him.Not Romy Schneider's best work but always fascinating to look at.

The Ridiculous and the Sublime
Maybe sublime is too strong a word. This is one mess of a movie. It's like a nerdy kid trying desperately to be cool. Most of the jokes are unbelievably juvenile and even lame, and it's often obvious many of the cast members realized they were in a piece of crap and decided to at least enjoy themselves-- which actually helps.

That said, there are moments (and I mean moments) that make it worth watching. Paula Prentiss steals the show from everyone, there are some laugh-out-loud lines in the picture and some of Peter O'Toole's reactions are priceless. Another good scene is the one Peter Sellers and Woody Allen share. Finally, there may even be one emblematic shot in it too, during the getaway at the end of the picture.

What's new Pussycat is endearingly goofy and AWFUL, but I'm looking forward to it coming out on DVD. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

A restrained treat
Of course this film is not explicit by current standards- it was released in 1968. If blatant expliciteness is what you want, you're looking at entirely the wrong decade. I still find this to be a most erotic movie. Romina Power is really very cute. The scenes of her chained and naked have given me quite a lot of pleasure. Depending on who you believe, she was either 16, 17 or 18 when this film was made. Whatever her age, in this film she had the most delightfully pert and un-enhanced late teen breasts. I've not seen a pair like it in real life or the media for ages. Ah, the memories! Nice close-ups of her bare feet, too.

Pretty Poor
If you are expecting an S&M feast, you will be dissapointed. I fast forwarded through most of this movie. Granted the lead actress is very atractive, but the "good" scenes are shrowded in this annoying green and red light. not worth it to be honest.

Mildly erotic tale, semi-explicit for the times.
This tale, like Eugenie, Her Journey Into Perversion, isn't bad, and fairly explicit, for the late 60's, but is still pretty tame, by today's standards. Has a weird appearance by Jack Palance, as a mad monk, or something. Also, a limited appearance by the late Klaus Kinski. Limited nudity and sex, but hey, what can one expect-it's fairly low budget. There are interviews and other features for the "technically" minded. Worth a look, but not worth the price I paid for it, or the other one-Eugenie. Minimal relation to the works of De Sade; which they, both, are supposed to be based on.

Fast forward review
For sex sleaze fans, any more sleaze on the DVD than on the tape? Nope, sorry, same scenes. The quality is very nice, so you'll never see the hankerchief-sniffing branding scene looking so good.

One thing I noticed in fast-forwarding through this awful thing (nice DVD advantage there), is that aside from the "M" scene there's really not much. The sixteen year-old Romina is stunningly cute, and you can clip the pictures of her hanging from a chain leaking poor quality Franco fake blood and doing a "Pretty Baby" couch turn, but the green and red lighting is actually not very erotic.

Most other sexploitation flicks have a lot more graphic nastiness, but the branding scene is a must, there's no question about that. One star for that, and one star for brief lolita Romina nudity, that's it.

Fun seeing Jack Palance soused --
As director Jesus Franco says in an accompanying interview, Jack Palance would start guzzling red wine at 7 in the morning the days his scenes were to be filmed, and BOY, can you tell it in the finished product! There are lots of pretty scenes, photography, costumes, people, etc., but it's mostly a bore. I recommend EUGENIE DE SADE for anyone dipping their toe into Franco .... ... Read more

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As the French New Wave was reaching its maturity and filmgoing had evolved as a favorite pastime of intellectuals and urban sophisticates, along came Jean-Luc Godard to shake up every convention and send highfalutin critics scrambling to their typewriters. 1965's Alphaville is a perfect example of Godard's willingness to disrupt expectation, combine genres, and comment on movies while making sociopolitical statements that inspired doctoral theses and left a majority of viewers mystified. Part science fiction and part hard-boiled detective yarn, Alphaville presents a futuristic scenario using the most modern and impersonal architecture that Godard could find in mid-'60s Paris. A haggard private eye (Eddie Constantine) is sent to an ultramodern city run by a master computer, where his mission is to locate and rescue a scientist who is trapped there. As the story unfolds on Godard's strictly low-budget terms, the movie tackles a variety of topics such as the dehumanizing effect of technology, willful suppression of personality, saturation of commercial products, and, of course, the constant recollection of previous films through Godard's carefully chosen images. For most people Alphaville, like many of the director's films, will prove utterly baffling. For those inclined to dig deeper into Godard's artistic intentions, the words of critic Andrew Sarris (quoted from an essay that accompanies the Criterion Collection DVD) will ring true: "To understand and appreciate Alphaville is to understand Godard, and vice versa." --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (39)

the greatest sci-fi film ever: not a special effect in sight
'Alphaville' is Jean-Luc Cinema Godard's 'The Wizard of Oz', the story of an American stranded in a strange fantasy city, who must find its controlling wizard before he can return home, evading forces sent to destroy him. Eddie Constantine reprises the role of Lemmy Caution that made him famous in 1950s France, as the roughneck FBI agent who fisticuffed, dame-bothered and slang-winked his way through a series of simple-minded thrillers. here he has become Special Agent 003, sent by his superiors in the Outlands to assassinate Professor Von Braun, the brains behind Alphaville, a futuristic city controlled by a philosophical computer, and which bears more than a passing resemblance to Gaullist Paris.

Alphaville is a classic dystopia, its minions brainwashed, dehumanised and branded; photographs of its leader on every available wall; the surveilling computer present in every room. dissidents are tortured or murdered in elaborate rituals (e.g. diving-board firing-squads in swimming pools before a gallery of socialites). Double-talk couched in the complexities of dialectic numb the brain; dictionaries are censored daily.

Much of the fun in Godard films of this period lies in their playfulness with familiar cinematic genres; and the trappings of the gangster and spy genres, the detective story and sci-fi adventure (brawls, shoot-outs, car-chases, interrogations, (literal) femmes fatales etc.) are made ridiculous by their slapstick treatment, comic exagerration and over-emphatic music. 'Alphaville' may be a pulp adventure, but the world Lemmy must negotiate is not one of genre, but of ideas, about reality, history, politics, freedom, love, poetry, dreams, the mind, logic, conformity, escape, all reverberating in an environment based on One Big Idea.

'Alphaville', like Chris Marker's similar 'La Jetee', is less a futuristic satire than a reflection of contemporary France (its dark and dense mise-en-scene like a negative photograph of the familiar city; with its extraordinary modern architecture reconfigured as a giant prison), with memories of the recent Nazi Occupation. But, as its name suggests, Alphaville is also the first (cinematic) city of post-modernity, where meaning and authority is decentred, where language ceases to have any shared value, where time ceases to exist, the past and future are abolished, and the mindless live in an eternal present, unable to learn from mistakes or hope for improvement, unable to acknowledge the value of culture. Lemmy seems to be set up as a very 'human' interloper, a repository of 'our' feelings and values in a culture that would seek to suppress them. But Godard called him a Martian', and he is a stranger to Alphaville, which, after all, is our world: he is a figure from pulp fiction , a risible set of signifiers who can only offer Natasha a choice between who gives her orders.

Most dystopias, like '1984' and 'Blade Runner', ultimately fail, because they are as cold and inhuman as the worlds they portray. 'Alphaville', especially in its visionary climactic half hour, shares more with Nabokov's novel 'Bend Sinister' - positing whimsy, idiosyncrasy, gags, Surrealism (Eluard, Bellmer), pop art, the absurd, the unexpected, the daft, the poetic, the aesthetic, the cinematic (especially Melville's 'Deux Hommes Dans Manhattan'), Anna Karina's gorgeous coats against the Brave New World.

But we shouldn't get too comfortable in this ''us vs. them', anti-totalitarian model: Professor Von Braun, with dark, impenetrable shades permenantly welded, is the clean-cut image of the director; he too forces Anna Karina (his daughter, Godard's wife) to perform for strangers and suppress her personality; he, like Godard, is the creator of Alphaville.

The Beauty of Individuality Exemplified
It is a rare thing to see a film that not only shows one what life is, but espouses a concrete vision of what life should be. Even more rare is a film which does this by situating characters in a world where one would not want to live thereby isolating the very essence of what makes on human. Godard's Alfaville not only accomplishes this feet but it creates an artistic embodiment of all that true individuality stands for. More potent than 1984 and just as beautiful as novels such as Atlas Shrugged, Alfaville shows one who is willing to watch and listen the true value and purpose of freedom and the ominous results when that freedom is removed from their lives. The music, cinematography and overall directing could only be done by an individual who's sense of life is majestic and bordering on, if not completely genius. This is not only great science fiction but it is art at its highest ideal, a work that makes me proud to be human.

a weird film and quite interesting
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This film which is one of several involving the character Lemmy Caution remains popular to this day as one of the few science fiction films with no special effects. It is a good view of a technocratic society an has elements which at the time seemed like fantasy but in our computer age seems more feasible.

The film also has a voice over that is really deep and raspy that sounds very interesting.

The DVD does not have any special features but still is a good one to buy.

The Eternal Theme of the Individual VS The State
It should not surprise anyone that a film from Jean-Luc Godard will invariably attract the usual assortment of Post-Modernist, ethically and politically retarded, anti-Western afficionados. Some of that can be seen in the reviews for this film, both on this page and throughout the Internet. The truth however, is that while Godard was a borderline socialist and critical of the supposed decadence of "America", he was more of a heroic individualist than anything else and his pre-1970 films all demonstrate this fact.

Alphavile is without a doubt, his greatest achievement and it is a work that speaks of an artistic sensibility all but lost in the France of today, which is overun with rampant anti-intellectualism and a worship of un-reason.

Godard takes the Bogart-like "Lemmy Caution" character out of his former slew of 40/50's French spy thrillers and puts the very same character into a future where a technocratic dictatorship exists. In doing so, the very best idealism of American pulp-fiction is given back its soul by a French director, Godard, who truly was interested in the world of ideas.

This film not only shows why a totalitarian state must be destroyed, it also demonstrates some key philosophical concepts in the process. Through Godard, we learn that it is language that first must be assaulted before one can enslave man, then mathematics, then history and finally, the human mind itself. We can see parallels to this line of thinking through the world today and yet, how ironic that it is today's France that probably best embodies Godard's nightmare come to life (for a Western democracy of course).

The cinematography of Alphaville is superb, as is the musical score by Paul Misraki which is one of the finest I have experienced, for it reaches its crescendo with the most important line in the film, almost as an answer to a question. The theme of Alphaville is simple enough - the Individual against the State, but the soul of Alphaville reaches higher to a level where Man is sanctified against all intrusions on his life, liberty and happiness.

Anna Karina plays the part of the Ideal Woman still capable of feeling and understanding the value of love and that immortal word that may still one day save humanity - "I". It is a rare thing to find a work of art that speaks so eloquently to the sublime beauty of Man, Humanity and Individualism. Godard does this and more in Alphaville and for that, he should go down in history as one of Europe's finest artists.

Note - One would need to watch this film about 3 times to completely grasp every important nuance. Also, Anthem and 1984 are good reads along the same vain.

An Analysis of Genre
As usual with Godard moments stand out. In this film the most absurd sequence involves a diving platform in what looks to be an eastern bloc recreational center and a number of black sweatered and bereted revolutionaries with sub-machine guns standing on the pool deck spraying the divers as they dive. Whats it all mean? Well I suppose you could say its Godards way of commenting on the wests ability to turn even political oppression into mass entertainment.

I like a number of Godard films: Breathless, My Life To Live, Contempt, Pierrot Le Fou, First Name: Carmen, Hail Mary, In Praise of Love --still Alphaville remains kind of a hard one for me to get into. Perhaps because I am not too keen on science fiction. It seems the people who like this film are the ones who like science fiction in general. To me science fiction is full of cliches and so is film noir and so to me it seems Godard is using these genres to address cultural cliches -- and yet he is also making pointed comments on modern culture as he does so. You can always count on a Godard film to be smart and even though its not one of my favorites Alphaville is no exception to that rule.

Anna Karina looks great as always. Unfortunately for Lemmy Caution she is the daughter of Alphaville's overlord. No one really believes the future will look like a parking garage nor that a super-computer will run our lives and that people will become vacant automatons. Only a handful of early twentieth-century authors thought the future was leading us toward Alphaville. In the context of the swinging sixties sci fi just looks campy and noir even campier. Whats going on in Godards head? Hard to say in this film. To me its funny, but a surprising amount of people seem to take this sci fi stuff seriously.

I think the new wave band of outsiders enjoyed genre hopping because it gave them a chance to flex their movie knowledge. Plus genres come loaded with rules which the new wavers can then subvert -- so that is the fun of Alphaville, subversion of genre and in this case its a double dose of subversion because Godards subverting two genres, sci fi and noir. I think its interesting to note that in both of these genres men and women relate in steretypical and fatalistic ways -- and the new wave was about being hyper-conscious of these film conventions. Perhaps what Godard is really saying is that in order to invent life anew we must break free of these conventions. This is of course something his characters often fail to do although in some films they try. ... Read more

Description

From one of the world’s most prolific horror filmmakers, Jess Franco, director of Vampyros Lesbos, Succubus, Shriek Show’s Killer Barbys, and many more! When a powerful industrialists’ (Telly Savalas) fashion model daughter (Caroline Munro) goes missing, Detective Sam Morgan (Christopher Mitchum) uncovers clues that lead him to the mad doctor’s (Helmut Berger) secret house of surgical horrors. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

jess franco's best movie.
Dr. Flamand (helmut berger) kidnaps beautiful women and cuts their faces off in experiments for his sister. His beautiful assitant (Brigitte Lahaie) helps abduct the women , one a fashion model played by genre favorite Caroline Munro. There is a descent amount of gore , not like the package plays it up to be. telly savalas has a small role. The extras are cool but the interviews go on forever and the still gallery is poorly set up.This is jess franco's best movie , but if you've seen anything else he directed that's not saying much.

Sexy European women plus gore; how can you lose?
I'm surprised that Faceless isn't more well-known, considering it's a strong entry in the Euro trash-horror sweepstakes. Before viewing, I thought it was a remake of the influential French film Eyes Without a Face, but it's actually an original screenplay with parts that bring to mind Franju's movie and director Jess Franco's The Awful Dr. Orloff. This 1987 release was unusual for Franco in that he finally has a decent budget to work with, courtesy of producer/writer Rene Chateau.

The story revolves around the "Clinique des Mimosas," a medical buiness run by the twisted Dr. Flamand (Helmut Berger) and his lover Nathalie. Nathalie is played by French ex-porn star Brigitte Lahaie, whose nearly emotionless performance brings a "creepy nurse" quality to her role. The clinic specializes in...well..let's say a rather unorthodox kind of plastic surgery. The doctor and Nathalie keep track of their patients voyeur-style by watching them on a bank of six video monitors. Add to this an Igor-like assistant named Gordon with shaved eyebrows, and you've got all the ingredients for a chilling story.

Telly Savalas plays a rich businessman whose daughter Barbara, a model with a penchant for cocaine, turns up missing. Barbara is played by Caroline Munro, veteran of many sci-fi and horror films such as Starcrash, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and the gorehound clasic Maniac. She was even a "Bond girl" in The Spy Who Loved Me! Private investigator Sam Morgan (Chris Mitchum, Robert's son) is hired to search for Barbara and finds a trail that eventually leads him to the clinic.

The world of Faceless is filled with glossy, reflective surfaces and an atmosphere of rich decadence. There seems to be a subtle commentary on wealth, superficial beauty and the ugliness beneath the surface (and behind closed doors), but I may be overanalyzing a bit. At any rate, you do get a stylish, gory film with some weird erotic moments. The locations are effective: the doctor's luxurious, wood-paneled sitting room with expensive paintings on the walls, the neon-lit excess of Paris strip clubs at night, and the barren sterility of the real-life clinic building where most of the horrors take place. Franco fans will also appreciate Howard (Orloff) Vernon's appearance as a minor character named, of all things, Dr. Orloff!

I would have given Faceless 5 stars if it wasn't for the disappointing conclusion. In his interview, though, Chris Mitchum mentions some dialogue missing from the final version that would have changed the meaning of the ending completely. It's a minor drawback, however, considering how well the film delivers the goods throughout. The only other thing I disliked was the horrible George Michael-esque song that was repeated at least four times during the movie.

As usual, Shriek Show comes through with nice packaging and extras. The DVD cover is reversible, and the pamphlet inside has a lengthy interview with Caroline Munro complete with filmography. The disc's special features include interviews with Munro, Chris Mitchum and Jess Franco. The director also provides audio commentary along with Franco regular Lina Romay, who has a small part in Faceless as Dr. Orloff's wife. I would say this DVD is a worthwhile purchase for lovers of bizarre horror, and obviously a requirement for Franco fans. ... Read more

Description

Suffused with wry humor, Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob le Flambeur melds the toughness of American gangster films with Gallic sophistication to lay the roadmap for the French New Wave. As the neon is extinguished for another dawn, an aging gambler navigates the treacherous world of pimps, moneymen, and naïve associates while plotting one last score-the heist of the Deauville casino. This underworld comedy of manners possesses all the formal beauty, finesse and treacherous allure of green baize. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

A staggering, hugely influential, one-off.
If 'Bob le Flambeur' is known at all today it is as inspiration for the New Wave, with its cheap location shooting, its cinephilia (especially american) and its dismantling of genre. In this, it is perhaps even more successful than 'A Bout de Souffle' - despite Godard's best efforts, he is defeated by the charisma of his stars.

Melville called 'Bob' a 'comedy of manners', and it is much lighter in tone than his later, more famous gangster films. As the title suggests, it is Bob's gambling, rather than criminality, that is important - look at how the circle of the roulette wheel and horses shape the film's imagery and structure.

There is a tragic gangster plot, a heist, an Oedipal conflict, but they co-exist with the comedy, a dream modernism and a documentary evocation of 1950s Montmartre (its nightclubs, neon lights and cacophony of sounds (three years before 'Touch of Evil')) and Deauville (its casinos and beaches). This is the sort of movie that will spend ten minutes on a man playing cards, and one on the heist he has spent the whole movie organising.

interesting piece of film history
Warning: this is NOT an action movie. You will be disappointed if you're expecting to see a lot of details surrounding the planning and execution of a major heist. Get Rififi if that's what you want.

'Bob' is stylish, leisurely paced, and NOT a caper flick (or barely qualifies as one). The film is not about a heist, it is about Mr. Bob and his all-consuming passion for gambling. Gambling is his sustenance, his downfall, and his savior. Women only seem to bring trouble (except for Yvonne, the cafe owner). How he acts and thinks, his values and judgments, are part of the old world of gangster-gentlemen which doesn't exist any more. It is, like many French films, a study in character, and what an interesting character it is!

Add it to your collection
This, of course, is a great movie and the DVD also has a really interesting interview with Daniel Clauchy, the actor who plays Paulo, talking about the experience of making this film and working with Melville. Also, an interesting interview with Melville excerpted in the DVD booklet. Not to be a brat, but it's worth nothing that, although one of the other reviewers writes the budget for this film was 10X that of other films of the time, it is actually the opposite--Melville shot this for about 18 million (old) francs, about a tenth of what other feature films cost at that time. He used his own script, unknown actors--famously discovering 15 yr old Isabelle Corey walking down the street--and only a small crew, cutting as many costs as possible. The film, however, looks big budget--gorgeous shots of Montmartre, Pigalle, and Parisian nightlife and a beautifully slick, noir style. Isabelle Corey is wonderful, but also see Guy Decomble from 400 Blows as the police inspector.

It's just a great movie: it's meticulously crafted, there's nothing falsely intellectual about it, and it's interesting to see how much influence this has had on all the heist films that have followed.

See This!
Most people reading the reviews I assume already know of the movie and are thinking about buying it because they can't find it or because they've seen it and like it. For those who haven't seen it...do.

It's said filmmaker Melville is sort of a grandfather of the French New Wave. But BOB LE FLAMBEUR is more entertaining today than anything Godard or Truffaut ever made. This flick isn't just an exercise in style; sure, it has plenty of that, but it also has a great cast of characters, a good plot, and is just plain fun. In other words, this film isn't a mood movie. It's the real deal.

Have fun dropping the title into conversation. Do it slyly and, when someone says they've never seen it or heard of it, act offended. And make sure you say the title with a thick French accent. It's fun! I'm kidding, of course (or am I?). But this is a really good movie!

Not so good
Wonderful to look at with nice shots of Montmatre at night and a good opening during a Paris dawn. Also, the "bad" girl Anne is worth looking at twice.
But the story is full of holes and bad editing especially in the last 15 minutes. And this is to the detriment of the film in such a way as to render the film no more than a stylish exercise as opposed to a true heist film or noir classic.
If your intent is to look at pioneering film of the French New Wave or to see how the French appreciate Hollywood film noir, then by all means RENT it.
But if you want to see a wonderfully realized French heist movie of the same period with a true understanding of noir, then find yourself a copy of Jules Dassin's RIFIFI, which is a far superior movie. ... Read more

Description

The most terrifying zombie massacre ever to come to the screen! In a small lakeside town in the French countryside, young women are disappearing without a trace. The superstitious locals blame "The Lake of Ghosts," but the town's mayor (Howard Vernon) seems reluctant, or powerless, to take any action. When another girl is found with her throat ripped out, a Paris reporter begins to uncover the deadly secrets of the lake and the dead, green-faced Nazis who are aroused to action! ... Read more

Reviews (23)

Scared the Living Hebby Jeebys Outta Me!
This movie has honestly got to be one of the most horrifying, gruesome movies of all time. Despite what other reviewers may say about this movie, it is very graphic and very scary. The so-called fake make-up that the zombie's wear looked like real skin coming off and that gave me the jitters all over! What I think had me staying up all night with my teddy bear and night light on was seeing the zombies come out and take the girls in the lake and then even showing underwater shots of their lake that was obviously filmed in a spooky dooky 4 ft. deep pool!! I truly don't see how anyone couldn't have enjoyed this film because it really makes your heart skip a few beats and then some. If you want a terrifying zombie film with the most realistic-looking zombies and an amazingly intricate and well-developed plot, look no further. This movie will leave you scarred with a phobia for lakes and swamps for as long as you live as it has done to me!

most erotic zombie film
Leave it to Jean Rollin to make quality erotic/horror pictures. He's previously graced us with such films as "Lips of Blood" and "Grapes of death", but "Zombie Lake" even surpasses those monumental achievements. The film commences with a sexy lady removing her clothing, then he give a close-up view of her privat parts(score!). There is a story, but who cares because in no-time a bus load of girls, take of their cloths off and hit the lake. This is where Rollins' genius comes into play, when He brings us underwater to see between the chicks legs! All in All great film, but be sure to bring some tissues to clean up after!

Zombie Lake is quite entertaining...
The video box reads... "The Most Terrifying Zombie Massacre Ever To Come To The Screen". In truth, it is quite possibly "The Worse Zombie Massacre to Ever Come to Any Screen". I am a fan of laughably bad "B" Cinema, and enjoyed this very much. No one should take it seriously. Its no Dawn Of The Dead and will never be. Its a peice of eurotrash Cinema about Nazi Zombies who emerge from a lake wearing horribly done green makeup, and feed on bare breasted beauties who dare to swim in said lake. So, basically... the whole movie is an excuse for gratutious nudity and zombie carnage. I love it! If you want a new peice of cheese you can laugh at and add to your collection, pick this one up.

A different kind of Zombie film
As a fan of Italian horror/zombie movies, I wasn't sure what to make of this French release when ordering it. The price was right however so I decided to give it a try. While not the worst film I have ever seen, it was completely different from Italian Zombie flicks. The violence is toned way down. Even when someone is killed there is a limited amount of blood. There are other noticeable things about the movie that only took me one viewing to notice such as: the underwater scenes of the zombies were obviously filmed in a pool (you can see the side wall in the background), the time line is way off as a former Nazi solider who died during the war could not have an eight-year-old daughter 35 years after World War II (this part really amazed me) and as mentioned by other reviewers, the makeup was poor (it would rub off when the zombies attacked someone).
That being said, it was different and it was worth the price ($9.99) although I'm glad I didn't spend $20 or more on it.
It was nice also to finally see a film by Jean Rollin, a director I have heard of but had never had the chance to see any of his works.
Don't expect anything along the lines of Italian cinema here and you won't be disappointed.

i can't believe i paid good money for this trash
if there was a way to rate this "no stars" or "negative stars" i would. however, one is the lowest i can use. i suppose READING the reviews here rather than looking at only the stars would have given me a clue that, while in the mood for a good zombie movie and getting the living tar scared out of me, i purchased a comedy.
if you want to be scared....RUN...AWAY from this movie. find something else like "the sound of music" or "europa, europa"...the nazis in these films are more scary than the ones in "zombie lake". ... Read more

Description

Jane Fonda plays the bored wife of an ambitious and cynical industrialist who ends up falling in love with her stepson in Roger Vadim's tragic and passionate story. DVD features:filmographies, weblinks, subtitle control. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An adult French farce from Jane Fonda and Roger Vadim
Although it is set in modern Paris, "The Game Is Over" is actually based on Emile Zola's novel "La Curee." This 1966 film was directed and produced by Roger Vadim for his wife, Jane Fonda. The film is the old story about a woman, Renee (Fonda), who marries an older man, Alexandre Sacaard (Michael Piccoli), but falls for his sexy young son Maxime (Peter McEnergy). By setting Zola's story in modern Paris, Vadim is obviously out to explore the morality of the rich in France. The film was a smash in Europe but a failure in the United States, although critics on both sides of the Atlantic tended to like it as an example of adult farce (although Judith Christ put it at the top of her list of "Perfectly Marvelous Awful Movies to Eat Chocolates and Play Russ Columbo Records By"). However, while this film certainly starts off as something of a farce, Vadim turns it into more of a gothic horror movie at the end. Any visions you have of Fonda swimming nude in a goldfish pond are going to be replaced by nightmares involving German police dogs. On balance, this might be the best of the Vadim-Fonda efforts... ... Read more

Description

The Fully Restored Never-Before-Seen European Version!

Christopher Lee gives one of his most unforgettable performances as Judge George Jeffreys, the infamous 17th Century witchfinder whose unholy obsession with a luscious wench (Maria Rohm of THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU) fuels a jaw-dropping spree of torture, brutality and flesh-ripping perversion. Howard Vernon (SUCCUBUS), Margaret Lee (EUGENIE), Maria Schell (99 WOMEN) and Oscar® nominee Leo Genn (QUO VADIS) co-star in this landmark epic of sexual violence and sadism, complete with a superb score by Bruno Nicolai (JUSTINE) and directed with spectacularly deviant glee by the one and only Jess Franco.

Blue Underground is proud to present the most complete and uncensored version of THE BLOODY JUDGE ever released, painstakingly restored from various European vault elements and now including such never-before-seen sequences as Maria Rohm’s forced-lesbian jailhouse encounter as well as additional nudity, bloodshed and what Christopher Lee himself calls "scenes of extraordinary depravity!"

EXTRAS INCLUDE:
* Bloody Jess – Interviews with Director Jess Franco and Star Christopher Lee
* Deleted Scenes
* Alternative Scenes
* Theatrical Trailers
* TV Spot
* Poster & Still Galleries
* Talent Bios ... Read more

Amazon.com

Va-va-voomish Janine Reynaud (Kiss Me Monster) plays Lorna, the star of an underground nightclub's Grand Guignol theater who harbors a dark, haunting secret. She performs elaborate S/M fantasies nightly with a bound naked couple before she pretends to kill them, but she's losing her grip on reality. Dreams, flashbacks, and erotic fantasies blur with her waking world and pretty soon she's murdering her sexual partners for real... or is she? The answer may have something to do with a furtive stranger on the fringes of her consciousness and a plot to drive her insane, but it's hard to tell for sure. Sexploitation master Jess Franco creates an alienated but gorgeous vision of the decadent grotesque-chic world of European high society with oblique camera angles, distorted images, and disorienting editing, turning a kinky erotic thriller into a heady (if abstract) psychological fantasy. If it's ultimately too obscure to make sense, it's nonetheless an ambitious, intoxicatingly dreamy piece of Eurotrash cinema. German leading men Howard Vernon and Adrian Hoven lend their aristocratic bearings in costarring roles. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Description

Take a tantalizing tour around the world through the bedrooms of history! Shot in exotic locales with a stunningly beautiful and sexy international cast, Virgin Report is one of the finest and wildest of the successful "Sex Report" films made in Europe during the 1970s. Experience the expression of love from the age of gods and demons to our own modern era, with stops along the way to peer at medieval convents, exotic wedding night rituals, adolescent experimentation, and much, much more! Featuring the luscious Britt Nichols (Tombs of the Blind Dead), Christina von Blanc (A Virgin among the Living Dead), Eva Garden (Swinging Wives), and horror favorite Howard Vernon (The Awful Dr. Orlof), this delicious dish of delights rips away the chaste clothing of civilized society to expose the naked, unbridled truth of love and lust! From fearless cult director Jess Franco, the man who brought you Vampyros Lesbos, Count Dracula, Barbed Wire Dolls, The Bloody Judge and Venus in Furs. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Fritz Lang's all-but-unseen final film, a low-budget German thriller that resurrects (sort of) his legendary underworld genius Dr. Mabuse, is a flashback to Lang's early days of criminal conspiracies and wild, fast-paced adventures. A relentless police inspector (Gert Goldfinger Fröbe) targets the Nazi-built Hotel Luxor as the central connection in over a dozen murders and camps out in the lobby. Upstairs an American industrialist (played by the very German Peter Van Eyck) rescues a suicidal woman (Dawn Addams) from the ledge and falls in love, while in the basement a mysterious, club-footed character watches everything on an elaborate closed-circuit surveillance system. Rounding out the cast of shady characters are a jovial but nosy insurance salesman, a creepy blind psychic, and a particularly menacing Howard Vernon as an icy assassin with a silent rifle. The complicated, at times confusing plot is secondary to the web of blackmail, murder, secret identities, and incessant surveillance at the center of the conspiracy: everyone is spying on somebody and almost no one is as he or she seems. The generic sets and frankly cheep special effects are made up for with ingenious cinematic signatures (the opening assassination is a model of cool simplicity and striking suggestion), dark humor, a rich cast of vivid characters, and a driving pace that sends the film hurtling headlong toward a fatal climax. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (6)

The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse - DVD MAJOR GLITCHES
There are two major glitches in this DVD. At the end of chapter 8 and again in chapter 25 at the 2:30 mark, two different video sequences cut in: One is a color soccer instructional, and the other a Japanese (I think) dubbed B&W film. How could such a thing get past the mastering phase??

Otherwise, this is a great film, wonderfully presented with all the extras listed in these other reviews. But these glitches make it unacceptable. I hope the same problems don't pop up in Vol. 2 of the series!

Last Fritz Lang "Mabuse" film is a Treasure!
This disk is one of my favorites. Although not quite up to the standards of it's two predecessors, the Third Dr. Mabuse film (and the last directed by Lang himself) is wonderful and more than worth the purchase price.

David Kalat's extraordinary commentary is easily THE BEST I have ever heard (and I've heard quite a few.) He strikes the perfect balance between knowledge and wit - the narration is informative without being dry or condescending and, indeed, is quite lively at times. His delivery style is remarkably excellent throughout and is a major reason I consider the disk to be one of my most valued.

Two tiny quibbles, stuff so small as to bother only me: The English Language captioning, written for the German audio track, is a little disorienting when viewed in connection with the English language track. Most of this has to do with the demands of lip-synchronization between two languages. Still, and despite the additional cost it might have created, two independent sets of captions would have been appreciated - one for each of the different languages. This would be a welcome addition for a hearing impared viewer.

The other minor quibble is that the documentary really needed captioning, much more so than the feature owing to the heavy accented speech.

All told, though, this is absolutely a remarkable film and a remarkable, and very treasured disk. AllDay Entertainment is releasing some extraordinary stuff, and deserve kudos and, above all, purchases!

One of a kind movie
A truly unique movie that was way ahead of its time in exploring the theme of the loss of privacy in the modern world. The kind of movie that shows you don't need a big budget or amazing special effects to create a truly outstanding sci-fi film.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
Last movie of german-american director Fritz Lang, 1000 EYES OF DR MABUSE must not be neglected even if one can prefer M, FURY or MOONFLEET in the royal filmography of this Master. Personally, I confess that I'm very fond of this movie, maybe not for the right reasons. 1000 EYES OF DR MABUSE is one of these movies I've discovered a sunday afternoon on TV when I was twelve or thirteen years old. And even now, I can remember the nightmares generated by the blind medium or the multiple hidden rooms of The Luxor Hotel. To be short, I've bought the DVD right after its release.

As bonus features, you will have the choice between the subtitled german version or an english dubbed version, a very interesting commentary of the producer of the DVD who is a Dr Mabuse specialist (12 Dr Mabuse movies have been produced until now !). And last but not least, you will discover a featurette presenting interviews of Fritz Lang's specialists including Forrest Ackerman.

Naturally, there are a lot of other good reasons to put this DVD on the shelves of your library but, if you have stopped at this peculiar page of Amazon, you surely already know that Fritz Lang's 1000 EYES OF DR MABUSE is a valuable addition to any movie lover's collection. So, have fun with the mad doc.

A DVD for the child in you.

a nightmarish alegory of the modern society; a masterpiece
The Mabuse films by Fritz Lang are not just "cop-and-thieves" thrillers: of course they are quite enjoyable as a thriller-suspence crime movies, but for those with the eyes to see, Mabuse is really a metaphore of power and its functions in a modern society. Already in 1922, when Lang made the first Mabuse films (DOCTOR MABUSE in two parts; a new restored DVD of this film is now in preparation), he foresaw not only the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, but also a society under control (or hypnosis) by the medias and informations sirculating on them. Lang's last entry to the series, THE 1000 EYES OF DR.MABUSE, is a nightmarish alegory of the post-war modern society. The Luxor Hotel where the story mainly takes place is a buiding made by the Nazis and has a secret camera system ovserving every single thing that happens in it. The idea that we are all observed by those who are in power has now, as you see around yourself, became our own reality. Many contemporary filmmakers, such as Wim Wenders with his END OF THE VIOLENCE, try to portray the same idea, but none of them are as efficient as Lang, inspite of the low budget Lang was allowed to spend, and the classic cliche framework (involving a psychic clairvoyant and an American millionaire hero). It's a masterpiece, in the sense that it is really an oeuvre of the master. The new digital transfer from original 35mm elements is almost flawless and displays Langs lucid vision of the world in a stunning manner. In the bonus featurettes, people who knew Lang in his last years talks about him, and is also quite interesting. One problem, though: the featurette tells us the name of those people but most of them we don't know who they are. I am also looking forward for the release of THE TESTAMENT OF DR.MABUSE (the 1932 original) on a DVD that looks as good as this one. ... Read more

Description

Dr. 'Z' creates a mind control machine.Rejected by the medical establishment as mad, he suffers a fatal heart attack.His daughter decides to take revenge on the men who did down her dad.Using his devious device, she brainwashes a sexy go-go dancer and turns her into a deadly killing machine.First she seduces her victims … then she dispatches them with her poison-tipped fingernails. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Mondo Macabro needs to release more exotic titles
I have never been a huge Franco fan but his earlier work like this is by far his strongest. The best qualities of Franco's films are always atomosphere and this one is on the mark mixing 60s sleaze with themes from 30s style Bela Lugosi serials like Phantom Creeps. My favorite as with all the Mondo Macabro releases is the docu this time about Franco. The only complaint I have is more of a request really. After reading the book Mondo Macabro I was expecting for them to release horror and cult films from more exotic and third world countries. Yet most of their releases have been from Europe and the US. I have nothing against domestic terror films but these days it seems as though every DVD company is releasing Franco, Fulci, HG Lewis. I am still waiting for the Hindu horror films of the Ramsey Brothers, or the cheesy Turkish and Indonesian flicks from the 70s, Midnight Song the 30s Chinese Phantom of the Opera, Pakistani gore fest like Balaa the Witch. These are the undiscovered gold mines wich are in desperate demand for the jaded horror fan.

Possible Franco's best 1960s Gothic
The Diabolical Dr Z is one of director Jess Franco's best 1960s Gothics. The film oozes atmosphere and features some lush black-and-white photography, together with threatening shots of darkened corridors (in a prison, in the doctor's mansion, on a train) which feature prominently in Franco's early work (The Awful Dr Orloff, The Sadistic Baron von Klaus) and in many 1950s/1960s horror movies (for example, Riccardo Freda's The Horrible Dr Hitchcock); psychoanalysts would probably explain these shots by relating the use of this type of mise-en-scène to the concept of the 'spider woman' (or the 'monstrous feminine'), which is a central concern of this film and of the films of Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava. Knowing that Franco often borrows ideas from Surrealism, however, it may be self-defeating to try to find this type of 'meaning' in his films: in his 1960s pictures, Franco simply delights in covering the intertextual quotation that takes place in his films with lashings of Gothic atmosphere. Franco's films are an exploration of excess, and could be likened to onions: once one layer of 'meaning' has been peeled away, the viewer is left with an indeterminate number of other layers.

The Diabolical Dr Z also highlights Franco's anti-idealism: most of the characters in this film are simply out for revenge, or are seeking to further their careers, and think nothing of trampling on the people in their path. This theme would become more prominent in later Franco films, which expressed it through the metaphor of vampirism (The Female Vampire), the motif of the 'witchhunt' (The Bloody Judge) and the conventions of the Women in Prison film. With hindsight, Franco would have been the ideal candidate to film an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho.

The Diabolical Dr Z will probably not appeal to those whose interest in horror begins and ends with 'ironic' horror films such as Scream; as with the work of Mario Bava and Terence Fisher, although there is a large amount of intentional humour in Dr Z (via some very witty dialogue, particularly the comments made by Franco-in a cameo as a policeman-in the final scene), modern audiences may poke fun at its predominantly sombre tone, and will probably be alienated by both the use of black-and-white photography and Daniel White's atonal jazz score. This is a shame, because for me, Franco's 1960s films (together with some of his 1970s pictures, such as Exorcism and The Demons) represent some of the highlights of the horror genre.

Sharp fingernailed Miss Death will haunt you...
For those of you who know Franco for his late 60's/early 70's amateurish horrotica/eurosleaze flicks, this will come as one big surprise.
The cinematography on "Le Diabolique Docteur Z" is as lavish and gorgeous as if it had been directed by one Mario Bava (and god knows how much I admire the director of "Whip & The Body"). The casting is good, especially the creepy Howard Vernon, the script is OK, the dialogs sometimes quite amusing (especially Franco's own character) but most of all the lightning, photography and direction are simply breathtaking.
Although I find some of Franco's later films thoroughly enjoyable (especially the splendidly surreal and jazzy "Venus In Furs" - among the best experimental erotic films of all time, screams for a DVD reissue! - more than the overrated "Vampyros Lesbos"), I can't help but regret that he didn't put as much love and care in his later projects - and some of them looked promising on paper - and especially that he didn't cast the spanish goddess Soledad Miranda in a similarly crafted film. "Diabolical Doctor Z" could very well be Franco's ultimate masterpiece, along with the aforementioned "Venus In Furs". I say "could" because I have "only" seen about 30 of his 180 odd entries and I am always ready to see some burried gem resurface some gloomy friday evening at the cinemathèque of Paris (I keep my fingers crossed...)
About this DVD reissue... The image and soundtrack (especially important in a Franco film as the score is as always simply beautiful) are crisp and the overall impression is that the guys at Mondo Macabro have done their job quite seriously. The bonus documentary is interesting but quite out of place on this DVD as most of the people interviewed keep on insisting on Franco's amateurish approach to making films which is nowhere apparent on the painstakingly-crafted "Dr Z". I also regret the lack of exerpts from the various films mentioned - I suppose they couldn't get the rights - as most of them are not available on DVD. But don't let that put you off - after all, you don't buy a DVD for its extra features, do you? - Dr Z is a masterpiece!

Franco's masterpiece
Definitely the greatest of Franco's earliest films and one that set his themes and obsessions for his entire career. Fantastic cinematography and great visuals all add up to an essential Euro sex horror movie. Miss death's spider stage show is one of the great scenes of the genre.
Watching this movie it's obvious why even Orson Welles chose Franco for a sidekick!
The DVD looks great, and comes with the subtitled french track as well as the US dub audio. For me, a movie as important, and a lot wilder, than Eyes Without a Face, for setting the tone for Euro-horror over the next 30 years! ... Read more

Description

Young, nubile, and virginal Justine (Romina Power, Tyrone Power's 18-year-old daughter) is cast out of a French orphanage and thrust into a depraved world of prostitution, predatory lesbians, a fugitive murderess (Mercedes McCambridge), bondage, branding, and one supremely sadistic monk (an outrageous performance by Jack Palance). It's a twisted tale of strange desires, perverse pleasures, and the ultimate corruption of innocence as told by the Marquis de Sade. One of the most lavish and bizarre erotic shockers ever made by the notorious Jess Franco, "Justine" is bursting with wanton nudity, sexual perversion, and an all-star cast including Akim Tamiroff (Touch of Evil), Maria Rohm (Venus in Furs), and Klaus Kinski (Nosferatu) as the Marquis de Sade. Originally released with over 30 minutes cut, this infamous film is presented here fully restored and completely uncensored for the first time! ... Read more

Reviews (11)

A restrained treat
Of course this film is not explicit by current standards- it was released in 1968. If blatant expliciteness is what you want, you're looking at entirely the wrong decade. I still find this to be a most erotic movie. Romina Power is really very cute. The scenes of her chained and naked have given me quite a lot of pleasure. Depending on who you believe, she was either 16, 17 or 18 when this film was made. Whatever her age, in this film she had the most delightfully pert and un-enhanced late teen breasts. I've not seen a pair like it in real life or the media for ages. Ah, the memories! Nice close-ups of her bare feet, too.

Pretty Poor
If you are expecting an S&M feast, you will be dissapointed. I fast forwarded through most of this movie. Granted the lead actress is very atractive, but the "good" scenes are shrowded in this annoying green and red light. not worth it to be honest.

Mildly erotic tale, semi-explicit for the times.
This tale, like Eugenie, Her Journey Into Perversion, isn't bad, and fairly explicit, for the late 60's, but is still pretty tame, by today's standards. Has a weird appearance by Jack Palance, as a mad monk, or something. Also, a limited appearance by the late Klaus Kinski. Limited nudity and sex, but hey, what can one expect-it's fairly low budget. There are interviews and other features for the "technically" minded. Worth a look, but not worth the price I paid for it, or the other one-Eugenie. Minimal relation to the works of De Sade; which they, both, are supposed to be based on.

Fast forward review
For sex sleaze fans, any more sleaze on the DVD than on the tape? Nope, sorry, same scenes. The quality is very nice, so you'll never see the hankerchief-sniffing branding scene looking so good.

One thing I noticed in fast-forwarding through this awful thing (nice DVD advantage there), is that aside from the "M" scene there's really not much. The sixteen year-old Romina is stunningly cute, and you can clip the pictures of her hanging from a chain leaking poor quality Franco fake blood and doing a "Pretty Baby" couch turn, but the green and red lighting is actually not very erotic.

Most other sexploitation flicks have a lot more graphic nastiness, but the branding scene is a must, there's no question about that. One star for that, and one star for brief lolita Romina nudity, that's it.

Fun seeing Jack Palance soused --
As director Jesus Franco says in an accompanying interview, Jack Palance would start guzzling red wine at 7 in the morning the days his scenes were to be filmed, and BOY, can you tell it in the finished product! There are lots of pretty scenes, photography, costumes, people, etc., but it's mostly a bore. I recommend EUGENIE DE SADE for anyone dipping their toe into Franco .... ... Read more