Jess Franco

[Fluffy Bastard]

Definitely a master whose work deserves a place at this site. His best-known films are without a doubt the Ilsa-trilogy (Ilsa -  tigress of Siberia, Ilsa - She-wolf of the SS and Ilsa, wicked warden). Those who were in their teens or early twenties in the mid-to-late seventies will surely remember them. Other titles: Virgin among the living dead, Lesbos vampyros, The awful dr. Orloff.

[chrysalis!]

franco only made ilsa - the wicked warden, the rest is someone else
but those movies suck balls....

id like to see the bloody judge thoug

[Scott]

I've only saw one Jess Franco film called Las Vampiras (1971). I liked this rather bizarre film and have wanted to see more Jess Franco and Jean Rollin films from that decade.

[The Burgomaster]

I have a Franco film titled EXORCISM, which is pretty bad.

[AlexB]

I've only seen Vampiros Lesbos in a German version, which, except for Soledad Miranda, doesn't have very much going for it. There is a lot of staring into space by various characters and painfully slow scenes.
That being said, Soledad Miranda does look mesmerising. And after she died, she came back to haunt Jess Franco in his dreams. That must count for something.

[Neville]

I've heard he managed to make a few good movies, but IMHO the man is a hack. Only seen Vampiros Lesbos and some bits and pieces from his other movies, and though they were pretty bad. Still, I have some curiosity on him. His IMDB profile shows like hundreds of movies.

[TheEvilDoctor]

He's the man that makes 3 movies out of a budget meant for 1

[Jay]

Like Roger Corman?

No wait...Roger Corman makes three movies out of the footage meant for one

[Chris K.]

In regards of Jess Franco being called a hack, I have to respectfully disagree. Am I a big Jess Franco fan? No, not really. But I am an admirer. Franco is mainly a genre filmmaker. However, most genre filmmakers tend to stick with the rules of the genre film. Franco does quite the opposite and may be the reason why genre film fans find it hard to take some of his films. That and Franco does show that he has a true affection for films and filmmaking, no matter how low-brow some of his films get.

A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD is pretty good in an artsy-supernatural horror film kind of way. However, it depends which version of this particular film you see: their is Franco's original cut which is available on Image Entertainment DVD, or their is the re-issue international version that has added footage of zombies shot by Jean Rollin. I do suggest the Image Entertainment version; it's better. I really liked DRACULA, PRISONER OF DR. FRANKENSTEIN when I saw it on the old Wizard Video tape under the horrible title THE SCREAMING DEAD (i.e., Image is planning on releasing this title on DVD, hopefully in it's original 2.35:1 Techniscope). THE GIRL FROM RIO, THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU, and THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU are typical Jess Franco "pop" films that realatively don't mean anythingnd are just meant to entertain. They are not bad films mind you, but semi-interesting for maybe one viewing. And yes, their are some really BAD Jess Franco films out there. I couldn't really get into FEMALE VAMPIRE as it relied too much on hard-core sex and less on story, which is a shame because it had some possibilities; EXORCISIM was the same and even worse.

If you want Jess Franco at his best, then I urge you all to seek out THE BLOODY JUDGE starring Christopher Lee as it is an interesting, if not very accurate, take on the story of Judge Jefferies. The film is available on DVD via Blue Underground only through their box set 'The Christopher Lee Collection', which also contains Franco's two films THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU and THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU plus CIRCUS OF FEAR (not a Jess Franco, but still a good film).

[Yaddo42]

I've seen his "Count Dracula" and one of the Fu Manchu films for sure. Parts of others as well but I'm not sure which. The first half of "Count Dracula" was at least more faithful to the original novel in some respects (the Count being an old man early on), and had an impressive cast (Klaus Kinski, Herbert Lom) but was so confusingly shot and poorly lighted that it felt more like someone's home movie than a real motion picture. Other the fact that Renfield is in the novel I couldn't figure out why the whole asylum next door subplot was in this version. Those scenes seemed unconnected to the main film. He obviously cut the trips across Europe for budget reasons, but the ending seemed more like soething thought up because they could afford any more film stock.

I've read that Christopher Lee considers Franco an underappreciated director who has never been given the budget or resources he needed to prove himself. Lee even still mentions Franco's Dracula film as one of his favorite roles as opposed to the version from the Hammer films.

I would like to see more of Franco's films to compare, his stuff reminds me of the Paul Naschy stuff I've seen. I really want to see his Dr. Mabuse film even though it has no real relation to the others, just for completion sake.