Aubrey's Jess Franco Marathon

010 The Diabolical Dr. Z aka Miss Muerte (1966)


Mabel Karr
Estella Blain
Fernando Montes
Howard Vernon
Jess Franco

Dr Z[immer]'s presentation of his proposed method of reforming criminals by means of an injection to the “bad” part of the brain is roundly condemned at a medical conference, and with such vehemence that he suffers a heart attack and dies. What Zimmer does not say is that has already tried out the serum on the murderer Hans Bergen - “The Hillside Strangler” - who, having escaped from prison in the opening scene, has had the bad luck to find himself at Zimmer's house just as the doctor was discussing with his daughter Irma where he could find a human subject to work on.

After the conference Irma vows revenge on the three doctors she considers to be most responsible for her father's death, and to this end she fakes her own death (killing a hitch-hiker who looks a bit like her before burning her body in her car) and then kidnaps Nadia, a nightclub dancer known as Miss Death, and uses the serum on her. The doctors start turning up dead, with wounds made as by some wild animal.

Meanwhile, Tanner of the Yard (Jess Franco), helping out the French police while permanently worn out due to his wife just having had triplets, is on the case: all he needs is a good night's sleep – he's already worked out that it couldn't be an animal, because what animal wears poison nail varnish? At the same time Nadia's boyfriend is carrying out his own investigation.

I felt a bit cheated by this one. Everything I'd seen about it made a great play of Miss Death's outfit, an amazing spider costume – it's even on the back of the Thrower book – but in the end she only wears it during the scene of her nightclub act, and for a short while later on, as she's being chased around a empty theatre by Irma and the murderer, who is under her power;for the rest of the murders she dresses elegantly, but normally. But it is a good one all the same: well made, with some beautiful images, a good fight scene, and a few comic scenes from Jess.


Miss Muerte (Estella Blain):



Operating on a murderer:



Dr Vicas (Howard Vernon) berates Dr Zimmer:



Irma operates on herself, after getting burnt while disposing of the body of the hitch-hiker:



Nadia is chased through an empty theatre:



Nadia throws Dr Vicas's corpse from the train:



Tanner of the Yard and his pipe smoking assistant discuss the discovery of "Irma's" body:



Nadia's boyfriend is trapped in Dr Z's fiendish apparatus (where is inspector Tanner?):



Oh, here: he got a good night's sleep at his mother's and was able to work the whole thing out, and not a moment too soon (his assistant never says a thing, just smokes his pipe: he is played by the great Yorkshireman Daniel White, who also did the excellent music):

Ok. All of them, though?

And I've just found another one, a version of treasure Island starring Katja Bienert.



*sigh*

Whatever it takes, Maris; at this rate I'll not finish before 4 years are up - and I've found I think it's three more of his since that last post.

Anyway:

011 Cartes sur table aka Attack of the Robots 1966



Eddie Constantine ... Al Pereira
Françoise Brion ... Lady Cecilia Addington Courtney
Fernando Rey ... Sir Percy
Sophie Hardy ... Cynthia Lewis
Alfredo Mayo ... Baxter

Another mind control one, and another mad scientist (Fernando Ray), this time with an army of living automata (the “Robots”), controlled by the fact of their having Zero type blood, and the pair of Harry Palmer glasses they have been given to wear; they carry out various assassinations on behalf of a mysterious “Upper Circle”. Desperate, the authorities call the famous agent Al Periera (“He liquidated Paul Vogel and his band” one says, in reference to the first Al Pierera film, La Muerta Un Silba, in which Vogel was the name used by the arms dealer Radek) back from retirement; and since he also has Zero type blood it should be easy to set him up to be kidnapped and followed. To this end he is given equipment that turns out not to work, though he turns out not to need it and so solves the mystery with no help – or as far as it is ever going to be solved, since we never really find out who the “Upper Circle” is.

Adventure/spy spoof, cheaper than the Bond films (“Have you heard of James Bond?” Pereira asks as his “Q” fits him out with his useless devices), but less portentous as well; it's not so much a parody of the Bond films (which are a parody in themselves), but a Eddie Constantine's parody of himself. He is not much like Bond, though he plays it as if the character would like to be: really; he is much more klutzy, with his jokes and seductions never quite coming off, but also much nicer.

There are a few things that aren't explained: why the “Robots” should have dark complexions, which clear up once they have been killed (and aren't that noticeable in B&W either); the point of all the assassinations, who is really behind it all. Al Pereira himself is never in any real danger, not even during the times when he is captured, or in the farce-like section where dead bodies keep turning up and disappearing from his room. Fernando Ray is wasted, and only seems to have a couple of lines. There are a few bits of surrealism – probably from the co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière (who worked with Buñuel on some of his best films, and also co-wrote the Robert Hoffmann Robinson Crusoe TV series that we all used to watch during the summer holidays in the 70s), but not enough of them to make it seem a surrealist film.

The touches of S&M in it are over so fast you don't really notice; though the music - big band jazz, while not as distinctive as the music Jess usually uses, works well enough; and there is one section where the music and the visuals combine to give a strong sense of the Jet Setter Thrillers of the 60s, such as TV series like The Champions used to try and emulate, and early episodes of The Saint sometimes got perfectly: the type where extras drink cocktails under beach umbrellas, and the hero has to visit several locations in order to get to the bottom of things: locations all expensive and hot and sunny, but with a touch of seediness and poverty underneath, like the song “Where Do You Go To?”

Anyway, this is Ok, not great.

The Attack of a Killer Robot:



[Q] gives Al his (useless) devices:



An obstreperous bus passenger:



And again:



Some 60s Speed boating:



Constantine Jr. playing a pageboy:



Eddie as a Robot:



This is about the only thing Fernando Ray does:



That Passenger turns up again:

Aubrey, they are very weird and they clog up my laptop
Remember, quality is much better than quantity

😁😁
Mu-um...mu-um...he's doing it again..... !
Enjoy 😄

Aubrey's Marathon is OK with me.
It may be niche, but there is far more irritation to be found in some posts elsewhere on this board.