107-539: Jesús Franco Manera (12 May 1930 – 2 April 2013), also commonly known as Jess Franco , was a Spanish filmmaker, composer, and actor, known as a highly-prolific director of low-budget exploitation and B-movies . He worked in many different genres during his career, but was best known for his horror and erotic films, often incorporating surrealist elements. In a career spanning from 1954 to 2013, he wrote, directed, produced, acted in, and scored approximately 173 feature films, working both in his native Spain and (during
214-410: A cult following . Exploitation films often include themes such as suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudity, gore, destruction, rebellion, mayhem, and the bizarre. Such films were first seen in their modern form in the early 1920s, but they were popularized in the 60s and 70s with the general relaxing of censorship and cinematic taboos in the U.S. and Europe. An early example,
321-513: A Few Dollars More ; The Big Gundown ; Day of Anger ; Face to Face ; Duck, You Sucker! ; A Fistful of Dollars and Once Upon a Time in the West . Quentin Tarantino directed two tributes to the genre, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight . A splatter film, or gore film, is a horror film that focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and violence. It began as a distinct genre in
428-412: A baby to feed on. Harker wakes up screaming in his room and assumes it was a nightmare, but two small wounds on his neck indicate otherwise. Harker soon realises he is a prisoner, and tries to escape by climbing out his bedroom window. He finds his way back to the crypt where Count Dracula and his three brides rest in coffins. Harker runs out of the crypt screaming, and jumps out of the castle's tower into
535-1073: A circle of bizarre but loyal actors and technicians who moved with him over the years from project to project (while receiving very little, if any, money for their efforts). Many of his actors were over-the-hill performers in the twilight of their careers, many of his actresses brazen exhibitionists. He frequently worked with genre actors Lina Romay (who appeared in 109 Franco films), Antonio Mayans (who appeared in 50 Franco films), Howard Vernon (who appeared in 40 Franco films), Paul Müller (who appeared in 15 Franco films), Monica Swinn (who appeared in 15 Franco films), and Christopher Lee (who appeared in 7 Franco films). His frequent cast members also included Jack Taylor , Ewa Strömberg , Anne Libert, Soledad Miranda , Maria Rohm , William Berger , Dennis Price , Olivier Mathot, Muriel Montosse (a.k.a. Victoria Adams), Alice Arno , Montserrat Prous, Alberto Dalbés , Britt Nichols, Pamela Stanford, Mabel Escaño, Kali Hansa, Carmen Carrión and Klaus Kinski , all of whom are well known to Euro horror film historians. Franco suffered
642-465: A component of more complex plots set in elaborately constructed civilizations (such as the Frank Herbert ’s Dune series and the works of Isaac Asimov ), for much of the 20th century space travel has been mostly featured in cheap "B films" that often had in their core a simplistic plot typical of another exploitation subgenre, such as slasher or zombie films . Spacesploration films feature
749-505: A few Franco films in the early 1970s (including the risqué Exorcisme and The Perverse Countess ). Guettard died in 1996. Franco and Romay worked together for 40 years, and lived together from 1980 onward, although they were only officially married on 25 April 2008. Until her death in 2012 (from cancer, aged 57), Romay was his most regular actress, as well as his life companion and muse. Romay starred in approximately 109 Jesús Franco films, more than any other actor or actress. Although Romay
856-403: A few musicals and a crime drama called Red Lips . In 1960, Franco took Marius Lesoeur and Sergio Newman, two producer friends, to a cinema to see the newly released Hammer horror film The Brides of Dracula and the three men decided to go into the horror film business. His career took off in 1962 with The Awful Dr. Orloff (a.k.a. Gritos en la noche ), which received wide distribution in
963-596: A lawyer traveling from London to Transylvania to secure property for Count Dracula , arrives at Bistritz to stay for the night. There, he is warned by a concerned lady against continuing his journey. Believing that her concerns are rooted in peasant superstition, he ignores her, but starts to feel unnerved by the way everyone looks at him. Harker later arrives at the Borgo Pass , where the Count's mysterious coachman picks him up. Harker disembarks at Castle Dracula, and
1070-424: A lead role. Laconic characters and desert scenes feature in many Ozploitation films, but the term has been used for a variety of Australian films of the era that relied on shocking or titillating their audiences. A documentary about the genre was Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! . Such films deal with themes concerning Australian society, particularly in respect of masculinity (especially
1177-520: A lifestyle unbound by the restrictions of clothing, yet this depiction was restricted by the requirement that genitals should not be shown. Still, there was a subversive element to them, as the nudist camps inherently rejected modern society and its values regarding the human body. These films frequently involve a criticism of the class system, equating body shame with the upper class, and nudism with social equality. One scene in The Unashamed makes
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#17327913417111284-426: A long decline during the mid-1980s with the advent of home video. As the drive-in movie theater began to decline in the 1960s and 1970s, theater owners began to look for ways to bring in patrons. One solution was to book lower cost exploitation films. Some producers from the 1950s to the 1980s made films directly for the drive-in market, and the commodity product needed for a weekly change led to another theory about
1391-485: A low budget, and it comes off entertaining if not a classic. It's a B-movie treatment at best, but ... Lee comes off fiery and committed to making this Count one that will be noticed." Brian Lindsey of Eccentric Cinema wrote, "Upon weighing [the film's] pros and cons, Count Dracula emerges a substantially flawed film. But I can still recommend it to any fan of Lee, Franco, Miranda, and even of Stoker's novel." George R. Reis of DVD Drive-In wrote, " Count Dracula
1498-509: A person is raped, left for dead, recovers and then exacts a graphic, gory revenge against the rapists. The most famous example is I Spit on Your Grave (also called Day of the Woman ). It is not unusual for the main character in these films to be a successful, independent city woman, who is attacked by a man from the country. The genre has drawn praise from feminists such as Carol J. Clover , whose 1992 book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in
1605-663: A pianist in nightclubs and writing pulp novels under the pen name 'David Khune', which he later adopted as one of his directing aliases. He also directed stage plays. Franco began his career in 1954 (aged 24) as an assistant director in the Spanish film industry, performing many tasks including composing music for some films as well as co-writing a number of the screenplays. He assisted directors such as Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent , León Klimovsky and Juan Antonio Bardem . After working on more than 20 films for other directors, he decided to get into directing films himself in 1959, making
1712-550: A point about the artificiality of clothing and its related values through a mocking portrayal of a group of nude artists who paint fully clothed subjects. The term "Ozploitation" refers broadly to Australian horror, erotic or crime films of the 1970s and 1980s. Changes to Australia's film classification system in 1971 led to the production of a number of such low-budget, privately funded films, assisted by tax exemptions and targeting export markets. Often an internationally recognised actor (but of waning notability) would be hired to play
1819-489: A producer, the first question he asks is not "what is your film like?" but "what film is your film like?" That's the way it is, we can only make Zombie 2 , never Zombie 1 . Luigi Cozzi Mockbusters, sometimes called "remakesploitation films", are copycat movies that try to cash in on the advertising of heavily promoted films from major studios. Production company the Asylum , which prefers to call them "tie-ins",
1926-793: A scientifically inaccurate and inconsistent depiction of space travel and are usually set in traversing spaceships and deserted planets, partially due to the films’ limited resources. Such films include From the Earth to the Moon , Robinson Crusoe on Mars , Planet of the Vampires , The Black Hole and Saturn 3 . During one of the peaks of space travel films, the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker featured outlandishly unrealistic scenes of space warfare , despite otherwise focusing on real contemporary (i.e. Cold War) intelligence agencies . Spaghetti Westerns are Italian-made westerns that emerged in
2033-438: A second downturn as he returned to making mostly pornographic films, most of which left nothing to the imagination. In his later years, he did, however, get the opportunity to turn out two rather big-budget horror films – Faceless (1988) and Killer Barbys (1996) – both of which showed what great work he could still do when his projects were adequately funded. The entirety of his work after 1996 (beginning with Tender Flesh )
2140-423: A serial killer stalking and violently killing a sequence of victims. Victims are often teenagers or young adults. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) is often credited with creating the basic premise of the genre, though Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974) is usually considered to have started the genre while John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) was responsible for cementing the genre in the public eye. Halloween
2247-519: A severe stroke on 27 March 2013, and was taken to a hospital in Málaga , Spain, where he died six days later, on the morning of 2 April. He was 82. Exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content . Exploitation films are generally low-quality " B movies ", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become historically important, and even gain
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#17327913417112354-662: A stereotypically black American urban milieu. A prominent theme was black Americans overcoming hostile authority (" The Man ") through cunning and violence. The first examples of this subgenre were Shaft and Melvin Van Peebles ' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song . Others are Black Caesar , Black Devil Doll , Blacula , Black Shampoo , Boss Nigger , Coffy , Coonskin , Cotton Comes to Harlem , Dolemite , Foxy Brown , Hell Up in Harlem , The Mack , Disco Godfather , Mandingo , The Spook Who Sat by
2461-408: A topic of discourse for feminist film critics . Some critics have said that lesbian sex on screen is an expression of chauvinism and male power as the images are portrayed for male pleasure. The casting of pornstars and hardcore actresses in sexploitation films is not uncommon. The films sometimes contain sex shows intended to shock or arouse their audiences. Slasher films focus on
2568-402: Is a 1970 horror film directed and co-written by Jesús Franco , based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker . It stars Christopher Lee as Dracula, Herbert Lom as Van Helsing , and Klaus Kinski as Renfield , along with Fred Williams , Maria Rohm , Soledad Miranda , Paul Muller , and Jack Taylor . The film was an international co-production between West Germany, Spain, Italy, and
2675-652: Is a modern homage to the genre. "Canuxploitation" is a neologism that was coined in 1999 by the magazine Broken Pencil , in the article "Canuxploitation! Goin' Down the Road with the Cannibal Girls that Ate Black Christmas. Your Complete Guide to the Canadian B-Movie", to refer to Canadian-made B-movies . Most mainstream critical analysis of this period in Canadian film history, however, refers to it as
2782-510: Is a prominent producer of these films. Such films have often come from Italy, which has been quick to latch on to trends like Westerns, James Bond movies, and zombie films. They have long been a staple of directors such as Jim Wynorski ( The Bare Wench Project , and the Cliffhanger imitation Sub Zero ), who make movies for the direct-to-video market. Such films are beginning to attract attention from major Hollywood studios, who served
2889-505: Is also responsible for establishing additional tropes which would go on to define the genre in years to come. The masked villain, a central group of weak teenagers with one strong hero or heroine, the protagonists being isolated or stranded in precarious locations or situations, and either the protagonists or antagonists (or possibly both) experiencing warped family lives or values were all tropes largely founded in Halloween . John Carpenter
2996-537: Is flawed in many ways, but for fans of gothic horror, it's still irresistible ... Barcelona naturally allows for some truly handsome scenery and an appropriate castle for Dracula to dwell in, and the performances of the international cast are above average." Dracula scholar Leslie S. Klinger said "the picture begins well, closely following the Stoker narrative account of Harker's encounter with Dracula. The film rapidly proceeds into banality, however, and except for
3103-778: Is now believed lost. In 1953, The Wild One , starring Marlon Brando, was the first film about a motorcycle gang. A string of low-budget juvenile delinquent films featuring hot-rods and motorcycles followed in the 1950s. The success of American International Pictures' The Wild Angels in 1966 ignited a more robust trend that continued into the early 1970s. Other biker films include Motorpsycho (1965), Hells Angels on Wheels (1967), The Born Losers (1967), Wild Rebels (1967), Angels from Hell (1968), Easy Rider (1969), Satan's Sadists (1969), Naked Angels (1969), Nam's Angels (1970), and C.C. and Company (1970). Stone (1974) , Mad Max (1979) and 1% (2017) combine elements of this subgenre with Ozploitation. In
3210-628: Is regarded as a significant figure in the history of exploitation cinema. In 2009, he received an Honorary Goya Award from the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain for his contributions to Spanish cinema. Jesús Franco Manera was born in Madrid on 12 May 1930, to a prominent family of Cuban and Mexican origin. His brother, Enrique Franco, was the vice president of the Albéniz Foundation . Via his sister Dolores, Franco
3317-461: Is sometimes called paracinema . "Exploitation" is loosely defined and arguably has as much to do with the viewer's perception of the film as with the film's actual content. Titillating material and artistic content often co-exist, as demonstrated by the fact that art films that failed to pass the Hays Code were often shown in the same grindhouses as exploitation films. Exploitation films share
Jesús Franco - Misplaced Pages Continue
3424-472: Is that he managed to direct approximately 173 motion pictures in his lifetime, encompassing a wide swathe of different genres with practically no financial backing available to him. (Note: Some sources which list as many as 200 titles in Franco's filmography are relisting the same films several times under their different variant titles.) Sometimes referred to as the "European Ed Wood", Franco similarly attracted
3531-591: Is the controversial 1980 Cannibal Holocaust , in which six real animals were killed on screen. Others include Cannibal Ferox , Eaten Alive! , Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death , The Mountain of the Cannibal God , Last Cannibal World and the first film of the genre, The Man From Deep River . Famous directors in this genre include Umberto Lenzi , Ruggero Deodato , Jesús Franco and Joe D'Amato . The Green Inferno (2013)
3638-494: Is to shock the audience by dealing with taboo subject matter. The first mondo film is Mondo Cane ( A Dog's World ). Others include Shocking Asia , Africa Addio (aka Africa Blood and Guts and Farewell Africa ), Goodbye Uncle Tom and Faces of Death . These "nature-run-amok" films focus on an animal or group of animals, far larger and more aggressive than usual for their species, terrorizing humans while another group of humans tries to fight back. This genre began in
3745-567: The Thunder Warrior trilogy, Johnny Firecloud , Angry Joe Bass , The Manitou , Prophecy , Avenged (aka Savaged ), Scalps , Clearcut and The Ghost Dance . Sexploitation films resemble softcore pornography and often include scenes involving nude or semi-nude women. They typically have sex scenes that are more graphic sex than mainstream films. The plots of sexploitation films include pulp fiction elements such as killers, slavery, female domination , martial arts,
3852-1252: The Winter War in Finland, the Korean War and the Vietnam War before the major studios showed interest. When Orson Welles ' radio production of The War of the Worlds from The Mercury Theatre on the Air for Halloween in 1938 shocked many Americans and made news, Universal Pictures edited their serial Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars into a short feature called Mars Attacks the World for release in November of that year. Some Poverty Row low-budget B movies often exploit major studio projects. Their rapid production schedule allows them to take advantage of publicity attached to major studio films. For example, Edward L. Alperson produced William Cameron Menzies ' film Invaders from Mars to beat Paramount Pictures ' production of director George Pal 's The War of
3959-435: The art director Karl Schneider and set decorator Emilio Zago (jointly credited under the alias 'George O'Brown'). A scene featuring taxidermied animals that are reanimated—implicitly under Dracula's command—was reportedly improvised by Franco, and was accomplished by out-of-frame stagehands turning the animals' bodies towards the camera. Franco originally wanted to cast Vincent Price as Professor Van Helsing, but he
4066-679: The ocker male), male attitudes towards women, attitudes towards and treatment of Indigenous Australians , violence, alcohol and environmental exploitation and destruction. The films typically have rural or outback settings, depicting the Australian landscape and environment as an almost spiritually malign force that alienates white Australians, frustrating their personal ambitions and activities, and their attempts to subdue it. Notable examples include Mad Max , Alvin Purple , Patrick and Turkey Shoot . This genre contains films in which
4173-415: The "nudie-cutie", which featured nudity but no touching, and the "roughie", which included nudity and violent, antisocial behavior. Nudist films were marked by self-contradictory qualities. They presented themselves as educational films, but exploited their subject matter by focusing mainly on the nudist camps ' most beautiful female residents, while denying the existence of such exploitation. They depicted
4280-488: The "tax shelter" era emerged as among Canada's most important and influential filmmakers of the era, including David Cronenberg , William Fruet , Ivan Reitman and Bob Clark , the new regulations also had an entirely unforeseen side effect: a sudden rush of low-budget horror and genre films, intended as pure tax shelters since they were designed not to turn a conventional profit. Many of the films, in fact, were made by American filmmakers, whose projects had been rejected by
4387-540: The "tax-shelter era". The phenomenon emerged in 1974, when the government of Canada introduced new regulations to jumpstart the then-underdeveloped Canadian film industry, increasing the Capital Cost Allowance tax credit from 60 per cent to 100 per cent. While some important and noteworthy films were made under the program, including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Lies My Father Told Me , and some film directors who cut their teeth in
Jesús Franco - Misplaced Pages Continue
4494-791: The 1933 film Ecstasy , included nude scenes featuring the Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr . The film proved popular at the box office but caused concern for the American cinema trade association, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). The organisation, which applied the Hays Code for film censorship, also disapproved of the work of Dwain Esper , the director responsible for exploitation movies such as Marihuana (1936) and Maniac (1934). The Motion Picture Association of America (and its predecessor,
4601-434: The 1950s, when concern over nuclear weapons testing made movies about giant monsters popular. These were typically either giant prehistoric creatures awakened by atomic explosions or ordinary animals mutated by radiation. Among them were Godzilla , Them! and Tarantula . The trend was revived in the 1970s as awareness of pollution increased and corporate greed and military irresponsibility were blamed for destruction of
4708-517: The 1960s with the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman , whose most famous films include Blood Feast (1963), Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964), Color Me Blood Red (1965), The Gruesome Twosome (1967) and The Wizard of Gore (1970). Count Dracula (1969 film) Count Dracula ( German : Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht , lit. 'At night, when Dracula awakens'; also known as El Conde Dracula , Bram Stoker's Count Dracula , Il Conte Dracula )
4815-409: The 1960s, Roger Corman directed Edgar Allan Poe B horror movies with well-known horror veteran movie actors with Boris Karloff , Peter Lorre , Vincent Price and a young, unknown Jack Nicholson . He turned down directing Easy Rider , which was directed by Dennis Hopper . Black exploitation films, or "blaxploitation" films, are made with black actors, ostensibly for black audiences, often in
4922-491: The 1970s, with Starcrash and the Turkish Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam and Süpermen dönüyor . The latter two used scenes from Star Wars and unauthorized excerpts from John Williams ' score. Mondo films, often called shockumentaries, are quasi-documentary films about sensationalized topics like exotic customs from around the world or gruesome death footage. The goal of mondo films, as of shock exploitation,
5029-532: The Asylum with a cease and desist order to try to prevent them from releasing The Day the Earth Stopped to video stores in advance of the release of The Day the Earth Stood Still to theaters. The term mockbuster was used as early as the 1950s (when The Monster of Piedras Blancas was a clear derivative of Creature From The Black Lagoon ). The term did not become popular until
5136-497: The Capital Cost Allowance was reduced to 50 per cent, although films that had entered production under the program continued to be released for another few years afterward. However, at least one Canadian film blog extends the "Canuxploitation" term to refer to any Canadian horror, thriller or science fiction film made up to the present day. Carsploitation films feature scenes of cars racing and crashing, featuring
5243-636: The Devil (1975), Cannonball (1976), Mad Max (1979), Safari 3000 (1982), Dead End Drive-In (1986) and Black Moon Rising (1986). Quentin Tarantino directed a tribute to the genre, Death Proof (2007). In the 1970s, a revisionist, non-traditional style of samurai film achieved some popularity in Japan. It became known as chambara , an onomatopoeia describing the clash of swords. Its origins can be traced as far back as Akira Kurosawa , whose films feature moral grayness and exaggerated violence, but
5350-458: The Door , Sugar Hill , Super Fly , T.N.T. Jackson , The Thing with Two Heads , Truck Turner , Willie Dynamite and Cleopatra Jones . In blaxploitation horror movies back in the 1970s, despite the leading stars in those movies being black, some of these movies were either produced, edited, or directed by white filmmakers. Blacula , a well-known blaxploitation horror movie,
5457-675: The English-language version was supervised by Mel Welles . Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom did their own dubbing. The German dub had Wilhelm Borchert as the voice of Dracula. The film premiered in West Germany on April 3, 1970 under the title Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht (lit. At night, when Dracula awakens). In the United Kingdom, an English dub was released by Hemdale Film Corporation in July 1973. Count Dracula
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#17327913417115564-1003: The Hollywood studio system as not commercially viable, giving rise to the Hollywood North phenomenon. Variety dubbed the genre "maple syrup porno". Notable examples of the genre include Cannibal Girls , Deathdream , Deranged , The Corpse Eaters , Black Christmas , Shivers , Death Weekend , The Clown Murders , Rituals , Cathy's Curse , Deadly Harvest , Starship Invasions , Rabid , I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses , The Brood , Funeral Home , Terror Train , The Changeling , Death Ship , My Bloody Valentine , Prom Night , Happy Birthday to Me , Scanners , Ghostkeeper , Visiting Hours , Highpoint , Humongous , Deadly Eyes , Class of 1984 , Videodrome , Curtains , American Nightmare , Self Defense , Spasms and Def-Con 4 . The period officially ended in 1982, when
5671-656: The Italian credits for the film but with the French title card Les Nuits de Dracula . The film was released uncensored on Blu-ray and DVD in 2015 by Severin Films . A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release, sourced from an uncut camera negative , was released in 2023 also by Severin Films. Robert Firsching of The New York Times wrote, "This doggedly faithful adaptation is plodding and dull. Even Christopher Lee (in an uncharacteristically weak performance as Dracula), Klaus Kinski (as
5778-614: The Living Dead ), many people in the industry considered him a porn director due to the huge number of X-rated adult films he began turning out (even his 1970s horror films featured abundant nudity). Franco returned to low-budget horror films in a brief comeback period from 1980 to 1983 ( Mondo Cannibale , Bloody Moon , Oasis of the Zombies , Mansion of the Living Dead and Revenge in the House of Usher ), but after 1983, his career took
5885-489: The MPPDA) cooperated with censorship boards and grassroots organizations in the hope of preserving the image of a "clean" Hollywood, but the distributors of exploitation film operated outside of this system and often welcomed controversy as a form of free promotion. Their producers used sensational elements to attract audiences lost to television. Since the 1990s, this genre has also received attention in academic circles, where it
5992-636: The Modern Horror Film examines the implications of its reversals of cinema's traditional gender roles. This type of film can be seen as an offshoot of the vigilante film, with the victim's transformation into avenger as the key scene. Author Jacinda Read and others believe that rape–revenge should be categorized as a narrative structure rather than a true subgenre, because its plot can be found in films of many different genres, such as thrillers ( Ms. 45 ), dramas ( Lipstick ), westerns ( Hannie Caulder ) and art films ( Memento ). One instance of
6099-458: The S.S. Last Days ), Gestapo's Last Orgy , or Last Orgy of The Third Reich , or Caligula Reincarnated as Hitler , Salon Kitty and SS Experiment Camp . Many Nazisploitation films were influenced by art films such as Pier Paolo Pasolini 's infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom and Liliana Cavani's Il portiere di notte ( The Night Porter ). Inglourious Basterds (2009) and The Devil's Rock (2011) are modern homages to
6206-518: The Scorpion's Tail , A Lizard in a Woman's Skin , Black Belly of the Tarantula , The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh , Blood and Black Lace , Phenomena , Opera and Tenebrae . Dario Argento , Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava are the best-known directors of this genre. The 2013 Argentinian film Sonno Profondo is a modern tribute to the genre. In Italy, when you bring a script to
6313-1078: The USA and the United Kingdom. Franco wrote and directed Orloff , and even supplied some of the music for the film. In the mid-1960s, he went on to direct two other horror films, then proceeded to turn out a number of James Bond -like spy thrillers and softcore sex films based on the works of the Marquis de Sade (which remained one of his major influences throughout his career). Although he had some American box office success with Necronomicon - Geträumte Sünden (1968), 99 Women (1969) and two 1969 Christopher Lee films – The Bloody Judge and Count Dracula – he never achieved wide commercial success. Many of his films were only distributed in Europe, and most of them were never dubbed into English. After discovering Soledad Miranda (he first used her in his film Count Dracula ), Franco moved from Spain to France in 1969 so that he could make more violent and erotic films free of
6420-480: The United Kingdom. Although Count Dracula stars Lee in the title role, it is not a Hammer production like his other Dracula films , being produced instead by Harry Alan Towers . On initial release, Count Dracula was advertised as the most faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker 's novel to date. Among other details, it was the first film version of the novel in which Dracula begins as an old man and becomes younger as he feeds upon fresh blood. Jonathan Harker ,
6527-645: The Worlds to the cinemas, and Pal's The Time Machine was beaten to the cinemas by Edgar G. Ulmer 's film Beyond the Time Barrier . As a result, many major studios, producers, and stars keep their projects secret. Grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly showed exploitation films. These theatres were most popular throughout the 1970s and early 1980s in New York City and other urban centers, mainly in North America, but began
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#17327913417116634-648: The Zombies at the producers' expense, starring Lina Romay and his "regulars", which was apparently released only in Spain in 1982 as La Tumba de los Muertos Vivientes . Franco sometimes worked under various pseudonyms , including David Khune and Frank Hollmann . A fan of jazz music (and a musician himself), many of his pseudonyms were taken from jazz musicians such as Clifford Brown and James P. Johnson . Franco's themes often revolved around lesbian vampires , women in prison , surgical horror, sadomasochism, zombies and sexploitation (including numerous films based on
6741-1161: The aid of a traveling Romani band. As Count Dracula's Gypsy servants take him back to his castle, he is trailed by Harker and Quincey. After battling the Romani, the two heroes find Dracula's coffin and set it on fire. Dracula, unable to escape in full daylight, is consumed by flames. The production originally planned use Barrandov Studios in Czechoslovakia , but due to budgetary constrains filming took place at Balcázar Studios in Barcelona, Spain . The scenes at Professor Van Helsing's sanatorium were shot at Tirrenia Studios in Italy. Exteriors were shot mainly in Spain, with some second unit footage in France. The exteriors of Dracula's castle were filmed at Santa Bárbara Castle in Alicante , which Franco later used to film Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein . The film's sets were designed by
6848-455: The characterization of Lee as an older Dracula and the brilliant Kinski, the film is largely forgettable." Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called it "one of the world's worst horror films" in his review of Pere Portabella 's film Cuadecuc, Vampir , which was shot during the making of this film. Cuadecuc, vampir is a 1970 experimental film by Pere Portabella that was shot behind-the-scenes of Count Dracula , including candid footage of
6955-418: The coach immediately rushes off. Harker approaches the main door and meets a thin, tall, gaunt old man. He turns out to be Dracula and takes Harker to his bedchamber. There, Harker notices that Dracula casts no reflection. Later, Harker goes to sleep and wakes in an ancient crypt where three beautiful vampiresses harass him. Dracula rushes into the room and orders them to leave Harker alone. He then gives them
7062-516: The dangers of venereal disease from premarital sex. Mom and Dad , a 1945 film about pregnancy and childbirth, was promoted in lurid terms. She Shoulda Said No! (1949) combined the themes of drug use and promiscuous sex. In the early days of film, when exploitation films relied on such sensational subjects as these, they had to present a very conservative moral viewpoint to avoid censorship, as movies then were not considered to enjoy First Amendment protection. Several war films were made about
7169-402: The distinctions between genres by containing elements of two or more genres at a time. Their subgenres are identifiable by the characteristics they use. For example, Doris Wishman's Let Me Die A Woman contains elements of both shock documentary and sexploitation. Although they featured lurid subject matter, exploitation films of the 1930s and 1940s evaded the strict censorship and scrutiny of
7276-492: The early 1970s to the late 1980s, primarily made by Italian and Spanish moviemakers. They focus on cannibalism by tribes deep in the South American or Asian rainforests. This cannibalism is usually perpetrated against Westerners that the tribes held prisoner. As with mondo films , the main draw of cannibal films was the promise of exotic locales and graphic gore involving living creatures. The best-known film of this genre
7383-698: The environment. Night of the Lepus , Frogs , and Godzilla vs. Hedorah are examples. After Steven Spielberg 's 1975 film Jaws , a number of very similar films (sometimes regarded as outright rip-offs) were produced in the hope of cashing in on its success. Examples are Alligator , Cujo , Day of the Animals , Great White , Grizzly , Humanoids from the Deep , Monster Shark , Orca , The Pack , Piranha , Prophecy , Razorback , Blood Feast , Tentacles and Tintorera . Roger Corman
7490-420: The era by claiming to be educational. They were generally cautionary tales about the alleged dangers of premarital sexual intercourse and the use of recreational drugs. Examples include Marihuana (1936), Reefer Madness (1936), Sex Madness (1938), Child Bride (1938), Mom and Dad (1945) and She Shoulda Said No! (1949). An exploitation film about homosexuality, Children of Loneliness (1937),
7597-456: The fearlessness of acclaimed transgressive European directors such as Derek Jarman , Luis Buñuel and Jean-Luc Godard in handling "disreputable" content. Many films recognized as classics contain levels of sex, violence and shock typically associated with exploitation films. Examples include Stanley Kubrick 's A Clockwork Orange , Tod Browning's Freaks and Roman Polanski 's Repulsion . Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou contains elements of
7704-460: The film was later made available on DVD. Franco later directed another film for the Lesouers called Oasis of the Zombies (a.k.a. Bloodsucking Nazi Zombies on VHS) in 1981, which had a plot very similar to Zombie Lake (also involving revived Nazi zombies). It was released in France as The Abyss of the Living Dead . Franco simultaneously shot a variant Spanish-language version of Oasis of
7811-422: The first film to place its exploitation elements unapologetically at the forefront instead of pretending to carry a moral or educational message. This development paved the way for the more explicit exploitation films of the 1960s and 1970s and made the nudist genre obsolete—ironically, since the nudist film Garden of Eden was the subject of the court case. After this, the nudist genre split into subgenres such as
7918-399: The genre is mostly associated with 1970s samurai manga by Kazuo Koike , on whose work many later films would be based. Chambara features few of the stoic, formal sensibilities of earlier jidaigeki films – the new chambara featured revenge-driven antihero protagonists, nudity, sex scenes, swordplay and blood. Giallo films are Italian-made slasher films that focus on cruel murders and
8025-561: The genre, the original version of The Last House on the Left , was an uncredited remake of Ingmar Bergman 's The Virgin Spring , recast as a horror film featuring extreme violence. Deliverance , in which the rape is perpetrated on a man, has been credited as the originator of the genre. Clover, who restricts her definition of the genre to movies in which a woman is raped and gains her own revenge, praises rape–revenge exploitation films for
8132-431: The heart and decapitate her. Harker, restored to health, joins the group who now are sure that Count Dracula is a vampire. Dracula turns his attention to Mina and begins corrupting her as well. Van Helsing suddenly has a stroke and remains in a wheelchair. Dracula visits the weakened man, mocking his attempts to destroy him. Quincey, Harker and Seward track Dracula to the abandoned abbey, but he has fled to Transylvania with
8239-429: The hospital. As Mina takes care of Harker, her friend Lucy's health strangely declines. Dracula has been secretly appearing to her by night and drinking her blood, growing younger as he feeds off his victim. Quincey Morris , Lucy's fiancé, joins Drs. Seward and Van Helsing in an attempt to save Lucy by giving her blood transfusions. One of the patients at the clinic, R. M. Renfield , becomes of considerable interest to
8346-404: The mad Renfield), and seven credited screenwriters cannot make this confused, distant film worthwhile. Franco appears as a servant to Professor Van Helsing (Herbert Lom), and though certainly literate, the film nevertheless fails as both horror and drama." Brett Cullum of DVD Verdict wrote, "For curious Dracula fans, Jess Franco's Count Dracula is a neat find. It's a stellar cast working under
8453-407: The men. Renfield is classed as a zoophagus : he eats flies and insects in order to consume their life, believing that each life he consumes increases his own. He reacts violently whenever Dracula is nearby. He later dies from shock. Lucy eventually dies, becomes one of the undead and murders a young child. The ordeal is put to an end when Quincey, Seward and Van Helsing ambush Lucy, stake her through
8560-514: The mid-1960s. They were more violent and amoral than typical Hollywood westerns. These films also often eschewed the conventions of Hollywood studio Westerns, which were primarily for consumption by conservative, mainstream American audiences. Examples of the genre include Death Rides a Horse ; Django ; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ; Navajo Joe ; The Grand Duel ; The Great Silence ; For
8667-443: The modern splatter film. It has been suggested that if Carnival of Souls had been made in Europe, it would be considered an art film, while if Eyes Without a Face had been made in the U.S., it would have been categorized as a low-budget horror film. The audiences of art and exploitation film are both considered to have tastes that reject the mainstream Hollywood offerings. Exploitation films have often exploited news events in
8774-399: The origin of the word: that the producers would "grind"-out films. Many of them were violent action films that some called "drive-in" films. Exploitation films may adopt the subject matter and styling of regular film genres, particularly horror films and documentary films, and their themes are sometimes influenced by other so-called exploitative media, such as pulp magazines . They often blur
8881-692: The prisoners, who are often female, are nude. The progenitor of this subgenre was Love Camp 7 (1969). The archetype of the genre, which established its popularity and its typical themes, was Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1974), about the buxom, nymphomaniacal dominatrix Ilsa torturing prisoners in a Stalag . Others include Fräulein Devil ( Captive Women 4 , or Elsa: Fraulein SS , or Fraulein Kitty ), La Bestia in calore ( SS Hell Camp , or SS Experiment Part 2 , or The Beast in Heat , or Horrifying Experiments of
8988-477: The producers, Marius and Daniel Lesoeur, over the ridiculously low budget he was allotted, and the producers immediately hired French horror film director Jean Rollin to direct it (later re-titling it Zombie Lake ). The Lesoeurs later had Rollin shoot new (zombie) footage in 1981 to be added to Franco's A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) for its 1981 theatrical rerelease. Franco's original director's cut of
9095-516: The river below. Harker wakes up in a private psychiatric clinic outside London, owned by Dr. Van Helsing , in the care of Dr. Seward . He is told he was found delirious in a river near Budapest . No one believes his story about Castle Dracula until Van Helsing finds the two punctures on Harker's neck. Harker's fiancée Mina and her close friend Lucy also arrive to help take care of him. Unbeknownst to them, Count Dracula has followed Harker back to England and now resides in an abandoned abbey close to
9202-476: The rule of Francisco Franco ) in France, West Germany, Switzerland and Portugal. Additionally, during the 1960s, he made several films in Rio de Janeiro and Istanbul. Franco's films are known for distinctive visual style and idiosyncratic approach to filmmaking, often directing multiple films concurrently. Despite mixed critical reception during his lifetime, Franco's work has gained a dedicated cult following , and he
9309-677: The short-term public consciousness that a major film studio may avoid because of the time required to produce a major film. Child Bride (1938), for example, tackled the issue of older men marrying young girls in the Ozarks . Other issues, such as drug use in films like Reefer Madness (1936), attracted audiences that major film studios would usually avoid to keep their respectable, mainstream reputations. With enough incentive, however, major studios might become involved, as Warner Bros. did in their 1969 anti- LSD , anti- counterculture film The Big Cube . The film Sex Madness (1938) portrayed
9416-470: The sports cars, muscle cars , and car wrecks that were popular in the 1970s and 1980s. They were produced mainly in the United States and Australia. The quintessential film of this genre is Vanishing Point (1971). Others include Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), Death Race 2000 (1975), Race with
9523-491: The strict censorship in Spain at the time, and it was at this point that his career began to go downhill commercially as he turned to low-budget filmmaking with an accent on adult material. Miranda starred in a series of six erotic thrillers for Franco, all made within a one-year period (one of which Sex Charade was never released), after which she was killed in a tragic automobile accident in Portugal in 1970 just as her career
9630-617: The subgenre. Nudist films originated in the 1930s as films that skirted the Hays Code restrictions on nudity by purportedly depicting the naturist lifestyle. They existed through the late 1950s, when the New York State Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Excelsior Pictures vs. New York Board of Regents that onscreen nudity is not obscene. This opened the door to more open depictions of nudity, starting with Russ Meyer's 1959 The Immoral Mr. Teas , which has been credited as
9737-492: The subsequent search for the killers. They are named for the Italian word for yellow, giallo , the background color featured on the covers of the pulp novels by which these movies were inspired. The progenitor of this genre was The Girl Who Knew Too Much . Other examples of Giallo films include Four Flies on Grey Velvet , Deep Red , The Cat o' Nine Tails , The Bird with the Crystal Plumage , The Case of
9844-431: The time, the teenage Romay was married to a young actor/photographer named Ramon Ardid (aka "Raymond Hardy"), who co-starred with Lina in 19 Franco films in the 1970s. But as Romay and Franco became more involved in their film projects together over the years, her marriage to Ardid broke up in 1975 and ended in divorce in 1978 (Ardid continued working with Franco however until 1979). Franco in adult film Sexorcismes (1975)
9951-482: The use of stylistic devices and dialogue associated with screwball comedies, love interests and flirtation akin to romance films , over-the-top direction, cheeky homages, fan-pleasing content and caricatures, and performances that contain sleazy teasing alluding to foreplay or kink. The use of extended scenes and the showing of full frontal nudity are typical genre techniques. Sexploitation films include Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Supervixens by Russ Meyer ,
10058-492: The way in which their protagonists fight their abuse directly, rather than preserve the status quo by depending on an unresponsive legal system, as in rape–revenge movies from major studios such as The Accused . The redsploitation genre concerns Native American characters almost always played by white actors, usually exacting their revenge on their white tormentors. Examples are the Billy Jack tetralogy, The Ransom ,
10165-514: The work of Armando Bó with Isabel Sarli , the Emmanuelle series, Showgirls and Caligula . Caligula is unusual among exploitation films in that it was made with a large budget and well-known actors ( Malcolm McDowell , John Gielgud , Peter O'Toole and Helen Mirren ). Lesbian sex scenes of the 1970s have been studied in the context of the political and social implications of lesbianism and women's sexuality, something that remains
10272-552: The writings of the Marquis de Sade ). He worked in other exploitation film genres, such as cannibal films , spy films, giallo , crime films, science fiction, jungle adventure, Oriental menace, exorcist films, war movies, historical dramas and nunsploitation . His sex movies often contained long, uninterrupted shots of nude women writhing around on beds. Most of his hardcore films starred his lifelong companion Lina Romay (sometimes billed as "Candy Coster" or "Lulu Laverne"), who admitted in interviews to being an exhibitionist. Franco
10379-676: Was a major producer of these films in both decades. The genre has experienced a revival in recent years, as films like Mulberry Street and Larry Fessenden's The Last Winter reflected concerns about global warming and overpopulation. The Sci-Fi Channel (now known as SyFy ) has produced several films about giant or hybrid mutations whose titles are sensationalized portmanteaus of the two species; examples include Sharktopus and Dinoshark . Nazi exploitation films, also called "Nazisploitation" films, or "il sadiconazista", focus on Nazis torturing prisoners in death camps and brothels during World War II . The tortures are often sexual, and
10486-694: Was directed by an African American filmmaker named William Crain . Blacula was one of the first early successful blaxploitation horror movies. Ganja & Hess stars Duane Jones , who played Ben in Night of the Living Dead . This movie has political and social commentary in which the vampires are a metaphor for capitalism , according to Harry M. Benshoff . Modern homages of this genre include Jackie Brown , Pootie Tang , Undercover Brother , Black Dynamite , Proud Mary and BlacKkKlansman . The 1973 Bond film Live and Let Die uses blaxploitation themes. Cannibal films are graphic movies from
10593-615: Was inspired by Bob Clark 's Black Christmas . The genre continued into and peaked in the 1980s with well-known films like Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Many 1980s slasher films used the basic format of Halloween , for example My Bloody Valentine (1981), Prom Night (1980), The Funhouse (1981), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) and Sleepaway Camp (1983), many of which also used elements from Black Christmas . A subtype featuring space , science fiction and horror in film . Despite ambitious literary works that depicted space travel as
10700-460: Was involved in a non-simulated sex scene with Romay. Franco was married at the time to Nicole Guettard (their marriage running approximately from 1962 to 1980), Ms. Guettard being gradually replaced in Franco's life by Romay. Guettard worked as a script consultant on some of Franco's films while they were married (sometimes credited as Nicole Franco), and even acted in a few of them. Her daughter from an earlier marriage, Caroline Riviere, also acted in
10807-421: Was known for his use of a hand-held camera and zoom shots, which he felt lent realism to his films. He also was not averse to filming several movies at the same time, knocking together a second feature on the unsuspecting producer's dime. Many of his actors only found out years after the fact that Franco had actually starred them in films for which they had never even been paid. His main claim to fame, however,
10914-450: Was listed in the credits of several films as a co-director, actor Antonio Mayans [ de ; es ; mg ] stated in a recent interview that Franco used to credit her in that manner for business reasons, although she never actually co-directed any of their films together. Although he produced a number of relatively successful horror films in the early 1970s ( Dracula vs. Frankenstein , The Bare-Breasted Countess , A Virgin Among
11021-401: Was released on DVD in 2007 by Dark Sky Films. Special features include an interview with director Jesús Franco, a reading from Bram Stoker's Dracula novel by Christopher Lee, and a text essay on the life of actress Soledad Miranda. The DVD has come under criticism for omitting the scene in which a distraught mother pleads for her baby's life at the door of Dracula's castle. The DVD also uses
11128-422: Was shot-on-video films of very low quality, none of which were distributed theatrically. Romay died of cancer in 2012 at age 57, after which Franco died on April 2, 2013, from natural causes at age 82. Franco was supposed to write and direct a film for Eurocine Productions in 1980 called Lake of the Living Dead (a horror film about revived Nazi zombies) but after submitting the basic plot summary, he fell out with
11235-421: Was taking off. She and Franco had started filming her next project ( Justine ) which he abandoned entirely after her death. (Only about 40 minutes of the movie was shot at the time of her death). He had also planned to feature her in his next film, X312: Flight to Hell , which he made with another actress. A year or two after Miranda died, a grieving Franco discovered a new leading lady in actress Lina Romay . At
11342-831: Was the brother-in-law of philosopher Julián Marías , and the uncle of filmmaker Ricardo Franco . A lifelong jazz enthusiast and pianist, Franco studied music at the Madrid Royal Conservatory and the Instituto Ramiro de Maeztu, before embarking on a film career. He studied at Madrid's Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas, and the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques in Paris. He cited among his influences Luis Buñuel , Stanley Donen , Vincente Minnelli , and Orson Welles . During this time, he supported himself by working as
11449-411: Was under contract to American International Pictures . Franco then turned to Dennis Price , but he was prevented from taking the role due to health issues. In the end, Harry Alan Towers brought aboard his regular actor Herbert Lom . Due to his late arrival, all of his scenes had to be shot separately from Lee's. Consequently, Dracula and Van Helsing never appear in the same shot together. Dubbing for
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