6/10
A Noir intrigue set in a South American country , being professionally written , produced and directed by Jesus Franco
17 March 2013
Spanish/French co-production set in an unnamed Central American state on the eve of an important election, Sargento Detective Miguel Mora (Fernando Fernan Gomez) bent on uncovering the dark activities of popular politician Maurice Leprince (Jean Servais) who deals with cocaine business. But Mora in detained by his hoodlums , being mistreated , beaten and wounded . However, thugs working for Leprince began to be murdered one by one as well. Then , the chief Inspector (Antonio Prieto) suspects Miguel can be the killer .

This average-budget film contains thrills , a noir intrigue and lots of murders . It's a passable thriller directed by prolific filmmaker Jess Frank and also produced by his own production company, Manacoa Films along with Albatros SA . Here Franco manages to give us an adequate ambient , an evocative production design by Teddy Villalba , being rightly narrated , including a criminal plot enough to keep you intrigued throughout the flick . Based on the novel "Vous Souvenez-vous de Paco?" written by Charles Exbrayat and well adapted by the same Jesus Franco . The picture was well starred by one of the best Spanish actors , Fernando Fernan Gomez, who formerly had directed to Jesus Franco in ¨Extraño Viaje¨ . Furthermore , two French players who previously worked in the successful ¨Rififi¨ , Jean Servais and Robert Manuel . The Spanish support cast is frankly good , as Agustin Gonzalez , Manuel Gas , Sergio Mendizabal , Antonio Prieto , Luis Marin , Antonio Jimenez Escribano , among others . The picture belong to Franco's first period in which he made acceptable pictures such as ¨Gritos en Noche¨, ¨Miss Muerte¨ or ¨Necronomicon¨, developing a consolidated professionalism . However , his career got more and more impoverished in the following years, but his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror to erotic films.

Atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Godofredo Pacheco filmed on Mediterranean Spanish locations . Good musical score by Daniel White , Franco's usual musician , including Jazzy soundtrack , wonderful songs and musical numbers . The motion picture was well directed by Jesus Franco. Jesus uses to sign under pseudonym , among the aliases he used, apart from the names Jess Franco or Franco Manera, were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune , Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough , among others. Franco used to utilize usual marks such as zooms , nudism , foreground on objects , filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY and managing to work extraordinarily quickly . In many of the more than 180 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. His first was "We Are 18 Years Old" and the second picture was ¨Gritos en la Noche¨ (1962) , the best of all them , also titled "The Awful Dr. Orlof" , it's followed by various sequels such as El Secreto del Dr. Orloff (1964) aka "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll" , " Orloff y el hombre invisible (1970) aka "Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster" and finally "Faceless" (1987) . Jesús's influence has been notable all over Europe . From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema and often releasing several titles at the same time. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older films.Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government administration. He broke up with all that and got the independence he was seeking. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals. But time doesn't pass in vain, and Jesus' production has diminished since the 90s .
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