Preparing for a "Auteurs in '64" week of viewing, the first name whose credits from the year I checked for was Jess Franco. Taking the first volume of Stephen Thrower's definitive Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jess Franco, I was intrigued to find out online of a non-Horror Franco had put out that year,which led to me starting to whistle.
View on the film:
View on the film:
Roaring in on a possible Thieves' Highway (1949-also reviewed) opening tribute of a loaded (in more ways than one) fruit truck being left empty with a dead driver, to the deep hum of a trombone at a Jazz party, song writer/co-writer (with Luis de Diego)/ directing auteur uncle Jess Franco (who cameos as the opening trombone player!) & his past occasional cinematographer Juan Marine, display an impeccable eye for Film Noir.
Starting production a month after The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962) had come out but taking 2 years to get released, Uncle Jess switches genres with striking ambition, swooping into a rich Film Noir atmosphere hanging on a extended crane shot ascending a poolside springboard,which reaches a tense dialogue-free set-piece of Pereira breaking into Radeck's home.
Attempting to turn Spain into New Orleans (nice try Jess!) Uncle Jess takes a brave choice for the era in having all races casually hanging out and playing at the same Jazz clubs, (backed by a sizzling Jazz score from Anton Garcia Abril) and in Joe and Rosita, a long-term mixed race couple (played by a very good Joe Brown and Maria Silva.) Jess brings his unique trademarks out by rolling up the sleeves in the fight scenes and (fittingly) the Jazz clubs scene, hitting each note and punch-up with lovable button-bashing, trombone-sliding zoom-ins, which pull back to crystallised shadows surrounding Femme Fatale Lina, and closing in on Radeck's ghostly fears.
Inspired by Etienne Perier's 1960 adaptation of the Boileau/ Narcejac novel Murder at 45RPM, the screenplay by Jess and Diego crackles with Film Noir dread spinning on Radeck's paranoia that Pereira (the first appearance of this major re-curing Franco character)has returned from being killed by Radeck (a devilish cad Georges Rollin) a decade ago, and is less than thrilled that his wife/widow Lina (a hypnotic,deadly alluring Perla Cristal) has now gotten married to Radeck,who whistles the blues of death.
View on the film:
View on the film:
Roaring in on a possible Thieves' Highway (1949-also reviewed) opening tribute of a loaded (in more ways than one) fruit truck being left empty with a dead driver, to the deep hum of a trombone at a Jazz party, song writer/co-writer (with Luis de Diego)/ directing auteur uncle Jess Franco (who cameos as the opening trombone player!) & his past occasional cinematographer Juan Marine, display an impeccable eye for Film Noir.
Starting production a month after The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962) had come out but taking 2 years to get released, Uncle Jess switches genres with striking ambition, swooping into a rich Film Noir atmosphere hanging on a extended crane shot ascending a poolside springboard,which reaches a tense dialogue-free set-piece of Pereira breaking into Radeck's home.
Attempting to turn Spain into New Orleans (nice try Jess!) Uncle Jess takes a brave choice for the era in having all races casually hanging out and playing at the same Jazz clubs, (backed by a sizzling Jazz score from Anton Garcia Abril) and in Joe and Rosita, a long-term mixed race couple (played by a very good Joe Brown and Maria Silva.) Jess brings his unique trademarks out by rolling up the sleeves in the fight scenes and (fittingly) the Jazz clubs scene, hitting each note and punch-up with lovable button-bashing, trombone-sliding zoom-ins, which pull back to crystallised shadows surrounding Femme Fatale Lina, and closing in on Radeck's ghostly fears.
Inspired by Etienne Perier's 1960 adaptation of the Boileau/ Narcejac novel Murder at 45RPM, the screenplay by Jess and Diego crackles with Film Noir dread spinning on Radeck's paranoia that Pereira (the first appearance of this major re-curing Franco character)has returned from being killed by Radeck (a devilish cad Georges Rollin) a decade ago, and is less than thrilled that his wife/widow Lina (a hypnotic,deadly alluring Perla Cristal) has now gotten married to Radeck,who whistles the blues of death.