The second of nine films made by director Jess Franco and writer-producer Harry Alan Towers over the course of only two years, The Girl from Rio is their jazzy, featherweight riff on the spy-fi genre, a heady blend of international intrigue and semi-science-fictional elements, popular (especially in Europe) in the wake of the James Bond films. It’s also a sequel of sorts to Towers’s earlier film The Million Eyes of Sumuru, directed by Lindsay Shonteff, based on the exploits of the Sax Rohmer super-villainess. Though in this film, for some inexplicable reason, the character is regularly referred to as Sunanda (obviously and not very convincingly dubbed in post) and listed in the credits as Sumitra. Blame it on Rio!
Like many a Franco film, The Girl from Rio opens with a protracted erotic dance routine: Clad only in a webbed body stocking, Yana (Beni Cardoso) does her number for a recumbent man,...
Like many a Franco film, The Girl from Rio opens with a protracted erotic dance routine: Clad only in a webbed body stocking, Yana (Beni Cardoso) does her number for a recumbent man,...
- 9/27/2023
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
This month’s installment of Deep Cuts Rising features a variety of horror movies. Some selections reflect a specific day or event in July, and others were chosen at random.
Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.
This month’s offerings feature a giant monster bug, home invaders, a zombie boy, a killer videographer, and a water spirit.
Blue Monkey (1987)
Directed by William Fruet.
As its name suggests, Pandemonium Day (July 14) is all about bedlam. And William Fruet’s Canadian tax-shelter movie Blue Monkey (a.k.a. Insect!) is as chaotic as they come. Originally called “Green Monkey” at one point, this movie’s final title is still a misnomer; there are no monkeys here. Instead, the characters battle a deadly parasite inside a quarantined hospital.
Fruet (Killer Party) delivered a gooey and...
Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.
This month’s offerings feature a giant monster bug, home invaders, a zombie boy, a killer videographer, and a water spirit.
Blue Monkey (1987)
Directed by William Fruet.
As its name suggests, Pandemonium Day (July 14) is all about bedlam. And William Fruet’s Canadian tax-shelter movie Blue Monkey (a.k.a. Insect!) is as chaotic as they come. Originally called “Green Monkey” at one point, this movie’s final title is still a misnomer; there are no monkeys here. Instead, the characters battle a deadly parasite inside a quarantined hospital.
Fruet (Killer Party) delivered a gooey and...
- 6/30/2023
- by Paul Lê
- bloody-disgusting.com
The Girl From Rio
Stars: Shirley Eaton, Richard Wyler, George Sanders, Maria Rohm, Herbert Fleischmann, Marta Reves, Elisa Montés, Walter Rilla, Beni Cardoso, Valentina Godoy | Written by Franz Eichhorn, Bruno Leder, Harry Alan Towers | Directed by Jess Franco
There is an argument that films that are described as “so bad they are good” aren’t actually good, they are just bad. What about films though that are bad, they should be seen as bad but you still like them? The Girl from Rio is a film that I can see is bad, I can list ways it just fails yet I will still say I honestly like it. I’m can’t say I’ve seen that many films directed by Jess Franco (though I may have unwittingly seen more than I realise) but the more I see the more I realise the man turned exploitation into an art form,...
Stars: Shirley Eaton, Richard Wyler, George Sanders, Maria Rohm, Herbert Fleischmann, Marta Reves, Elisa Montés, Walter Rilla, Beni Cardoso, Valentina Godoy | Written by Franz Eichhorn, Bruno Leder, Harry Alan Towers | Directed by Jess Franco
There is an argument that films that are described as “so bad they are good” aren’t actually good, they are just bad. What about films though that are bad, they should be seen as bad but you still like them? The Girl from Rio is a film that I can see is bad, I can list ways it just fails yet I will still say I honestly like it. I’m can’t say I’ve seen that many films directed by Jess Franco (though I may have unwittingly seen more than I realise) but the more I see the more I realise the man turned exploitation into an art form,...
- 1/30/2013
- by Pzomb
- Nerdly
We’re going old school cult classic for a Monday, so prepare for a new years encounter with murderous witch finders, vampires, lusty warrior women and murderous magicians because Medium rare Entertainment are releasing four icons of cult/classic/horror, from the like of Jess Franco, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. All are being released in January 2013 in the UK on DVD for the very first time. Here’s the low down on each.... The Bloody Judge (1970/ 18/ 89mins) Directed by Jess Franco, with Christopher Lee, Maria Rohn, Leon Gunn. Christopher Lee swops his cape for a wig and gown to play the notorious Judge Jeffreys, a real-life 17th century witchfinder who showed a ruthless, sadistic justice. His growing obsession with a local wench (Maria Rohm) fuels a jaw-dropping spree of torture, brutality and flesh-ripping perversion. Franco, Lee, Maria Rohm are reunited after The Vengeance of Fu Manchuin this lavishly murderous...
- 12/3/2012
- 24framespersecond.net
We’re going old school cult classic for a Monday, so prepare for a new years encounter with murderous witch finders, vampires, lusty warrior women and murderous magicians because Medium rare Entertainment are releasing four icons of cult/classic/horror, from the like of Jess Franco, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. All are being released in January 2013 in the UK on DVD for the very first time. Here’s the low down on each.... The Bloody Judge (1970/ 18/ 89mins) Directed by Jess Franco, with Christopher Lee, Maria Rohn, Leon Gunn. Christopher Lee swops his cape for a wig and gown to play the notorious Judge Jeffreys, a real-life 17th century witchfinder who showed a ruthless, sadistic justice. His growing obsession with a local wench (Maria Rohm) fuels a jaw-dropping spree of torture, brutality and flesh-ripping perversion. Franco, Lee, Maria Rohm are reunited after The Vengeance of Fu Manchuin this lavishly murderous...
- 12/3/2012
- 24framespersecond.net
British-born actor Richard Stapley began his film career in Hollywood in the late 1940s. He starred as French nobleman Denis de Beaulieu, who becomes a pawn in Charles Laughton’s revenge plot in the 1951 horror thriller The Strange Door, with Boris Karloff as the menacing manservant Voltan.
Stapley was born in Westcliff, Essex, England, on June 20, 1923. He moved to Hollywood in the late 1940s, where he appeared in such films as The Challenge (1948), The Three Musketeers (1948) with Gene Kelly and Lana Turner, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1949) with June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor, King of the Khyber Rifles (1953), and Jungle Man-Eater (1954), with Johnny Weissmuller as Jungle Jim.
He returned to England in the late 1950s, where he continued his career in films and television under the name Richard Wyler. He starred as Interpol Agent Anthony Smith in the television series Man from Interpol from 1960 to 1961. He also appeared in episodes of The Saint,...
Stapley was born in Westcliff, Essex, England, on June 20, 1923. He moved to Hollywood in the late 1940s, where he appeared in such films as The Challenge (1948), The Three Musketeers (1948) with Gene Kelly and Lana Turner, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1949) with June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor, King of the Khyber Rifles (1953), and Jungle Man-Eater (1954), with Johnny Weissmuller as Jungle Jim.
He returned to England in the late 1950s, where he continued his career in films and television under the name Richard Wyler. He starred as Interpol Agent Anthony Smith in the television series Man from Interpol from 1960 to 1961. He also appeared in episodes of The Saint,...
- 3/13/2010
- by Jesse
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
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