In 1972, American producer Dick Randall, never one to let a bandwagon go by without jumping on it, turned his attention to the then extremely popular Italian 'giallo' genre, giving fans of sleazy murder thrillers French Sex Murders, a tawdry tale of sex, violence and bad 70s fashion.
The film, which is directed without panache by Ferdinando Merighi, features a great cast (many of whom will be familiar to fans of cult 'Euro-trash' cinema) who struggle with the so-so plot, which sees a detective (who inexplicably resembles Humphrey Bogart) trying to solve the mystery of who is bumping off the girls at a Parisian brothel.
But whilst it might never be considered a 'classic' of the genre, French Sex Murders does feature several factors which ensure that a fun time is still had from start to finish: plenty of welcome nudity from its gorgeous actresses (Evelyne Kraft and Barbara Bouchet are stunning); a few decent death scenes (including a couple of decapitations) with effects courtesy of Carlo 'E.T.' Rambaldi; eyeball mutilation; a groovy soundtrack; trippy editing (scenes are shown in negative and often repeated in several different colours) from Bruno Mattei; and memorable performances (not necessarily good, but certainly memorable) from creepy Franco regular Howard Vernon, bizarre Bogart-a-like Robert Sacchi, and the incredibly OTT Pietro Martellanza.
So if you've seen all of the greats of the genre, but are still hankering after a bit more giallo action, then you could do (much) worse than to give French Sex Murders a viewing.
6.5 out of 10 (rounded up to 7 for IMDb).
The film, which is directed without panache by Ferdinando Merighi, features a great cast (many of whom will be familiar to fans of cult 'Euro-trash' cinema) who struggle with the so-so plot, which sees a detective (who inexplicably resembles Humphrey Bogart) trying to solve the mystery of who is bumping off the girls at a Parisian brothel.
But whilst it might never be considered a 'classic' of the genre, French Sex Murders does feature several factors which ensure that a fun time is still had from start to finish: plenty of welcome nudity from its gorgeous actresses (Evelyne Kraft and Barbara Bouchet are stunning); a few decent death scenes (including a couple of decapitations) with effects courtesy of Carlo 'E.T.' Rambaldi; eyeball mutilation; a groovy soundtrack; trippy editing (scenes are shown in negative and often repeated in several different colours) from Bruno Mattei; and memorable performances (not necessarily good, but certainly memorable) from creepy Franco regular Howard Vernon, bizarre Bogart-a-like Robert Sacchi, and the incredibly OTT Pietro Martellanza.
So if you've seen all of the greats of the genre, but are still hankering after a bit more giallo action, then you could do (much) worse than to give French Sex Murders a viewing.
6.5 out of 10 (rounded up to 7 for IMDb).