FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 20! BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1976) (Full Moon Features Blu-ray Review)

Day 20 of Franco February is a total sleaze-fest, were revisiting our review of Barbed Wire Dolls (1976), which is a ton of WIP fun. It's super-sleazy even by the usual Jess Franco standards, but not quite on par with the hardcore stuff he did, but there's still plenty of tortured titties, naughty finger and whip penetration and gratuitous crotch shots!

BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1976) 

Label: Full Moon Features
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 81 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Surround 5.1
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Lina Romay, Monica Swinn, Martine Stedil, Eric Falk, Paul Muller

Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) is widely considered one of the most outrageous women-in-prison films of all time, it was the first team-up between Franco and Swedish producer Erwin C. Dietrich When the producer saw the finished cut of the film he declared that it was unreleasable as is - surely not the first or last time the Spanish euro-cult auteur heard that I am sure - but Franco turned him around and the pair had a great string of exploitation films to follow. 

In this seedy WI.P classic Maria (Lina Romay, The Hot Nights of Linda) is sent to an island prison for the murder of her incestuous father, the prison is run by a diabolical lesbo-warden (Monica Swinn, The Duke of Burgundy) who has a penchant for wearing a monocle, reading Nazi literature in bed, and walking around in some seriously demented wardrobes, her preference is for short-shorts and jackboots. She also enjoys the company of women, namely that of her prisoner's whenever the urge arises, occasionally darting her tongue into some ambiguous places in the process. The movie doesn't get much if any set-up, but the standard WIP tropes apply, we have a wicked warden and a group of mostly nude young women, who are subjected to the cruel tortures and erotic delights of the warden and her equally wicked underlings, the diabolical Dr. Costa (Paul Muller, She Killed in Ecstasy) and the pervy torturer Nestor (Eric Faulk, Blue Rita), the latter of whom subjects the women to whippings, beatings and electrocution via the nude women being tied down to a metal bed spring box hooked up to an electrical current. When the women are electrocuted they begin flailing wildly and screaming in pain as the lights dim off and on, it's good, lurid exploitation stuff. 

Lina Romay has that wonderful wide-eyed innocence I love about her, plus that voluptuous 70's body of hers is a major turn on for me, she has something about her that always get under the skin, a lot of it has to do with the way her mouth frames her teeth, but I'm just weird that way, she's a stunner! The nudity in this one is wall-to-wall, including not just her but three other female prisoners, we have the ginger duo of the truly bonkers Ingrid (Peggy Markoff, Swedish Nympho Slaves), who thinks she's a Queen,  the more mean-spirited Rosaria (Beni Cardoso, The Girl from Rio) - who in one scene masturbates with a lit cigarette! - and a blond inmate named Bertha (Martine Stedil, Slaves), all of whom eventually team-up with newcomer Maria for a daring prison break they get the best of the lustful Dr. Costas who is too blinded by his libido to see what's coming.   

The story is mighty threadbare, most WIP films are, but even by that anemic standard this one has no real drive, perhaps even more plotless than Franco's Women in Cell Block 9 (1978). Where it succeeds is amping up the lurid sexploitation with lots of seedy violence and torture thrown in for cheap titillation, and that's all right by me. A scene worth noting, and not for anything good, is a flashback/dream of Maria's father, played by director Jess Franco, chasing her around with thoughts of daughterly lust on his mind. The scene plays out in slow-motion, but the camera is not slowed down, nope, Franco and Romay play the scene moving themselves in slow motion in a Vaseline lensed slice of hilarious strangeness, the effect completely fails, so much so that it's laughable. As much as I do love Franco there's does always tend to be something sort of unintentionally funny about a moment or two, and not just the crazy use of zoom lensing. 

The island prison's relaxed dress code is also suspect in a campy way, sure we get the expected women prisoners without clothing, but the Warden is never seen fully clothed, not even once, when she's not parading around in her jackboots and short-shorts she's in a see-through negligee or less, and during the island escape the guards pursue the women through the jungle topless, including the a woman guard, small things like that just bring a smile to my face - it doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be fun, and despite the depravity of this lurid slice of WIP cinema, it is a good bit of ridiculous fun. 

Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) is a ton of WIP fun, it's super-sleazy even by the usual Jess Franco standards, but not quite on par with the hardcore stuff he did, but there's still plenty of tortured titties, naughty finger and whip penetration and gratuitous crotch shots, but as I've said,  it's not up there with the x-rated cut of The Hot Night of Linda, but it has loads of what a WIP needs to be salaciously entertaining.
  

Audio/Video: Jess Franco's Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) arrives on Blu-ray from the original 35mm negative, restored by Swiss producer Erwin C. Dietrich's from the original vault elements, Full Moon licensed this from Acot who also released region-free BLu-rays of these titles in the U.K.. The results look great, this is a Franco cheapie but the guy had an eye for such exploitation flare and the movie was lensed nicely, but of course there's plenty of zoom lens which Franco loved. Overall the PQ is great, grain is nicely managed, it's sharp, and the colors and flesh tones look natural, it's a great looking Blu-ray. I think it leans towards the greens but not unnaturally so. 

The only audio option on the disc is an English-dubbed Dolby Digital track, sadly we get no lossless audio option, which is unfortunate, but it's a capable lossy track with good fidelity. The dubbed English comes through nicely, with obvious dub limitations, and the Walter Baumgartner (Jack the Ripper) sounds good in the mix, there are no subtitles options.

These were released in the UK by Ascot with extras not included here what we do get is a 34-minute interview conducted by former Fangoria editor Chris Alexander with The Duke of Burgundy director Peter Strickland, whose film started out as a remake of Franco's Lorna the Exorcist (1974), he ended up going another direction but the he's still a passionate fan of euro-cult and Franco in particular.

Then we get a VHS sourced trailer reel of Franco films and a trailer for the movie itself running two-minutes and change. 

Special Features: 
- 2014 Audio Interview with The Duke of Burgundy director Peter Strickland discussing the films of Jess Franco, conducted by Chris Alexander. (24 min) 

Original Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Vintage Jess Franco VHS Trailer Reel: The Oasis of the Living Dead, Demoniac, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, The Screaming Dead, Erotikill, The Invisible Dead 

I've been asking Full Moon to bring their Jess Franco Collection DVD releases to Blu-ray for awhile now, I'm not taking credit for it, just saying what I already knew, that I wasn't the only one clamoring for these to get the HD upgrade from a U.S. distributor, glad to see it happening with the release of  Barbed Wire Dolls (1976). I prefer Franco's more artsy and somewhat surreal erotic thrillers, She Killed in Ecstasy is still a favorite,  but I do love his seedier WIP films, from the game-changing 99 Women (1969) to this slice of sexed-up sleaze, it's all prime Franco to me.  

FRANCO FEBRUARY! BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1976)

BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1976) 

Label: Full Moon Features
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 81 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Surround 5.1
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Lina Romay, Monica Swinn, Martine Stedil, Eric Falk, Paul Muller

Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) is widely considered one of the most outrageous women-in-prison films of all time, it was the first team-up between Franco and Swedish producer Erwin C. Dietrich When the producer saw the finished cut of the film he declared that it was unreleasable as is - surely not the first or last time the Spanish euro-cult auteur heard that I am sure - but Franco turned him around and the pair had a great string of exploitation films to follow. 

In this seedy WI.P classic Maria (Lina Romay, The Hot Nights of Linda) is sent to an island prison for the murder of her incestuous father, the prison is run by a diabolical lesbo-warden (Monica Swinn, The Duke of Burgundy) who has a penchant for wearing a monocle, reading Nazi literature in bed, and walking around in some seriously demented wardrobes, her preference is for short-shorts and jackboots. She also enjoys the company of women, namely that of her prisoner's whenever the urge arises, occasionally darting her tongue into some ambiguous places in the process. The movie doesn't get much if any set-up, but the standard WIP tropes apply, we have a wicked warden and a group of mostly nude young women, who are subjected to the cruel tortures and erotic delights of the warden and her equally wicked underlings, the diabolical Dr. Costa (Paul Muller, She Killed in Ecstasy) and the pervy torturer Nestor (Eric Faulk, Blue Rita), the latter of whom subjects the women to whippings, beatings and electrocution via the nude women being tied down to a metal bed spring box hooked up to an electrical current. When the women are electrocuted they begin flailing wildly and screaming in pain as the lights dim off and on, it's good, lurid exploitation stuff. 

Lina Romay has that wonderful wide-eyed innocence I love about her, plus that voluptuous 70's body of hers is a major turn on for me, she has something about her that always get under the skin, a lot of it has to do with the way her mouth frames her teeth, but I'm just weird that way, she's a stunner! The nudity in this one is wall-to-wall, including not just her but three other female prisoners, we have the ginger duo of the truly bonkers Ingrid (Peggy Markoff, Swedish Nympho Slaves), who thinks she's a Queen,  the more mean-spirited Rosaria (Beni Cardoso, The Girl from Rio) - who in one scene masturbates with a lit cigarette! - and a blond inmate named Bertha (Martine Stedil, Women Behind Bars), all of whom eventually team-up with newcomer Maria for a daring prison break they get the best of the lustful Dr. Costas who is too blinded by his libido to see what's coming.   

The story is mighty threadbare, most WIP films are, but even by that anemic standard this one has no real drive, perhaps even more plotless than Franco's Women in Cell Block 9 (1978). Where it succeeds is amping up the lurid sexploitation with lots of seedy violence and torture thrown in for cheap titillation, and that's all right by me. A scene worth noting, and not for anything good, is a flashback/dream of Maria's father, played by director Jess Franco, chasing her around with thoughts of daughterly lust on his mind. The scene plays out in slow-motion, but the camera is not slowed down, nope, Franco and Romay play the scene moving themselves in slow motion in a Vaseline lensed slice of hilarious strangeness, the effect completely fails, so much so that it's laughable. As much as I do love Franco there's does always tend to be something sort of unintentionally funny about a moment or two, and not just the crazy use of zoom lensing. 

The island prison's relaxed dress code is also suspect in a campy way, sure we get the expected women prisoners without clothing, but the Warden is never seen fully clothed, not even once, when she's not parading around in her jackboots and short-shorts she's in a see-through negligee or less, and during the island escape the guards pursue the women through the jungle topless, including the a woman guard, small things like that just bring a smile to my face - it doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be fun, and despite the depravity of this lurid slice of WIP cinema, it is a good bit of ridiculous fun. 

Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) is a ton of WIP fun, it's super-sleazy even by the usual Jess Franco standards, but not quite on par with the hardcore stuff he did, but there's still plenty of tortured titties, naughty finger and whip penetration and gratuitous crotch shots, but as I've said,  it's not up there with the x-rated cut of The Hot Night of Linda, but it has loads of what a WIP needs to be salaciously entertaining.
  

Audio/Video: Jess Franco's Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) arrives on Blu-ray from the original 35mm negative, restored by Swiss producer Erwin C. Dietrich's from the original vault elements, Full Moon licensed this from Acot who also released region-free Blu-rays of these titles in the U.K.. The results look great, this is a Franco cheapie but the guy had an eye for such exploitation flare and the movie was lensed nicely, but of course there's plenty of zoom lens which Franco loved. Overall the PQ is great, grain is nicely managed, it's sharp, and the colors and flesh tones look natural, it's a great looking Blu-ray. I think it leans towards the greens but not unnaturally so. 

The only audio option on the disc is an English-dubbed Dolby Digital track, sadly we get no lossless audio option, which is unfortunate, but it's a capable lossy track with good fidelity. The dubbed English comes through nicely, with obvious dub limitations, and the Walter Baumgartner (Jack the Ripper) sounds good in the mix, there are no subtitles options.

These were released in the UK by Ascot with extras not included here what we do get is a 34-minute interview conducted by former Fangoria editor Chris Alexander with The Duke of Burgundy director Peter Strickland, whose film started out as a remake of Franco's Lorna the Exorcist (1974), he ended up going another direction but the he's still a passionate fan of euro-cult and Franco in particular.

Then we get a VHS sourced trailer reel of Franco films and a trailer for the movie itself running two-minutes and change. 

Special Features: 
- 2014 Audio Interview with The Duke of Burgundy director Peter Strickland discussing the films of Jess Franco, conducted by Chris Alexander. (24 min) 

Original Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Vintage Jess Franco VHS Trailer Reel: The Oasis of the Living Dead, Demoniac, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, The Screaming Dead, Erotikill, The Invisible Dead

I prefer Franco's more artsy and somewhat surreal erotic thrillers, She Killed in Ecstasy is still a favorite,  but I do love his seedier WIP films, from the game-changing 99 Women (1969) to this slice of sexed-up sleaze, it's all prime Franco to me in this era.

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY (2014) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY (2014)

Label: Shout! Factory
Release Date: September 29th 2015 
Region Code: A
Duration: 104 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1 Surround, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Peter Strickland
Cast: Chiara D'Anna, Eszter Tompa, Eugenia Caruso, Fatma Mohamed, Monica Swinn, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Zita Kraszkó

The Duke of Burgundy comes to us by way of Director Peter Strickland whose previous movie, the tense Giallo homage Berberian Sound Studio, was a film that split viewers right down the middle, either you thought it was a pretentious slice of arthouse cinema and loathed it or you thought it was an arthouse slice of cinema and loved it. I firmly fell into the latter category as I have love for both the stylized Italian whodunit and for the artier side of world cinema, ever since an accidental screening of the Krzysztof Kieślowski movie The Double Life of Véronique (1991) during my formative teen years, truth be known I loved '90s arthouse long before I discovered the whodunit movies of Sergio Martino and Dario Argento. 

Being a fan of arthouse helped my viewing, but point in fact when The Duke of Burgundy arrived I was not aware of who directed it until I put it on for a watch. It was evident from the very beginning that this would be one of those artier viewings though, one with a heavy European cinema flavor beginning with an atmospheric chamber pop score from composers Cat's Eye, whom provided a dreamy chamber pop score to accompany the baroque cinematography. 

Set in the idyllic countryside of some undefined European place we have the icy butterfly researcher Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen, Borgen) living in a somewhat run down estate nestled away in a fairytale-esque woodland area. She is visited by  Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna, Berberian Sound Studio), a younger woman who performs chores around the home for Cynthia, but it quickly becomes evident that the two are lovers and this role playing routine is mere foreplay before the sadomasochistic sex and bondage games begins, but this is some seriously restrained stuff, don't come in expecting a lurid spectacle or you will be disappointed.  

As the movie plays on we see the two lovers repeat the cycle with the unhappy mistress and incompetent maid routine with slight variations, it's a strange and wonderful sort of erotic game, minus the nudity but with an atmosphere and stylish cinematography. What we have here is an interesting examination of the power dynamics of the women's relationship, while Cynthia at first glance seems to be the dominant it becomes very clear that the Evelyn craves the punishments layed upon her and she becomes increasingly frustrated when Cynthia does not completely embrace her role as the icy sadomasochistic mistress. While this is a world I am not familiar with with any amount of authority, I loved the way its portrayed and acted in the film, the relationship is layered and complex, with Strickland focusing not on the lurid aspects, including some hinted at water sports, but instead focusing on the quirky relationship of the women and what they're willing to sacrifice to make the other happy, and the toll that takes on both.

The world Strickland has created seems carved out of a fantasy, the setting is evocative of the eighteenth century, the women travel on bicycles, there are no men present and no modern conveniences of note, and it doesn't are to explain any of the idiosyncrasies. Strickland also seems to avoid the more fantasy driven male gaze and the story has a more feminine touch, watching it I would not have guessed that a man had directed this one. 

Visually the movie feels like an authentic slice of '70s European cinema with slow, gorgeous cinematography with a slightly hazy fairytale aesthetic with a painter's eye and a languid pace that might prove to be an acquired taste for some viewers, but I loved it. On top of that there's the lush chamber pop orchestrations of composer's Cat's Eye who created the score, a wonderful blend of string and wind instrumentation that perfectly compliments the visuals.

Audio/Video: The Duke of Burgundy looks superb on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory, framed in the original scope aspect ratio it opens up wonderfully on screen with a vibrancy of color, more often than not settling for an array of earth tones. The image is crisp and clean, not sure if this was shot on film but it certainly feels that way to me, this feels like an art from the '70s in the best possible way

The English DTS-HD MA 7.1 Surround sounds great, an immersive experience with subtle use of the surrounds, the buoyant and atmospheric score from Cat's Eye sounds superb, optional English SDH subtitles are provided. This is a score I would love to own, I wish there had been an isolated score option on the Blu-ray disc. 

Extras on the disc include an audio commentary with director Peter Strickland, plus a 12-minute video interview, both offering some fascinating insight about the making of the movie and it's Eurocult influences. We also have 44-minutes of deleted scenes with a text-intro for each from the director explaining the scene and the various reasons they weren't used in the final cut of the movie. Additionally we have a Cat's Eye promo, one of Strickland's early short movies 'Conduct Phase', a gallery and a theatrical trailer for the movie, plus a bonus DVD with the same content as the Blu-ray. 

Bonus Features
- Audio Commentary By Director Peter Strickland
- Interview With Director Peter Strickland (12 Mins) HD
- Deleted Scenes (44 Mins) HD 
- Cat's Eye Promo (5 Mins) HD 
- Short Film – Conduct Phase (8 Mins) HD 
- Still Gallery (103 Images) HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins) HD 

In some ways I think this movie is being marketed as a kink or erotic movie, and while that may not be untrue, it is  more along the way of the more refined erotic movies produced by Radley Metzger in the '70s minus the lurid sex and infused with a feminine European sensuality, more so than anything from Jess Franco or Jean Rollin, but you can definitely feel the influence of both upon the director and the movie. The Duke of Burgundy is a quirky little love story wrapped up in some dazzling arthouse wrappings, it certainly won't be for everyone one, but I loved it, and look forward to Peter Strickland's next movie. 4/5