Saturday, July 23, 2011

The Woman in the Coffin - 8mm - Jess Franco



This is the third, and I presume final, Mountain 8mm silent film taken from Jess Franco's GRITOS EN LA NOCHE. The catalog number is T220. If you notice, the other Mountain catalog numbers for this series were T217 and T218. So what was T219? Possibly a fourth Franco 8mm sourced from GRITOS?

In the past, I may have come across a complete, or fairly complete, listing of Mountain Films' titles, and I believe that T219 was not a Franco-related film. Can't be certain at this point, and I've not come across this list online again. (There are other Mountain lists out there, but incomplete.) My investigation continues.

The side description of THE WOMAN IN THE COFFIN: "Can a man mould and create his own beautiful mistress? Can flesh and bone be put together to form a female Venus? What mad schemes are unfolded in the heart of the dark country?"

In the original Franco film, this "mistress" was Dr. Orlof's daughter, whose beauty he wanted to restore. But there have been many incestuous currents running through Franco's work. Was Mountain Films picking up on this?

Friday, July 22, 2011

Lust for Blood - 8mm - Jess Franco



Here is the second Mountain Films' 8mm silent taken from Jess Franco's GRITOS EN LA NOCHE (American title: THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF). Catalog number T218. Side description: "MORPO--is he man or monster? A blood sucker who continually seeks the fresh blood of lovely young women and lures them to a fate worse than death." The character's name should be spelled Morpho, and unless I'm missing an element of the original film, there's no bloodsucking done by him, but it's good ballyhoo anyway.

The cover hints at what "the fate worse than death" may be.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Demon Doctor - 8mm - Jess Franco



Mountain Films of Great Britain released three (as far as I know) 8mm silent films from Jess Franco's GRITOS EN LA NOCHE. The British title of this film was THE DEMON DOCTOR, the American--THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF.

The first Franco offering from Mountain was titled, like the British version, THE DEMON DOCTOR, catalog number T217. The description on the side of the box: "Foul murders have been committed and the police are baffled. The inspector's girlfriend volunteers to act as bait. Can she help trap the Demon Doctor!"

Love the gaudy cover and the "Terror more horrifying than DEATH" tag.

At some future date, I'd like to uncover whatever treasures these 8mm films contain and could see using them for some weird horror project (with permission from the rights owner, of course!)

I'll be showing the remaining Franco releases from Mountain in the next blog entries.