Venus In Furs aka Paroxismus (Jesus Franco, 1970)
"A guy like me without a horn is like, well, a man without words"
Originally written as 'Black Angel', Jess Franco's 1970 effort is definately one of his better films. The man has, after all, directed almost 200 films, most of which are correctly considered shite.
Jimmy Logan (Bill Bixby lookalike James Darren) has the horn. Yes, and he knows what to do with it. He's a poor man's Chet Baker, you see, and he falls for a beautiful woman called Wanda (the very beautiful Maria Rohm) at a party in Istanbul. But she is so beautiful, she has to die in a crazed ritualistic manner. So sad...
The three perpetrators of the crime are Olga (Margeret Lee, who must have the sexiest lips on the planet), Percival (Dennis Price, who is woeful in this, and probably a wee bit drunk), and worldwidegimp favourite Klaus Kinski! What happens next is the supposed ghost of Wanda comes back, waltzes around Istanbul & Rio topless, and offs all three of 'em! Now that's entertainment!
The film is deliberately dreamlike, with occasional fact blending with imagination. This makes the movie slightly confusing and a little bit pretentious, but the titillation factor (whipping & lesbotic love amongst the usual Frano fetishes), not to mention the incredibly groovy music from Manfred Mann (who also stars), makes Venus in furs highly enjoyable. On the downside, the editing is rubbish (not Franco's fault), and the beatnik-style voice-over is dreadful... as it was filmed in 1969, this was supposedly considered hip, but it's far from it, baby.
The fantastic music & Maria Rohm wandering around semi-naked makes venus a flawed but highly enjoyable Franco film. The title Venus in furs was requested by the backers, and is verrrrry loosely based on the book, and should not be confused with the Massimo Dallamano movie (also shot in 1969) of the same name.
