The best Jesús Franco’s drama movies
We present our ranking of the best Jesús Franco’s movies. Do you love cinema? Or are you looking for a movie of your favorite actor to watch tonight? Surely you have some to see or that you did not know yet about Jesús Franco.
99 Women
4.7/10
Jesus Franco's campy women's prison film is worthwhile for genre devotees primarily due to an outstanding cast. Mercedes McCambridge is unintentionally hilarious as sadistic lesbian warden Thelma Diaz, spitting tacky dialogue with exuberant venom in a performance so overbearing that it verges on classic. The plot is standard for the genre, as three women (Maria Rohm, Elisa Montes, Luciana Paluzzi) are sentenced to an island prison off the Panamanian coast, only to encounter torture, rape, and lesbianism. When sympathetic Warden Caroll (Maria Schell) replaces Diaz, the prisoners assume that conditions will improve, but their agony only worsens until they decide to escape. Rosalba Neri co-stars, and Herbert Lom runs the corrupt men's prison nearby. 99 Mujeres was heavily censored in various prints, with versions running anywhere between 70 and 108 minutes. Edits running 84, 86, and 94 minutes are most commonly available.
Barbed Wire Dolls
4.5/10
After killing her father who had attempted to rape her, Maria da Guerra is sentenced to prison for life. The wardress is a sadistic lesbian without mercy or humanity. Upon her arrival Maria is taken to a special section for mentally disturbed prisoners where torture and rape are part of the day-to-day reality. One day the Regional Governor arrives, claiming to have received a letter from one of the prisoners describing incredible events in the prison. The writer of the letter was clearly unaware that the Governor is also part of the conspiracy. Carlos Costa, a male nurse pretending to be the prison doctor Moore, falls in love with Maria. After seducing him, Maria kills him with a pair of scissors and escapes with her friends Bertha and the disturbed Rosario, hoping to find safety in the Governor's house, unaware that he will not help them...
Greta, the Mad Butcher
4.5/10
Greta a vicious warden, runs a mental-hospital for young women. A girl deliberately "checks" in to the hospital to find out what has happened to her sister who stayed there. Meanwhile Greta and one of the guards are forcing the inmates to have sex with male prisoners, filming them and selling the recordings as pornoflicks.
Eugenie
5.2/10
Eugenie, an innocent young woman, is taken to an island paradise where she initiated into a world of pleasure and pain controlled by the sinister Dolmance. But when she surrenders to her own forbidden fantasies, Eugenie becomes trapped in a frenzy of drugs, sadomasochism and murder. Can a frightened girl in the grip of carnal perversion find sanctuary in the orgies of the depraved?
Sinner: The Secret Diary of a Nymphomaniac
5.4/10
Linda comes to the big city in search of fun and excitement. What she finds is exploitation and abuse at the hands of a succession of sleazy guys. Searching for love, she enters into a lesbian relationship with a beautiful countess, discovers drugs and swingers' parties and starts acting in porno movies. She also begins to write a secret diary... With a cast of some of the most stunning Euro actresses of the period, wall-to-wall sex and nudity, pot parties, porno shoots and a psychedelic soundtrack, this is a gem of 1970s exploitation cinema from Jess Franco. Street scenes shot in Benidorm (Alicante, Spain) and Las Palmas (Gran Canaria, Spain).
Sadomania
4.7/10
Soon after newlyweds Olga and Michel set foot on the grounds of a notorious women's prison, they're arrested by topless guards and ushered behind bars where the warden quickly dismisses Michel but demands that Olga do a little time.
White Cannibal Queen
3.4/10
A man is on safari in the jungle with his wife and daughter when the wife gets eaten and the daughter is captured by cannibals. Several years later he goes back to see if his daughter is still alive.
The Hot Nights of Linda
5/10
A young woman is hired to care for an elderly man who lives on an island off the Greek coast. When she arrives there the man warns her that his daughters are evil and dangerous. The woman discovers that one of the daughters is a crazed nymphomaniac who pursues, and seduces, everyone in the house, including her crippled sister.
Eugenie de Sade
5.6/10
Eugenie, a beautiful but shy young girl, lives with her stepfather, a famous writer specializing in stories of erotica. One day she happens to read one of his "erotic" books and its power so affects her that begins to find herself sexually attracted to her stepfather. He notices this, and eventually brings her into his dark world of sexual perversion and murder.
Debris Documentar
4.2/10
The film, released on DVD in 2014 as part of a boxset also containitng Melancholie der Engel (2009) and Reise nach Agatis (2010), deals with the everyday life of a man, Carsten , who works on the set of the 2004 Ulli Lommel film Zombie Nation. At the same time, he is planning to realize his own film, a task he finds extremely difficult.
Bahia Blanca
5.5/10
Pocho Martin's body is found dead on the shore of a fishing village. According to the forensic Ramiro, Pocho has been assassinated, which alerts the Commissioner Carlos. Young Silvia, Pocho's friend, receives the sad news but is more concerned about her impending wedding with Andy. Crackpot Oscar speaks to Carlos of the dangerous sirens of Deer Island, evil women who attract sailors and annihilate them. When Ramiro and Carlos go to the island, they find the sisters Lila and Mary, who run a tavern / brothel near the beach. Carlos and Lila are old acquaintances and celebrate the reunion, but the murder of Pocho remains unsolved.
Midnight Party
4.4/10
Sylvia, a stripper, attends a party where the theme is a mock spy adventure. Unfortunately, she soon finds herself thrust in a real espionage adventure. There are these two playboys that invite her to their midnight orgy. Later, her communist rock star lover shows up in her dressing room and starts shouting anti-capitalist rhetoric. In the mean time, her hypochondriac husband keeps loosing money in poker games. And in between, she talks directly into the camera, trying to entertain us.
Death Whistles the Blues
5.9/10
Vogel, an important trafficker, betrayed two of his accomplices, Castro and Smith. The first was shot by police, while the latter was imprisoned. Fifteen years later, Vogel adopted a new identity and moved to Jamaica with his wife, Linda. Smith comes back for revenge but Vogel sends his henchmen to kill him.
Jailhouse Wardress
2.8/10
After the fall of the Third Reich, all Nazi SS officers ran away in Latin American countries. There they created special laboratories to crate beautiful women for satisfaction of their guards' sexual desires. The main warden in this prison is a cruel woman. Their main plan is to revenge for defeat of Nazi's Germany.
Idoru
70's trash movie queen Soledad Miranda wakes up from the dead, to find herself not in heaven but trapped in a film - the vision of a devoted fan. As her interaction with the "Auteur" reveals the extent of his obsession, she takes drastic steps to escape his reality.
Esmeralda Bay
3.7/10
A priest secretly leads rebels in their struggle against the corrupt military dictatorship of the Central American country of Puerto Santo.
X312 - Flight to Hell
4.8/10
A plane leaving the turmoil of a South American country in the midst of a revolution crash-lands in the Amazon jungle in Brazil. Among the passengers are a corrupt banker who is smuggling diamonds out of the country, a reporter, a mysterious beauty and a shady flight attendant. The survivors find themselves up against not only the dangers of the jungle itself but a band of headhunters and a gang of revolutionaries who are looking for the smuggled diamonds.
Black Boots, Leather Whip
4.9/10
Al Pereira is hired by Lina, the wife of a wealthy man, to recover some compromising photos. She has sex with him by way of a retainer. In the course of his investigation, Al is obliged to commit a couple of murders... and he's left holding the bag when Lina turns out not to be what she seems to be.
The Night Of Open Sex
4.8/10
Moira – a beautiful and erotic cabaret dancer – is hired to impersonate another woman who turns out to be a secret agent who must receive an important message that contains the hidden whereabouts of a very important character from World War II who once absconded with a vast fortune in gold. Aided by private detective Al Crosby, with whom her relationship goes beyond the limits of pleasure, Moira attempts to locate the mysterious character.
The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff
4.8/10
Amid the craggy, dusty hills of southern France (or is it northern Spain?), a woman screams in the night. Gorgeous Melissa Comfort (Mona Proust), a wealthy heiress confined to a wheelchair since birth, cries out in her nightmares, terrified of a dream that comes night after night. In this night terror, she's 10-years-old. Running from a man who may or may not be her father.
