FRANCO
NOIR: DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES (1964)/RIFIFI
IN THE CITY (1963) Blu-ray
Director: Jess Franco
Severin Films
Before Jess Franco became known for his erotic horror films,
he made a bid at the mainstream in his native Spain, two examples of which are
showcased in FRANCO NOIR, on Blu-ray from Severin Films.
DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES: Among his jet set friends, Paul Radeck (Georges Rollin,
THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS) is a philanthropist brought wealth and prosperity
to their island paradise. Among the locals of Kingston, Radeck is a tyrant who
has bought up their fishing rights and their local hot spots. What neither of
them know is that Radeck is actually Vogel, a racketeer who dabbled in the weapons
smuggling in South America, a venture that cost the life of partner Castro whose
widow Lina (Perla Cristal, FURY OF THE WOLFMAN) he then married. His false identity
is threatened, however, when Lina mentions running into Julius Smith (Manuel
Alexandre, HIGH VOLTAGE) – their other partner recently released from
prison and playing the trumpet in a nightclub band – on a trip to New
Orleans.
Radeck orders a hit on Smith, but a letter he intended to send to Lina found
on his person gives Commissioner Fenton (Fortunio Bonanova, DOUBLE INDEMNITY)
the idea of using nightclub singer informant Moira Santos (Danik Patisson, DANIELA
BY NIGHT) to try to discover Radeck's relationship to Smith and Castro. Radeck
smells a rat as soon as Rosita arrives, but keeps her in his employ since he
is not sure who sent her; particularly, when he gets a letter in Castro's handwriting
warning him threatening his life. Lina is torn between her unhappy marriage
to Radeck and her memories of her first husband. Meanwhile, a third player enters
the game in Portuguese sailor Joao (Conrado San Martín, THE AWFUL DR.
ORLOF) who may or may not be Castro.
A strain of film noir has run through Jess Franco's filmography, particularly
in his non-supernatural erotic works, more noticeable in films like KISS ME
KILLER (a semi-remake of this film), DOWNTOWN, and even his women-in-prison
works, but also underlying some of his erotic mind control films like NIGHTMARES
COME AT NIGHT and THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND DESIRES. DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES
not only allowed Franco to first indulge in homages to the genre, it is one
of the earliest films to feature themes that would run throughout his filmography
from nightclub performers, jazz music – including the targeted use of
a song to stir up memories of the past in guilt-ridden characters to the point
where it takes on a ghostly significance – false identities, as well as
the origins of character names that would recur throughout Franco's films including
the introduction of private investigator Al Pereira who would turn up again
in the late seventies played by Franco himself in DOWNTOWN, by Lina Romay as
"Alma Pereira" in Franco's experimental PAULA-PAULA, but most often
by Antonio Mayans in a handful of Franco's eighties Spanish films along with
Franco's final films AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES and REVENGE OF THE ALLIGATOR
LADIES.
While it seems as though Rollin's Radeck is more concerned about what the exposure
of his true identity will do to the memoirs he is writing rather than his actual
life, Lina is sidelined for stretches of the running time, and Joao's actions
are so ambiguous even the local characters he interacts with are questioning
why he didn't bother to kill Radeck when he broke into his house, the supporting
cast includes some familiar faces from Franco's filmography as well as Spanish
genre film in general, including Maria Silva (CURSE OF THE DEVIL), Gerard Tichy
(THE HANGING WOMAN), Rosa Palomar (A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD), Victoria
Zinny (VIRIDIANA), as well as Yocasta Grey (GRAVEYARD OF HORROR) whose future
director husband Miguel Madrid (THE KILLING OF THE DOLLS) is glimpsed playing
in the nightclub band alongside Jess Franco himself on saxophone.
Although lensed in silky black and white by future Juan Piquer Simon cinematographer
Juan Marine (THE RIFT), the island setting and the overall production values
seem not that far away from the first James Bond film DR. NO (which was indeed
quite low budget compared to the rest of the series), perhaps so much so, that
French distributor Eurociné retitled the film AGENT 077: OPERATION JAMAICA
when they released it in 1964 (and again in 1968 as AGENT 077: OPERATION SEXY,
possibly with nude inserts). Franco composed the recurring theme "Blues
del Tejado" while the rest of the score was the work of Anton Garcia Abril
who would become better known in Spanish horror for his "Blind Dead"
theme for the films of Armando de Ossorio.
In RIFIFI IN THE CITY, Detective Miguel Mora (Fernando Fernán Gómez,
SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE) has been trying to get the dirt on nightclub owner Puig
(Robert Manuel, DEADLIER THAN THE MALE), installing handsome, young Juan (Serafín
García Vázquez) as barman to act as informant. Juan calls him
one night and tells him that he has evidence that wealthy political hopeful
Maurice Leprince (Jean Servais, THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE) is the real operator
behind Puig's criminal ventures. When Juan fails to turn up with the evidence,
Mora barrels into Leprince's villa and demands that he turn over Juan or he
will kill him. That night, someone hurls Juan's body through Mora's window.
Mora shows up at Puig's club to threaten him, and catches Leprince in the company
of singer Nina (Maria Vincent, JOE CALIGULA) but is brutally beaten by Puig's
men and thrown off the docks. Mora is rescued by Juan's girlfriend Juanita (Dina
Loy, ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS) and friend Manolo (Luis Marín, I HATE MY BODY)
who were also looking for the younger man.
Mora wakes from a coma to be warned off of Leprince by his superior Commissioner
Vargas (Antonio Prieto, A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS) who has received a visit from
Leprince's lawyer (Jacinto San Emeterio, FACE OF TERROR) alleging harassment.
In spite of the warnings of his superiors and misgivings of his wife Pilar (Laura
Granados, SHOOT TO KILL), Mora continues to investigate unofficially during
his recovery. When the men responsible for his beating, and possibly Juan's
torture and murder – Ribera (Agustín González, BELLE EPOQUE),
Mirelles (Manuel Gas, THE KILLER WORE GLOVES), and Torres (Davidson Hepburn)
– are targeted for death, and Leprince receives a letter telling him that
his own death will follow theirs, Vargas is not so sure about the legitimacy
of Mora's motives or even his alibis during the murders; however, it turns out
that there may be not just another but possibly many other suspects behind the
whispered threat of "Do you remember Juan Solano?"
Loosely based on the French thriller "Do You Remember Paco?" –
indeed, the Spanish RIFIFÍ EN LA CIUDAD title card bears the French subtitle
"Vous souvenez vous de Paco?" despite the film changing the doomed
informant's name – RIFIFI IN THE CITY has nothing to do with the Jules
Dassin heist thriller RIFIFI other than the presence of star Servais. With this
second noir homage (DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES was produced in 1962 but not released
until 1964), Franco was able not only to refine the scripting so the multitude
of characters feel more organic to the plot but also to indulge in some visual
nods to Orson Welles including a secret meeting at an aquarium based on a scene
in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI. Although Servais was just picking up a paycheck here
– having gained a reputation for alcoholism and being difficult to work
with – he does seems a bit more lively here at times, including his bullshitting
political campaign speech in which the man who suspiciously immigrated to the
South American nation setting in April 1944 is introduced as a "distinguished
spirit, who combines ancient French culture with the spirit of young America."
Gomez's detective seems to go around in circles but the actor gives a somber
and authoritative performance, and the supporting trio of thugs marked for death
are appropriately slimy, along with Leprince's lawyer and his personal secretary
(an early appearance by Spanish genre character actor Frank Braña (RETURN
OF THE EVIL DEAD). The film's narrative flow, instead, comes from the mournful
narration of Juan's unidentified lover, who may or may not also be the murderer.
Franco is greatly aided in his Wellsian homages by cinematographer Godofredo
Pacheco – who also lensed THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF and THE SADISTIC BARON VON
KLAUS – and composer Daniel White (FEMALE VAMPIRE), particularly when
it comes to the standout set-piece that intercuts Mora's beating with Nina's
singing and the unconventional costumed pairings of dancers on the nightclub
floor. While there might not be a close remake of the film in Franco's filmography,
the spirit of the film may exist in later Franco films in which the revenge
of mourning females is a death wish in itself that has often been attributed
to inspiration from THE BRIDE WORE BLACK (the 1940 Cornell Woolrich novel and
the 1968 François Truffaut film).
Apparently only distribute in Spain and France, DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES could
only be seen for some time in its French version which altered some of the dialogue,
until a Spanish TV broadcast started making the rounds with added English subtitles.
RIFIFI IN THE CITY has been available on DVD in Spain in a non-anamorphic, letterboxed
edition with no English options. Severin offers no information about the sources
of their 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC widescreen presentations, but they have been framed
at 1.78:1 rather than 1.66:1, only truly impeding the composition in some close-ups
(although this may not be noticeable to fans of Franco's more zoom-happy later
works). Neither has undergone the sort of cleanup seen on Gaumont's restorations
of Franco's THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z or ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS – to name two
other monochrome Franco pics – looking not unlike some of the Eurocine
Franco transfers, but they maintain their silvery noir slickness apart from
some obvious stock shots – including a New Orleans establishing shot that
must have been sourced from 16mm and had its graininess exacerbated by the addition
of an optical title – and the pre-credits sequence of RIFIFI that might
be from standard definition – and both are quite watchable given that
they were some of the least likely Franco films to hit Blu-ray. The Spanish
DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono tracks are clean, with the entirely post-dubbed
dialogue always intelligible, and optional English subtitles free of any distracting
errors.
The sole extra covering both films is "Franco Noir" (66:57), an interview
with Stephen Thrower, author of "Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema
of Jesús Franco", who discusses Franco's early career as an assistant
director, his self-taught course of filmmaking crossing the border for viewings
of American cinema at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris,
his early credits including the experimental comedy WE ARE 18 YEARS OLD and
the opportunity to step in for Leon Klimovsky to direct the musical QUEEN OF
THE TABARIN which would turn out to be a hit, his hard-to-see LABIOS ROJOS –
the first appearance of the "Red Lips" duo who would appear later
in the back-to-back SADISTEROTICA and KISS ME MONSTER, the later TWO FEMALE
SPIES IN FLOWERED PANTIES, and the shot-on-video RED SILK – and his second
musical VAMPIRESAS 1930.
He then notes that the crime film is a second thread alongside horror in Franco's
filmography (with the director being able to shoehorn erotica into any genre),
and provides background on DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES and RIFIFI IN THE CITY,
as well as the noir influences and borrowings of both films. He also discusses
the differences between RIFIFI and its literary source, dubbing alterations
in the French versions of both films, and suggests that Franco might have been
able to get around Spain's censorship in the context of the latter film's critique
of political corruption by suggesting that democracy is a sham (in spite of
the film being set in a South American republic and the literary and cinematic
connotations of dictatorship that come along with them). The back cover misstates
the running time of RIFIFI IN THE CITY as eighty-five minutes (it actually runs
the correct length of 104:22 while DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES is also complete
at 81:10, at least as far as the original Spanish version goes).
(Eric
Cotenas)
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