99
WOMEN (1969) Blu-ray/DVD ComboDirector: Jess Franco
Blue Underground
99
WOMEN (1969) Blu-ray/DVD ComboHorny sexploitation kicks
in this seminal (sorry) WIP flick. Blue Underground has released a 3-disc unrated
director’s cut of 99 WOMEN, the 1969 women-in-prison actioner from producer/screenwriter
Harry Alan Towers (released here in the States by Commonwealth United Entertainment)
and director Jess Franco, starring Maria Schell, Mercedes McCambridge, Luciana
Paluzzi, Maria Rohm, Rosalba Neri, Elisa Montes, Valentina Godoy and Herbert
Lom. Conceived and written over a hurried weekend, and shot for next-to-nothing
in a matter of a few weeks, 99 WOMEN made a ton of dough for producer Towers
and his various backers, while giving director Franco a rare high-profile hit.
Blue Underground’s Blu-ray/DVD/CD soundtrack combo pack sports a new 4K
scan that helps make Franco’s grungy brown and green prison epic...even
more grungy, while ported-over extras from previous releases (sans the infamous
porno inserts—sorry, perverts) help make this a solid buy for newcomers
to Franco and the WIP subgenre.
At the infamous “Castle of Death” island prison for women, three
new inmates arrive by boat...while another dead convict is being shipped back
to the mainland. Jonesing heroin addict Natalie Mendoza (Luciana Paluzzi, THUNDERBALL,
THE GREEN SLIME) was busted for drug smuggling. Dancer/prostitute Helga (Elisa
Montes, ERIK, THE VIKING, TEXAS, ADIOS), an island alum, was banged up for banging
the wrong V.I.P., and sniffling, crying blonde Marie (Maria Rohm, THE HOUSE
OF A 1000 DOLLS, EUGENIE...THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION) was unfairly
imprisoned for killing one of her rapists (she says). What the trio find waiting
for them is brutal, cruel warden Superintendent Thelma Diaz (Mercedes McCambridge,
THE EXORCIST, THE CONCORDE...AIPORT ‘79), who rules with an iron fist,
and her occasional lover, Governor Santos (Herbert Lom, ASYLUM, AND NOW THE
SCREAMING STARTS), who cherry-picks (sorry) the more delectable inmates for
advanced games of slap ‘n’ tickle. Natalie quickly buys it, but
poor Marie is raped by statuesque inmate Zoie (Rosalba Neri, TWO MAFIOSI AGAINST
GOLDFINGER, THE REWARD’S YOURS...THE MAN’S MINE)...with whom she
promptly falls in love. The arrival of kindly, understanding muckraker Superintendent
Leonie Caroll (Maria Schell, THE BLOODY JUDGE, THE DEVIL BY THE TAIL) only creates
further chaos at the prison, since Santos and Diaz ain’t exactly willing
to give up their sadistic sexual summer camp, with a breakout-to-freedom being
the only avenue left for the tortured women.
99 WOMEN’s frantic production is one of the better-known examples of indie
“exploitation-on-the-fly” moviemaking. Spanish director Jess Franco,
shooting (with typically lightning speed) THE GIRL FROM RIO, the sequel to English
producer Harry Alan Towers’ THE MILLION EYES OF SU-MURU, found himself
one week ahead of schedule in mid-February,1968, waiting to pick up second unit
shots of Rio’s carnivale, scheduled for the end of the month.
Towers, notorious for squeezing blood out of a turnip when it came to shepherding
his money-making trash, decided to dash off a women-in-prison script over the
weekend, and have Franco and the idle THE GIRL FROM RIO crew shoot as much as
possible during their downtime week, prior to carnivale. Using Towers’
wife Maria Rohm, and actresses Elisa Montes and Valentina Godoy, Franco shot
over a third of 99 WOMEN in the bush (sorry) outside Rio—the movie’s
jungle escape section—while Towers sold the unfinished project to various
international investors and exhibitors. When Franco returned to Spain to shoot
the rest of 99 WOMEN (it’s reported Franco worked over the screenplay
as well), Towers had lined up a marquee-worthy cast to flesh out the picture,
including Oscar-winning American McCambridge, PINK PANTHER’s international
attraction Lom, highly respected German actress Schell, and from Italy, sexpot
Neri and Bond villainess Paluzzi (still a highly marketable name in her home
country, after THUNDERBALL). Made for peanuts (some reports quote less than
a quarter of a million dollars), 99 WOMEN proved to be a money-spinner all over
the world, whether it was chopped up by the censors in Spain, or padded out
with hardcore inserts for the French markets (without, reportedly, Franco’s
knowledge and/or consent).
Jess Franco’s work is certainly an acquired taste, with most newcomers
to his movies forewarned (and pre-hyped) to the threat of his delicious lack
of taste. Established fans of the director, as well as his critics, rightfully
acknowledge the place 99 WOMEN has in the overall development of the “women
in prison” subgenre (it pretty much re-invented the genre the way we perceive
its conventions now), while many agree that this iconic title hasn’t weathered
the years too well, with surprisingly low levels of sadism and sex being further
submerged by a lot of talk.
How much you take that generally accepted critical viewpoint into account depends
on how familiar you are with Franco’s work overall, and more specifically,
what you’re really looking to get out of 99 WOMEN. If you’re looking
here for the heightened levels of WIP nastiness found in Franco titles like
ILSA THE WICKED WARDEN and BARBED WIRE DOLLS, forget it. But seen in proper
historical context, against most mainstream and exploitation features in theaters
in 1969, 99 WOMEN was hot stuff. It’s true that some “set pieces”
seemed muffed (sorry). Neri’s and Rohm’s first rape/love scene turns
into one of the most extreme examples of late 1960s “Let’s Spot
the Body Part” fumbling (it’s not erotic at all—just confusing).
The action scenes are fairly ludicrous—the prison escape, supposedly at
night, occurs in broad daylight and consists of Rohm and Montes gingerly climbing
over a balustrade, while that so-called “prison riot” is over in
3 seconds—while the truly nasty stuff is only suggested, not shown (Franco
has the nerve to show whips and chains...but no actual playtime? And what’s
with that tantalizing flashback, seemingly out of future Kubrick, with Rohm’s
hooded-and-lipsticked rapists lined up for action, right before the censor’s
scissors come out?). 99 WOMEN doesn’t come close to going over the top...but
I don’t want to see the day come when I can’t recommend a movie
solely for ten minutes of Rosalba Neri rolling around topless in black
lingerie.
As for all that talk in 99 WOMEN that so many don’t like...it’s
rather interesting, and rather well integrated into the WIP format. Franco’s
love of the ugly and the beautiful folding into each other finds a perfect representation
in a sadistic women’s prison filled with gorgeous convicts. The movie’s
first image is a rotting animal corpse, complete with buzzing flies, as the
hushed, romantic cooings of composer Bruno Nicolai’s score incongruently
plays over it, with the hot prison broads boated ashore in the background. The
gross and the lovely are forever linked, according to Franco (before witnessing
Rohm’s rape, Lom states, “Love and hate are never very far apart...and
sometimes they go together,”). Regardless of how unlikely the reality,
perhaps that’s what he’s trying to convey with Rohm’s rape,
which quickly turns into a seduction...and then a fully participational love
scene (critics and particularly feminists go ape over this scene, but later
Franco makes no bones about what he thinks of male rape, with poor Rosa’s
fate).
Franco’s distrust of authority figures is pretty obvious in 99 WOMEN (coiled
McCambridge, screwed down tight and flinging out her arms and kicking her legs
like one of the Lollipop Guild, is always growling about rules and society and
punishment for transgressors), but his sad embrace of poetic, doomed love and
fate is surprisingly successful (and unexpected) for this kind of movie. McCambridge’s
opening speech to the new convicts absolutely seals their fate (“You have
no future, only the past....You have no friend, only me”), before she
takes away their names and gives the girls numbers. Hopelessness is a constant
theme in 99 WOMEN (in the movie’s best scene, Schell and McCambridge jockey
for position discussing this depressing thread in their lives). No one here
is successful in love. Rohm is raped by Neri, and then falls in love with her,
only to be jilted for another convict (and that’s because possessive Neri
is jealous of Schell’s attentions towards her girlfriend). Rohm’s
boyfriend didn’t believe her story of being gang-raped or her reason for
killing one of her attackers. Neri finds love in the arms of a man, but is forced
to kill her jealous female boss, ruining her life forever. And Rosa, escaping
to meet up with her husband, loses him, only to lose herself in mindless sex
with her dead husband’s friend (as Rohm watches in envious lust—a
typically thematically layered, super-sick Franco scene)...only to be gang-raped
to death. When tough gal Montez, contemplating the breakout, states, “It
will be tough if we make it; if we don’t...it will be worse,” she
means it, as does a numb Rohm, who replies in the best noir fashion,
“I don’t care.” At the movie’s end, with absolutely
ineffectual Schell leaving, having caused much more harm than having done any
good, as a suspicious, bitter Rohm watches her, McCambridge croaks to Lom, “Like
old times.” Nothing changes at the “Castle of Death.” That’s
not bad at all from Franco and company, considering that so many want 99 WOMEN
to be just another hyped-up lesbian crank yanker fest.
Blue Underground’s new 4K scan of 99 WOMEN looks a treat. The 25GB single
layer 1080p HD widescreen 1.66:1 Blu brings out a surprising amount of fine
image detail (BU makes sure there’s a disclaimer at the beginning, letting
us know that an inferior-grade U.S. theatrical print was used for the opening
and closing credits, since the original negatives appear to be lost). Colors,
such as they are here (lots of dingy browns and greens), are subtly varied,
while skin tones look correct. Blacks are pretty solid, while grain is mostly
tight (where not, it’s the original look of the rushed cinematography
and lighting). A considerable step up from previous transfers (same for the
DVD disc here...just less so, naturally). The English DTS-HD mono audio track
is as clean as it’s going to be, with a hefty re-recording level and relatively
snappish dialogue. English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.
Extras for this 3-disc unrated director’s cut of 99 WOMEN include 2005’s
interview, "Jess’ Women" (17:32), where Franco gives some nice
background on the movie’s production, and some fun stories about the performers
(a modest McCambridge very helpfully let it be known to Franco that she was
a better actress than Schell). We also learn that Franco bought off the Madrid
cops to film Neri’s and Rohm’s sex scenes, and that future partner
AIP wasn’t happy with the movie...until it made a boatload of money. Next,
"Jess, Harry, and 99 Women" (16:26), has author Stephen Thrower giving
an excellent accounting of the movie’s production and reception (as well
as the censorship troubles), along with colorful observations of both Franco
and Towers (Towers apparently got those name actors by wining and dining them...only
to be short of money to actually shoot his movies). There are three deleted/alternate
scenes included: "Marie’s Flashback" (4:39), which is an extended
assault scene; "Zoie’s Flashback" (16:20), taken from a largely
unwatchable Greek VHS copy, has scenes not shot by Franco, and featuring a different
actress than Neri; and "Extended Ending" (1:35), taken from the “soft”
Spanish version, sourced from a VHS tape. In addition to a standard DVD version
of 99 WOMEN, there is also a CD of the movie’s soundtrack score. Next,
a 20-page illustrated booklet, authored by Thrower and adapted from his book,
Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco, is an energetic
take on the movie’s themes. Reversible cover art, a killer original
trailer (1:42), and a poster and still gallery round out the extras. (Paul
Mavis)