I was saddened to learn of the passing of Jess Franco. Franco directed at least 199 films and, while he was never a favorite of the critics, he was a favorite for those of us who appreciated his unique aesthetic and improvisational style of filmmaking. Franco made a few good films and a lot of a bad films but even his worse films were usually more interesting than the usual films churned out by more “respectable” filmmakers. In a time when every director is claiming to be an independent artist, Franco truly was.
Trailers for Franco’s films often showed up in my Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers series. Here’s ten of them.
1) Female Vampire
2) The Awful Dr. Orloff
3) Faceless
4) Venus In Furs
5) Necromonicon (a.k.a. Succubus)
6) Kiss Me Monster
7) Eugenie: Story of Her Journey Into Perversion
8) Vampyros Lesbos
9) The Castle of Fu Manchu
10) 99 Women
Jesus Franco Manera, R.I.P.
Through the Shattered Lens 
Imagine — 199 films, at least! It’s safe to say in this day and age that absolutely no one will have a career as prolific as Franco’s ever again. RIP Mr. Franco, we will never see your like again.
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Sad to say it but looks like we’re slowly losing all the grindhouse and exploitation greats with each new year.
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Vale, Jess Franco.
I have a copy of “Eugenie: The Story of Her Journey Into Perversion”, starring Marie Liljedahl and Christopher Lee, in all of its badly-dubbed glory. I really need to dig that up again, I know it’s somewhere around in my DVD collection.
Jesus Franco’s long-time partner Lina Romay, star of “Female Vampire”, passed away early last year. Franco was still working at the time of his passing. That’s the sign of somebody who truly enjoyed making films. Who makes low-budget films the way they did back in the 1970s? They have a strange charm all of their own.
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