THE FRENCH SEX MURDERS
1973

Yet another euro-sleaze obscurity from the folks at Mondo Macabro! This OK giallo has what you’d expect from the genre-overuse of shadow, lovely women getting killed, red herrings galore, and a dogged investigator, this time one who looks just like Humphrey Bogart. Robert Sacchi rode his tremendous resemblance to Bogey to the bank in several films, most notably The Man With Bogart’s Face. We don’t get a chance to see if he can do more than ape his idol; but compared to some of the overwrought acting by the other stars, his comes off almost underplayed. A cast of Eurosleaze veterans rounds things out, including Rosalba Neri (Lady Frankenstein), the underused Barbara Bouchet (Don’t Torture A Duckling), and the awful Dr. Orloff himself, Howard Vernon, as Professor Waldemar.
The first murder happens at Madame Colette’s bordello. As the weary Madame Colette, Anita Ekberg looks rode hard and put away wet, and is her usual overacting self as she sobs tears of sorrow...boo hoo! We see Antoine steal jewels from a church and beat hooker Francine when she won’t leave the life for him. She is found dead soon after he leaves. Antoine is tried and condemned to death, but claims that someone else killed her, and is beheaded in an auto accident while escaping through the streets of 1970s Paris! So we have a cast of potential killers—including Antoine’s ex-wife and her boyfriend, Madame Colette and her working girls, and Mr. Randall, who is hanging out in Madame Colette’s brothel gathering material for a book on prostitution. We also spend a lot of time on subplots with the judge and doctor, and his daughter and her boyfriend. The more characters the more red herrings, until one by one they are killed off, revealing the killer to be…
Overall look a little fuzzy and grainy, but in a good way; this Italian/West German co-production is obviously a cheapie dressed up with some exteriors and an attractive cast. Not a lot of time was spent on continuity, either. The writer is clean-shaven, and then suddenly we see that he’s grown a mustache! In one kissing scene it looks like the doctor’s assistant has a cold sore on his lip. Has a nice upbeat funky theme with a little fuzz (repeated a bit too much), and some cool creepy music, too. With female nudity, lounge singing, stabbing, throat slashing, strangling, a dissected eyeball, and more. Don’t expect it to be too explicit, though. Do expect use of negative images and flashing color filters.
Stay tuned for a wonderful documentary on the film’s legendary producer Dick Randall that I found entertaining and informative, and maybe even enjoyed more than the film itself! What a great character! He appears briefly in The French Sex Murders as a john questioned by the police. He produced tons of B films, including a bunch of fake Bruce Lee films (Bruce Le, Bruce Li, Bruce Lai) and Filipino midget spy spoof For Y’ur Height Only, also reissued by Mondo Macabro. Go to www.mondomacabro.com right now and buy all of their DVDs.

-Hysteric Eric