Jess Franco's thirtieth film was PAROXISMUS aka VENUS IN FURS. It was written by Milo G. Cussia, Carlo Fadda, Bruno Leder, Malvin Wald and Jess Franco, produced by Harry Alan Towers, music written by Mike Hugg, Manfred Mann and Stu Philips, released by Cinematografica Associati (CI.AS.), Terr-Filmkunst and Towers of London Productions, filmed in Colour and runs for 86 mins. It starred James Darren as Jimmy Logan, Barbara McNair as Rita, Maria Rohm as Wanda Reed, Klaus Kinski as Ahmed Kortobawi, Dennis Price as Percival Kapp, Margaret Lee as Olga, Adolfo Lastretti as Innp Kaplan, Manfred Mann as Jazz Musician, Paul Muller as Hermann and Jess Franco as Jazz Musician.
The film opens with a woman smoking a cigarette, wearing a white fur coat, stockings and high heels as the titles appear and the theme tune, reminiscent of the original theme of Randall & Hopkirk plays.
It then establishes that we are in Istanbul, Turkey. In a room over looking the sea, a man is taping against the glass in some french doors, a voice over starts to tell us that the events began the year before in Istanbul, on the shore of the Black Sea. He leaves the building and runs onto the beach, making his way to some breakers. There he starts to dig into the sand with his bare hands, until he uncovers a case, containing a trumpet. He then begins to play the trumpet. While playing the trumpet he looks out to sea and sees something in the water, near the shores edge.
Looking longer, he realizes that it is a body. So he runs over to the surf and carries the body back to the shore. Looking down her sees that it is the body of a young woman naked, with marks on her right shoulder and on her chest.
He remembers seeing her before at a jet set party, but when that was, he can not remember. "It could of been last week, last month or last year. When you don't know where your at. Time is like the ocean. You can't hold onto it."
At the party he is playing his trumpet in a Jazz band, (which also consists of Jess Franco and Manfred Mann), when in walks the girl, wearing a white fur coat. Also at the party was Ahmed, a millionaire playboy, Kapp, an art dealer and Olga, a fashion photographer. The girl was called Wanda Reed.
Ahmed greats Wanda and takes her coat. She then follows him into a court yard, where they begin to kiss. They are then joined by Olga and Kapp. Wanda then looks frightened. She tries to run away but Kapp and Olga grab hold of her with Olga removing her dress. Dressed now only in her panties, stockings and suspenders, Olga begins to whip her.
The tumpeter, having gone for a smoke, sees what is going on in the court yard and starts to watch. Olga tells Wanda to come to her, which she does, crawling along the floor. She reaches up and undoes Olga's skirt, which she steps out of. She then lies Wanda on the floor and starts to make love to her, joined by Kapp. The trumpeter walks away, thinking that if this is their scene, then it has nothing to do with him.
Ahmed, who has been watching the assault, picks up an ornamental dagger, unsheathing it he approaches Wanda. She tries to keep him at bay, but Olga holds her down, while he digs it into her right shoulder, drawing blood, which he begins to drink!
Back at the beach he sits down and plays a lament for Wanda. He leaves Istanbul and heads to Rio during the Carnival season. (Cue some footage shot by Franco when he was filming THE GIRL FROM RIO.) After shots of the carnival, we move to a night club where there is a singer, rolling around on the floor singing Lets Get Together.
Siting at the bar is the trumpeter drinking. After she finishes her song, she comes over to the trumpeter. He acknowledges her as Rita. She asks him what is wrong and he replies that he wants to get back to his music, but something is stopping him. The strike up a relationship and he is able to tell about what has happened and after a while he is able to go back to his playing.
One night while in the club playing, in walks a women who resembles Wanda.
He sees her, stops playing and follows her out of the club to a house. She tells him not to follow her, by using his name - Jimmy. But he does not listen to her and follows her in. Inside she takes him into the bedroom where they make love.
After they have made love, he asks her who she is, she replies that she does not know. "Oh, I see." He replies. "No names. No dates, only stories. This is the beginning and the end." She replies. "For me. Everything ended a long time ago."
He leaves Wanda and goes for a walk amongst the carnival, trying to get everything stright in his head. He returns to his apartment, where he finds Rita waiting for him.
Later on that night at the home of Kapp, he is playing the piano, when he hears footsteps and the sound of a door opening and closing. Suddenly in the room is standing a woman, with red bobbed hair, a white fur coat, black panties, stockings and silver high heeled shows, smoking a cigarette.
He gets up from the piano smiling and starts to walk towards her, when suddenly she vanishes. Looking confused he goes and gets himself a drink. He then notices her sitting in a chair.
He then walks over to her, only for her to vanish again. (Now, I don't know if it is just me, but I would be running out of the house as fast as my legs would take me, but no not him he stays hoping for a bit of hanky panky.) He looks around the house and finds her in his bedroom, lying on his bed.
He approaches the bed and begins to make love to her, but as he leans in for a kiss, she disappears on him again. Looking even more confused, he sits down on the bed and he now notices her in the mirrors surrounding his bed.
After seeing multiple images of her, either kissing her own reflection, fondling her breasts or sitting in a chair with her legs open, she then morphes into the form of the dead woman, which causes him to have a heart attack and die.
Back in her usual form, she lights candles by his bed, while the song play's out "Venus in Furs, will be smiling."
The next night at the club, it is revealed that Jimmy and Rita work for a man called Hermann. At the club Wanda is also there, but Rita notices that Jimmy has eyes for Wanda. Hermann goes over to Wanda and tries to chat her up, but Jimmy takes Wanda out to the carnival, ignoring Rita. They make love again. Afterwards he goes for a walk and goes back to Rita, with whom he also makes love and promises her that he has finished with Wanda. But the next night at a party at Hermann's Wanda is there again but so is Olga. Which Jimmy notices whilst playing next to a piano. (Which is being played by Jess Franco.)
Olga notices Wanda, Wanda notices Olga and Rita notices Wanda. Hermann calls over to Rita, she asks for Jimmy, but Hermann mentions that he is occupied, which makes Rita believe that she is free to do as she wishes.
Wanda walks over to a chaise lounge, positioned next to a Venus de Milo statue, (cleaver), and sits down, where upon she starts to caress the statue.
Olga gets up and goes over to Wanda, she mentions that she resembles a woman that she once new, who died a few years ago, whose body was mutilated, some one that she loved. She then goes on and begins to make love to her.
Hermann and other men go over them and watch, when Jimmy walks in and breaks them apart and drags Wanda out of the party. Wanda then runs off, leaving Jimmy confused.
Later that night, back at his apartment he is crying out in his sleep, while Rita looks on. Rita wakes him up and tells him that she loves him and he does not need Wanda, because he also loves her.
Meanwhile at Olga house, she is setting up a photo shoot.
With out her knowing, Wanda walks in.
She senses that she is there and sees her standing by her bookcase. Smiling she walks over to her and opens her fur coat, looking at her body admiringly. She leads her over to a chair, set up in front of her cameras. She arranges her in a pose and begins to take photos. She then goes back to her and removes her coat.
She repositions her and takes another photo. When she goes over to her a second time, Wanda reaches out and starts to kiss her, helping her out of her clothes. They then begin to kiss. Wanda leads Olga over to the floor, where they lay down and make love.
While they are making love, Olga notices that Wanda has changed and as she sits back, she sees that she has changed into the dead body of Wanda. Riddled with guilt, she covers her naked body with the fur coat and places a candelabra with lit candles next to her body, she then goes into the bathroom, runs a bath, takes a razor blade and slits her wrists. Laying down in the bath she regrets what they did to her that night and dies.
Wanda leaves her house as the song Venus in Furs is played.
The next night Jimmy is playing with the band in a night club with Rita watching him, when Wanda walks in. Jimmy sees her and goes off with her, leaving Rita feeling all alone. After a few days Jimmy is sleeping in his apartment and Rita comes round, seeing that he is alseep,she kisses his hand and leaves him.
Wanda and Jimmy return to Istanbul.
Wanda tells Jimmy, that Kapp, Olga and Ahmed where friends of hers, she loved and trusted them, but they abused her.
One evening Venus goes and visit's Ahmed.
He says that he knows her and that he met her a long time ago. He says that she is now more prepared for the role that she has to play, more than she was the first time they met. He tells her a story of a Sultan who had many slave girls, but when a Governor of a visiting Provence, presented him with a slave girl, he fell in love, but she despised him. So to win her over, he promised her that for twenty-four hours, from dawn to dawn she would rule in his place. She sent all the dignitaries away, burnt his head cloth and demanded that the inner doors be locked until the last hour of the twenty-four hours. She then had the Sultan tied up and forced to watch her make love to a male servant. Towards the end of the twenty-four hours she begins to make love to the Sultan, still tied up.
Ahmed finds himself tied up in the same fashion as the Sultan and Venus making love to him, over and over again, until like Kapp, he suffers a heart attack and dies. Satisfied that he is dead, she leaves him hanging there, whilst again the son Venus in Furs rings out.
The next day, Jimmy comes down for breakfast and he is told that there is a person waiting for him. He goes out onto the veranda and meets a man, who introduces himself as Kaplan. He shows Jimmy a photo in a newspaper and asks if he knows her. Jimmy replies that she is a friend of his. Kaplan asks if he knows her name, Jimmy asks what it is all about. Kaplan responds police. He asks Jimmy if the girl in the photo is Wanda Reed. Jimmy replies that it is, but Kaplan mentions that Wanda Reed has been dead two years.
Jimmy says that Wanda is asleep upstairs. Kaplan mentions that there was a killing the night before and the Brazilian police are also looking for a Wanda Reed in connection with the death of a man in Rio. Jimmy says he will go upstairs and get Wanda.
Upon entering the room, Jimmy wakes up Wanda and tells her that they have to get out because of the police. They leave the house out of the back way and get into a car and drive off. Kaplan sees them and orders his men to give chase.
Driving around Istanbul trying to loose the police, for no reason Wanda jumps out of the car. Jimmy gives chase.
This is where the film goes weird, Franco starts to use red, blue and green filters over his lenses, while also given it a distorted view, then we cut into a room where Wanda is lying on the floor naked and in the room is a hermit sitting in the corner, with Kapp, Olga and Ahmed standing up against the walls.
Meanwhile Jimmy is running though a graveyard. Ahmed then approaches Wanda's body.
He kneels down next to it.
He reaches out and touches the wound on her chest.
In the graveyard Jimmy is still running, while Ahmed leans in to give Wanda's corpse a kiss, which seems to shock Kapp and Olga. Jimmy in the mean time has found a grave with a white fur coat lying next to it. On the grave it reads Wanda Reed A young and beautiful stranger washed on to our friendly shores with only Death as a companion. May she find peace in her final resting place.
The film then goes back to where it began, with Jimmy once again on the beach in Istanbul, playing his trumpet when he spots a body in the sea. He runs over to it and gets it back on to the shore, turning the body over, this time he sees it is a man and the body is his own.
The film ends with Rita singing Venus in Furs.
Well that was a film that I was sort of following and then towards the end went into weirdsville. So far I have only watched two other Jess Franco films. THE GIRL FROM RIO and 99 WOMEN, but this one is good, but strange. I thought I had it. Girl gets killed and comes back as an avenging angel, while interacting with the one man who might of been able to save her, but then we get all the psychedelic stuff and the hero turns out to be dead. WTF! I know that originally that Jess Franco wanted to make a film about a black male musician being in a relationship with a white girl, but the producers said no, so Jess reversed it and then they wanted him to make it an adaptation of the book Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, so he got Maria Rohm to dress up in a fur coat. The idea of the avenging angel is a good one and he could of stopped the film when she had completed her revenge and had her regaining life and living with Jimmy, but no he had to go and go off at an angle, even the premise of a the hero relating the details of his death and not knowing he is dead until the end would of been good, but why go back to the avenging angel ant the people she has exacted her revenge on, unless he is saying that all of them ended up in a room in hell, because of what they have done. Similar to DOCTOR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (1965) or what would be done in THE VAULT OF HORROR (1973).
In 2005 Blue Underground released the DVD of VENUS IN FURS as a Region Free release. The DVD comes with a restored widescreen animorphic print and four extras, Jesus in Furs an interview with Jess Franco running for 20 mins, Audio Interview with Maria Rohm, Theatrical Trailer, Poster & Still Galleries and a DVD-ROM.
In the interview, Jess Franco says that his original idea was to make an unreal love story between a black trumpet player and a beautiful white girl, who would be almost unreal, who does not really exist anywhere, except in the trumpeter's mind. The origin of the story came from a conversation that Franco had with Jazz musician Chet Baker in Paris. The film that Franco was going to make was called Black Angel. He sat down with Harry Allan Towers and wrote the script. But then the producers told Franco that they would not allow a film about a black musician having fantasies about a white woman, but a white musician having fantasies about a black woman was ok. So Franco and Towers had to rewrite the script.
They managed to get Manfred Man and his band at the beginning of their career. During filming, if there was a break for fixing the lights, the he would start to play Thelonious Monk's music.
The film was first of all shot in Rome for the grave yard scenes, then they moved to Marbella for the beach scenes, then on to Istanbul, then onto Barcelona for the studio scenes. While they were shooting the film, AIP, said that they wanted the film to be about Venus in Furs. So Franco thought he could get away with shots of a woman standing at the top of the stairs dressed in a fur coat, being in the imagination of the trumpeter and he could get away with that, but they wanted more.
The producers gave Franco a list of actors they wanted in the film, based on their box office appeal. The first was James Darren. He liked him because he had seen in THE TIME TUNNEL and the film THE GUNS OF NAVARONE. The next actor he was asked to include was Dennis Price, an actor he liked a lot, even if he did have a drink problem, but he never let it interfere with his acting. The there was Klaus Kinski, someone that Franco had already worked with on MARQUIS DE SADE: JUSTINE. On the normal scenes he was great but on the fantasy ones, he was also asking what they were about. (Just like us). The house used for Klaus Kinski's character, was owned by Carlo Ponti an Italian producer.
The DVD-ROM feature is a Bio of Jess Franco, written by Tim Lucas and published by Video Watchdog.
James Darren was born 8th June 1936 as James Wlliam Ercolani in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. While still a teenager, Darren was discovered by a talent agent. In 1956 he made his first film RUMBLE ON THE DOCKS, by 1959 he made what became his break out film, GIDGET. He also sung the main theme, which was also released in 1959 and reached #41 in the US hit parade. In 1960 Darren released his first album, James Darren No. 1. In 1961 he made THE GUNS OF MAVARONE, in an attempt to break his teen idol status. Also that same year he released his most successful hit Goodbye Cruel World, which reached #3 in the US and #28 in the UK. In 1966 he starred in the TV Series THE TIME TUNNEL as Tony Newman. In 1982 he starred in another successful TV series, T. J. HOOKER as Officer Jim Corrigan and then in 1998 he starred in STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE as Vic Fontaine. His last film was made in 2001, RANDOM ACTS. He was a close personal friend of Frank Sinatra and is godfather to Nancy Sinatra's daughter, Angela Jennifer Lambert.
Barbara McNair was born 4th March 1934 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. McNair studied music music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Her big break came with a win on Arthur Godfrey's TV show Talent Scouts, which led to bookings at The Purple Onion and the Cocoanut Grove. Her acting career began in television on series such as DR. KILDARE, I SPY and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. In 1968 she posed nude in Playboy October issue. Also that year she made he feature film debut in IF HE HOLLERS, LET HIM GO! In 1970 she starred in THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS! and its sequel THE ORGANIZATION in 1971. Her last film was in 1996, NEON SIGNS. On 4th February 2007, McNair died of throat cancer in Los Angeles.
Klaus Kinski was born 18th October 1926 in Zoppot, Germany, as Klaus Gunter Karl Nakszynski of Polish descent. Because of the Great Depression, his family were forced to move from Danzig to Berlin in 1931. They settled in to a flat in Wartburgstrasse 3, in the district of Schoneberg and took German citizenship. From 1935, Kinski attended the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium.
In 1943, at the age of 17, Kinski was conscripted in to the German Wehrmacht, serving in the army. In the winter of 1944, his unit was transferred to the Netherlands. While based there, Kinski decided to desert and surrendered to the British, but he was recaptured by the Germans and court-martialed for desertion and sentenced to death, he however escaped and was recaptured by the British, were he was sent to the prisoner of war "Camp 16" in Berechurch Hall, Colchester, Essex, England. On the way there the ship he was being transported on was torpedoed by a German U-Boat, but it was able to make it to port safely.
It was in the camp that he first got a taste for acting. In 1946 he was sent home. When he arrived back in Berlin he discovered that his parents had died. He found work in a touring company in Offenburg. He made his film debut in 1948 as a Dutch prisoner in MORITURI. His second film was also his first English speaking film, released in 1951, it was called DECISION BEFORE DAWN. By the 1960s he was becoming established and starred in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965) and DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965). By 1969 he starred in the first of seven films that he made with Jess Franco, MARQUIS DE SADE: JUSTINE.
In 1979 he play Count Dracula in NOSFERATU THE VAMPIRE, in 1981 he starred in VENOM, ANDROID in 1982, CODE NAME: WILD GEESE in 1984, CRAWLSPACE in 1986 and his last film was made in 1989, KINSKI PAGANINI.
On 23rd November 1991, Kinski died of a heart attack in Lagunitas, California, USA.
Dennis Price was born 23rd June 1915 as Dennistoun Franklyn John-Rose-Price in Twyford, Berkshire, England. He attended Copthorne Prep School, Radley College and Worcester College, Oxford, England. He studied acting at the Embassy Theatre School of Acting. Price made his first appearance on stage at the Croydon Repertory Theatre in June 1937. He made his film debut in NO PARKING (1938) as an extra. He recieved his first film credit in 1944 for A CANTERBURY TALE. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Artillery from March 1940 to June 1942. Later on he starred in KIND HEART AND CORONETS (1949), THE MAGIC BOX (1951) with Robert Donat and William Hartnell, PRIVATES PROGRESS (1956) again with William Hartnell, I'M ALL RIGHT JACK (1959) with Peter Sellers, THE PURE HELL OF ST TRINIANS, SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS and PICCADILLY THIRD STOP (another film with William Hartnell) all released in 1960, THE REBEL (1961) with Tony Hanncock.
His last film was THEATRE OF BLOOD (1973), with Vincent Price. During the 1950/60s he acquired an alcohol problem. On 6th October 1973 he died from heat failure resulting for a hip fracture in Guernesy.
Margaret Lee was born 4th August 1943 as Margaret Gwendolyn Box in Wolverhampton, England. She mainly made her career in Italian films in the 1960s and 1970s. She was educated at the Italia Conti Theatre School in London, where she graduated in 1960. She moved to Rome to pursue a career in films. She made her film debut in TOTO DI NOTTE N. 1 in 1962. Lee made her name in Italy, mainly starring in comedy films, which had hardly any distribution in English speaking countries, but in Italy they made her a star. In the mid 1960s Lee moved into making Eurospy films, cashing in on the James Bond franchize. This brought her to the attention of film producer Harry Allan Towers, who went on to cast her in CIRCUS OF FEAR (1966). In 1983 Lee made her final film, STANGATA NAPOLETANA.
Manfred Mann was born 21st October 1940 as Manfred Sepse Lubowitz in Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa. He studied classical music at the University of the Witwatersrand and worked as a jazz pianist at a number of clubs in Johannesburg. Between 1959 and 1961 he and his childhood friend Saul Ozynski recorded two albums as The Vikings - South Africa's first rock and roll band.
Strongly opposed to the apartheid system in South Africa, Mann re-located to England in 1961 and began to write for "Jazz News" under the pseudonym Manfred Manne (after jazz drummer Shelly Manne), which was soon shortened to Manfred Mann.[2] The next year he met drummer and keyboard player Mike Hugg at Clacton Butlins Holiday Camp. Together they formed a large blues-jazz band called the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. This eventually evolved into a 5-piece group and they signed a record deal with EMI in 1963, under the HMV label. They changed their name to Manfred Mann at the suggestion of the label's record producer, and from 1964 to 1969 they had a succession of hit records: My Name is Jack, Ha Ha Said the Clown, Mighty Quinn, Do Wah Diddy Diddy, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and Pretty Flamingo. The group split in 1969, and Mann immediately formed another outfit with Mike Hugg, Manfred Mann Chapter Three, an experimental jazz rock band. They disbanded after two albums, but Mann formed a new outfit in 1971, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, which still record and perform to this day. Their well-known hits include the #1 Blinded by the Light, Runner, which peaked at #22 and Davy's on The Road Again.
Paul Muller was born 11th March 1923 as Paul Konrad Muller in Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland. He made his film debut in RUY BLAS (1948). His first English speaking film was JOURNEY TO ITALY (1954), which starred Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders. The last film he made was TOURISTES? OH YES! in 2004.
The DVD can be bought from Play.com by clicking on the link below.
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/19095214/Venus-In-Furs/Product.html?searchstring=venus+in+furs&searchsource=0&searchtype=r2alldvd&urlrefer=search&strefer=r2alldvd&searchfilters=s%7bvenus+in+furs%7d%2bc%7b57%7d%2b
The Blue Underground DVD can be bought by clicking on the link below.
http://www.blue-underground.com/product.php?product=56
The film opens with a woman smoking a cigarette, wearing a white fur coat, stockings and high heels as the titles appear and the theme tune, reminiscent of the original theme of Randall & Hopkirk plays.
It then establishes that we are in Istanbul, Turkey. In a room over looking the sea, a man is taping against the glass in some french doors, a voice over starts to tell us that the events began the year before in Istanbul, on the shore of the Black Sea. He leaves the building and runs onto the beach, making his way to some breakers. There he starts to dig into the sand with his bare hands, until he uncovers a case, containing a trumpet. He then begins to play the trumpet. While playing the trumpet he looks out to sea and sees something in the water, near the shores edge.
Looking longer, he realizes that it is a body. So he runs over to the surf and carries the body back to the shore. Looking down her sees that it is the body of a young woman naked, with marks on her right shoulder and on her chest.
He remembers seeing her before at a jet set party, but when that was, he can not remember. "It could of been last week, last month or last year. When you don't know where your at. Time is like the ocean. You can't hold onto it."
At the party he is playing his trumpet in a Jazz band, (which also consists of Jess Franco and Manfred Mann), when in walks the girl, wearing a white fur coat. Also at the party was Ahmed, a millionaire playboy, Kapp, an art dealer and Olga, a fashion photographer. The girl was called Wanda Reed.
Ahmed greats Wanda and takes her coat. She then follows him into a court yard, where they begin to kiss. They are then joined by Olga and Kapp. Wanda then looks frightened. She tries to run away but Kapp and Olga grab hold of her with Olga removing her dress. Dressed now only in her panties, stockings and suspenders, Olga begins to whip her.
The tumpeter, having gone for a smoke, sees what is going on in the court yard and starts to watch. Olga tells Wanda to come to her, which she does, crawling along the floor. She reaches up and undoes Olga's skirt, which she steps out of. She then lies Wanda on the floor and starts to make love to her, joined by Kapp. The trumpeter walks away, thinking that if this is their scene, then it has nothing to do with him.
Ahmed, who has been watching the assault, picks up an ornamental dagger, unsheathing it he approaches Wanda. She tries to keep him at bay, but Olga holds her down, while he digs it into her right shoulder, drawing blood, which he begins to drink!
Back at the beach he sits down and plays a lament for Wanda. He leaves Istanbul and heads to Rio during the Carnival season. (Cue some footage shot by Franco when he was filming THE GIRL FROM RIO.) After shots of the carnival, we move to a night club where there is a singer, rolling around on the floor singing Lets Get Together.
Siting at the bar is the trumpeter drinking. After she finishes her song, she comes over to the trumpeter. He acknowledges her as Rita. She asks him what is wrong and he replies that he wants to get back to his music, but something is stopping him. The strike up a relationship and he is able to tell about what has happened and after a while he is able to go back to his playing.
One night while in the club playing, in walks a women who resembles Wanda.
He sees her, stops playing and follows her out of the club to a house. She tells him not to follow her, by using his name - Jimmy. But he does not listen to her and follows her in. Inside she takes him into the bedroom where they make love.
After they have made love, he asks her who she is, she replies that she does not know. "Oh, I see." He replies. "No names. No dates, only stories. This is the beginning and the end." She replies. "For me. Everything ended a long time ago."
He leaves Wanda and goes for a walk amongst the carnival, trying to get everything stright in his head. He returns to his apartment, where he finds Rita waiting for him.
Later on that night at the home of Kapp, he is playing the piano, when he hears footsteps and the sound of a door opening and closing. Suddenly in the room is standing a woman, with red bobbed hair, a white fur coat, black panties, stockings and silver high heeled shows, smoking a cigarette.
He gets up from the piano smiling and starts to walk towards her, when suddenly she vanishes. Looking confused he goes and gets himself a drink. He then notices her sitting in a chair.
He then walks over to her, only for her to vanish again. (Now, I don't know if it is just me, but I would be running out of the house as fast as my legs would take me, but no not him he stays hoping for a bit of hanky panky.) He looks around the house and finds her in his bedroom, lying on his bed.
He approaches the bed and begins to make love to her, but as he leans in for a kiss, she disappears on him again. Looking even more confused, he sits down on the bed and he now notices her in the mirrors surrounding his bed.
After seeing multiple images of her, either kissing her own reflection, fondling her breasts or sitting in a chair with her legs open, she then morphes into the form of the dead woman, which causes him to have a heart attack and die.
Back in her usual form, she lights candles by his bed, while the song play's out "Venus in Furs, will be smiling."
The next night at the club, it is revealed that Jimmy and Rita work for a man called Hermann. At the club Wanda is also there, but Rita notices that Jimmy has eyes for Wanda. Hermann goes over to Wanda and tries to chat her up, but Jimmy takes Wanda out to the carnival, ignoring Rita. They make love again. Afterwards he goes for a walk and goes back to Rita, with whom he also makes love and promises her that he has finished with Wanda. But the next night at a party at Hermann's Wanda is there again but so is Olga. Which Jimmy notices whilst playing next to a piano. (Which is being played by Jess Franco.)
Olga notices Wanda, Wanda notices Olga and Rita notices Wanda. Hermann calls over to Rita, she asks for Jimmy, but Hermann mentions that he is occupied, which makes Rita believe that she is free to do as she wishes.
Wanda walks over to a chaise lounge, positioned next to a Venus de Milo statue, (cleaver), and sits down, where upon she starts to caress the statue.
Olga gets up and goes over to Wanda, she mentions that she resembles a woman that she once new, who died a few years ago, whose body was mutilated, some one that she loved. She then goes on and begins to make love to her.
Hermann and other men go over them and watch, when Jimmy walks in and breaks them apart and drags Wanda out of the party. Wanda then runs off, leaving Jimmy confused.
Later that night, back at his apartment he is crying out in his sleep, while Rita looks on. Rita wakes him up and tells him that she loves him and he does not need Wanda, because he also loves her.
Meanwhile at Olga house, she is setting up a photo shoot.
With out her knowing, Wanda walks in.
She senses that she is there and sees her standing by her bookcase. Smiling she walks over to her and opens her fur coat, looking at her body admiringly. She leads her over to a chair, set up in front of her cameras. She arranges her in a pose and begins to take photos. She then goes back to her and removes her coat.
She repositions her and takes another photo. When she goes over to her a second time, Wanda reaches out and starts to kiss her, helping her out of her clothes. They then begin to kiss. Wanda leads Olga over to the floor, where they lay down and make love.
While they are making love, Olga notices that Wanda has changed and as she sits back, she sees that she has changed into the dead body of Wanda. Riddled with guilt, she covers her naked body with the fur coat and places a candelabra with lit candles next to her body, she then goes into the bathroom, runs a bath, takes a razor blade and slits her wrists. Laying down in the bath she regrets what they did to her that night and dies.
Wanda leaves her house as the song Venus in Furs is played.
The next night Jimmy is playing with the band in a night club with Rita watching him, when Wanda walks in. Jimmy sees her and goes off with her, leaving Rita feeling all alone. After a few days Jimmy is sleeping in his apartment and Rita comes round, seeing that he is alseep,she kisses his hand and leaves him.
Wanda and Jimmy return to Istanbul.
Wanda tells Jimmy, that Kapp, Olga and Ahmed where friends of hers, she loved and trusted them, but they abused her.
One evening Venus goes and visit's Ahmed.
He says that he knows her and that he met her a long time ago. He says that she is now more prepared for the role that she has to play, more than she was the first time they met. He tells her a story of a Sultan who had many slave girls, but when a Governor of a visiting Provence, presented him with a slave girl, he fell in love, but she despised him. So to win her over, he promised her that for twenty-four hours, from dawn to dawn she would rule in his place. She sent all the dignitaries away, burnt his head cloth and demanded that the inner doors be locked until the last hour of the twenty-four hours. She then had the Sultan tied up and forced to watch her make love to a male servant. Towards the end of the twenty-four hours she begins to make love to the Sultan, still tied up.
Ahmed finds himself tied up in the same fashion as the Sultan and Venus making love to him, over and over again, until like Kapp, he suffers a heart attack and dies. Satisfied that he is dead, she leaves him hanging there, whilst again the son Venus in Furs rings out.
The next day, Jimmy comes down for breakfast and he is told that there is a person waiting for him. He goes out onto the veranda and meets a man, who introduces himself as Kaplan. He shows Jimmy a photo in a newspaper and asks if he knows her. Jimmy replies that she is a friend of his. Kaplan asks if he knows her name, Jimmy asks what it is all about. Kaplan responds police. He asks Jimmy if the girl in the photo is Wanda Reed. Jimmy replies that it is, but Kaplan mentions that Wanda Reed has been dead two years.
Jimmy says that Wanda is asleep upstairs. Kaplan mentions that there was a killing the night before and the Brazilian police are also looking for a Wanda Reed in connection with the death of a man in Rio. Jimmy says he will go upstairs and get Wanda.
Upon entering the room, Jimmy wakes up Wanda and tells her that they have to get out because of the police. They leave the house out of the back way and get into a car and drive off. Kaplan sees them and orders his men to give chase.
Driving around Istanbul trying to loose the police, for no reason Wanda jumps out of the car. Jimmy gives chase.
This is where the film goes weird, Franco starts to use red, blue and green filters over his lenses, while also given it a distorted view, then we cut into a room where Wanda is lying on the floor naked and in the room is a hermit sitting in the corner, with Kapp, Olga and Ahmed standing up against the walls.
Meanwhile Jimmy is running though a graveyard. Ahmed then approaches Wanda's body.
He kneels down next to it.
He reaches out and touches the wound on her chest.
In the graveyard Jimmy is still running, while Ahmed leans in to give Wanda's corpse a kiss, which seems to shock Kapp and Olga. Jimmy in the mean time has found a grave with a white fur coat lying next to it. On the grave it reads Wanda Reed A young and beautiful stranger washed on to our friendly shores with only Death as a companion. May she find peace in her final resting place.
The film then goes back to where it began, with Jimmy once again on the beach in Istanbul, playing his trumpet when he spots a body in the sea. He runs over to it and gets it back on to the shore, turning the body over, this time he sees it is a man and the body is his own.
The film ends with Rita singing Venus in Furs.
Well that was a film that I was sort of following and then towards the end went into weirdsville. So far I have only watched two other Jess Franco films. THE GIRL FROM RIO and 99 WOMEN, but this one is good, but strange. I thought I had it. Girl gets killed and comes back as an avenging angel, while interacting with the one man who might of been able to save her, but then we get all the psychedelic stuff and the hero turns out to be dead. WTF! I know that originally that Jess Franco wanted to make a film about a black male musician being in a relationship with a white girl, but the producers said no, so Jess reversed it and then they wanted him to make it an adaptation of the book Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, so he got Maria Rohm to dress up in a fur coat. The idea of the avenging angel is a good one and he could of stopped the film when she had completed her revenge and had her regaining life and living with Jimmy, but no he had to go and go off at an angle, even the premise of a the hero relating the details of his death and not knowing he is dead until the end would of been good, but why go back to the avenging angel ant the people she has exacted her revenge on, unless he is saying that all of them ended up in a room in hell, because of what they have done. Similar to DOCTOR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (1965) or what would be done in THE VAULT OF HORROR (1973).
In 2005 Blue Underground released the DVD of VENUS IN FURS as a Region Free release. The DVD comes with a restored widescreen animorphic print and four extras, Jesus in Furs an interview with Jess Franco running for 20 mins, Audio Interview with Maria Rohm, Theatrical Trailer, Poster & Still Galleries and a DVD-ROM.
In the interview, Jess Franco says that his original idea was to make an unreal love story between a black trumpet player and a beautiful white girl, who would be almost unreal, who does not really exist anywhere, except in the trumpeter's mind. The origin of the story came from a conversation that Franco had with Jazz musician Chet Baker in Paris. The film that Franco was going to make was called Black Angel. He sat down with Harry Allan Towers and wrote the script. But then the producers told Franco that they would not allow a film about a black musician having fantasies about a white woman, but a white musician having fantasies about a black woman was ok. So Franco and Towers had to rewrite the script.
They managed to get Manfred Man and his band at the beginning of their career. During filming, if there was a break for fixing the lights, the he would start to play Thelonious Monk's music.
The film was first of all shot in Rome for the grave yard scenes, then they moved to Marbella for the beach scenes, then on to Istanbul, then onto Barcelona for the studio scenes. While they were shooting the film, AIP, said that they wanted the film to be about Venus in Furs. So Franco thought he could get away with shots of a woman standing at the top of the stairs dressed in a fur coat, being in the imagination of the trumpeter and he could get away with that, but they wanted more.
The producers gave Franco a list of actors they wanted in the film, based on their box office appeal. The first was James Darren. He liked him because he had seen in THE TIME TUNNEL and the film THE GUNS OF NAVARONE. The next actor he was asked to include was Dennis Price, an actor he liked a lot, even if he did have a drink problem, but he never let it interfere with his acting. The there was Klaus Kinski, someone that Franco had already worked with on MARQUIS DE SADE: JUSTINE. On the normal scenes he was great but on the fantasy ones, he was also asking what they were about. (Just like us). The house used for Klaus Kinski's character, was owned by Carlo Ponti an Italian producer.
The DVD-ROM feature is a Bio of Jess Franco, written by Tim Lucas and published by Video Watchdog.
James Darren was born 8th June 1936 as James Wlliam Ercolani in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. While still a teenager, Darren was discovered by a talent agent. In 1956 he made his first film RUMBLE ON THE DOCKS, by 1959 he made what became his break out film, GIDGET. He also sung the main theme, which was also released in 1959 and reached #41 in the US hit parade. In 1960 Darren released his first album, James Darren No. 1. In 1961 he made THE GUNS OF MAVARONE, in an attempt to break his teen idol status. Also that same year he released his most successful hit Goodbye Cruel World, which reached #3 in the US and #28 in the UK. In 1966 he starred in the TV Series THE TIME TUNNEL as Tony Newman. In 1982 he starred in another successful TV series, T. J. HOOKER as Officer Jim Corrigan and then in 1998 he starred in STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE as Vic Fontaine. His last film was made in 2001, RANDOM ACTS. He was a close personal friend of Frank Sinatra and is godfather to Nancy Sinatra's daughter, Angela Jennifer Lambert.
Barbara McNair was born 4th March 1934 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. McNair studied music music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Her big break came with a win on Arthur Godfrey's TV show Talent Scouts, which led to bookings at The Purple Onion and the Cocoanut Grove. Her acting career began in television on series such as DR. KILDARE, I SPY and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. In 1968 she posed nude in Playboy October issue. Also that year she made he feature film debut in IF HE HOLLERS, LET HIM GO! In 1970 she starred in THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS! and its sequel THE ORGANIZATION in 1971. Her last film was in 1996, NEON SIGNS. On 4th February 2007, McNair died of throat cancer in Los Angeles.
Klaus Kinski was born 18th October 1926 in Zoppot, Germany, as Klaus Gunter Karl Nakszynski of Polish descent. Because of the Great Depression, his family were forced to move from Danzig to Berlin in 1931. They settled in to a flat in Wartburgstrasse 3, in the district of Schoneberg and took German citizenship. From 1935, Kinski attended the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium.
In 1943, at the age of 17, Kinski was conscripted in to the German Wehrmacht, serving in the army. In the winter of 1944, his unit was transferred to the Netherlands. While based there, Kinski decided to desert and surrendered to the British, but he was recaptured by the Germans and court-martialed for desertion and sentenced to death, he however escaped and was recaptured by the British, were he was sent to the prisoner of war "Camp 16" in Berechurch Hall, Colchester, Essex, England. On the way there the ship he was being transported on was torpedoed by a German U-Boat, but it was able to make it to port safely.
It was in the camp that he first got a taste for acting. In 1946 he was sent home. When he arrived back in Berlin he discovered that his parents had died. He found work in a touring company in Offenburg. He made his film debut in 1948 as a Dutch prisoner in MORITURI. His second film was also his first English speaking film, released in 1951, it was called DECISION BEFORE DAWN. By the 1960s he was becoming established and starred in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965) and DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965). By 1969 he starred in the first of seven films that he made with Jess Franco, MARQUIS DE SADE: JUSTINE.
In 1979 he play Count Dracula in NOSFERATU THE VAMPIRE, in 1981 he starred in VENOM, ANDROID in 1982, CODE NAME: WILD GEESE in 1984, CRAWLSPACE in 1986 and his last film was made in 1989, KINSKI PAGANINI.
On 23rd November 1991, Kinski died of a heart attack in Lagunitas, California, USA.
Dennis Price was born 23rd June 1915 as Dennistoun Franklyn John-Rose-Price in Twyford, Berkshire, England. He attended Copthorne Prep School, Radley College and Worcester College, Oxford, England. He studied acting at the Embassy Theatre School of Acting. Price made his first appearance on stage at the Croydon Repertory Theatre in June 1937. He made his film debut in NO PARKING (1938) as an extra. He recieved his first film credit in 1944 for A CANTERBURY TALE. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Artillery from March 1940 to June 1942. Later on he starred in KIND HEART AND CORONETS (1949), THE MAGIC BOX (1951) with Robert Donat and William Hartnell, PRIVATES PROGRESS (1956) again with William Hartnell, I'M ALL RIGHT JACK (1959) with Peter Sellers, THE PURE HELL OF ST TRINIANS, SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS and PICCADILLY THIRD STOP (another film with William Hartnell) all released in 1960, THE REBEL (1961) with Tony Hanncock.
His last film was THEATRE OF BLOOD (1973), with Vincent Price. During the 1950/60s he acquired an alcohol problem. On 6th October 1973 he died from heat failure resulting for a hip fracture in Guernesy.
Margaret Lee was born 4th August 1943 as Margaret Gwendolyn Box in Wolverhampton, England. She mainly made her career in Italian films in the 1960s and 1970s. She was educated at the Italia Conti Theatre School in London, where she graduated in 1960. She moved to Rome to pursue a career in films. She made her film debut in TOTO DI NOTTE N. 1 in 1962. Lee made her name in Italy, mainly starring in comedy films, which had hardly any distribution in English speaking countries, but in Italy they made her a star. In the mid 1960s Lee moved into making Eurospy films, cashing in on the James Bond franchize. This brought her to the attention of film producer Harry Allan Towers, who went on to cast her in CIRCUS OF FEAR (1966). In 1983 Lee made her final film, STANGATA NAPOLETANA.
Manfred Mann was born 21st October 1940 as Manfred Sepse Lubowitz in Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa. He studied classical music at the University of the Witwatersrand and worked as a jazz pianist at a number of clubs in Johannesburg. Between 1959 and 1961 he and his childhood friend Saul Ozynski recorded two albums as The Vikings - South Africa's first rock and roll band.
Strongly opposed to the apartheid system in South Africa, Mann re-located to England in 1961 and began to write for "Jazz News" under the pseudonym Manfred Manne (after jazz drummer Shelly Manne), which was soon shortened to Manfred Mann.[2] The next year he met drummer and keyboard player Mike Hugg at Clacton Butlins Holiday Camp. Together they formed a large blues-jazz band called the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers. This eventually evolved into a 5-piece group and they signed a record deal with EMI in 1963, under the HMV label. They changed their name to Manfred Mann at the suggestion of the label's record producer, and from 1964 to 1969 they had a succession of hit records: My Name is Jack, Ha Ha Said the Clown, Mighty Quinn, Do Wah Diddy Diddy, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and Pretty Flamingo. The group split in 1969, and Mann immediately formed another outfit with Mike Hugg, Manfred Mann Chapter Three, an experimental jazz rock band. They disbanded after two albums, but Mann formed a new outfit in 1971, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, which still record and perform to this day. Their well-known hits include the #1 Blinded by the Light, Runner, which peaked at #22 and Davy's on The Road Again.
Paul Muller was born 11th March 1923 as Paul Konrad Muller in Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland. He made his film debut in RUY BLAS (1948). His first English speaking film was JOURNEY TO ITALY (1954), which starred Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders. The last film he made was TOURISTES? OH YES! in 2004.
The DVD can be bought from Play.com by clicking on the link below.
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/19095214/Venus-In-Furs/Product.html?searchstring=venus+in+furs&searchsource=0&searchtype=r2alldvd&urlrefer=search&strefer=r2alldvd&searchfilters=s%7bvenus+in+furs%7d%2bc%7b57%7d%2b
The Blue Underground DVD can be bought by clicking on the link below.
http://www.blue-underground.com/product.php?product=56
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