THE GIRL FROM RIO aka DIE SIEBEN MANNER DER SUMURU/MOTHERS OF AMERICA/RIO 70 (1969)

Jess Franco's twenty-fourth film is THE GIRL FROM RIO aka DIE SIEBEN MANNER DER SUMURU/MOTHERS OF AMERICA/RIO 70. It was written by Franz Eichhorn, Bruno Leder and Harry Alan Towers (writting as Peter Welbeck), based on the novels of Sax Rohmer. The music was by Daniel White, produced by Tibor Reves, Harry Alan Towers and Louis M. Heyward, filmed in Barcelona, Cataluna, Spain and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in Colour, it was released by Ada Films, Terra-Filmkunst and Udastex Films, it runs for 94 mins and it made ESP 8,159,021 in Spain.

It stars Shirley Eaton as Sumuru/Sumatra, Richard Wyler as Jeff Sutton, George Sanders as Sir Masius, Maria Rohm as Leslye, Herbert Fleischmann as Carl, Marta Reves as ulla Rossini, Elisa Montes as Irene, Walter Rilla as Ennio Rossini, Beni Cardoso as Yana Yuma, Valentina Godoy as Amazon and Jess Franco as Guitar Player.

The film opens with a woman standing in a glass cage, wearing a string dress, with nothing on underneath, after all this is Jess Franco, with smoke swirling around her ankles. She then lies down on the floor surrounded by smoke and starts to writhe around, while being watched by a naked man. He then joins her on the floor. They begin to make love, while being watched by Sumuru/Sumatra. Then another women enters, wearing a red mini dress and black boots, places her left foot on the mans neck, much to the delight of Sumuru. She then leans over and scratches his neck with her long nails, killing him. Cue the opening titles with the very catchy song 'The Girl from Rio'.

Shot over footage of Rio de Janeiro's beaches, this establishes that we are in South Americia. A man in a black suit is looking though a pair of binoculars, observing the arrival of planes at Rio de Janeiro-Galeao International Airport. When a man in a silvery blue suit leave the airport, the observer seems satisfied.


The man in the silvery blue suit arrives at a hotel, not far from the MESBLA building, he checks into the hotel and gives his name as Jeff Sutton, this attracts the attention of a man reading The Wall Street Journal a newspaper in the foyer, as he moves the paper to one side, it is revealed that he is the same man who was observing him at the airport. Jeff asks the receptionist for a barbar, a manicurist and the bell boy to bring up some sports shirts, size 15, to his room.

A hearse, driven by the man who has been following Jeff, arrives at an apartment block. He boards a lift and ascends to the penthouse apartment. In the apartment is Sir Masius, being given a massage, which he is not enjoying. The man enters the apartment and indicates to the masseur that he will take over, upon doing this he begins to enjoy the massage and recognises it to be Carl. He asks him how it is going and he is informed that the person has arrived, where Sir Masius mentions that $10,000,000 is worth considering. The telephone begins to ring, a girl in a swimming pool, swims over and answers the phone, she mentions that Sir Masius does not want to be disturbed. He asks who it is and she replies that it is a long distance call from Madrid. He asks who it is and the girl swims over with the phone, while dunking it under the water!

She gives him the phone, soaking wet, he says, "Hello, hello...I can't hear you." I'm not surprised after the dunking its just received. This leads to a great comedy scene with the telephone, with a play on words between what Sir Masius says to the person on the telephone and what Carl does and says to him, being mistaking by the recipient as being aimed at them. The caller, who Sir Masius calls excellency, so it must be General Francisco Franco, asks if he has heard of Jeff Sutton, he makes out he has not. He is then offered a lot of money, how much we never find out, but it must be more than $10 million, to look after him, which Sir Masius says that they will.

Meanwhile back at the hotel, Jeff has just had his hair cut, while getting his nails done, after dismissing the barbar, he looks at his nails and asks if the manicurist is available at 9 o'clock, she asks if he means tomorrow morning, he replies tonight.

Over a tracking shot of the mountains of Brazil a woman's voice can be heard announcing "This is Femina, city of women. This is control, calling the women of Femina. Attention everybody. We are chosen. Women whose destiny has been decided in the never ending struggle. Woman against man. We are the victors. We give each day our gratitude and obedience to our leader." Sumuru then give a speech about how women are superior to men, how men only have their uses for labour and money, that is how the city of Femina was built, and this is how they will defeat man.

That night at a club, where a mood music version of the theme song is playing, Jeff and the manicurist are dancing together and begin to kiss. Also at the club is Sir Masius, Carl and the girl.

The following morning Jeff and the manicurist are walking back to the hotel, siting by a wall is a guitar player (non other than Jess Franco). As they walk along, someone is a grotesque mask turns round and faces them, with a cigarette poking out of the mouth. 

Jeff assumes that he wants a light and lights the cigarette for him. They then walk on, only to be confronted by another man wearing a similar mask, they turn away and there is a third man, also wearing a mask, but this one is laughing. The second one produces a flick knife, as does the third one. Then in front of them appear to other men, holding flick knives and wearing masks. Then in the middle of them appears Carl, but he is not wearing a mask. Jeff asks what does he want and Carl replies that he wants them to come with him. Jeff then produces a gun and holds it to Carl's neck and tells the surrounding men, that if any of them moves, he will kill Carl. As they walk away, Carl manages to knock the gun out of Jeff's hand and this gives the signal for the masked men to pursue Jeff and the girl. A fight ensures, where Jeff shows off his martial art skills and escapes from the masked men.

Back at the hotel, Jeff is tidying himself up, while the girl is taking a shower, cue some scenes of naked breasts. The girl asks Jeff to help her and then is shocked as he walks into the bathroom and sees her naked, hiding behind the shower curtain, she asks him to pass her a towel. Once they move back into the bedroom and after the girl removes the towel, Jeff asks her what her name is, she replies that it is Leslye.

Watching them from outside is Carl with his binoculars.


Back at the room, a newspaper is pushed under the door, with the headline, "American Playboy Disappears, Ten Million Dollars Missing." Leslye picks up the paper and reads the headline. She then walks over to where Jeff has left a briefcase and picks it up, but Jeff sees her and tells her not to move, while he covers her with his gun.

She asks him what is he going to do with the money, he tells her that it is none of her business. She replies that in Rio, some of the biggest gangsters are based and they would be after Jeff and his money. She suggests that he gets out of town.


Outside Carl is still watching them.

Leslye gets dressed. While she has been doing this, Jeff has been thinking over what she said about getting out of town and agrees with her that it would be a good idea, but if he gets out of town, where would he go? Leslye replies that he should leave that to her.


They leave the hotel, watched by Carl and get into a taxi. Carl gives chase in the hearse. When they arrive at the airport, Jeff runs over to the hearse and asks him want does he want. Carl replies that he wants nothing, he is waiting for a client. WTF!


Jeff and Leslye enter the airport, when there is an announcement of a message for Miss Leslye Manners and could return to the check-in desk in the main departure hall. Making her excuses to Jeff, she heads off to the message desk. On route she is attacked by two men in black suits.


Jeff hears a message informing them that their plane is about to depart and makes his way over to the aircraft, but is once again surrounded by four men dressed in black suits, observed by Carl. Once again Jeff shows of his fighting skills and making his way onto the tarmac, he encounters one of Sumuru's girls. She tells him that if he gets onto her plane, he will be able to make his escape. On board the plane, another girl asks if Jeff is comfortable. He asks about Leslye, but the woman knows nothing about her. She then asks him if he knows about the new mask for oxygen. He replies he does not and she proceeds to place one over his face and gases him.

Back at Sir Maius, the girl is lying on a diving board running her hands though the water of the swimming pool. She gets off the diving board and walks over him. He is on the phone, tell General Franco that Jeff is dead and the money was lost in a fire, when Jeff died. The girl does some quick calculations and hands him a piece of paper, saying that he should charge Franco $60,000 for the job. Carl enters and tell him that Jeff escaped. This annoys Sir Maius and he tells Carl that he wants Jeff back at his place, alive!


Meanwhile in the city of Femina, Jeff comes too, lying on the floor with four women standing around him and one standing over him. He is being watched by Sumuru. The lady standing over him is called Yana. Sumuru informers her that she wants to look at Jeff and tells her to bring him to her.

Jeff is brought into her inner sanctum. Sumuru orders the girls and Yana to leave them alone. Jeff asks where he is and Sumuru informs him that he is in her city of Femina. He asks her what she wants with him. She tells him that he has something that she wants and proceeds to make love to him.


Back at Sir Maius', one of his henchmen is being killed for letting Jeff get away. Standing near by watching all this, while being held, is Leslye. They then begin to torture her. Watching all this going on is Sir Maius' girl, who is starting to look a bit worried about what is going on. Sir Maius wants to know where Jeff is. After repeatedly hitting her in the stomach and then holding her head under water, she gives in and revels that Jeff is being held in Femina.


Back at Femina, Jeff is being given the guided tour of Femina by Sumuru and Yana. First he shown how proficient they are at using weapons, by witnessing an execution of one of her girls.

He is then told that there is no escape from Femina, he is shown her vault full of gold, where upon she informs him, that if any man reaches the vault the city will explode into a thousand pieces. So if that is the case, how comes it doesn't when he enters it!?

He then sees a master class on how the women of Femina are taught how to be irresistible to men, by practising on a mannequin. He is then shown into a room with five glass cages. In three of them are men, the fourth a woman and the fifth is empty. He is told this is the room reserved for their special guests. One of the men is introduced as Wesley, one of the last Great Train Robbers, he looks a bit like Ronnie Biggs, who was living in exile in Rio at the time. He brought Sumuru £2 million. After being show other captives, he is informed that the smoke in the cages, weakens their will and eventually kills them. When he asks about the girl, he is told that she is Ulla, whose father is very rich.

She did not want to join Sumuru and her women, but she is beginning to change her mind. He is then placed into a glass cage and smoke begins to poor into it. Jeff attracts Ulla's attention and tells her that her father arranged for the robbery to take place, so that he could find her and free her.

Just then Yana walks in with some guards and takes her and Jeff to a torture chamber. Sumuru asks where the money is and Jeff replies he will not tell her. She instructs Yana to start the process.

Two girls are beckoned over and start to kiss him. Yana then joins in, all the time watched by Sumuru. When this does not work, two more women enter and place their feet on his stomach.

After all this, they see that it is not working, so they proceed with the next phase, which is placing a devise that emits rays that destroy the organs of the body very slowly, over Ulla. This is too much for Jeff and he gives in and tells Sumuru that there is no money and it was all a scam so that he could rescue Ulla. This annoys Sumuru.

Latter on in her sanctum she is visited by Yana, who undress and begins to make love to each other. After they have finished Yana leaves and sets Jeff and Ulla free. They make their way to the airfield and escape in one of the planes. One thing I must mention is the lack of firing. The guns have no bullets and to show that they are firing guns, the girls just shake them.

Yana returns to Sumuru's sanctum and informs her that Jeff and Ulla have escaped.

Jeff and Ulla arrive in Rio, with Carl watching the airport. Upon leaving the airport, Carl drives up and offers them a lift, which Jeff refuses. Once again Jeff gets into a taxi and Carl purses them in the hearse. This time Carl blocks the path of the taxi and holding a gun on them insists that they get into his car. He drives them to Sir Masius'.

Jeff walks inot Sir Masius' and asks him, "Who the hell are you?" Sir Masius replies who he is and introduce the girl as Irene his accountant and income tax adviser. Sir Masius was to discuss a deal over the $10 million, but is shocked to discover that there is no $10 million.

Back at Femina, Yana is tied to a table, naked face down. The ray machine is brought over to her and activated.

Jeff and Ulla are being kept at gun point. Sir Masius explains to Jeff why he was interested in him and now he has escaped from Femina, he could help him lead an assault on the city with him. Jeff refuses, saying all he wants to do is get Ulla back to her parents. Carl persuades Jeff otherwise.

Back at Femina, Yana is being held in front of Sumuru. She tells her that she will give her one more chance, but if she fails her again, she will be killed. Also she has decided to silence Jeff, once and for all.

Back in Rio, it is carnival time. At Sir Masius apartment Leslye is brought in wearing an 18th Century page boys outfit. He tells her that he wants her to take a message to Sumuru, who he believes is in Rio, he would like to make a bargain with her. He will trade Jeff and Ulla for half of her fortune. He calls Carl over, who is dressed as a clown and tells him not to let Leslye out of his sight. As they go to leave the apartment, Leslye knocks Carl out and then removes a pendant from her outfit and talks into it. Sumuru who is in the carnival dressed as Cleopatra.

She gives Leslye instructions on where to meet. As she is receives her orders, Irene and Ulla, also dressed for the carnival, see her and listen to her conversation.

When Leslye leaves, Irene and Ulla follow. When Leslye meets Sumuru, she gives her Sir Masius' message. Seeing who Leslye has met and hearing her answer, Irene and Ulla decide to go back and warn Sir Masius, but they have been spotted by Sumuru, who instructs her guards to give chase. The girls go into a warehouse full of old carnival models, to hide from the guards. Only for them to run into Sumuru.

Sumuru contacts Jeff at Sir Masius' apartment to tell him that she has Irene and Ulla. Jeff asks what does she want, because she knows he does not have $10 million, she replies that it has become a personal matter. To make Jeff give up, she instructs Yana to torture Ulla with an electric fan, by holding it against her face. He gives in and she tells him to meet her at 9 o'clock at the airport next to the plane he stole.

That morning, Jeff arrives at the airport alone, were Sumuru, Irene, Ulla, Yana and the guards are waiting for him. They take them back to Femina, where they are manacled to a wall. Sumuru informs them that they will killed one by one, in a manor that she believes is original and that it will take place that night.

That night, Jeff, Irene and Ulla strapped to the floors of the torture room. The ray machine is being used on Jeff.

The next morning an armada of helicopters attacks Femina. The guards respond to the alarm being raised by leaving Jeff and the girls alone. Because of the angle that the machine has been left at, it destroys on of the straps, making it possible for Jeff to get free. He then uses the machine on Ulla's straps, while Irene asks Jeff to free her as well.

Once they are free, they make their way into the room with glass cages. Jeff tells them to stay there, while he goes outside to take a look. As he makes it outside he is confronted by a girl holding a gun, it is Leslye. She tells him not to move or she will shoot, but he keeps on walking towards her and she does not shoot! When he gets close enough he gives her a kiss and that seems to put her back on his side. Sheesh. Irene and Ulla go outside to see what is taking Jeff so long and find him kissing Leslye.

Jeff meets up with Sir Masius and Carl. Once Sir Masius tells Jeff that before they will leave he wants to see Sumuru's gold. Jeff takes them to Sumuru's vault, handy of her to of shown him where it was. But surprise surprise there is Sumuru in green with a big 'S' on it, standing the the middle of the vault surrounded by her gold. Sir Masius tells her that he does not want all of her gold, only a business merger, Sumuru scoffs at him and tells him that in 30 seconds time there will nothing left of them as she is going to blow up Femina. She reaches out and press a button to destroy Femina. Sir Masius, Carl and Jeff make their escape, but Sir Masius is gunned down. Carl returns fire and then runs in another direction. Making is way outside, he too is gunned down. Jeff, Leslye, Irene and Ulla make it to a helicopter and take off. Watching from above they witness the destruction of Femina.

Down by the docks a group of women all dressed in black make their way to a boat. Once aboard it sets sail and in the breeze blowing of the sea, the lead woman's veil is blown back and it revels her to be Sumuru.

All in all not a bad little film from Jess Franco and Harry Alan Towers, with a catchy theme song, which I find myself still humming way after I have finished watching the film. Clearly of it's time, you could almost say its Jess Franco does James Bond. He has taken his lead from the Bond films GOLDFINGER (1964) and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967). With Richard Wyler like Eon Productions in 1969, he has found a decent substitute to James Bond. Shirley Eaton is just lovely to watch, George Sanders is great as the ever so camp gangster, Maria Rohm is very good as Leslye, Herbert Fleischmann is great as the comedy heavy, Marta Reves looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car, Elisa Montes is wonderful as the scatty accountant for Sanders Sir Masius, while Yana is there for the eye candy.

The film does have its flaws, the guns never firing, the holes in the plot and the repetitive shots of the same girls being shot in the climax, when earlier on they had a lot more. But I can not fault this film that much, but then I am a big fan of sixties spy films. In fact this film reminds me more of THE MAN FROM UNCLE films  more than the James Bond ones.

The DVD was released by Blue Underground in 2004, it is a fully restored animorphic widescreen edition with vibrant colour. It comes with four extras, Rolling in Rio a documentary on the making of the film, with interviews from Jess Franco, Harry Alan Towers and Shirley Eaton., Poster and Still Gallery, The Facts of Sumuru and a Jess Franco Bio.

The DVD can be bought from www.blue-underground.com by clicking the link below.

http://www.blue-underground.com/product.php?product=24

Shirley Eaton says that the love scene between Sumuru and Yana, was shot with a double playing her part, which is true, for the woman playing Sumuru has much longer hair that what Shirley has in the film and her back is towards the camera all the time. THE GIRL FROM RIO was to be Shirley Eaton's last film, after she got back from Brazil, she told her husband, Colin Lento Rowe, that she wanted to concentrate on bring up their two children.

George Sanders would go onto make ten more films before committing suicide in Barcelona in 1972.

Jess Franco shot the film so fast that they still had a week to go before the carnival started. So Harry Alan Towers came up with the idea of another film, 99 WOMEN (1969) and Franco went and shot 25 mins of screen time set in the jungle.

While in Rio, Franco notice the nice hearse's that were used, so he decided that he could use one in the movie, in some ways harking back to the first James Bond film DR. NO (1962).

Richard Wyler was born 20th June 1923 in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England, as Richard Stapley. He wrote his first novel when he was 17 in 1940. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force. Following the war he began acting in theater roles in London. He signed to MGM and made his first film in 1948, THE THREE MUSKETEERS opposite Elizabeth Taylor, acting under his birth name. In 1960 he returned to England and made films under his stage name of Richard Wyler. In the 1970s he returned to acting under his birth name. By the 1980s acting roles began to dry up, so he became a radio announcer in Britain and drove racing motorcycles, where he was hospitalised after a crash. He returned to the USA, wrote a novel in 2004 called Naked Legacy and was working on his autobiography when in died on 5th March 2010 of kidney failure.

Maria Rohm was born 13th August 1945 in Vienna, Austria as Helga Grohmann. She began acting at the famous Vienna Burgtheatre at the age of 4 and left when she was 13. She carried on acting on stage until 1963 when she was 18 and she auditioned for Harry Alan Towers. She made her film debut playing a prostitute in TEUFEL IM FLEISCH (1964). Her second film was the first that she made with her husband Harry Alan Towers, whom she married on 28th February 1964, it was called MOZAMBIQUE (1965). She made her last film in 1976, BLUE BELLE playing Susan.

Elisa Montes was born 15th December 1934 in Granada as Elisa Ruiz Penella. She began acting as a child, making her film debut in 1954 aged 20 in ELENA. In 1958 she married Antonio Ozores. In the 1960s she starred in spaghetti-westerns and Jess Franco films. On 2nd February 1966 she gave birth to her daughter Emma Ozores in Madrid, Spain. Her daughter has also become an actress. Also in the 1960 Elisa started her television career. In the 1980s she began her theater career and retired in the 1990s.