Black Boots, Leather Whip Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Black Boots, Leather Whip Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 20, 2022

Jess Franco's "Black Boots, Leather Whip" (1983) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new audio commentary by critics Robert Monell and Rodney Barnett, and two programs with author and film historian Stephen Thrower. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Mr. Pereira? May I come in?

Jess Franco made quite a few films that feature the colorful character Al Pereira, who fits somewhere between an international spy-turned-playboy and former private detective-turned-small time gangster. I have collected all but one that have been made available on DVD and Blu-ray. However, I have not seen all of them because there are a couple that have appeared only on the bootleg market and apparently look terrible.

The best of these films is Attack of the Robots, which Franco shot with Eddie Constantine in 1966. This film was a rather big French-Spanish co-production and was polished by Jean-Claude Carriere, who scripted Luis Bunuel’s erotic masterpiece Belle de Jour. Constantine plays an Interpol spy who gets hired by a very shady character to do a small job that becomes a very big job that may or may not determine the fate of the free world. Franco rehashes plenty of familiar Eurospy cliches, but delivers a pretty crazy film that looks really, really good, too. The other two films with Pereira that I consider very good are Vice House a.k.a. La Maison du Vice with Howard Vernon playing a very different promiscuous character, and Downtown a.k.a. Schwarze Nylons, Wilde Engel, in which Franco himself becomes Pereira and gets involved with some really bad characters again. However, both films are smaller than Attack of the Robots and made with less impressive talent. So, as you could tell, not only is Franco constantly altering Pereira’s identity, but the films the character reappears have different production qualities as well.

Black Boots, Leather Whip is one of a couple of ‘new’ films about Pereira which Franco shot in the early 1980s. This time Pereira is played by Franco’s close friend and frequent collaborator Antonio Mayans, who changes the character’s identity yet again. Indeed, Pereira is now a lowlife in Costa del Sol who has made some awful mistakes in the underworld and is getting ready to disappear with a fairly big sum of stolen cash. While packing his bags in a hotel room, however, Pereira is contacted by Lina (Franco’s muse Lina Romay), a local exotic dancer, and offered $5,000 to retrieve a purse from a car in left in junkyard on the outskirts of the city. He reluctantly agrees to do the job, but then nearly gets killed at the junkyard by armed men that have been expecting a ‘mule’ to appear. Later on, after questioning Lina and concluding that she did not know his attackers, Pereira gets a new job offer from her that could make him a seriously wealthy man.

In a new program that is included on this release, author and film historian Stephen Thrower speculates that Black Boots, Leather Whip was made to accommodate a couple of dream sequences Franco wanted to do. I think that he might be correct because one of the sequences Thrower identifies -- it is the one where the blind masochist enjoys hearing Pereira suffer as he is being handled by the dominatrix and her puppet -- is in fact the highlight of the film. There are a few more that stick out just as nicely, meaning that they were likely conceived earlier, but are not crucial for the evolution of the story. Does this mean that Black Boots, Leather Whip is a misfire? Not at all. It is still a typically wild and entertaining Franco project where strange characters do even stranger things to impress.

But Black Boots, Leather Whip definitely feel like a film that should have had a much bigger budget so that Franco’s imagination can roam completely free, so as far as I am concerned this is a flaw that makes it difficult to place next to Attack of the Robots, Vice House, and Downtown. Just a slightly bigger cast should have a made a notable difference as well.

*Severin’s Blu-ray release of Black Boots, Leather Whip is sourced from an exclusive new master that was sourced from the original camera negative. It features a fully uncut version of the film as well.

Black Boots, Leather Whip Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Black Boots, Leather Whip arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films.

The release is sourced from an exclusive new master that was sourced from the original uncut camera negative. I think that the master is good for a proper high-definition presentation of the film, but considering the type of work that was done to prepare it, it should have been quite a bit more convincing. Why? Because it appears that some extremely small digital corrections were applied to rebalance the visuals, and this is the type of work that was entirely unnecessary. Indeed, the natural density fluctuations that emerge throughout the film were introduced by the manner in which Jess Franco shot different segments -- some were obviously done earlier and under very different conditions -- so they should have been left to reveal native qualities. In fact, many still do, but now it is easy to tell that someone did rebalancing work. On the other hand, these are extremely small adjustments of the kind that you would see on Vampyros Lesbos and She Killed in Ecstasy, which means that there is still plenty to see and appreciate. The visuals still have pretty decent organic qualities as well. Unfortunately, the release isn't encoded particularly well, so in weaker areas these adjustments may appear somewhat exaggerated. I liked the color grading job a lot. It reveals minor inconsistencies in a few rougher areas, but it is reflective of Franco's style during the '80s. Image stability is good. A nicks and dark spots can be seen, but there are not distracting large cuts, debris, stains, warped or torn frames to report. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Black Boots, Leather Whip Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional yellow English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

Most viewers will likely conclude that the audio is a bit uneven in a couple of areas, but this is an inherited limitation. Also, the original soundtrack, which Jess Franco composed under the alias Pablo Villa, does not have a great deal of dynamic strength, but this is also an inherited limitation. The dialog is clear, stable, and easy to follow. I did not encounter any distortions, pops, or annoying background hiss to report. The English translation is very good.

Black Boots, Leather Whip Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Shiny Boots of Leather - in this new program, Stephen Thrower, author of Murderous Passions, discusses Jess Franco's lasting relationship with the character of Al Pereira, the conception and production of Black Boots, Leather Whip, and some of the film's key qualities and stylistic identity. There are some pretty interesting comments about the evolution of Franco's style over the yeas as well. In English, not subtitled. (33 min).

• In the Land of Franco: Part Five - back in January of 2020, Severin Films released a promotional trailer for Stephen Thrower's exclusive new program In The Land of Franco in which he visits various locations throughout Europe where Jess Franco shot many of his popular cult films. Presented here is part five of the program. In English, not subtitled. (17 min, 1080p).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by Robert Monell, creator of the blog I'm In A Jess Franco State of Mind, and Rodney Barnett, from the the NaschyCast. These gentlemen have plenty of interesting comments about the character of Al Pereira and the idea behind Black Boots, Leather Whip as well as Jess Franco's foray into film noir. I ended listening to the entire commentary and thought that it was very nicely done and offered plenty of good 'smaller' information that fills gaps in Franco's public image.

Black Boots, Leather Whip Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jess Franco had a long and very interesting relationship with the strange character Al Pereira, who fits somewhere between an international spy-turned-playboy and former private detective-turned-small time gangster, and made quite a few films with him. My favorite one is Attack of the Robots with Eddie Constantine, but I think that Vice House and Downtown look really good, too. These are the films where Pereira has the most complete and convincing identity, though he is played by different actors and Franco himself. Pereira reappears in Black Boots, Leather Whip, played by Franco's close friend and frequent collaborator Antonio Mayans, and once again gets in a lot of trouble. I enjoyed this film, but would not place it next to the three films that are mentioned above because it is a very small project with limited imagination. Naturally, I would recommend it only to Franco completists. Severin's Blu-ray release offers the first-ever high-definition presentation of Black Boots, Leather Whip and has three very strong bonus features. RECOMMENDED.