6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A sexual crazy couple kidnap a young girl (Susan Hemmingway) and begin to sexually torture and rape her but have no fear because two strippers (Lina Romay, Nadine Pascal) are on the case. This is a rather crazy and silly Franco caper that spoofs various genres but mainly the detective films of the 1940s. There's a lot of humor, a lot of sex and of course a whole bunch of naked women running around.
Starring: Lina Romay (II), Lynn Monteil, Olivier Mathot, Susan Hemingway, Albino GrazianiForeign | 100% |
Erotic | 85% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Dark humor | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.32:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0
French: LPCM 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
It seems only logical to begin a review of a Jesús Franco film with a famous quote from St. Thomas Aquinas: “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” Tweaking that inimitable pronouncement slightly to make it more contextually appropriate, one might reasonably say “To one who has seen a Franco film, no explanation is necessary. To one who has not seen a Franco film, no explanation is possible.” There’s a reason that critic Stephen Trower, who contributes a remarkably rational analysis of Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties in one of the supplements Severin has adorned this Blu-ray release with, called his summary of Franco’s works Flowers of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco, for any given Franco film, whether his unapologetic pornographic offerings or his supposedly relatively more mainstream films (many if not most of which feature at least soft core leanings) are both arguably perverse and inarguably delirious. Both of those proclivities are well on display in Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties, a film whose very title indicates its completely peculiar ambience. Franco’s longstanding infatuation with “Women in Love” (so to speak) continues with this film, which (in its unedited version — more about that later in the supplements section, below) begins with two females who have been convicted of stripping in public taken to a club where they’re forced to perform their routine by an arrogant sort who seems to be a government type. This guy repeatedly berates the pair for their spectacularly unerotic dance moves (it doesn’t help that they’re in pretty dowdy prison garb), but then somewhat hilariously turns to an acolyte and says, “They’ll do.” It turns out the two are being recruited (again, hilariously) in a plot conceit that is equal parts The Dirty Dozen and Mission: Impossible, to travel to the Canary Islands, where they will pose as strippers while the smarter of the pair, Cecile (Franco mainstay Lina Romay), spies on a house across from their apartment, utilizing her apparent photography skills to document who’s entering and exiting the domain. This basic setup is already at least somewhat reminiscent of Franco’s 1969 effort Two Undercover Angels (originally released as Sadist Erotica), but Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties is arguably even more gonzo-tastic than “typical” Franco, if that’s possible. The film will be a hard sell (“no explanation is possible”) to those not already attuned to Franco’s completely distinctive style, but will most likely be enjoyed to the hilt (“no explanation is necessary”) by those who have come to love the wacky combo platter of low grade sleaze and unintentional (and, frankly, sometimes intentional) comedy that Franco films typically offer.
Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. Severin isn't offering a lot of information about the provenance of the elements used for this transfer, stating only that "this EuroSleaze rarity [is] now restored uncut in HD". There are some deficits in this transfer, including the fact that it's framed near Academy Ratio when I doubt it was screened that way (I can't find any authoritative data — if anyone has some, message me and I'll update the review), so I'm wondering if this is a dated master prepared for (one would assume cable, considering the content) tv showing. The best thing about this transfer is the palette reproduction, which is quite fresh looking and which pops surprisingly well in the many outdoor sequences. Colors are vivid and fairly natural looking, though some isolated scenes, like the "playful" vignettes involving Milton, have a kind of curious yellow (no pun intended) tone. The deficits begin with the opening sequence, which have some odd stairstepping on things like the edge of the car window behind the girls. The opening several moments of the film offer low contrast and low detail levels, as well as what looks like filtering, given the near absence of grain in some very dark moments. Image quality, including grain structure, improves once Adriana is introduced, but here new problems arise, including some frame instability and occasional warping. Grain is also suspiciously minimized at several later junctures in the film, not necessarily just the (many) dark sequences where one might imagine things could have gotten noisy looking, leading to some digital manipulation. There are numerous (admittedly quite tiny at times) scratches and other signs of age related wear and tear. Despite these issues, Franco loves extreme close-ups, and detail levels are actually pretty good, all things considered, in these moments. Franco's long documented challenges with focus pulling are very much in evidence throughout this film, meaning that sharpness is also somewhat variable at times. Compression issues also occur on occasions, with some chunky yellowness (see screenshot 19, which is not an optical) and other odd looking variability in backgrounds that can add an almost swirling look.
Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties has LPCM 2.0 tracks in both English and French, and while neither is going to win any audiophile awards, they each get the job done within certain boundaries. Both tracks have damage, with occasional pops, cracks and similar sounds intruding, but the English track sounds just slightly brighter to my ears, with a clearer high range. Dialogue and the actually kind of cool sounding electric piano tinged score make it through the gauntlet relatively well, though occasional cues sound slightly distorted.
If you're one of those "no explanation is necessary" types, you'll probably want to check this release out, despite some technical limitations, since the title is so rare and Severin has included some excellent supplements. If you're one of those "no explanation is possible" types, just look into my opal fire ring and let me help you forget you read this review.
Sadist Erotica / Rote Lippen, Sadisterotica
1969
1977
Greta, The Mad Butcher / Greta - Haus ohne Männer
1977
Caged Women / Emanuelle in Hell / Violenza in un carcere femminile
1982
1976
1987
Gemidos de placer
1983
Pensione paura | Standard Edition
1978
Ta paidia tou Diavolou
1976
In the Eye of the Hurricane / Lusty Lovers / Suspicion / El ojo del huracán
1971
Special 2-Disc Limited Edition
1971
Küss mich, Monster / Bésame monstruo
1969
Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?
1972
מי מפחד מהזאב הרע / Mi mefakhed mehaze'ev hara
2013
Naked Massacre / Die Hinrichtung
1976
La bestia uccide a sangue freddo / Asylum Erotica
1971
Standard Edition | Phantom of Death | Un delitto poco comune
1988
2010
Dangerous Obsession / Il miele del diavolo
1986
Les charnelles / Sex Without Love
1974