Death Whistles The Blues 1964 Story and screenplay by Luis de Diego and Jesús Franco, directed by Jesús Franco. A Spanish crime film set in Cuba, Jamaica and New Orleans. It appears on a two movie DVD from Severn films. The film was made in 1962 but not released to theaters for two years.
Castro and Julius are truck drivers, little do they know they've been set up by their partner Vogel, he's sent them on a trip with a truck filled with weapons for some rebels. Here come the police, Julius is killed and there goes Castro off to jail. Vogel marries the wife of Julius. Time passes, Castro is out and looking for a bit of revenge. Castro finds that Julius isn't dead, he'd been shipped off another prison. Released, he's gone back to playing in a jazz band.
Castro lucks out and makes friends with a couple of arm wrestling fishermen in a bar. They help Castro in his fight with Vogel, they've become tired of Vogel's stranglehold on the local fish business. Julius gets run down, Castro suspects Vogel had it done but he has no evidence. Castro doesn't tell anything to the cops, even after he gets beat up pretty bad. Vogel has a connection to a night club, the movie spends a lot of time there, there are a few songs sung by a singer. There's the usual underworld characters you'd expect to see is such a place, petty crooks, seedy gun men, corrupt politicians and prostitutes.
It's a nice looking film with a good score and musical numbers. The story is entertainingly told and there's a good cast to bring it to life. I enjoyed it more than any other Jesús Franco film I've seen. I'll want to watch it again someday.
Rififi In The City 1963 Novel by Charles Exbrayat, screenplay by Jesús Franco Gorzalo Sebastián and Juan Cobos, directed by Jesús Franco. A Spanish film set in Central America.
A local police detective is obsessed with arresting Leprince, a crooked local politician. Leprince has his fingers in all sorts of vice including a nightclub. A lot of the film is set in the nightclub, plenty of yakking with the occasional musical numbers. An informer claims to have proof but he disappears. A while later he turns up dead at the police detective's house. Someone starts murdering Leprince's cronies one by one. The bodies pile up in this one.
I enjoyed it but didn't think it was entertaining as the first movie in the Severin DVD. It has a good story and a good score. The musical numbers are rather typical nightclub songs. I got bored with about half of them in each movie and fast forwarded to the talking bits. The film looks good and it's one I would watch again someday.
Comments