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Draguse (Rhomm, 1976)

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Draguse (Rhomm, 1976)

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Draguse (Rhomm, 1976)

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Draguse (Rhomm, 1976)

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Draguse (Rhomm, 1976)

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Draguse (Rhomm, 1976)

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Draguse (Rhomm, 1976)

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Draguse (Rhomm, 1976)

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Put On Your Raincoats | Draguse (Rhomm, 1976)

This more or less falls into porno-horror territory, which sounds like you’re getting two great flavours that taste great together, but I don’t think this is a particularly effective example of the subgenre. The horror is applied with what can be generously called a light touch. I’ve only seen one other Patrice Rhomm movie, and I’d wager that he isn’t the most forceful of stylists, and the atmosphere here is not thick enough to cut with a knife. There’s also the fact that there’s an awful lot of padding, in terms of street footage, driving footage, amusement park footage and what have you. To be honest I didn’t mind seeing Paris in the ‘70s, particularly the seedier locations the hero visits to look for inspiration for the erotic novels he’s been commissioned to write. Alas I didn’t note down all the titles of the porno movies playing at the different theatres, but it was a little jarring to see that a Planet of the Apes sequel was playing next door to a sex film.

That being said, I did enjoy this enough, in large part thanks to Monica Swinn, a regular of Jess Franco’s films. I don’t think Rhomm uses her as well as Franco, but I still found her a pleasing screen presence, and found endearing her attempts to sell the sometimes awkward, sometimes noxious material. (Rhomm’s lack of forcefulness means we get a lot more of the former than the latter. An example presents itself in the first few minutes, when the hero dreams of being seduced by Swinn, who awkwardly gyrates to jazzy music in a shot that’s framed off centre.) And more importantly, she goes through a number of amazing outfits, from various gowns that blend spooky with sexy, to a nightie that doesn’t cover her pubes, to a grey sweater and dress combo that she matches with glasses, boots and a bob.

There’s an element of genre satire here, in that the hero struggles to find inspiration for his novels and most of the sources he tries to mine are idiotic and cliché-ridden. The best stretch of the movie is when Swinn (in dowdy bob, glasses and grey combo mode) comes to help him write his books and comes up with one idea after another more devious than any he could conjure. In the hands of a better director, this could have been shaped into something with a lot more erotic charge or a sharper sense of gender commentary, but Rhomm uses it for halfassed but sort of entertaining riffs on different sexploitation scenarios. Oddly enough, I don’t think this even would have been good jerkoff material for the raincoat brigade, as most of this is softcore with some obvious stuntcocking when it goes hardcore, and in typical French porn fashion, there’s an element of humour or condescension in some of the scenes. So I don’t think any of this will shock you or get your motor running, but if you enjoy Swinn as a screen presence you should have a good enough time.

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Annie, Get Your Gwangi

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Alien: Resurrection (1997)

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Bloody Moon (1981)

Happy Franco Friday!

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Bloody Moon (1981)

Happy Franco Friday!

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Bloody Moon (1981)

It’s Franco Friday!

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Bloody Moon (1981)

Happy Franco Friday!

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"Iris - You hurt me deeply"

Luxembourgish vintage postcard, illustrated by Boulanger, mailed in 1912 to Valencienne, France

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Natalie Wood poses with a cat with heterochromia (one blue eye and one green eye) in publicity portraits for the 20th Century Fox/Peter Hyams mystery comedy Peeper, 1975. The cat appeared in the movie as Natalie's character Ellen Prendergast's pet.