In 80 Betten um die Welt

This is an episodic erotic film mostly directed by Producer Erwin C. Dietrich. Jess Franco may have directed some brief footage, such as one scene which involves a sadistic cult and has some similarities to scenes in Franco's own EXORCISM (1974). A few of the episodes are the kind of crude, silly comedy familiar from 1960s and 70s German sex films. After a while it just gets rather tiresome. The film is very lightweight and lacks Franco's overall thematic vision and singular style.

The episodes are mostly played for comedy but they're not very amusing and not very erotic. This was shot in 1976-1977, a very busy year for Jess Franco in which he made several of his better films (JACK THE RIPPER, LOVE LETTERS OF A PORTUGUESE NUN, DORIANA GRAY). It appears he just helped out producer Dietrich with a few scenes in this one. If you're a hardcore Jess Franco completest you might want to check it out, but I can't recommend it.

Mondo Erotico (1977)

** (out of 4)

This German "mondo" movie has a TV host (Esther Moser) narrating and introducing various sexual acts from around the world. This includes S&M acts, a class teaching masturbation, a man who likes to pretend to be a baby and getting spanked by his mother and various other naughty tales.

For years it was believed that producer Erwin C. Dietrich had directed this film but then it came out that Jess Franco was the one behind the camera but I must admit that I'm not totally sure how true that is. I guess we'll never know but there's not too much here that reminds me of Franco's style, although there are many experts out there who say this is no doubt his work. This film is also known as IN *) BETTEN UM DIE WELT, which translates to AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BEDS. As you can tell, this here is pretty much just another "mondo" movie but overall I thought it was fairly disappointing and it certainly didn't match Franco's VIRGIN REPORT.

The biggest problem with this film is that none of the stories are all that interesting. There's certainly not horrid stories but they're not funny, erotic and none of them are all that entertaining to the point where anyone, outside of Franco die-hards, need to check this out. I guess the most interesting is the very first one, which has a woman tied to up a wooden cross where she's going to be tortured and killed in the name of Satan. This cross and the entire set-up looks exactly like the "show" put on in Franco's EXORCISM. Another mildly entertaining segment deals with a female teacher who is giving a masturbation class and tries to get one "troubled" student the proper lessons.

With so many better mondo movies out there it's hard to really recommend this one. Again, there are certainly much worse out there but at the same time there are better ones so this here really doesn't need to be viewed unless you're a fan of the director or want to see everything that the genre offers.