La rose écorchée

In the old days (1955 – 1970) it seemed like all French horror directors had a fetish for facial reconstructions… Either that or they all just wanted to rival the tremendous success of Georges Franju's immortal and hugely influential genre landmark "Eyes without a Face". The notorious Jess Franco succeeded by making his "The Awful Dr. Orloff" one of the biggest euro-Exploitation hits of all time, whereas Claude Mulot's attempt "The Blood Rose" merely just remains a modest and obscure gem for the die-hard fanatics to seek out. Since times and audiences had already evolved quite drastically by the year 1970, "The Blood Rose" is a lot more graphic and provocative than the aforementioned two titles, but Mulot nevertheless tried – and managed – to insert with style, elegance and artistic elements into his movie. Although blatantly promoted as a sleazy exploitation shocker (with the enticing tagline: "The First Sex-Horror Film ever made!") the film primarily aims to be a surreal melodrama with a gloomy atmosphere and convoluted characters. It's almost regrettable to say that most of Mulot's ambitions and efforts are a waste of time, though. It nearly takes 45 minutes to come to the point that is actually summarized in one sentence on the back of the DVD. Mulot generates an ardent and detailed introduction, complete with narratives and flashbacks, solely to explain that the eccentric painter Fréderic Lansac finds true love in the shape of beautiful young Anne and retires with her in his remote countryside castle. On the day of their marriage, however, Anne averts from a cat fight with Fréderic's former mistress and falls face-down into a fire. She miraculously survives, but her beautiful frontispiece gets disfigured for life. The actual horror plot only properly lifts off at this point, as Fréderic – descending further and further into personal pity – discovers that the new tenant of his art gallery is, in fact, a suspended plastic surgeon instead of a botanical gardener, and blackmails him into operating his wife. The doctor obviously needs a living donor for the medically unorthodox face transplantation, but luckily Fréderic Lansac enslaves two disfigured midgets to do his dirty work. These creepy little fellas capture beautiful girls wandering around the castle area, whilst both Fréderic and the doctor begin to develop moral conflicts. Standard exploitation guff, in other words, but niftily decorated with extended dream-sequence and marvelous filming locations. The "sex" in the so-called first sex-horror film is limited to a couple of bare breasts and an attempted rape by the two midgets (which is, admittedly, a rather unpleasant sight to behold). Main actors Philippe Lemaire and Howard Vernon admirably manage to make their prototypic characters appear convincingly tormented and pitiable, whereas the female protagonist Anne undergoes a rather implausible metamorphosis… And not just physically. The cast girls are absolutely ravishing and the most memorable trumps of the film are undoubtedly Igor and Olaf. In case you always wanted to see a horror flick with two dwarfs, dressed in animal fur, virulently chasing a half naked brunette in castle tower; here's your only chance!

I had never even heard of this film before Mondo Macabro announced their upcoming DVD release of it, so I was surprised to find - after I had already ordered it online - that Leonard Maltin had in fact reviewed it in his Guide and gave it his proverbial *1/2 rating usually allotted to such sensationalist fare. Even more surprising is the fact that I found this to be so good and engaging, despite being the nth revamping of one of my all-time favorites - Georges Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1959). Also, I expected it to be much trashier – considering the dubious epithet "the first sex-horror film" that's attached to it; there is a reasonable amount of nudity here, but this is generally tastefully presented. Actually, it exudes a rather classy atmosphere (with cinematography by the renowned Roger Fellous) peculiar to French horror cinema – similar, in fact, to other Mondo Macabro releases such as MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN (1960), THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z (1965), GIRL SLAVES OF MORGANA LE FAY (1971) and SEVEN WOMEN FOR Satan (1974).

Lead Philippe Lemaire is appropriately debonair as the celebrated painter whose life and career take a nose-dive once his wife is no longer able to act as his muse; the actor later worked for Jess Franco and Walerian Borowczyk but, sadly, ended his own life in 2004. Anne Duperey is luscious and graceful during the early section of the film: the girl's loving relationship with her husband is presented in some detail, so as to render her subsequent bitterness (which even drives her to commit cold-blooded murder) both believable and poignant. The appearance of her scarred features, then, is subtly handled throughout (presented mostly as blurry POV shots) and the make-up itself quite well done. The actress eventually broke into the mainstream with PARDON MON AFFAIRE (1977), a successful comedy later Americanized as THE WOMAN IN RED (1984).

Howard Vernon provides a further link with the EYES WITHOUT A FACE prototype – since he played the title role in Jess Franco's THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF (1961), a character to which actor and director would often return (the last time in FACELESS [1988], a viewing of which followed the next day). In THE BLOOD ROSE (released as RAVAGED in the U.K.), he again plays the surgeon who aims to graft the face off a live victim: here, however, he's blackmailed into the task and actually doubts his own success (his eventual fate, then, comes as a total shock). The dwarf manservants seen here may be something of a genre requisite, but they're actually well-integrated into the plot – their rape/murder of a captive girl (an intended, but obviously unwilling, face donor) and subsequent beating by their disfigured mistress seemed a gratuitous digression at first, but it does help set up the film's wild and completely unexpected final act! It's rather odd, however, that no revenge was visited upon the spited socialite who perpetrated Duperey's accident.

The catacomb-like design of Lemaire's art gallery complements the Gothic atmosphere of his family château. As for the film's deliberate pace, this is characteristic of the "Euro-Cult" style – typified by the scene in which an inquisitive girl is made to prowl the castle grounds for minutes on end. Unsurprisingly, Mulot (who tragically drowned in 1986) later dabbled in porn cinema – though the obscure crime film THE CONTRACT (1971) is considered as his best work. The DVD supplements include an interesting 23-minute interview with the film's assistant director (and Mulot's brother-in-law), and a reasonably informative essay about the history of French horror cinema over the years (going all the way up to the most recent examples).

The first real film from a director who went on to do a lot of interesting work in the 1970's and 80's before his tragic death by drowning in 1986.

An avowed homage to Eyes Without a Face, the film unquestionably creates its own atmosphere and goes in a very different direction from its more famous model. Mulot's film has great cinematography, an interesting script construction and a very melancholic mood that marks it out from most low budget shockers of the period. Although not a costume piece as such, it is probably closer to the classic Mill of the Stone Women than to Franju's film.

The acting and direction are of a uniformly high standard. Anny Duperey and Philip Lemaire impart real depth to their characterizations and it's great to see Euro legend Howard Vernon once again. The film was sold as a mixture of sex and horror and the sex is provided by a bevy of stunning Euro babes including Valerie Boisgel and Michele Perello who went on to feature in Morgane et ses Nymphes before disappearing into the hinterlands of porn.

Well worth more than a passing look for any fan of classy Euro horror, this one has probably improved with age and repays repeated viewings.

Hyped as The First French Sex-Horror Film "The Blood Rose" certainly delivers the goods.Lemaire plays an aging painter whose wedded bliss to gorgeous Anne turns to tragedy,when she nearly gets in a catfight with his former lover and falls into a fire in a pretty hilarious scene.She is of course horribly scarred.The great Howard Vernon plays a surgeon who may be able to return her to her former beauty,but he'll need a live victim to do it.So women are brought to the artist's château in order to get a face.The dwarfs,who were the painter's longtime servants,are charged with capturing the girls.Clearly inspired by Franju "Eyes Without the Face" "The Blood Rose" features lovely Gothic setting of French medieval castle, great-looking women and a healthy dose of sleaze.Rollin-esquire atmosphere is well-captured and the climax is fantastic.7 out of 10.

Georges Franju's remarkable horror film had a deep influence on that kind of cinema:even Amenabar's "abre los ojos" is a good example of what Franju brought to the fantasy and horror movies.

The first sex-horror film!claimed the tagline.Well for that matter,Murnau's "Nosferatu" came first.Claude Mulot's script is thin,mean and lacks humor and substance.A poor man's "les yeux sans visage" indeed.But it manages to retain some -minor - interest.The castle where a lady who was disfigured in a fire (Duperrey) is waiting for a doctor who will give her back her beauty;but this man's methods -blackmailed by the lady's husband - are illegal to say the least for he needs warm young flesh,well you know the score.We never see the lady's horrible face ,only her eyes -like Rosemary's baby- ,and there's a lot of camera taking first-person point of view.Two sinisters dwarfs appear now and then .Claude Mulot sometimes manages to create a dreamlike atmosphere,but once again,his script is really half-backed.