Blind Target

Utterly peculiar Spanish director Jess Franco is famous for his horror films and his erotic takes on many unerotic subjects. In "Blind Target" he tackles the world of political intrigue by dispatching Rachel Sheppard as a nubile political writer into the Latin American country of San Hermoso. There she quickly gets involved in plots of kidnapping, torture, assassination and lesbianism. (Hey, it's a Jess Franco film, there's got to be some lesbianism.) Admittedly Franco's tired camera work does drag the proceedings down from time to time, but the story is untypically dense and complicated for him. Strangely enough, the dialog spoken by most of the characters is compelling and witty, moreso than in the usual Franco film. Perhaps this is due to the contributions of producer Kevin Collins of One Shot Productions, who reportedly tweaked Franco's script to make it into something worth filming. Linnea Quigley is especially fine as a TV reporter and Lina Romay is terrifying as the mad doctor working for the San Hermoso political regime. She'd have fit in right nicely in one of Hussein's torture chambers. For a Franco film with a flair for difference, "Blind Target" is walk on the wild side.

It was during my teenage years in the 1970s that I was introduced to Jess Franco's movies: Shlocky horror, sexy babes, European locations, poor scripting and bad acting. Many people don't care for this. As an immature teenager I loved it. Now as a 40-something man, I consider it a sinful pleasure. Yes, of course I still love it! Therefore, when I came across this recent Franco production boasting exotic locations, spies, international intrigue, and of course sexy babes, I was expecting to be entertained! WRONG! What the hell was this?? Franco's movies have gotten worse. Or rather, he was not able to make the transition from film to video. That is the only way to explain the terrible editing and choppy sound throughout this movie. A major distraction was when voices were recorded (reading a script, blandly and calmly) inside a sound stage while the actors are running outside. Also, the lack of ambient noise made the viewing experience seem "fake"; and there were cuts where other sound sources awkwardly chimed in. I had the DVD and expected to hear the director comment about how the sound and negatives had been damaged before the movie was released, but they were able to re-create the movie by splicing together different parts that had been saved. This at least would have made sense...

Too bad! Please let me repeat, when I watch a Franco movie I expect an outrageous script and bad acting. This movie was happily full of both, and no comments are needed. But I also expected a basic standard of cinematography, which Franco was capable of 30 years ago. What went wrong? The esteemed Jess Franco should be embarrassed! A high school film making class could have produced a better product. Oh well.

Director Franco's attempt at a sexy, political suspense thriller fails on most aspects. It is only marginally sexy, the politics are labored and irrelevant, and there are no suspense or thrills in evidence. The script is incoherent, the acting amateurish, and the film making of the worst, uninspired level. Unless you are being asked to review this, there is no reason to watch it whatsoever!

It is a welcome pleasure to watch Franco do with video that so many talentless hacks are incapable of. We get exotic locales, a fine story line, albeit a little confusing, but that is the Jess Franco way. In addition to all of this the lead actress is gorgeous and has a smouldering fire underneath her performance. Add to that the lovely Lina Romay who is always a joy to see before the camera and if that wasn't enough... LInnea Quigley! My favorite scream queen actually being used for her thespian skills in a magnificent role! On the DVD there are deleted scenes with commentary that at first you're like, so what? Then we get this great shot that I assumed was a crane shot. The producer explains that they stole three picnic tables from a nearby park, stacked them one on top of the other and set the camera on top of them. Of course Jess wanted to be sure that the shot was in frame and in focus so this little, old man scuttled up the top of the stack to make sure that they got the shot! This is professionalism in a medium that has never been real kind to Jess. The man deserves better and the viewing public needs to recognize his genius for what it truly is.

Successful writer Maria Baltran (Rachel Sheppard)goes back to the South American city she fled from as a kid on a publicity tour to promote her book that's about how corrupt her homeland is. For some reason some people want to kill her. hmmm, I can't imagine why, she writes of how utterly corrupt the country is and then GOES BACK THERE ON A BOOK TOUR!! Dumb poota. So after her best lesbian friend gets kidnapped (not before sharing a tender moment with Maria, of course), she has to go save her. The post-recorded dialog was immensely distracting and annoying, and the plot is hopelessly convoluted. One of the worst Franco films that I've seen.

My Grade: F

DVD Extras: Behind the scenes (10 minutes); deleted shots with commentary by producer Kevin Collins; Spanish language clip; and stills gallery

Eye Candy: Rachel Sheppard shows it all