Sumuru, la cité sans hommes

Girl from Rio, The (1969)

** (out of 4)

Coming from the same era as his FuManchu pictures, this European spy-caper comes from Jess Franco and actually is fairly decent as long as you don't expect too much from it. In the film, which is basically a take-off on Mario Bava's DANGER: DIABOLIK, former Bond girl Shirley Eaton plays Sumitra, the leader of a female gang who plan on taking over the world by turning all the men into their slaves. The girl gang must try and fight a couple evil men (one played by George Sanders) who plan to try and stop them. There's no question that this isn't a very good film but at the same time it's actually better than you might expect it to be. The biggest problem is with the screenplay that really doesn't offer up anything overly original or entertaining as the film's pacing is always at a stop-go motion that ends up killing the film. We get a lot of funky visuals as there's no question this is one of those psychedelic pictures that I'm sure many potheads might enjoy. You've got a pretty good soundtrack, some decent cinematography and it's good to see some familiar names showing up. Sanders was certainly slumping at this point of his career but he manages to be mildly entertaining here. Eaton also manages to turn in a decent performance and it really does appear as she's into everything going on and having a good time playing pretty much a female James Bond. She's certainly chomping away at the dialogue and appears to be having a blast. I think those unfamiliar with the work of Jess Franco might find themselves enjoying this because they're not really sure what they would normally be seeing from the director. Franco worked a few films into this genre but I'm personally not a fan of any of them so in the end this is a decent effort but there's just not enough soul here for me. I prefer his 70s output, which featured more bizarre and poetic films.

Without even trying to, I have somehow managed to see four of director Jess Franco's 140-plus films over the last few months. The man has been so very prolific is so many film genres that he is seemingly unavoidable for anyone whose tastes tend toward the "psychotronic." "The Girl From Rio" (1969) is one of his more coherent, impressively made, larger-budgeted, less sleazy efforts, at least compared to some other works in his gigantic oeuvre. In this one, formerly golden Bond girl Shirley Eaton plays a character widely referred to as Sumitra, although here she's usually called Sunanda (AND despite being based on Sax Rohmer's female villain Sumuru...don't ask). She and her all-woman army plan to conquer the world from their base city of Femina (near Rio), if American playboy on the run Jeff Sutton and crime boss Masius (the always-worth-watching George Sanders) don't get in the way. The film features excellent set and costume design, a chic and catchy theme song, unusual camera angles and a decidedly mod feel. Shirley is just fine in her villainess role, and viewers who enjoyed Maria Rohm's work in that same year's "Venus in Furs" (also by Franco) will just eat her right up here. The picture, for the most part, has its heart in the right place and is something of a gas. Sadly, it is also excessively padded with inevitable Carnivale footage, never goes far enough in terms of sex and perverseness, is grossly deficient when it comes to well-choreographed action scenes, and lacks the budget to make good on its admittedly smashing central conceit. The film's a mixed bag, to be sure, but a stylish and enjoyable one. I would never recommend ingesting psychedelics before watching it, but still, the picture almost demands to be seen that way...

There are certain scenes in this film (like the hero's first meeting with super-villainess Shirley Eaton) where it seems to be on the edge of breaking sexual taboos and doing its premise (females want to rule the world by making men slaves) justice, but it never dares to. The result is a film with no sexuality and some tame violence. Despite the choppy plot, the film is not overly bad until its climax, where its amateurishness runs rampant (terrible editing, overuse of stock footage). Worth seeing only as a curio. (*1/2)

Take the secret agent / James Bond craze of the sixties, mix in some concepts from Sax Rohmer's female Fu Manchu femme fatale and stir in some absurdest twisted revisionism by director Franco - you have the man-hating lesbian Sumuru, or "The 7 Secrets of..." - better known as "The Girl From Rio" in the USA, recalling "That Man From Rio," which has nothing to do with this. Yes, this does take place in Brazil, we must give it that. Sumuru, or Sumitra as she's also referred to, is like an evil version of "Modesty Blaise," played here by actress Eaton with that familiar coy smile which most of us first became acquainted with in "Goldfinger." There are numerous close-up shots of her staring off camera, slowly opening her mouth, probably while watching something unpleasant (however, she is doubled in her key lesbian scene). She controls an entire army of female warriors, colorfully costumed, and rules a city called Femina or something (just outside Rio de Janeiro?). These concepts, which previously appeared in "The Million Eyes of Sumuru," sound terrific, but, despite some intriguing set design & visuals, it follows the same campy atmosphere of, for example, the very dated "Some Girls Do," which came out around the same time and which also featured a female army. At first glance, the sight of all these armed females, usually lined up in a row, catches one's interest, but, after 15 minutes or so, you realize there's nothing else there beyond just setting up the visual.

The plot follows what seems like a secret agent, a male, arriving in Brazil with 10 million dollars. He catches the attention of the local crime lord (Sanders, hamming it up as an elderly Bond-type villain), who sends dark-suited thugs in bowler hats to accost him. This sets everything up for a 3-way conflict between the agent, the crime lord and the mysterious Sumuru (the crime lord wants Sumuru's secrets). Sumuru also keeps various prisoners in glass cages - maybe that's one of the secrets. This sounds exciting but there are problems which go beyond just a slow pace; there are many shots which could have used a lot of tightening: one shot of an arriving airplane, for example, stays on the craft as it settles to a near stop, as if this had never been captured on film before. There's a similar approach to a typical sunset, as if there's something unusual about it. The fight scenes are very substandard, as if the filmmakers had to use the first takes. To add some production value, there's a scene of the real Rio carnival about midway through. I'm guessing there were various budget problems, especially evident in the climactic battle, where fake sound effects and smoke cover up a lot of bogus action, such as the lack of even real-looking guns - it calls to mind those times when kids use plastic guns and pretend bullets are being fired, falling over unconvincingly. There are touches of sadism, such as torturing a character to get answers, and female nudity, an early depiction of such after some restrictions were lifted. But, mostly, you'll be rolling your eyes. Hero:3 Villains:5 Femme Fatales:5 Henchmen:4 Fights:3 Stunts/Chases:3 Gadgets:4 Auto:4 Locations:6 Pace:3 overall:4

The Girl From Rio AKA Future Women is precisely the sort of loopy nonsense that we cult movie fans find absolutely fascinating: it has an outlandish espionage plot, born of the feminist movement yet still managing to exploit women at every turn; it stars familiar performers Shirley Eaton (Goldfinger) and George Sanders (All About Eve) camping it up like there's no tomorrow; there's crazy kitsch 60s fashion a go-go; and director Jess Franco (R.I.P.) ensures that the film is imbued with a strangeness and technical ineptitude of the kind guaranteed to keep his loyal followers happy, despite the whole affair being far more light-hearted than many of his other movies.

Eaton stars as lesbian megalomaniac Sunanda who is hell-bent on dominating the world with the help of her all-woman army of men-haters (which in itself should be more than enough to pique most trash movie fans' interest). Building a vast fortune by kidnapping the world's wealthiest people, the power-hungry women's libber has built her own city, Femina, from which she plans to launch her attack on mankind.

Sunanda's latest target is playboy Jeff Sutton (Richard Wyler), who is rumoured to be carrying $10million cash with him in his briefcase; also interested in the money is Sunanda's rival, Rio crime boss Masius (Sanders). In reality there is no money, the briefcase being used as bait to reel in Sunanda, Jeff having been hired to locate missing heiress Ulla (Marta Reves) who he believes is being held captive in Femina.

With this three-way of Sunanda, Masius and Sutton established, all Franco is left to do is pad out his movie to feature length with assorted nonsense, which includes gangsters in creepy masks, lots of Rio carnival padding (including a one-legged reveller busting moves in the street), some torture via Sunanda's craptastic microwave ray, Eaton wearing a lacy body stocking, hilarious dialogue ('Don't be nasty—daddy doesn't like it'), more leggy totty than you can shake a stick at, and several silly showdowns, Jeff narrowly escaping on most occasions thanks to his incredible martial arts skills (a karate chop here, a judo throw there) or his trusty pistol (for use only when his chopping hand is feeling sore). When he's not kicking bad guy butt, Jeff's weapon of choice is his irresistible charm, with which he lures women—even dedicated man-haters—into bed with ease (thus allowing Franco to easily meet his quota of female nudity).

Ultimately, Femina is stormed by Jeff and Masius, who form an alliance to ensure continuing male superiority, their assault on the city resulting in a barrage of badly edited fake gunfire and an amateurish assault of unconvincing stock footage explosions. In a suitably silly final scene, Sunanda is shown to have survived the attack, despite having supposedly blown herself up with a self-destruct device inside her gold vault.