Mil sexos tiene la noche

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Night Has A Thousand Desires; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 0.50 Direction: 1.50 Pace: 0.75 Acting: 0.75 Enjoyment: 0.75

TOTAL: 4.25 out of 10.00

Finally, after all the rubbish Franco's put out, Night Has A Thousand Desires isn't too bad. The story is poor; however, it remains one of Franco's best-cinematised projects - up to this point in my viewing.

Franco has some decent ideas when it comes to storylines. The trouble is he writes the whole script, and his skill at structuring and developing characters is nearly non-existent. I wished he'd passed the synopsis over to a more talented scribe. In Night, we have the story of Irina and Fabian, two performers in a mind-reading act. But things aren't going well for Irina. She's dreaming of disturbing sexual encounters that always end in death for her partner, whether they're male or female. But are they dreams? Could they be premonitions? Worse yet, could they be real memories? This story would've been a decent murder mystery with a hint of the supernatural had Franco worked on it harder. Sadly he didn't, so the audience gets flat and dull characters that they can't relate to or emphasise with. Regrettably, the letdowns keep coming. Franco fails to build the thriller elements, which makes it even more tedious. I'm sorry to say I can't think of anything nice to mention storywise. But the narrative appears to be the main stumbling block in Franco's films.

Then we get onto the direction, and here, Franco displays some fine skills. Most of the scenes are well-structured and composed. He uses light to varying degrees. When we are in the club where the augurs perform, he lets the beautiful coloured leaded windows shine with their radiant hues and tones. This imagery works best in later scenes when there's no other light but the reds, greens, golds, and blues of sunlight through glass, bordered by deep shadows. Then when we go to Lorna's luxurious house, everything glows with a clean brightness. The only feature that Franco has difficulty with in the cinematography is the tempo. It's way too slow. Mixed with the tedious storyline, he's produced a gorgeously filmed, though uninteresting and lifeless movie. And though he tries to spice things up with some sex scenes, it's so spiritless it's like watching cadavers cavort.

When I looked at the cast list on IMDb, I giggled. Let me explain. The cast is Franco's usual band of performers. And yes, his missus, Lina Romay, takes the lead once again as psychic Irina. But this time, we find a new face on the roster - Daniel Katz as Fabian. And, what a surprise because the guy appears to be an actor. He doesn't do too badly. But lo and behold, another actor has voiced his lines. Antonio Mayans. Mayan's verges on petrified wood to okay. After seeing him in a couple of Franco's flicks, I can state that I'm not a great fan. But it would appear he works better when he's off camera. This vocal performance is some of his best work, and that's giggle-inducing.

I suggest staying away from this film if you're not a fan of Jesus Franco's work - and I understand there are many out there (and I can understand why). He was a prolific director, and I'm waiting to find the movie where the story, direction, and performances all gell. Until then, I'll keep plodding through the dregs of celluloid and videotape. But this was better than most.

Okay, Irina. This gentleman has given me a prized possession. Can you tell me what it is? That's right; it's his IMDb lists - Absolute Horror, Killer Thriller Chillers, and The Game Is Afoot. Can you tell the audience where he rated Night Has A Thousand Desires, or do they have to read the lists? Maybe they could find something better to watch too?

Take Care & Stay Well.

One of those obscure hypnotic efforts our beloved sleaze director Jesus Franco filmed after he returned to his natal Spain in the 80s. Full of surreal situations, very explicit sex and a naked Lina Romay wandering around. This one is actually one of his all-time bests. Beautifully filmed and very surreal, using to a great effect the Spanish locations, and the sight of the beautiful nude body of Lina Romay is enough to make this one a essential movie for fans of the sleaze master. The music score mix some of the cues from Female Vampire, along with a new one, also by Franco regular Daniel White. The plot is very similar to that of Franco's Nightmares Come at Night and Voodoo Passion, but in my opinion, this version surpasses those movies as it's a much more mature effort. Franco finally created a movie where reality melts into an erotic nightmare!

Similar to Macumba Sexual in style, this is a great surreal softcore-almost-bordering-on-hardcore erotic horror flick from Franco. A 8 out of 10.

Night Has a Thousand Desires (1984)

** (out of 4)

Irina (Lina Romay) and Fabian (Daniel Katz) are working as mediums and making a pretty good living at it. Before long Irina starts having horrible nightmares and soon she thinks that her dreams might actually be happening and she could be murdering men.

MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE is known under several different titles but it's basically a remake of two previous Jess Franco movies. I really wasn't a fan of Franco's NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT or VOODOO PASSION and I'm not really a fan of this third version either. Out of the three versions I think this one here is the best as there are plenty of good things about this picture but in the end it just didn't really keep me entertained.

Many have called in a drug orgy and that's a pretty good way to look at it. This film was made in 1984 but it certainly looks like something that would have been released in the late 60s because there's a lot of psychedelic moments and there's no question that it appears to be someone suffering from a drug high. I really thought that visually this was one of the director's most impressive films. The cinematography is extremely good and it's clear that a lot of thoughts went into the images, the music selection and especially the editing.

I thought Romay turned in a pretty good performance as the woman who is slowly falling apart not knowing what is real and what is reality. The screenplay is mainly visuals so there wasn't a need for a "performance" but Romay was good. The supporting cast isn't nearly as interesting thought. Those looking more more graphic sex or nudity will be disappointed. Yes, there's a lot of nudity from Romay but it's not really the main focus of the picture.

The biggest problem I had with the film is that it just didn't really draw me into it. If you can get caught up int he visuals then you'll probably enjoy the noir/mystery that is going on a bit more than I did. To me the film just didn't work nearly as well as it could have. Everything is there on a technical level but the story just doesn't work.

This obscure Golden Films production got to pop the Franco-cherry on my new movie projector. It was just the right choice! Lina Romay, chubby like she just walked out of an Anders Zorn-painting, plays Irena (Female Vampire flashbacks, anybody?) who's part of a kind of hypnosis nightclub act with the magician Fábian. He's not a very nice guy and uses his hypnotic powers to use poor Irena as an instrument of vengeance, sleeping with and killing off his enemies. Or is the whole set up just part of her nightmares? An unusually good, hypnotic (in both meanings of the word) sleaze flick that really shows what Franco can achieve with extremely limited resources - some hotel rooms, a handful of actors (the same old faces that's in all films from this period), a film camera and some re-used Daniel White music. Man, I really love this stripped down Golden Films stuff when it's done right and this films is much closer in spirit to, say, Macumba Sexual than Mansion of the Living Dead. Parts of the film are almost delirious. There's a thick, intimate atmosphere and interesting experimental photography. Some scenes are almost bordering on the poetic, for example we have a beautifully shot long kiss filmed through a glass door, bathing in sunlight. Say what you want about Lina's acting capacity but here she gives all she's got, somewhat reprising her roles in Female Vampire and Doriana Gray. Even though the story itself is more similar to Nightmares Come at Night. Highly recommended!

If IMDB is anything to go by, this would be one of nine films released by Jess Franco in 1984. Having watched the film, and knowing the mixed reputation for Franco's films in general, I was surprised by the quality of this film. Not only is it beautifully shot with great locations, the film has a careful pacing to compliment its delirious dream sequences and soundtrack. Yes, the ending is very sudden and a bit out of place, but it didn't ruin the overall experience of the film. Lina Romay drifts through her dreams with an almost ghost-like intensity that is underrated.

A very ambient experience that personally puts Franco in a new light for me.