La Baie d'émeraude

By this time in the late eighties, Prolific Spanish Director Jess Franco was justifiably known as a master of exploitation and sleaze cinema. A large portion of the decade had been given over to pornographic material, and personal films with highly graphic sexual content. To move away from that arena and back into 'respectable' film-making must have been very difficult - but he did it. With more commercial, decently budgeted efforts like 'Dark Mission: Evil Flowers (1988)' and 'Fall of the Eagles (1989)' (both starring Christopher Lee), he went on to helm this - possibly the weakest of the three.

'Esmeralda Bay' begins with a huge amount of goodwill expected of the audience. Admittedly, the only way to currently view this film is not a cleaned-up DVD or Blu-Ray release, but even so, ten minutes of day-for-night shooting, using a dark blue lens that obscures the faces of the characters and what it is they are doing, doesn't inspire viewers to stick with it. Persevere though, and the murk will clear as we drift into the daylight world. Certain readers of this review may remember a 1980's TV action show called 'Airwolf', which starred Jan Michel Vincent and Ernest Borgnine. Slightly less well known is the fact that it ran for a fourth and final series (it's easier to sell a package of four series than three to overseas buyers, apparently) featuring not only a completely different cast, but substantially less funding and relying on already-filmed stock footage of the titular helicopter. 'Esmeralda Bay' is very much like an episode from that fourth series. Lots of action sequences lifted from earlier productions, familiar faces and a budget that is stretched a little too far.

The meandering tale, which actually gets more engrossing as it goes along, is an action adventure with pretensions to be a political thriller. Due to the international cast, such sensitive overtones are given scant attention. So we're left with a rather ponderous, rather talky film lifted by a cast which is, Silvia Tortosa excepted, well played. Lina Romay appears, often with her back to the camera strangely enough, as 'Hotelier'. Antonio Mayans also turns up as The Priest. Interestingly, Mayans' more western sounding stage name is Robert Foster, due in part to his resemblance to an actor called Robert Forster, who is also in this film! The two Roberts got on rather amicably, reportedly.

My score for this is 5 out of 10. I'm a big fan of Jess Franco's work, but prefer his lesser, more personal films to more commercial releases like this. Luckily for me, it wasn't long before he returned to more minimalist projects.

"Esmeralda Bay" is a low-budget action hilarity made by Jesus Franco.The film is filled with completely amateurish action scenes that are more than laughable.The cast is pretty familiar for fans of European cult cinema,including Robert Forster,George Kennedy,Fernando Rey,Brett Halsey,Lina Romay and Karin Well.The complete lack of sleazy exploitation is especially hard to forgive.The film is quite entertaining,but I expected more from the master of exploitation.Still it's worth checking out just for its cast.5 out of 10.

An international co-production with very limited budget, and a lot of stock footage, stars some known actors and others from ordinary Jess Frank's factory. Colorful but inferior production about the subject matter of the typical South American dictatorships , the subsequent upheavals and an international conspiracy in which CIA becomes involved, made in the Eighties style and set in the fictional country of Puerto Santo. A priest and other rebels secretly lead a riot in their struggle against the corrupt military dictatorship of the Central American country of Puerto Santo. We follow businessman Wilson (George Kennedy who's the pro), who deals weapons with the local rebels and general Madero (Robert Forster) , the leader of the military police on the island. In the middle is the good-hearted banana republic-president Ramos (Fernando Rey) and the rebels, among them Ramon Estevez and Brett Halsey, all fighting for their own cause. The Americans want the military crushed and have planted their own under cover agents (Craig Hill) in the middle of this little war, and everything leads to the battle of Esmeralda Bay.

Ridiculousness , silliness and shabby action abound in this average/inferior B-movie . This is a typical Eurociné productions run by Daniel and Maroius Lesoeur, but with a with a little more money and more ambitious feeling. Maybe they had a richer financer in the background somewhere, who also demanded more for the money. But with the time and money Franco had, and a stunning cast, he also delivers an passable , if a bit generic war drama with showy and colorful photography from Barcelona, Tarragona, Catalonia, España and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. I have to admit that it's a bit tiring in the beginning, but as soon as the intrigue begis Esmeralda Bay becomes an involving thriller-drama, at times, but here's really no depth in the story, but it's easy to see where Franco put his little talent: in the interrelation between the outlandish characters and the crosses and double-crosses that they intermingle. Stars Robert Forster has a lot fun and energy playing the intensively ruthless military leader, though he's usually overacting in his villain role. In smaller parts we have Jesus Franco's regulars: Antonio Mayans and Daniel Grimm, Lina Romay as the pathetic mistress of Madero, all doing functional jobs with the material they have. And, of course, Franco himself , in a cameo as captain of a boat.

The motion picture was regularly written, edited, produced and directed by Jesús, Jess, Franco. Jess was a Stajanovist, restless writer, producer, director who realized over 200 pictures. His career spans over 50 years with a few successes and lots of flops, making all kind of genres : thrillers, adventures, action and with penchant for Terror and erotic genre . Jesus used to sigb under pseudonym, among the aliases he used apart from Jess Frank or Franco Manera, were the following ones : Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune, James P. Johnson, David Though, among others. Franco used to use ordinary trademarks, such as : zooms , nudism, foreground on objects , filmmaking in DIY style and managing to work extraordinarily quick in very low budget, as well as frequently releasing various titles at the same time. In most of Jesus Franco's films he works as a hired gun , but he gets to lead the ship to harbour in time and made the producers happy. He was a prolific filmmaker, directing a lot of lousy movies. However, making some acceptable fiñms, such as: ¨We are 18 years old¨, ¨The awful Dr Orloff¨, ¨The Bloody Judge¨ , ¨Count Dracula¨, ¨99 women¨, ¨The Blood of Fumanchu¨, ¨Faceless¨ and a few others. And many of them were heavily cut and with double versions. After a series of hardcore movies and obscurities that never seem to have seen the light of day Jesus Franco was on the go again with several movies with bigger budgets and bigger stars, such as: ¨Faceless¨, ¨Fall of the Eagles¨ and finally ¨Esmeralda Bay¨. Rating : 5/10 . So-so and average action movie. Few other movies can have so silly dialogues and still be interesting to watch. Only for Jess Frank completists.

It's a campy film with a great cast and a great score. And best off all, it's a Jess Franco film. It even has himself and Lina Romay in direct sound! An action film with a reasonable story and pace, with many hilarious scenes that I assume was made with a big dose of irony. Worth seeing if you know what you are up for. Many praise Faceless as one of the last good Franco films, I'd say this is one of them too.

This is a movie that I didn't know anything about until getting the Eurocine Collection Volume 1 in for review from Laura over at Scandal Coactive. I was intrigued as I learned that this is considered one of the better Jesús Franco films that came out in his later run for these action-centered works. Seeing that this featured Robert Forster, George Kennedy as well as Franco regulars had me as well.

Synopsis: a priest secretly leads rebels in their struggle against the corrupt military dictatorship of the Central American country of Puerto Santo.

We start this off with a boat that is approaching the shore. Interestingly, the captain is Franco himself. There is a shipment of weapons aboard. We get a double cross here. The group that takes the weapons is not who they were meant for. They were taken by a group of guerillas.

Delving deeper here, Wilson (Kennedy) is bringing in the weapons. He is supposed to be supplying the military with them. We see him at a party for his daughter, Anita (Teri Vallee). His wife, Linda (Silvia Tortosa) is late. She's been working with the other side and helped facilitate the theft. Wilson doesn't want to believe it though.

There are moving parts here. Col. Madero (Forster) is controlling the government through the president, Ramos (Fernando Rey). Madero is working with a United States agent in Jonathan Perry (Craig Hill). We see that Jonathan is here to prevent the spread of communism. The movie also introduces us to the guerillas, who were led by Luis (Brett Halsey). His son is Andres (Ramon Estevez). He is secretly dating Anita.

That is where I'm going to leave my introduction to the story and the characters. I'll get deeper into the story with my analysis. Where I want to start is something that both works and hurts is that I don't know which side many of these characters fall. Part of that is by design. A character I didn't bring up is a priest, played by Antonio Mayans, who I didn't realize until settling in to write this review was leading the rebels. I'm also not sure who the communists in this story are or if that is something the Americans are using as a scare tactic as well as a reason to be here.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I was sucked into this movie. There are so many moving parts and to be honest, I dug that. We have characters who are on one side until they need to shift to work with another and that worked for me. This feels like a realistic look at US foreign policy in the late 80s and into the 90s. We would back corrupt South American governments to instill leaders who were sympathetic to US interests. President Ramos is that guy until we see a chance with bringing back General Maho. There's even a scene where Jonathan talks to an official outside of the White House and he alludes to what is going to be told to the 'boss'. They even reference what happened with the contras and Nicaragua. I thought this was managed well.

Sticking with this, we see the decisions that characters make to keep power. Madero tells Ramos he can't resign until he tells him to. The former knows the president is a patsy under his control. That is until Gen. Maho gains leverage again. Oddly, this general was a military dictator previously in Puerto Santo. Wilson is willing to shift sides and then flee when business goes sour. Andres and the other guerillas are stealing from him, until they see that Madero is the villain. Linda is sleeping with Madero and helping him with the thefts. I could be wrong in things that I thought, but the story here is deeper than we usually get from Franco.

Let me then go over to the acting as that helps this for sure. We have two great actors in Forster and Kennedy. We get more of the latter early on, but as this goes, we see that Forster is the true villain. Both have good performances. I liked Rey in his role, especially with a reveal late. Estevez, Tortosa, Hill, Halsey, Vallee, Daniel Grimm, Mayans, Lina Romay and the rest of the cast are also solid. I love how everyone shifts as this feels like a game of chess. Each action causes a reaction and who you trust.

All that is left is filmmaking. Now I'll be honest, they didn't have the largest budget here. We see that with the effects. There are minor issues with gun effects that I'm not going to hold against this too much. I thought that the action scenes were fine. The limited budget hinders it. The story helps carry through though. This was shot well though so credit to the cinematography. The soundtrack also fit what was needed.

To end this out, this isn't a great movie. I thought it was a better action/war film that brings drama. The last bit here is helped by the acting. One of the better casts that I've seen in a Franco film with the likes of Forster and Kennedy. The cast around them are also good. It is also one of the better written ones as well. I love the commentary and story elements that are used to tell the story. The budget hinders this with action sequences, but not enough to ruin this. If you want to delve into Franco's later career with these types of films, I'd start here. I rather enjoyed it and would recommend it if what I said piques your interest.

My Rating: 6 out of 10.