Finally, I've found some time to post my thoughts on this film. I had already discussed it briefly with Francesco via e-mail (in Italian) but this thread has been quite revealing for me as well.
Well, to begin with, I did not find the film to be as bad as many have claimed (and I see that Francesco hasn't changed his mind in this regard); dull and uninvolving it may be, but it is also intermittently enjoyable (particularly Christopher Lee and Leo Genn's numerous confrontation scenes) for what it is. Even when considering the very few Jess Franco movies I've managed to watch in this one year, I wouldn't classify THE BLOODY JUDGE (1970) among his best work; moreover, it never quite approaches (let alone reach) the cinematic quality of Michael Reeves' far more psychologically compelling WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968): witness the two films' very different conclusions in Franco's film, the villain is justly 'punished' for his crimes while the two lovers emerge unscathed and the 'revolutionaries' triumphant, a pretty bland 'happy ending' if you ask me; WITCHFINDER GENERAL still has one of the bleakest wrap-ups to a film I've ever seen (spoilers ahead, I'm afraid!): Ian Ogilvy, driven over-the-edge by the social and personal injustices he has witnessed (including the unrepentant deflowering of his girl, Hilary Dwyer, by the dastardly Vincent Price), savagely hacking the latter to pieces with an axe while the former, tied up in a castle dungeon, looks on horrified (as much for what is happening before her as the awful realization that the couple's 'pure' love has been inevitably and permanently scarred by the experience) and screaming her lungs out on which the scene freezes! Quite a difference, no?
To get back to THE BLOODY JUDGE, I think that Christopher Lee's uncommitted performance (he may have been interested in the project initially but, no doubt, his enthusiasm dissipated considerably when he realized that no serious attempt at authenticity would be made). Besides, because Lee's character is so rigid (a motif visually counterpointed by his hardly ever emerging outdoors, thus appearing constantly cramped as much by his surroundings as by his own physical condition, the very Word of the Law he exercises and the implacable religious fervor prevalent at the time), his role is nowhere near as iconic as Vincent Price's had been, no matter what the DVD's liner and sleeve notes claim!
The film's saving graces basically lie in Manuel Merino's lush cinematography (economically, the production was mostly shot on real locations) and Bruno Nicolai's sprawling yet melancholic score. However, I feel that Franco the auteur was not really inspired by the material at hand, resulting in an almost completely impersonal direction: in fact, it only comes alive inside the creepy-looking Howard Vernon's dungeon/torture chamber (where Margaret Lee's ordeal is particularly striking, eliciting another fine if all-too-brief performance from an underrated Euro-Cult actress of the 1960s) but, then, the sudden change in style and emphasis is extremely jarring, as if these scenes had strayed from a totally different picture! The nudity (especially the entirely gratuitous romantic-interlude-in-the-hay between Maria Rohm and Hans Hass Jr.), even if not explicit, was quite unnecessary here: even the notorious 'forced lesbian sequence', though exquisitely filmed, doesn't really belong here. Regarding the latter, I tend to share Glenn Erickson's viewpoint as expressed in his 'DVD Savant' review of the film:
'The moment pointed out by liner notes writer Tim Lucas as 'incredible, transgressive erotica' is a bafflingly inane scene where Maria Rohm licks the blood from the body of a hanging female corpse. The display is so pitiful, it isn't even pornographic. It is beautifully scored by Bruno Nicolai, however.'
The way I see it, Rohm performed this dubious and quite irrelevant act of her own free will or, perhaps more accurately, in spite of herself that is, driven to such an extremity of degrading behavior by the sheer physical and psychological torture she has gone through in Vernon's custody. But, then, this scene is immediately followed by the one in which she is seduced by Judge Jeffreys himself, and where she apparently regains enough of her senses to want to kill him! Which brings me to this part of one of Francesco's earlier posts in this same thread:
'As usual I'm in absolute minority in valuing THE BLOODY JUDGE as the worst of the three bad Franco films of the CHRISTOPHER LEE COLLECTION. But in order to explain on the basis of what criteria and valuation-scales I rate this film even lower than the Fu Manchus, I want to make one only example: the scene in which Mary attempts to stab Jeffreys. He's turning his back to Mary; she grasps the dagger and runs towards the Judge, who doesn't realize what's happening; then she lifts up her arm and finally ..... finally does she stab him? no, instead of stabbing him, she stops her arm and cries!!! obviously the man turns round and disarms her, putting at end one of the most embarrassing Franco's sequences ever; even worse than SADOMANIA's stuffed crocodile, IMO.'
Well, in Franco's defence, I'm sure that having Mary Gray hesitate and cry out at such a crucial moment could only be a sign of her essentially virtuous character; she OUGHT to find the act of murder repellent, no matter what Jeffreys did to her, and that is exactly why I feel the preceding 'erotic interlude' to be so uncharacteristic! Still, Francesco, I can think of any number of far more embarrassing moments in either of Franco's Fu Manchu films
[P.S. By the way, I've just watched the trailers for Blue Underground's upcoming DVD editions of Franco's THE GIRL FROM RIO (1969) and SADOMANIA (1981), and I must say that I'm less than intrigued by them especially when considering that, for some reason, they seem to have a higher price-tag than the standard BU fare! It WOULD be nice to collect all of BU's Franco titles including the disappointing MARQUIS DE SADE'S JUSTINE (1968), which I did watch (or rather Anchor Bay UK's R2 equivalent) though only as a rental but, at least, in the case of the two awful Fu Manchu films I had an excuse to buy them (that excuse, of course, being THE BLOODY JUDGE itself even if the remaining title in 'The Christopher Lee Collection', CIRCUS OF FEAR {1966}, is actually superior)!]
I refer to other quotes from online reviews I have read of this DVD: Glenn Erickson once again hits the nail on the head (sorry, Tim) with the following stance:
'Even less understandable is the championing of Jess Franco's direction, which is only slightly better than his sloppy work on the Fu Manchu series. The liner notes make the laughable assertion that the battle scene herein proves that Franco was clearly the auteur behind the much-applauded knight's battle in CAMPANANDAS A MEDIANOCHE (CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT), the great Orson Welles film on which Franco assisted. The generic and lackadaisical fight in the woods here looks like random coverage. We have no idea who is fighting who or which side our rebel heroes are on. If the color, costumes and location weren't such a good match, we might think it was stock footage from another show. Franco may very well have done the excellent, unique battle scene in the Welles film, but I doubt it, and wouldn't trust Franco's word on the matter. THE BLOODY JUDGE would be the last film to suggest a connection.'
Having only recently viewed Welles' Shakespearean masterwork for the first time myself, I was immediately struck by the realism of the battle sequence, its rough-and-ready quality as much the result of a limited budget as Welles' own penchant for skimping over the 'details'. Still, I could detect little if any similarity to what Franco shot for the later film; it's one thing to provide a hastily-assembled skirmish (viewed from both sides) but another thing entirely to do so in style, and the equivalent scenes in THE BLOODY JUDGE struck me as very ordinary indeed!
And this from the 'Monsters At Play' review, penned by Carl Lyon: 'This group, which include a guy named Satchel(?) and one of the creepiest executioners ever, even have a calligraphic letter 'J' emblazoned on their chest like demented superheroes.'
This anachronistic flourish is perhaps an amusing reference to the many vaguely cartoonish spy-spoofs Franco made during this same era (including the two Fu Manchus), thus linking the rogues-in-high-places of yesteryear flanked by their amoral henchmen who seem to have crawled from under stones to the power-mad villains of modern times and their endless parade of 'faceless' subordinates.
My rambling thoughts on this film lead me now to examine some of its more noticeable deficiencies:
· first of all, the double irony of the ending as it stands now Jeffreys awaiting to be executed but dying instead of a heart attack was probably unintentional, but the fact that three separate endings were shot and used for different versions (which is not the same as having a more explicit take of a given scene) speaks volumes about the film's essential lack of focus, resulting in audience frustration and subsequent detachment
· none of the characters is very interesting and the two that are Lee and Genn are poorly developed; Maria Schell's grave-sounding blind woman is an unfortunate miscalculation, in my opinion, especially as she doesn't add that much to the proceedings (why is there such a VITAL need, then, for the young lovers' union to be blessed by her, rendering their capture by Jeffreys' men all-too-convenient)!
· the incessant mumbling of peasant-folk at Jeffreys' trials is positively irritating!
Finally, we come to the DVD itself: picture and sound quality are of the standard we have come to expect from Blue Underground. The extras are a well of information (and entertainment): the controversial featurette is a very well done piece, perhaps the best one yet on a Franco/Blue Underground DVD.
In all fairness, Christopher Lee did not deserve the backlash that he received for his comments: first of all, he admits that he doesn't like the 'modern' trend in horror films and, therefore, he is right in claiming that he has not made one for a long time; as for his 'disgust' at the exploitative content of the film itself as well as Franco's subsequent work, he is only offering his personal opinion and, so, none of us should take offence! What IS rather hard to believe, however, is that he did not know such scenes were in the script to begin with: it's true he isn't in any of the footage concerned (at least physically), but really the script is so filled with this execrable material that I doubt they were added later unless he only read his lines when given the script, or else he accepted the part without reading it at all, which then means that he got all that he deserved!
It's a pity that the lengthy deleted scene could not be reinstated into the film (probably due to its ragged state) as it certainly smooths the passage from Rohm's grief over her sister's death to her blooming romance with Hass, which is now rather too precipitous. The rest of the supplements alternate footage, trailer, poster/stills gallery, talent bios are rather nice to have, too.
Well, to begin with, I did not find the film to be as bad as many have claimed (and I see that Francesco hasn't changed his mind in this regard); dull and uninvolving it may be, but it is also intermittently enjoyable (particularly Christopher Lee and Leo Genn's numerous confrontation scenes) for what it is. Even when considering the very few Jess Franco movies I've managed to watch in this one year, I wouldn't classify THE BLOODY JUDGE (1970) among his best work; moreover, it never quite approaches (let alone reach) the cinematic quality of Michael Reeves' far more psychologically compelling WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968): witness the two films' very different conclusions in Franco's film, the villain is justly 'punished' for his crimes while the two lovers emerge unscathed and the 'revolutionaries' triumphant, a pretty bland 'happy ending' if you ask me; WITCHFINDER GENERAL still has one of the bleakest wrap-ups to a film I've ever seen (spoilers ahead, I'm afraid!): Ian Ogilvy, driven over-the-edge by the social and personal injustices he has witnessed (including the unrepentant deflowering of his girl, Hilary Dwyer, by the dastardly Vincent Price), savagely hacking the latter to pieces with an axe while the former, tied up in a castle dungeon, looks on horrified (as much for what is happening before her as the awful realization that the couple's 'pure' love has been inevitably and permanently scarred by the experience) and screaming her lungs out on which the scene freezes! Quite a difference, no?
To get back to THE BLOODY JUDGE, I think that Christopher Lee's uncommitted performance (he may have been interested in the project initially but, no doubt, his enthusiasm dissipated considerably when he realized that no serious attempt at authenticity would be made). Besides, because Lee's character is so rigid (a motif visually counterpointed by his hardly ever emerging outdoors, thus appearing constantly cramped as much by his surroundings as by his own physical condition, the very Word of the Law he exercises and the implacable religious fervor prevalent at the time), his role is nowhere near as iconic as Vincent Price's had been, no matter what the DVD's liner and sleeve notes claim!
The film's saving graces basically lie in Manuel Merino's lush cinematography (economically, the production was mostly shot on real locations) and Bruno Nicolai's sprawling yet melancholic score. However, I feel that Franco the auteur was not really inspired by the material at hand, resulting in an almost completely impersonal direction: in fact, it only comes alive inside the creepy-looking Howard Vernon's dungeon/torture chamber (where Margaret Lee's ordeal is particularly striking, eliciting another fine if all-too-brief performance from an underrated Euro-Cult actress of the 1960s) but, then, the sudden change in style and emphasis is extremely jarring, as if these scenes had strayed from a totally different picture! The nudity (especially the entirely gratuitous romantic-interlude-in-the-hay between Maria Rohm and Hans Hass Jr.), even if not explicit, was quite unnecessary here: even the notorious 'forced lesbian sequence', though exquisitely filmed, doesn't really belong here. Regarding the latter, I tend to share Glenn Erickson's viewpoint as expressed in his 'DVD Savant' review of the film:
'The moment pointed out by liner notes writer Tim Lucas as 'incredible, transgressive erotica' is a bafflingly inane scene where Maria Rohm licks the blood from the body of a hanging female corpse. The display is so pitiful, it isn't even pornographic. It is beautifully scored by Bruno Nicolai, however.'
The way I see it, Rohm performed this dubious and quite irrelevant act of her own free will or, perhaps more accurately, in spite of herself that is, driven to such an extremity of degrading behavior by the sheer physical and psychological torture she has gone through in Vernon's custody. But, then, this scene is immediately followed by the one in which she is seduced by Judge Jeffreys himself, and where she apparently regains enough of her senses to want to kill him! Which brings me to this part of one of Francesco's earlier posts in this same thread:
'As usual I'm in absolute minority in valuing THE BLOODY JUDGE as the worst of the three bad Franco films of the CHRISTOPHER LEE COLLECTION. But in order to explain on the basis of what criteria and valuation-scales I rate this film even lower than the Fu Manchus, I want to make one only example: the scene in which Mary attempts to stab Jeffreys. He's turning his back to Mary; she grasps the dagger and runs towards the Judge, who doesn't realize what's happening; then she lifts up her arm and finally ..... finally does she stab him? no, instead of stabbing him, she stops her arm and cries!!! obviously the man turns round and disarms her, putting at end one of the most embarrassing Franco's sequences ever; even worse than SADOMANIA's stuffed crocodile, IMO.'
Well, in Franco's defence, I'm sure that having Mary Gray hesitate and cry out at such a crucial moment could only be a sign of her essentially virtuous character; she OUGHT to find the act of murder repellent, no matter what Jeffreys did to her, and that is exactly why I feel the preceding 'erotic interlude' to be so uncharacteristic! Still, Francesco, I can think of any number of far more embarrassing moments in either of Franco's Fu Manchu films
[P.S. By the way, I've just watched the trailers for Blue Underground's upcoming DVD editions of Franco's THE GIRL FROM RIO (1969) and SADOMANIA (1981), and I must say that I'm less than intrigued by them especially when considering that, for some reason, they seem to have a higher price-tag than the standard BU fare! It WOULD be nice to collect all of BU's Franco titles including the disappointing MARQUIS DE SADE'S JUSTINE (1968), which I did watch (or rather Anchor Bay UK's R2 equivalent) though only as a rental but, at least, in the case of the two awful Fu Manchu films I had an excuse to buy them (that excuse, of course, being THE BLOODY JUDGE itself even if the remaining title in 'The Christopher Lee Collection', CIRCUS OF FEAR {1966}, is actually superior)!]
I refer to other quotes from online reviews I have read of this DVD: Glenn Erickson once again hits the nail on the head (sorry, Tim) with the following stance:
'Even less understandable is the championing of Jess Franco's direction, which is only slightly better than his sloppy work on the Fu Manchu series. The liner notes make the laughable assertion that the battle scene herein proves that Franco was clearly the auteur behind the much-applauded knight's battle in CAMPANANDAS A MEDIANOCHE (CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT), the great Orson Welles film on which Franco assisted. The generic and lackadaisical fight in the woods here looks like random coverage. We have no idea who is fighting who or which side our rebel heroes are on. If the color, costumes and location weren't such a good match, we might think it was stock footage from another show. Franco may very well have done the excellent, unique battle scene in the Welles film, but I doubt it, and wouldn't trust Franco's word on the matter. THE BLOODY JUDGE would be the last film to suggest a connection.'
Having only recently viewed Welles' Shakespearean masterwork for the first time myself, I was immediately struck by the realism of the battle sequence, its rough-and-ready quality as much the result of a limited budget as Welles' own penchant for skimping over the 'details'. Still, I could detect little if any similarity to what Franco shot for the later film; it's one thing to provide a hastily-assembled skirmish (viewed from both sides) but another thing entirely to do so in style, and the equivalent scenes in THE BLOODY JUDGE struck me as very ordinary indeed!
And this from the 'Monsters At Play' review, penned by Carl Lyon: 'This group, which include a guy named Satchel(?) and one of the creepiest executioners ever, even have a calligraphic letter 'J' emblazoned on their chest like demented superheroes.'
This anachronistic flourish is perhaps an amusing reference to the many vaguely cartoonish spy-spoofs Franco made during this same era (including the two Fu Manchus), thus linking the rogues-in-high-places of yesteryear flanked by their amoral henchmen who seem to have crawled from under stones to the power-mad villains of modern times and their endless parade of 'faceless' subordinates.
My rambling thoughts on this film lead me now to examine some of its more noticeable deficiencies:
· first of all, the double irony of the ending as it stands now Jeffreys awaiting to be executed but dying instead of a heart attack was probably unintentional, but the fact that three separate endings were shot and used for different versions (which is not the same as having a more explicit take of a given scene) speaks volumes about the film's essential lack of focus, resulting in audience frustration and subsequent detachment
· none of the characters is very interesting and the two that are Lee and Genn are poorly developed; Maria Schell's grave-sounding blind woman is an unfortunate miscalculation, in my opinion, especially as she doesn't add that much to the proceedings (why is there such a VITAL need, then, for the young lovers' union to be blessed by her, rendering their capture by Jeffreys' men all-too-convenient)!
· the incessant mumbling of peasant-folk at Jeffreys' trials is positively irritating!
Finally, we come to the DVD itself: picture and sound quality are of the standard we have come to expect from Blue Underground. The extras are a well of information (and entertainment): the controversial featurette is a very well done piece, perhaps the best one yet on a Franco/Blue Underground DVD.
In all fairness, Christopher Lee did not deserve the backlash that he received for his comments: first of all, he admits that he doesn't like the 'modern' trend in horror films and, therefore, he is right in claiming that he has not made one for a long time; as for his 'disgust' at the exploitative content of the film itself as well as Franco's subsequent work, he is only offering his personal opinion and, so, none of us should take offence! What IS rather hard to believe, however, is that he did not know such scenes were in the script to begin with: it's true he isn't in any of the footage concerned (at least physically), but really the script is so filled with this execrable material that I doubt they were added later unless he only read his lines when given the script, or else he accepted the part without reading it at all, which then means that he got all that he deserved!
It's a pity that the lengthy deleted scene could not be reinstated into the film (probably due to its ragged state) as it certainly smooths the passage from Rohm's grief over her sister's death to her blooming romance with Hass, which is now rather too precipitous. The rest of the supplements alternate footage, trailer, poster/stills gallery, talent bios are rather nice to have, too.