Red Lips Double Feature
Germany - Spain | 1969
Directed by Jess Franco
Starring
Janine Reynaud, Rosanna Yanni
Adrian Hoven, Michel Lemoine
Maria Dom, Jess Franco
Color | Not Rated
TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS: 79 Min.
KISS ME, MONSTER: 79 Min.
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC | 2-disc set)
Blue Underground
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Review by
Brian Lindsey
Angels
 
  5
Monster
 
  3  
  9    
SNEAK PREVIEW | DVD Release Date: July 25, 2006
• "Extra Cheese" icon applies to Kiss Me, Monster
POP! goes the Franco...
    Maverick Spanish director Jesus ("Jess") Franco — now with almost 200 directing credits and counting — has made films in virtually every genre and subgenre imaginable. His most prolific and diverse period was the decade spanning 1967-77; in those ten years he helmed 74 (!) motion pictures, encompassing motifs of horror, comedy, mystery, erotica, adventure, exploitation and even hardcore porn. The late '60s saw him team with German actor/producer Adrian Hoven to unleash the avant-garde art house "horrotica" Succubus, which, regardless of what one might think of it, ranks among Franco's seminal works. After the critical splash made by that film the Franco-Hoven Axis next set its collective sights on more commercial fare... Using some of the same actors featured in Succubus, Franco whipped up a pair of decidedly more accessible pop-art confections: Two Undercover Angels (AKA Sadisterotika) and a direct sequel, Kiss Me, Monster. Each is a mélange of different elements — much as was the director's career at the time.
    The title of Two Undercover Angels refers to freelance detectives Diana (Janine Reynaud) and Regina (Rosanna Yanni), collectively known as "Red Lips" for the signature lipstick imprint they sometimes leave as a calling card. They're fashion-conscious gals who spend as much time lounging about their comfortably mod pad — in various states of dress (and undress) — than actually solving any crimes. (The film, as does its sequel, has a difficult time making clear just who the gals are working for at any given moment, although they apparently have frequent contacts with Interpol.) Their investigation into a series of kidnappings/murders, all with models or dancers as the victims, ties into a shady art dealer (Franco) who is himself slain by a mysterious man wearing an eyepatch (Adrian Hoven). The artiste in 'Monsieur Cyclops' is inspired by the terrorizing and killing of captive women, with his beastial servant Morpho (Michel Lemoine, made up like Bela Lugosi in The Ape Man) doing the actual dirty work.
    Kiss Me, Monster sees the Red Lips team planning to leave the world of crime and espionage behind to embark on careers as a cabaret/striptease act. (We're treated to two of their performances during the film; it's painfully obvious that they'd be far better off sticking with sleuthing.) Showbiz dreams must take a back seat, however, when the ladies are drawn into the case of a missing scientist. It seems everybody wants to get their hands on his secret formula for creating a race of supermen. When Diana and Regina are passed a cryptic clue — disguised within a folk song — to the formula's hidden location, the bodies start piling up around them. (To include Franco himself, appearing briefly as a shifty informant who gets knifed. He kills himself off in both flicks!) To get to the bottom of things, our cheerfully unflappable heroines deal with horny Interpol agents, a cabal of hooded cultists, a society of female "queer virgins" and a nefarious, not-so-ambiguously-gay duo (Lemoine, Manolo Otero) controlling a pair of muscular, loincloth-wearing assassins called Andros I and Andros II.
    With both "Red Lips" films, Franco goes for a tongue-in-cheek Modesty Blaise sort of vibe but with a sprinkling of horror, sci-fi, mild S&M bondage and the occasional topless go-go dancer. (Praise Jesus for the latter!) They may be more commercial than his typical output for the time but odd little touches here and there — not to mention zoom shots — clearly imbue them with the director's personal stamp.
    Unfortunately it never really comes together. There are three big problems with these movies: (1) the stories are weak and obtuse; (2) the comedic bits tend to fall very flat; and (3) the English dubbing is absolutely appalling. You'd expect a horrible dub job to have a significant impact on the humor, of course, but it also doesn't do the films' plots any favors, either. The scene in Kiss Me, Monster, in which Interpol agent Adrian Hoven explains the nature of the missing scientist's experiments, is a prime example of the latter... Something about a super-nutrition formula, extracted ovaries, and a race of genetically perfect humans with minds like dogs. As Hoven lays this out in a quick series of disjointed sentences, his spymaster, a 12-year old girl (!) named Yolanda, occasionally pipes in with additional info. Honestly, I've seen much better dubbing in Shaw Brothers kung fu movies from the early '70s. It's a critical scene in the film, revealing just what the heck all the characters are after (as well as the origin of murderous musclemen Andros I and Andros II), and I'll guarantee you'll be sitting there with invisible question marks hovering over your skull — then backing up the disc to run through it again. I simply cannot overemphasize how torturously clumsy the translated scripts are. The English voice actors struggle valiantly to deliver lines while the onscreen performers' lips are still moving, sounding like automatons as a result. A lot of the dialog makes absolutely no sense, and I have no earthly idea, given the ridiculous dubbing, whether it's even supposed to. The non sequiturs and awkward phrasing are good for a cheesy laugh now and then — the club M.C. in Angels is weirdly amusing, for one ("Hello, friends! It's starting now!") — but not nearly often enough.
    Neither film is particularly well structured. Franco mounts some interesting, stylish tableaux but his images are ill-served by the slapdash manner in which they're strung together. Tight, intricate narratives haven't ever been a staple of Franco's works, nor are they required for pulpy, tongue-in-cheek romps... but a viewer should at least be somewhat motivated to give a crap about what's going on. Confusion reigns in these films. For significant portions of their running times I guarantee you'll have but the vaguest sense of who's who and why they're doing what they're doing.
    And yet parts of these flicks are undeniably fun. (Much more so in the case of Two Undercover Angels than Kiss Me, Monster.) The chemistry of scarlet-maned Reynaud (star of Succubus) and the voluptuous blonde Yanni (War Goddess) is readily apparent even through the poor dubbing; the duo makes an engaging team. The long-running (albeit often differently presented) character of Morpho, a notable presence in a host of disparate Franco films over the years, lends some monstrous menace to Angels; I always enjoy it when Jess finds a way to work the hulking henchman into his stories.
    Visual aesthetics are first-rate considering the low budgets Franco and crew had to work with. Accentuated with picturesque location photography, both films are kaleidoscopes of comic book colors and pop-art design. Movies made in the 1960s often look terribly dated but the Red Lips pics tend to buck that trend. Through Franco's lens the Age of Aquarius looks like a truly happenin' time... Even the fashions are more groovy than goofy. And the music is great. It's a yummy jazz-lounge-pop soufflé, with Kiss Me, Monster adding a dash of South American rhythm and '60s rockin' soul (the latter courtesy of the band Blow Up, shown performing live in a nightclub). Maria Dom's enthusiastic topless go-go dancing in Angels certainly livens things up — naturally, the scene in question has nothing to do with the plot. Like a lot of stuff in Franco movies, it just happens. (Watch her shimmy with abandon in the video clip accompanying this review.)

Previously available separately on long-OOP DVDs from Anchor Bay, the films are smartly and stylishly packaged together in a new two-disc set by Blue Underground. For nearly 40-year old pics they look and sound terrific via these new anamorphic 1.66:1 transfers. Print damage is virtually nil; colors are as bold and bright as they should be given the pop-art visual design. The mono audio tracks are clean and clear.
    Each film is allotted a disc of its own, accompanied by the respective theatrical trailer and an interview with Franco (who speaks in subtitled French). In the Disc 1 featurette, The Case of the Red Lips (14 min.), he discusses how the idea for the flicks came together, their back-to-back shooting schedule, working with the casts and the good time had by all during filming. Disc 2's offering, the more free-ranging Jess' Tangents (22 min.), will particularly delight Francophiles. Sardonic and funny, he expounds on LSD and psychedelia, porno films, living under fascism, working with Orson Welles, and his concepts of cinema as both art and commercial product. Whether you love the man's movies or hate them — or fall somewhere in between — there's no denying he's an interesting conversationalist. 7/21/06

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