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JESUS ‘JESS’ FRANCO, 1930-2013
April 3rd, 2013 by Clark Humphrey

The legendary B-filmmaker helmed “at least 199” films (not counting re-edited and retitled versions) in a six-decade career, many of which he also wrote, photographed, edited, scored the music for, and acted in.

He disguised his massive productivity in part by taking a variety of pseudonyms, including the names of some of his favorite jazz musicians. He always worked on time and in budget (both usually minimal). Among his tricks to achieve this was reusing locations and even entire shots in different films.

He worked in numerous genres but usually dealt in varying proportions of horror and sex (up to and including hardcore).

His best known works include Vampyros Lesbos and She Killed In Ecstasy (both with the ultra-stunning Soledad Miranda), the James Darren version of Venus in Furs, 99 Women, The Awful Dr. Orloff, Succubus, Eugenie: the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion, and The Blood of Fu Manchu.

Even when his financing dried up, he kept working, making shot-on-video features on even tinier budgets. He released three of these last year.

He was preceded in death by his wife, muse, and most frequent star Lina Romay (who was appearing in his productions, and still doing nude scenes, well into the 1990s).


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