Küß mich, Monster (1969)

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writers:

Karl Heinz Mannchen (story)
Jesus Franco (screenplay)

Release Date:

March 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

How to Create an Army of Young Lovers

Plot Keywords:

Whipping | Nude Wearing Glasses | Nudity | Striptease | Female Detective

Cast

Janine Reynaud	...	Diana
Rosanna Yanni	...	Regina (as Rossana Yanni)
Adrian Hoven	...	Eric Vicas
Chris Howland	...	Francis McClune
Michel Lemoine	...	Jacques Maurier
Ana Casares	...	Linda
Manuel Velasco	...	Andy
Marta Reves	...	Irina
Barta Barri	...	Inspektor Kramer
Manolo Otero	...	Dimitri
María Antonia Redondo	...	Bulumba
Jesus Franco	...	Abilene's Contact Man
Dorit Dom	...	Anita (as Maria Dom)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fernando de Rojas
Carlos Mendy
Gregorio de Mora	...	Andros
Nélida Quiroga
Caroline Rivière

Also Known As:

Bésame monstruo (Spain)
Castle of the Doomed
Kiss Me, Monster (USA)

Runtime:

Spain:87 min | USA:75 min

Country:

Spain | West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M (1995 VHS release) | USA:R | UK:18 (original rating) | UK:15 (re-rating) (2005)

Filming Locations:

Archena, Murcia, Spain

Company:

Aquila Film Enterprises

Movie Connections:

Follows Rote Lippen, Sadisterotica (1969)

Franco Lite! Franco Fun!

This is an appalling movie by most people's standards, but I totally loved it. A must for anyone with a weakness for camp 60s psychedelia (of the Barbarella/Modesty Blaise/Diabolik variety) this Jess Franco film regales us with the further adventures of the 'Red Lips' gals - Diana (Janine Reynaud) and Regina (Rossana Yanni) who last brightened our lives in the still-more-outrageous Sadisterotica.

Two sexy undercover agents on the trail of a mad doctor and his race of Frankenstein-style monster hunks, Reynaud and Yanni strut about in deliriously over-the-top high-fashion outfits. Bicker back and forth like Edina and Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous. Reduce any unfortunate male who crosses their path to a pool of helpless mush. Oh, and they even find time to perform a transvestite nightclub act on saxophones. Now that's what I call style!

As for the 'plot'(if there is any) I've seen this movie twice and still can't fathom it. Something about a tropical island, animatronic muscle men, whip-wielding lesbians, feathered cabaret outfits, effete and sinister scientists and a mystical secret sect who sit around in black Ku Klux Klan hoods and crimson robes and struggle (vainly, it turns out) to explain what is going on. The continuity is even more abysmal than in most of Franco's oeuvre - so much so that the girls seem to be driving a different car in every shot!

Yet as an introduction to this mad genius and his deranged and surreal style of movie-making, you could do a lot worse than Kiss Me Monster. At least in the version I saw, there's almost none of the lurid blood and sex that was standard in Franco's later work. The one truly nasty moment here is a brief-but-gruesome surgery scene. Otherwise, it's all good, clean, campy, psychedelic fun. Everyone on and offscreen seems be in a drug-induced haze. Well, it WAS the 60s after all!