The Story of Linda (1981) Linda (original title)

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writers:

Erich Tomek (screenplay)
Erich Tomek (story)

Release Date:

29 May 1981 (West Germany)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime

Plot:

Betsy Norman is a happy assistant at a luxurious Spanish hotel. Shiela, the hotel owner, caters for...

Plot Keywords:

Brothel | Lesbian Kiss | Sex | Scorpion | Nightclub

Cast

Katja Bienert	...	Linda Norman
Ursula Buchfellner	...	Betsy Norman (as Ursula Fellner)
Raquel Evans	...	Sheila
Antonio Mayans	...	Ron (as Robert Foster)
Antonio Rebollo		(as Tony Skios)
Andrea Guzon
Ana María Segura		(as Maria Segura)
Doris Regina		(as Teodora Segura)
Bea Fiedler
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Susana Cárdenas
Tomás Gayo

Directed by
Jesus Franco		(as Jack Griffin)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Erich Tomek		screenplay (as Erick Tomeck)
Erich Tomek		story (as Erick Tomeck)

Original Music by
Gerhard Heinz

Cinematography by
Juan Soler		(as Hannes Fürbringer)

Film Editing by
Karl Aulitzky

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lina Romay	....	assistant director (as Rosa Almirall)

Production Companies

• Gold Internacional Films
• Lisa-Film
• Plata Films S.A.
• Rapid Film

Distributors

• Tivoli (1981) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Filmfreak Distributie (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Filmways Home Video (19??) (Australia) (VHS)
• Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd. (Japan) (DVD)
• VMP (1981) (West Germany) (VHS)

Also Known As:

"Linda" - Spain (original title)

Runtime:

88 min | West Germany:84 min

Country:

Spain | West Germany

Language:

German | Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:18 | Australia:R (censored)

Filming Locations:

Madeira, Portugal

Company:

Gold Internacional Films

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Spoony Experiment: Spoony Snob: Revenge in the House of Usher (#4.6)" (2011)

Weird and plot less even by Franco standards

I saw this movie over the internet so the streaming video quality left a lot to be desired; still I think I got a pretty good idea of it. It was one of the last movies Franco made before he and Lina Romay dove headfirst into the Spanish hardcore porno industry, not emerging until the late 90's to do a bunch of crappy shot-on-video "comeback" projects with American scream queens and fanboys that they'd obviously met at international horror conventions. Personally, I always felt Franco's career had been in a long, slow decline since the early 70's when Soledad Miranda died. This movie, only marginally better than the aforementioned hardcore and SOV flicks, is yet more evidence of that.

Even for a Franco film, it's pretty plot less taking place at some seaside brothel where beautiful women are held as sex slaves and forced to do various erotic performances for the jaded European clientèle. "Linda" is actually the younger sister of one of the performers and more of a secondary character. She flees her boarding school ostensibly to rescue her sister, but stops at a friend's house for some reason where she falls in love with a friend's brother and takes time to frolic in the surf with him while her sister's life is in imminent danger. It really seems like two different movies (both of which are pretty boring) until the end when everything comes together in a pretty unsatisfying denouement.

Linda is played by Katja Bienert, one of strangest actresses Franco ever worked with. As slimy as it is when directors like Larry Clark cast twenty-year-old actresses that look fourteen, it at least makes more sense than casting someone like Bienert who easily looks twenty, but was only fourteen at the time! (I originally thought the IMDb info. that she was born in 1966 was a mistake, but the real actress recently wrote a letter to "Video Watchdog" magazine confirming that she really was that young). For what it's worth Franco keeps her out of the graphic sex scenes here, but her character is so superfluous to the whole story I don't why she was in the movie at all (let alone the title character). All the other characters, including the older sister, are pretty attractive but are obviously German sex performers rather than actors. I definitely wouldn't recommend buying this no doubt hard-to-find title even if you're a Franco fan, but it's worth watching over the internet I guess.