Review of The French Sex Murders

SPOILERS INCLUDED A masterpiece of the 70's European horror film, Bogeyman and the French Murders sadly remains a rarely screened film, doubly odd given that it has enough style, stars and strangeness to be the epitome of that era. Co-producers Dick Randall and Marius Mattei assembled some of Eurosleaze's most famous faces, Anita Ekberg, Rosalba Neri, and Howard Vernon, or The Killer Nun, Lady Frankenstein and Dr Orlof respectively in what could have been called Humphrey Bogart Fights Back From the Grave. Welcome to the world of Antoine Gottvalles, a lovesick minor jewel thief who we first meet looting a Paris bank. Escaping with a handful of jewels, he heads over to the brothel of Madame Colette in an attempt to lure his girlfriend, a prostitute (Goliathon's Evelyn Kraft) out of a life of vice. When Kraft doesn't want anything to do with him or his err... jewels a butt naked Antoine goes berserk `you are nothing but a broad.. a bloody whore'. Later when the tart without a heart is found with her faced bashed in, the police are called to investigate, bringing unwanted attention to Madame Collette and no surprise since her whorehouse is swinging with Parisian perverts who dress in psychedelic Satanic robes and sex kittens in heat. But wait, in all the towns in all the bars who should be investigating the French murders than an Inspector who acts, looks and dresses like Humphrey Bogart! All the fingers of guilt point to quick tempered Antoine and after a keystone cops chase that has to be seen to be disbelieved Antoine is caught by Paris's finest and sentenced to death (by the guillotine!) but vows to his former friends `from the grave I'll come back'. Later Antoine escapes and is chased around until his motor-cycle runs head on with a pane of glass that lops his head off, but director FL Morris isn't finished with us yet and much to the amazement of the all star cast and `Inspector Bogart' the French Murders continue with the black gloved killer (who keeps a pair of eyeballs in his pocket) disposing of those involved in Antoine's trail. Soon heads are severed with swords, throats are cut and corpses appear with their eyeballs missing. The late Vernon turns up as Doctor Waldemar who requests to experiment on Antoine's severed head! only to end up frantically dissecting Antoine's eyeballs after his assistant reports them moving! Hard as this maybe to swallow Bogeyman was announced as an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Evil Eye, surprising as no such book appears to exist. Still Bogeyman contains one feature noticeably absent from any Poe film treatment, the incredible Robert Sacchi a Bronx born actor whose resemblance to Bogart has to be one of the most spookiest things committed to celluloid, not even Madame Tussards could have come up with a more uncanny likeness. It was certainly enough to earn him the nickname `The Man With Bogart's Face' he even played the title role in a 1980 movie of the same name, but Randall and Mattei were the first to really milk the Bogart comparisons for all their worth. Some may have actually believed the Hollywood star was alive and well and appearing in Euro exploitation movies. Even the plodding detective angle, usually the stepping stone of lesser known giallo into boredom is given a kick by the absurdity of Sacchi's `L'Homme Au Visage de Bogart', less a character than a living breathing film homage lost in a world of psychedelia, bell bottoms and the fleshpots of Pigalle. For a film that captures a time and place in all its kitsch glory, what is amazing is that Bogeyman isn't even a French film, stock shots were later added (by Eurocine) to give the film a Paris by night feel, no easy feat for a movie that begins and ends on the Effel tower. Bogeyman's set must have been an exciting place to be on, not just for the bouncing severed heads, a host of international actresses with their clothes off and a Bogart impersonator but the collection of people behind the camera. The grisly effects were by an uncredited Carlo Rambaldi, the haunting music courtesy of Bruno Nicolai, plus years before he gave the world Women's Camp 117 or Zombie Creeping Flesh, Bruno Mattei's name can be found lurking in the editing credits as well. Bogeyman has a unique utterly mad hallucinatory quality, it forces you to except a world that is unreal. Why is Sacchi's inspector modelled on Humphrey Bogart!, Why is the entire courtroom scene shown in negative! Why would anyone want to operate on a severed head!- just sit back and enjoy the many moments where you wonder if the filmmakers had completely lost any touch with reality. Bogeyman is crazy in a way that all of Dick Randall's Italian productions tend to be, but its also one of his finest post Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield creations. Much like Lady Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks Randall's influence seems to dominant the proceedings, no doubt because he also wrote the story under his Robert H Oliver pseudonym and cameo's in the film as a fez wearing Egyptian. Largely forgotten in the Randall back catalogue somewhere between The Wild Wild World of Jayne Mansfield and Pieces, Bogeyman merits the energy it takes to track down. For many seeing one of the stars of Slaughter Hotel badly lip-synching to a gloomy song in a Pigalle club will be enough of a recommendation, but Bogeyman shouldn't also be missed by fans of sexy Italian actresses, giallos, stock footage of the Effel Tower, gratuitous sex and violence or Humphrey Bogart!!!