In the 80s, Jess Franco seemed to go between adult films and adventure movies that looked back to cinema’s past. Bangkok, City of the Dead — directed by Franco as Clarence Brown and soundtracked by him as Pancho Villa –finds rich girl Marta (Helena Garret) kidnapped by Akuto and Aminia (Lina Romay), who decide that since they’re not getting a cut of the 20 million dollar ransom from their boss Malko (Antonio Mayans), they should just keep her for themselves and make sure her boyfriend Riao (José Llamas) can save her. Except that Malko kills Akuto, Aminia tries to make him give the girl back, Riao tries to save her, and her father Flanagan (Eduardo Fajardo) hires Panama Joe (Bork Gordon), a private detective who is not Al Pereira, to also save her.

There’s no hardcore sex — but Lina dancing in a leopard bikini, which I can appreciate — and no diamond theft, either. If you’re a frequent guest in the Jess Franco Cinematic Universe, you’re used to seeing Lina eat bananas, amongst other things, and the camera being pulled into the tractor beam it seemed to have between her thighs.

Shot at the same time as Trip to Bangkok, this has Lina as a pirate queen and a talking parrot, as well as Jess making an Oriental adventure movie — again — and that’s fine because sometimes I like to sit back and watch his films as if they are waves cresting over me as my feet are buried in the sand.