I have been trying to do a month of Jess Franco movies — here’s the Letterboxd list — and I hit a wall at 184 out of 200 movies. That’s because several of the films on the list are impossible to find. They are:

• The Ticklers
• Claire
• Las Tribulaciones de un Buda Bizco
• Las chuponas
• Lola 2000
• The Tree from Spain
• Las Playas Vacias
• Oro Espanol
• El Destierro del Cid
• Estampas Guipuzcoanas Número 2: Pío Baroja
• A Man, Eight Girls
• El Misterio del Castillo Rojo
• El Huesped de la Niebla
• Voces de Muerte
• Girl With the Red Lips
• Sida, la Pesta del Siglo XX
• In Pursuit of Barbara
• El Abuela, la Condesa y Escarlata la Traviesa
• Blind Target
• Montes de Venus
• Lascivia

I realize so many of these are lost films, but if you have them, reach out to bandsaboutmovies@gmail.com

Then I was thinking, what else can I watch? I remembered this amazing list from Gregory Joseph on Letterboxd: Movies Jean Rollin and Jess Franco Might Like If They Were Still Alive. This seems like a great way to finish out the month.

Directed, written and produced by Josephine Decker, Butter On the Latch is the story of Sarah (Sarah Small) and Isolde (Isolde Chae-Lawrence), who meet up at a Balkan music camp in the woods of California days after Isolde calls Sarah and tells her that she is lost in a house that she can’t escape from. Once they reconnect, they drift, as they are both attracted to another person, Steph (Charlie Hewson).

Shot by a three-person crew — Decker, cinematographer Ashley Connor and sound recorder M. Parker Kozak — this takes one of the songs about dragons wrapping themselves in the hair of women and burning the forest and transforms it into the paranoia one feels when they lose a friend who perhaps has become too close when someone comes between you. How close do you have to be to a friend before they become more than one when the stories you tell one another become not tales but foreplay? Was it Isolde on the other side of the phone? Or is it Sarah hearing from herself?

Beyond having attractive women who are pretty open about their carnal encounters, this has chanting songs that feel like they’re getting you high, a woman losing her mind and moments where the film seems to blur out, obscuring what we’re watching. I can only imagine that Jess Franco would have been into every moment of that, even if this was way too chaste for him. But what wasn’t?

I know nothing about Young Thug, but in this Tubi Original, produced by Law & Crime, I learned that his real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams and because of his lyrics, he’s been accused of leading a street gang, all thanks to his lyrics.

According to Law & Crime, “In 2022, Young Thug was arrested on a sprawling racketeering indictment spearheaded by Fulton County DA Fani Willis, which many have since criticized as a legal overreach. Young Thug took a guilty plea in October but was released on probation, wrapping up the longest-running trial in Georgia’s history made even more controversial by the prosecution’s use of the defendant’s lyrics and music videos as evidence against him.”

One of the standout aspects of the documentary was the interview with defense attorney Keith Adams, who provided detailed insights into the trial. Ultimately, the rapper pled guilty to charges related to gang involvement, drug offenses, and gun possession, despite discrepancies between the timelines of when he created his music and when he faced accusations.

Young Thug’s original two-decade RICO sentence was commuted to time served, followed by fifteen years of probation. As of now, he has been released from custody after serving five years of his sentence.

The documentary raises thought-provoking questions about the relationship between wealth, fame and the law. Even if you’re rich and famous, you can be above the law. Or the law can be above you.

You can watch this on Tubi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jye9dIrxLt4

Will there be a psychic — Beatrice (Roma Maffia) — who was part of the original events that cursed this necklace? Will the children be in supernatural danger? Will it be set in the 60s and have some of that Conjuring feel? Will there be a seance? Will there be a mid-credits tease of a sequel? How many possession movies do I watch a year?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. At least six hundred and sixty-five.

Director Juan Pablo Arias Munoz and writer John Ducey give you what you want from a movie like this, but this is very much a grandma who knows you like Ed and Lorraine Warren movies,s. Hence, she bought you the new one without knowing it has nothing to do with them. That said, this is a Warner Bros. movie, and in another time and place, perhaps pre-pandemic, this would be a January theater movie, orphaned in a time when no one goes out to the movies, but then again, no one at all goes to the movies these days.

A tip to men: Don’t give your estranged wife murder jewelry.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Nobody — well, me — is looking for this movie, but when you’re trying to watch every Jess Franco movie, you hunt down so many films, and then you get to them and wonder, what have you really learned? Is, as Lemmy taught me, the chase better than the catch? This film has no story, just coupling after coupling in

The cast includes Lina Romay (you knew that), Antonio Mayans (probably figured that) and Mabel Escaño. It all takes place in the beds of a hospital, which was simple to film as it could be any room. The hospital dirty movie makes so much sense, as it’s a place close to death and where we often turn to what keeps us alive when confronted by the void.

According to the I’m In a Jess Franco State of Mind site, “problems with producer Emilio Larraga (Golden Films) ruined many projects such as El Rinoceronte Blanco, Teleporno…” and this movie. That, along with the movie Franco produced, iBiba La Banda!, and losses on Phollastia and Phalo Crest, caused Jess to make Dark Mission with Daniel Lesoeur.

Fly Story, as this is called, is one of the hardest Jess movies to find. I got this cover art from Trash Palace, which has it, but there’s not much info on it. But somehow, I found it, I watched it, and it is one of the many movies that brings me closer to watching every one of his films, which is, as they say, the only way to know Franco and appreciate him. From here on, the pickings become slim, and the hunt starts for movies that may not exist.

If you see me on the corner with a handwritten sign looking like an addict, it’s because I can’t find that copy of Blind Target and have resorted to sex work to get even a VHS of it. Please help.

Ruby (Elizabeth Gillies) has had her life subsidized by her mom and dad (Diedrich Bader, as always great), as well as her roommate Whitney (Dia Frampton) telling her that she can’t afford her rent any longer. But now, the cash is running out, and she has to find a job quickly. And that brings her to Spread magazine, which is run by Frank (Harvey Keitel), who is a combination of Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt. The magazine is dying, as print is on the way out, so even if she hates this job, it won’t last long. And if all that isn’t the worst, she’s just been dumped by her boyfriend, Orson (Jonah Platt).

While the idea of revolutionizing porn for women isn’t new — Candida Royalle did it decades before — Spread is the kind of movie I like, as it’s very much a “hijinks ensue” film. Easy subject — bright but undriven girl finds herself working for a porn magazine. And hijinksensuee.

Directed by Ellie Kanner and written by Buffy Charlet, this has a good cast, which makes these movies work. Keitel is, as always, better than the movie he’s in. Teri Polo is excellent as Prudence, the secretary who keeps Spread in advertising money. Tim Rozon, Doc Holiday from Wynonna Earp, is the money man who wants to close it all down. Diora Baird is Xtasy, the ex-porn star and now agent who becomes Ruby’s new mom. And for a movie about the porn industry, this is very chaste, other than having a dildo closet.

That said, its lead learns essential lessons, and despite that much-hated downer third act, it all comes together. I miss silly sex comedies, so I probably liked this more than if it came out in the genre’s glory days. But hey, I’ll take what I can get. That said, I still wonder. Who is buying print porn today?

You can watch this on Tubi.

Based on the comic book series by Beau Smith, Wynonna Earp was a four-season SyFy series in which Melanie Scrofano played Wynonna, the great-great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp, who came back home to fight the demonic ghosts of the outlaws her ancestor killed all those years ago. A few years later, Earp and her Peacemaker are back, as are several of the characters, in a movie from Tubi that finishes off some of the show’s storylines.

This starts with Wynonna’s sister, Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), enjoying married life with her wife, Deputy Nicole Haught (Katherine Barrell) and Wynonna and Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon,) trying to figure out their relationship as they run scams at casinos, just in time for Mina (Karen Knox), a girl from the group home where Wynonna grew up and who has spent twenty years in Hell and wants revenge, to show up and start killing people.

I never watched the series that this is based on, but I liked the characters enough here that I both want td see why fans were upset by some of the decisions made in this film. Directed by Paolo Barzman (the son of blacklisted writer Ben Barzman, who wrote The Boy with Green Hair ), who directed 21 episodes of the series, and written by Emily Andras, the showrunner of the original show, this made me want to make up for the fact that I skipped watching its inspiration. Hopefully, Tubi can make more than just this one film and return to Purgatory.

You can watch this on Tubi.

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.

Michael Jai White has been a dependable action hero for years. He’s never reached the JCVD or Dolph level, but he’s always there when we needed him.

Originally known as Sunset Superman—yes, named for a Dio song, which is in the movie—it was directed and written by Jason Krawczyk, who also made He Never Died.

White plays JT, who just wants to get drunk and spend his military retirement hanging out with his grandmother (Jackie Richardson). To pass the time, he works for Trusted Trays, delivering meals to other older people and stopping men in pig masks from breaking into his Grandma’s house. These home invaders are almost all idiots, led by scrap owner Stan (Billy Zane, wearing a goofy mustache), who wants the copper pipes in the house, not anything important. JT keeps drinking and uses this time to bond with Rufus, her grandmother’s dog, who hates him for most of the movie. But after all they go through, they end up becoming pals.

As for Grandma, she doesn’t see or hear any of it. Maybe she should move closer to JT, whose life is so quiet these days that he’s trying to pick up the female henchpeople who are breaking into the house. I enjoyed this because it never takes itself seriously while giving opportunities for character development. It seems like everyone in it was having a great time making it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

As always, Chris Stokes remains the undisputed king of the Tubi Original. 

When Faith Parker (La’Myia Good in the present, Kalani Jules in the past) was young, three boys were out to scare her, tying her up and making it seem like they were going to kill her. To each of these men, as they grow up, she becomes the perfect woman, whether her name is Diana, Summer or Samantha. Then, she kills them.

I don’t know if Chris Stokes has ever seen a Giallo, but darn it if he doesn’t keep making them. Nearly every month, he has a new movie that shows up on Tubi, filled with love, lust, twists, turns and murder. I get beyond excited when I see his name in the credits, as if he’s a modern-day Umberto Lenzi. 

The crux of the matter is whether Faith’s revenge is justified. Has she gone too far in her elaborate schemes? Is she sacrificing her own happiness in her quest to destroy these men? These moral questions keep us engaged, making us ponder over the complexities of her actions. But then again, without these dilemmas, we wouldn’t have this movie. 

You can watch this on Tubi.

Already made by Jess Franco as Elles font tout in 1979 and El Hotel de los Ligues in 1983, Para las Nenas, leche calentita (Warm cream… for the babes) is like a commedia sexy all’Italiana except because Jess and Lina Romay is involved, we see the sex.

On the Spanish coast, we have three couples looking for something. For Lulu (Lina Romay) and Apollo (Antonio Mayans), it’s a good time, even if he can’t perform because his sister is with them everywhere they go. A lesbian couple is being watched by Pepito and several of his friends. And then there’s Jean and Rossy (Mari Carmen G. Alonso), who can’t stop getting it on.

That’s it. 67 minutes of sex action in the Hotel Venus. Probably made in the hotel where Jess and crew were making something else because, in 1986, he made 12 more movies using names like Clifford Brown for his own adult and Lulu Laverne and Candy Coster for the film he made with Lina.

In these three movies, people who have issues with sex resolve them through sex. How often did Jess feel he had to make something until it was right? Was it ever right? What was he trying to accomplish by going back again? Just adding insertions? Or was there a more significant message at work here?