New Franco reviews to tide you over...

With anticipation mounting over the release of Laure (from Emmanuelle Arsan – the real Emmanuelle), here are a couple of reviews of past releases to tide you all over:

First, a tongue-in-cheek (no pun intended) review of Once Upon a Girl from Bloodtype Online.

Next, a very positive review of Perversion Story from EInsiders.

One for The Sexual Story of O from DVD Talk.

And speaking of O, here's a cheeky listing from EInsiders:

THE INCONFESSABLE ORGIES OF EMMANUELLE (Severin Films. $29.95): With a title like that, do you really need a description? All I will add is that this 1982 effort was directed by none other than the infamous Eurosleaze auteur Jess Franco–that should be enough to attract the right people to this DVD while keeping the others away. If that isn’t enough Franco-directed smut to satisfy you this week, the good folks at Severin (who are really becoming players on the grindhouse DVD front) are also releasing his oddly title 1984 knock-off "The Sexual Story of O"–after all, the original "Story of O" was hardly about knitting as far as I recall.

And here's an O review that will make you swear off the internet, joke or not, courtesy of DVD Verdict.

Here's a love letter to all things Franco over at the Videowatchblog.

Finally, Francophile Robert Montell gives us reviews of Sexual Story of O here and Inconfessible Orgies of Emmanuelle here.

New Reviews of E and O and more!

Here's a new Perversion Story review from the Coffee, Coffee and More Coffee blog. (Hey, the guy likes coffee.)

And once again, we made it into "The Week in Sleaze" over at the Sleazegrinder. Yay us! "Meanwhile, there's '80s smut from Jess Franco to be had from Severin Films. The Sexual Story of O (which has nothing to do with the Just Jaeckin film or book) stars Alicia Principe as an innocent young girl who is seduced and then sold as a sex slave by her perverted neighbors, while The Inconfessable Orgies of Emanuelle (whatta title!) has the incorrigible title character (an in-name-only relation to the Sylvia Kristel and Laura Gemser characters) indulging in sex games with her husband and a marquis. Both are plot-free sex fests with beautiful photography and women who look good without their clothes, so unless you're looking for top-drawer Franco like Venus in Furs, you'll be mighty happy with these discs. And ole Uncle Jess even contributes interviews about the films on both discs."

Now here's a slew of reviews from Peter Sobczynski:

Perversion Story

Black Emannuelle

Inconfessable Orgies/Sexual Story of O

Mansion of the Living Dead/Macumba Sexual

And here are two hit-or-miss reviews for Inconfessible Orgies and Sexual Story of O from Movieline Online. He may not have loved the movies, but the reviews are hysterical. Plus, he says that Severin has "nothing to be ashamed of", so we'll take that as a mandate and blanket permission from here on out.

Black Emanuelle and Perversion Story reviews!

Here's a lengthy review of Black Emanuelle's Box from Eccentric Cinema.

And a fun one from Horrorview.

And another from Robert Monell discovered on a Feedster blog.

And, for a change of pace, Louis Fowler sent us this review for Perversion Story, which ran in the Rocky Mountain Chronical:

PERVERSION STORY
(UNA SULL’ALTRA)
Starring Marisa Mell, Jean Sorel, Elsa Martinelli
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Severin Films

Most cult-movie fans hear the name Lucio Fulci and immediately think of his gore-filled Italo-splatter films of early ’80s, like Zombi II and The Beyond. While he’s known for those horrific, nightmarish interludes, he also had a long, rather illustrious career before them, making a few cheap sex comedies and spy films here or there, but mostly honing his future horror chops on the giallo circuit, directing Hitchcockian murder mysteries, like this one from 1969. (To be fair, there is little to no perversion in this film. U.S. producers often translated foreign titles into sexy, salacious ones to get asses into theater seats. It usually worked.)

George, a successful doctor and all-around philanderer, is an arrogant prick, which doesn’t help his case when his asthma-suffering wife is found murdered. George becomes the prime suspect, but along the way, with the help of his haute-couture photographing girlfriend, he meets a stripper who looks exactly like his dead wife.

The last 30 minutes get pretty pulse-pounding as George is sent to the gas chamber, waiting for the one piece of crucial evidence that can free him. Fulci really amps up the suspense in this flick, one of his best. A rare soundtrack of Riz Ortolani’s swingin’ score, included as a bonus disc, is one of the best bonus features I’ve come across in a DVD in quite a while.