Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Das Frauenhaus" or "Blue Rita" is a co-production between Switzerland and France that resulted in a German-language film back in 1977, which means this one will have its 40th anniversary next year. The writer and director is the incomparable Spanish filmmaker Jesús Franco and if you know him, you also know what to expect here: namely a seemingly ambitious plot that gets lost in bad writing and story-telling and instead it ends up being all about the sex scenes and nudity. Or does it really? It may be true that Franco includes sensual and aesthetic sex scenes with stunning women, but not so in this one really. I must say I found the sex scenes in here really unpleasing to watch and a lot of it may have to do with the lights and colors Franco used here. I read in another review that they called his approach psychedelic and this is exactly the perfect word. Watching this film made me think that Franco really wanted to leave a creative note in here, but it really all went wrong unfortunately. The only somewhat appealing thing was the purple wig one of the girls (maybe actually the only hot one because of it) was wearing. I cannot say I am familiar with any of the cast members here and Martine Fléty, who plays the title characters, also was/is fairly unknown compared to other women Franco cast as leads in his films, such as the wonderful Soledad Miranda or Lina Romay for example. As a whole, this film was not working from any perspective. Instead it was really cringeworthy how Franco failed with the use of colors that added little to the story that was already elaborated on pretty badly anyway. I highly recommend to stay away from this movie. Don't watch.

Woodyanders Nightclub owner and erotic dancer Rita Blue (robustly played with lip-smacking wicked relish by yummy redhead Martine Flety) uses her place as a front for working undercover as a spy. Motivated by her vehement hatred for men stemming from the fact that she was sexually abused as a child, Rita and her seductive female cohorts not only gleefully torture guys as a means to obtain vital information, but also manhandle wealthy men in order to make them hand over their fortunes to them.Writer/director Jess Franco brings a deliriously baroque far-out psychedelic style as well as his trademark gloriously ripe and unabashed perversity to the enjoyable inane premise: The abundant tasty gratuitous distaff nudity, several wacky dance routines (the one involving a gal sporting pigtails rates as an absolute hoot!), fairly explicit soft-core sex, scorching lesbian couplings, bizarre torture set pieces, and a special green potion that makes dudes uncontrollably horny all ensure that this beautifully bent, batty, and berserk baby delivers plenty of sleazy sizzle. The cruddy dubbing provides a wealth of unintentional belly laughs. Alluring blonde Pamela Stanford easily steals the whole show with her highly arousing portrayal of the enticing Gina. Ruedi Kuttel's vibrant color cinematography gives this picture a bold'n'splashy look. Walter Baumgartner's funky jazzy score hits the right-on groovy spot. Franco fans should get a kick out of this choice kooky kitschfest.

pikhal020 This film seems very much like a largely improvised affair to get from one soft-core nudity scene to the next. Some of the dialogue scenes, as one example, have the characters' mouths intentionally obscured, undoubtedly to maximize flexibility in dubbing in lines when that part of the script was actually written later on! The FX are also quite laughable, even for the time. Yet the whole experience has a strange allure to it partly due to the surreality of the semi comprehensible plot and partly due to some truly dazzling psychedelic visuals. The scenes in the jazzy strip club are just amazing, as is the costume design! The naked flesh on display is sumptuous.

gridoon "Blue Rita" is more or less what you'd expect from a Jess Franco film: very explicit - very kinky - very strange - very incoherent - very bad. The plot, as far as I could say, is about some Parisian strippers who double as secret agents: they kidnap enemy (whose enemy? Never mind) spies and use sexual torture methods to make them "talk". To give Franco credit, the production design is colorful and the cinematography is often striking. But the editing is incompetent and the pace is deadly. What puzzles me is how Franco convinced so many young women in his films to bare everything and be treated as pieces of meat by the camera, but I guess the men don't come off much better either. Still, if you just want to stare at naked women on the screen "Blue Rita" will do the job....but so will many other AND better films. (*1/2)