Blue Rita (1977)

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Of all Jess Franco/Erwin C. Dietrich collaborations during the mid to late 1970s, this is the most bizarre. The two prolific auteurs here turn the tables on the 'women in prison' dramas for which they are collectively best known, by making 'respectable' men very much the prisoners, and seductive, glamourous women are in charge. Blue Rita (Martine Fléty) demands total obedience, sexual and otherwise, of her female co-horts, and their various forms of indoctrination are dwelt upon in typically lingering scenes of softcore lesbian activity. Franco achieves some haunting compositions with these scenes - which serves as a precursor for the kind of thing he did, more explicitly, in his latter-day One-Shot Productions - with many liaisons filmed through a fish-tank, and with misty disorientation within the sci-fi love/torture parlours.The look of this film is very different from the usual perception of an Uncle Jess film. No swaying palm trees or majestic, sun-drenched beaches. Instead, we have Parisian walk-ways, exotic, bustling streetways and picturesque city-scapes. Interiors are confined - or perhaps that should be unconfined - to chambers that wouldn't look out of place in 'Barbarella' or 'Logan's Run'; spacious and featureless, less like a sensuous boudoir and more like a set for an early music video, complete with dry ice.The characters are not massively well-defined, lost somewhat beneath the impressive and heavily stylised visual trappings, but my favourites include the briefly known Moira (Vivky Masmin) and the apparently naïve Sun (Dagmar Bürger).Regular musician Walter Baumgartner excels with a mad fusion of gurgling electronica, tribal and jazz, with a repeated brass section track that sounds like the theme to Coronation Street. It might be his most eccentric musical concoction.The story involves Rita, who hates men as a result of former abuse, and her female brigade, who kidnaps and tortures wealthy men and male 'spies' and makes them talk by sexually stimulating them to the point of insanity. This espionage nonsense is interspersed with Franco-favourite sleazy club scenes that are elevated by garish costumes, purple wigs and pink walls. Interesting use is made of colour, infusing every scene with a kind of garishness that provides a palpable contrast to the 'ordinary' world 'on the outside.' That contrast, I think, is my favourite element in this film. You really don't know what goes on behind closed doors.

"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.

During the 70' Jess Franco made lots of exploitation films with different success. Blue Rita is one of Jess Frano's finest efforts, because of Franco's great cinematography with many colorful scenes and carefully created atmospheric sets. Many of the scenes have a psychedelic touch and the music score is great.The storyline is kind of absurd, which should be expected by fans of Jesus Franco, involving soft erotic club performances combined with secret agency's and creative torture methods. Somehow the style feels like a combination of Succubus and Ilsa and the Wicked Warden, without the pseudo philosophy of Succubus, focusing on the atmosphere.For me this feels like one of Franco's most inspired movies and belongs to his best efforts. The overall rating may be lowered because of the many soft erotic scenes and the hard-to-follow / incoherent storyline, but for those who seek great original atmosphere like only Jess Franco could, this is a must see. The German spoken version should be preferred.

After a four-month hiatus, I returned to Jess Franco territory once more with a DVD rental of BLUE RITA (1977). In fact, the owner of my local DVD outlet recently purchased Anchor Bay UK's 8-Disc Franco collection while in London and, needless to say, I was immediately attracted by these titles – despite the censor-imposed cuts on a number of them – since I had only previously watched two films from that set, namely uncut (albeit dubbed and full-frame) versions of LOVE LETTERS OF A Portuguese NUN (1977) and SEXY SISTERS (1977).I must say that I was pretty surprised by the fact that BLUE RITA – and, I assume, the other titles as well – sports English subtitles on the original German-language version, which is obviously the preferred way to watch it! This fact, however, has angered me quite a bit as I had ordered the discounted R1 edition of JACK THE RIPPER (1976; from Image, and whose German version is not subtitled) only recently…and, unfortunately, this shipped just a couple of days before I rented the BLUE RITA disc!!As for the film itself, I was rather let down by it: in all probability, a Franco title from his Swiss period was not the ideal way to reacquaint myself with the director's work, especially since the last film I watched had been the rather experimental NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (1970)! Most reviews I've encountered mention the film's bizarre décor and garish color scheme – not to mention the wacky plot – among its assets but, really, I found the film's overall style thoroughly flat and the situations so repetitive and uninvolving (as if the director's heart wasn't quite in it) that it hardly matters that it is actually good to look at! The cast, apart from Pamela Stanford (who, disappointingly, is given little to do here), is rather second-rate on this occasion – especially Martine Flety, who didn't make much of an impression as the title figure – and, in fact, only Dagmar Burger (!) as the counter-agent Sun emerged with some measure of dignity! Of course, similarly to SEXY SISTERS, the film obviously doesn't take itself at all seriously and the numerous would-be torture sequences and an awkwardly-staged brawl provide nonstop hilarity throughout!! As for the nudity, well, there's plenty of it (from both sexes!) but it's never really erotic…but then this IS an exploitation piece after all!