Sexy Sisters (1977)

Simply Perfect

Good concept, poorly executed.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Eyebrow-less Karine Gambier ('Women in Cellblock 9') plays Milicent Antonia von Stein, or Milly, chained to her bed to help cure her 'condition'. She is a nymphomaniac of course, an affliction brought about by child abuse. If this were not bad enough, she is kept prisoner by her sister, Countess Edna Luise Von Stein played by Pamela Stanford. We shouldn't expect any deep analysis of Milly's appalling situation of course, but even by Spanish 'Eurotrash' Director Jess Franco, this is shocking stuff. Usually, I would say that 'eurotrash' is unnecessarily dismissive of his work, but this fits the bill completely. Bored sounding actors dub the characters' voices (Jack Taylor - or Tyler, as he is billed - plays Dr. Charles Barnes, a thriving hetero-sexual, dubbed with a very fey voice), often talking over each other, and events move along purely to place characters in positions where they can have sex with as many other characters as possible. Unless you find 70's simulated porn enjoyable, much of this film is a drab experience.In one such event, Milly, who is fed a succession of lovers to assuage her desires, kills one of the men brought to her. The character of Joe (Kurt Meinicke) then professes his love for her and vows to free her. These fleeting moments take place between ongoing sex scenes, often culminating with the chained Milly writhing around on her bed.Writer and collaborator Erwin C. Dietrich eschews the traditional isolated prison setting of his usual forays into Franco territory, but also stops short of bothering to intersperse the softcore scenes with much of a narrative. I can't complain about this - after all, who the hell am I? This is not much more than a porn flick and does its job very adequately. Gambier in particular gives a very uninhibited performance. I'm surprised she wasn't in more Franco films, although she had a prolific career in 'skin-flicks'. If you are aware of the trappings before watching - and the title gives the tone away - you won't be disappointed. If you're expecting to be distracted by anything outside of that, I can't really recommend this.As usual with Dietrich collaborations, the budget is such that locations - both interiors and exteriors - look impressive. Walter Baumgartner's music ranges from a background jazzy dirge to light-hearted ragtime. And then it ends with such alarming haste that it seems everyone just lost interest. More likely, the running time (85 minutes) was filled, and Milly's story was brought to an end.

"Die teuflischen Schwestern" or "The Devilish Sisters" or "Sexy Sisters" or "Satanic Sisters" or "Swedish Nympho Slaves" is a German-language film from 1977, so this one will have its 40th anniversary this year. It is one of the films famous Spanish director Jesús Franco made in Switzerland and for which he collaborated with Swiss writer Erwin C. Dietrich. If you know a bit about Franco, you know exactly what to expect here. And what you expect is what you get. Lots of nudity and sexuality, several sex scenes, a decent deal of violence and all of this in the frame of a somewhat dramatic story, which never really makes sense though or has any realistic feeling whatsoever attached to it where you would think that this could indeed happen in real life. The film runs for 85 minutes approximately and tells the story of a nymphomaniac woman held captive against(?) her will by her equally sex-obsessed sister and an evil doctor. Well.. actually, everybody seems sex-obsessed in here and the way they are trying to sell us the story of a knight in shining armor towards the end is really cringeworthy. But luckily for the audience, you never have the feeling that Franco takes himself and his film seriously whatsoever. It is sexploitation and there is no deeper meaning behind it. As usual, Franco serves all tastes as the one major character is a blonde (who did nothing for me though) and the other is a truly hut brunette (yummy). You always need to be horny in advance to really enjoy 95% of Franco's works and it definitely helps here too. Oh and make sure your girlfriend is not sitting next to you. Or have her join in at the action. Finally, however, from a cinematic perspective, I really cannot recommend the watch. It's just above-average porn.

The extremely prolific director Jess Franco chronically had a problem with coherent plotting for his movies, but for "Sexy Sisters" he found a rather drastic solution to the problem: he dispensed with plotting altogether! Nothing happens in this movie that couldn't have happened in a total of, say, 10 minutes - the other 75 are taken up by long sex scenes, both lesbian and straight. Unfortunately, these scenes are more explicit than erotic, despite Karine Gambier's thoroughly uninhibited performance - after a certain point in his career, Franco's approach became too "gynecologistical" for my tastes. Your mileage may vary. ** out of 4.

Following a number of disappointments viewing some highly-regarded Jess Franco movies, I warily approached this Erwin C. Dietrich production - which came none too soon, considering that I'd had the VHS of SEXY SISTERS for six days before I could summon enough courage to try it!It's similar to SINFONIA EROTICA (1979) in that its characters are motivated either by greed or sexual frustration, and in its general depravity. Like SINNER (1972), then, while the film purports to be the character study of a single nymphomaniac, sex is virtually the only thing all the characters - and, by extension, the director himself - think about!; having four women in the brew, for instance, was a bit much, though the nurse's character (torn between her 'boss', Jack Taylor, and her genuine feeling for Karine Gambier) is quite interesting.The formal look of the film (especially interesting is the interior design of the sisters' mansion with its proliferation of feline imagery) extends itself to the trim plot line, the effective but unobtrusive score and the generally balanced performances (though it must be said that no member of the cast is particularly taxed by the level of acting necessitated by the film). Pamela Stanford gives a fine 'bad girl' performance in the style of Britt Nichols from A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (1971). The predictable 'climax', however, ends the film on a bit of a whimper: a more dramatic conclusion would not have been amiss.It's superficial in comparison with other Franco films, but made in a refreshingly self-mocking way (the early scene involving Stanford and the gear-shift of a car, the 'mannerisms' of the numerous studs who 'visit' Gambier {reminiscent of the campy sex films being made contemporaneously by Russ Meyer in the US}, the unorthodox way in which Taylor takes Gambier's temperature) that it's not really oppressive - despite the extensive nudity involved - as others I've watched had been. The relationship between the two sisters does not convince, however - particularly their age difference (which cannot be great) as revealed in a flashback. Besides Gambier does not display enough charisma to sustain her basically one-dimensional role (unlike Monserrat Prous in SINNER and Lina Romay in SINFONIA EROTICA); in fact, her constant 'whining' becomes fairly annoying - to say nothing of unintentionally funny - after a while! The film really falls to pieces every time the characters open their mouths...to speak, that is; for a sex film, it's got an awful lot of dialogue - and practically all of it's silly, would-be titillating talk!I watched this via a 20-year old VHS: hideously dubbed as always; non-OAR; occasionally fading colors; and, most surprising of all, no credit titles! Even if the film has been released on DVD as part of VIP's "The Jess Franco Collection", it's not substantial enough to merit a purchase from me...