This feels like it may have been an influence on Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin. Despite starting off this review with such a positive statement, Nightmares Come at Night is not exactly an undiscovered gem. There's a reason this erotic thriller is hard to find. Here, we have Franco at his most experimental- long, extended dance and strip scenes, gratuitous lesbian sex, constant use of the zoom function that can leave one dizzy, and a plot that is nearly completely incomprehensible. As far as I can gather our main character was working as a stripper when another girl, blonde, seduces and bewitches her. She forces our protagonist to come live with her in her (naturally) lavish mansion, where the girl begins having nightmares of bloodlust and murder. For some reason the blonde girl keeps calling the doctor even though it's pretty obvious she's the one causing the odd happenings. (this is somewhat cleared up later). Next door a random trashy couple is spying on the two girls. This also causes confusion as the neighbor girl looks almost exactly like the protagonist. Naturally infidelity abounds, but it feels more the product of an attempt at creating singe sort of tension than a real part of the story. Nightmares Come at Night is Jess Franco at his most impressionistic, it's highly psychedelic and completely incoherent- and believe me when I tell you that I don't say that lightly, being a huge fan of Franco and Rollin and giallo fanatic. So as you can see I'm very used to the dreamlike, surreal nature of 60's-80's European horrors and erotic thrillers; and even for me this is a conundrum- but a pleasant one nonetheless as long as you aren't too analytical and you can enjoy the visuals.

Jess Franco claimed in 1973 that this was the lowest-budgeted film he had ever worked on, and his claim is borne out by what is (and isn't) seen on the screen. Much of the film consists of un-erotic groping and a somewhat more inspiring (but still overlong) strip tease, most of the plot is conveyed by voice-over narration, and Franco's developing penchant for the zoom lens is becoming evident. On the plus side, Paul Muller is predictably good, but given much less interesting material than in his previous Franco production Eugenie de Sade. I'm generally inclined to cut Franco some slack--the man rarely had the resources he needed--but this is definitely one of his lesser efforts. That said, Bruno Nicolai's score is excellent and well worth acquiring on CD.

Nightmares Come At Night (1970) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A stripper named Anna (Diana Lorys) starts having nightmares that she's involved in some kind of murder but soon she realizes that these might not be nightmares but instead reality. This is Jess Franco's "lost" film, which was just discovered after nearly thirty years and while it's not one of his best, it does offer some nice touches. Lorys is quite good in the role as is Franco regular Paul Muller. The main key to Franco is his poetic eroticism, which comes off here as well as a nice jazz score by Daniel White. Soledad Miranda has a small but thankless role. As usual Franco fills the screen with beautiful, naked women as well as lesbian sex.

Dreary erotic thriller from Jess Franco, with Soledad Miranda wasted in a tiny role as the girlfriend of a jewel thief waiting for his share of a robbery cut. Main story has to do with a psychotic stripper under the hypnotic influence of the woman in charge of the jewel heist who uses the stripper to kill off the rest of the gang. Film is intriguingly told, with a nice bit of poetic voice-over narration by the protagonist, but visually the film is completely uninteresting, as are the two main characters, despite their usually appearing naked. Miranda's performance and appearance is the sole jewel in a film wherein even the attempted erotic sequences are boring. DVD's only other appeal is a neat new interview with Franco about this film and about Miranda.