"X312 - Flug zur Hölle" or "X312 - Flight to Hell" is a co-production between West Germany and Spain from 1971, so this one had its 45th anniversary last year. The Spanish influence here is by director and writer Jesús Franco, known to many, and if you take a look at the writers here, then you will find a handful of people who also worked together with Franco on other occasions. The film is as short as some other Franco films, runs for comfortably under 90 minutes and tells the story of a couple plane passengers and what happens to them when they crash down. Add to that a bunch of priceless diamonds and you also have a crime component that results in murder on several occasions. And as it is Franco, there is obviously once again a great deal of erotics and female nudity in here, which is nice though as the women are as gorgeous as always in his movies, especially Esperanza Roy. And the names are actually not unknown at all if you see how many times Strömberg worked with Franco and Gila von Weitershausen is also well-known to my fellow German film buffs. But eventually the film suffers like many other Franco films from the weak production values. Even if a big part of the film plays in the jungle, it isn't a captivating or mesmerizing watch. Some of the actors are pretty weak and the script is not a revelation either with Franco including 1 or 2 too many plot twists again. Apart from that, I never felt it was a gritty film and despite the potentially exciting plot, it never managed to get me to the edge of my seat. However, on a more positive note, the beginning with the character introduction and also the very end were somewhat interesting and among the film's better parts. But everything in-between was (except the great female bodies) very forgettable. I don't think it is one of Franco's worst. Not at all as he has created way bigger trash in his long career. But it is also not good enough that I would recommend it. The plot certainly offered the potential for a much better film, so they came pretty short in that regard. Thumbs down. Don't watch.

X-312: Flight to Hell (1970) ** (out of 4) Jess Franco directed adventure film about a plane that goes down in the Brazil jungles and the survivors who must battle natives, gangsters and wild animals. The political side plot is quite boring and really drags the film down but the adventure story isn't too bad, although it drags even at only 85-minutes. The film is pretty straight forward, considering this is a Jess Franco film, which makes it a tad bit too bland for its own good. Paul Muller and Howard Vernon star.The movie is available in Spanish with English subs (unlike many of the director's best work).

This movie has recently been released on DVD in the US. Fortunately they used the German language version so they avoided the dreadful English synchronisation that is common for these type of movies.Still, it's not a very good movie. It has been clearly made very fast and it seems they only had enough money to go to South America to shoot some footage (although it might also be archive footage now I come to think of it).The story is simple and not very original: a plane crashes in the jungle and among the survivors is a bank president carrying a suitcase with stolen jewelry. As soon as the other passengers find out they start fighting while trying to survive in the Brazilian jungle.Typical Franco elements are still there but not as numerous as they normally are; of course you'll see most of the women in this movie naked and there's a lesbian lovescene; Franco's love of zooming in and out on irrelevant details is apparent several times; and Franco regulars have small roles, I saw Paul Müller, Ewa Stroemberg, Howard Vernon, Beni Cardosi and Franco himself passing by on the screen.Unfortunately this is not a movie to remember, and not a good place to start if you want to witness the genius of Jesus F.

Not sure how to rate this. It's an ultra-low quality film which, in terms of what it set out to achieve, fails miserably. The plane crash (I hope I'm not giving away too much of the plot here) is conveyed to the audience principally by means of horrified expressions on bystanders' faces, plus a little flame-coloured lighting. Needless to say, the tension is non-existent.However, it does have a redeeming feature. It's unintentionally hilarious. Minimalist special effects aside, the dubbed English dialogue is dreadfully stilted, well beyond the point at which a soap opera script editor would blanch, and the scene in which the, er, hunky guy picks up the love interest by means of his sexy whistling (honestly) is a golden moment in cinema history.Get many, many beers in and enjoy.