"Agente Kim" by Carlos R. Martinez

Marisa Mell was during the height of her movie career not only popular in Europe but also in almost all the latino countries in the world, especially South America. Due to this popularity she became among others model for the Argentinian comic heroine or secret agent "Satanka." as mentioned in a previous entry. But that is not enough, it seems. Argentinian journalist, comic book artist and collector Carlos R. Martinez tells us more about the other adventures of Marisa Mell in comic book land. "Otro personaje de comic inspirado en la figura de Marisa Mell"

by Carlos R. Martinez.

Básicamente el cine pero también la televisión, la prensa gráfica y la fotonovela fueron en su momento los principales vehículos de difusión de la belleza y la sensualidad de Marisa Mell. A esa lista habría que sumar otro medio considerado “menor” que también se inspiró en ella para algunas de sus creaciones y, de alguna manera, ha contribuido a perpetuar su recuerdo. Hablamos del comic, palabra que poco a poco va desplazando al término que inicialmente se usó en muchos países de habla hispana: historieta. Los seguidores de este blog habrán leído seguramente el post dedicado a la historieta “Satanka”, una parodia de las películas de espías y agentes especiales que se publicó en la revista chilena El pingüino en 1966 con guiones del argentino Héctor Oesterheld y dibujos de un compatriota suyo, Angel Alberto Fernandez. Las imágenes de dicha historieta no dejan lugar a ninguna duda de que el rostro de “Satanka” está inspirado en Marisa Mell.

Hay sin embargo otro antecedente al respecto, el de un comic (o fumetti) italiano aparecido casi veinte años después del cual brindaremos algunos detalles en base al ejemplar que poseemos en nuestro archivo y los escasos datos disponibles en Internet. KIM, LA COMPAÑERA DE KONDOR La editorial italiana Edifumetto, especializada en comics para adultos, publicó a inicios de los años ochenta una línea de revistas cuya particularidad consistía en que los rostros de los personajes protagónicos correspondían a los de conocidos actores de cine y televisión, tales los casos de Tom Selleck (Magnum), Silvester Stallone y Alain Delón. En los casos de Delón y Stallone los personajes de ficción eran “Yambo” y “Chacal” respectivamente (al menos en su versión española), mientras que el protagonizado por el símil de Selleck era Jody J. Baldwin conocido como 4-4. Pero existió un cuarto actor cuyos rasgos fueron utilizados para dicha colección y es el que nos interesa a los efectos de esta nota. Ese actor era Telly Savalas -el intérprete de la serie Kojak- y el personaje para el cual se utilizaban sus rasgos se llamó en su versión original “Kondor”, mientras que para la edición española pasó a llamarse “O’Jack”. Además del parecido de los actores, algunas de las historietas que estamos recordando mantenían los elementos principales de las series o películas que éstos habían protagonizado. Así el protagonista de Mágnum 44 seguía siendo un detective privado mientras que Kondor-O’Jack era también un teniente de la policía metropolitana de Nueva York a quien en sus diferentes aventuras acompañaba la agente Kim, co-protagonista de la serie y cuyos rasgos eran precisamente los de Marisa Mell. Hasta aquí los pocos datos de que disponemos sobre la versión italiana de esta serie, lo que lamentablemente nos impide brindar información sobre su dibujante, de cuyo trabajo destacan una muy detallada ambientación de exteriores e interiores, trazo vigoroso y seguro y un prolijo pasado a tinta. LA VERSION ESPAÑOLA En España las revistas de Edifumetto fueron publicadas por Ediciones Zinco, entre ellas Mágnum 44, Sukia, Azafatas y Flamingo Street. A diferencia de lo que sucedía en Italia donde tenía su propio título, en la versión española el personaje rebautizado ahora como O’Jack formaba parte de Mágnum 44, compartiendo en partes iguales las 64 páginas que conformaban cada número. Según el completo catálogo de la página especializada Tebeosfera, en España se editaron en total 13 números de Mágnum 44 entre 1985 y 1986 (1983-1984 en Italia). Más detalle de esta catalogación pueden verse en

http://www.tebeosfera.com/obras/series/o%60jack.html

SOMBRA EJECUTORA El material gráfico que acompaña esta nota pertenece al episodio “Sombra ejecutora” que con un total de 32 páginas integró el Nº 2 de Mágnum 44, historia cuyo “plot” podría sintetizarse así:

Harto de las argucias legales mediante las cuales quedan libres los de lincuentes que el captura, O’Jack renuncia al cargo pero su jefe lo convence que se tome unas breves vacaciones. Enterado de ello Kim promete que se le unirá luego. El policía viaja a Montana y en el hotel donde se hospeda conoce a Helga, una hermosa alemana con la cual de inmediato mantiene un fogoso encuentro sexual. Posteriormente O’Jack sorprende a un hombre que ha estado siguiendo sus movimientos y que resulta ser un colega suyo ya jubilado, quien le informa que la mujer ha sido utilizada para entrar a Estados Unidos un poderoso explosivo, aunque ella ignora el contenido del bolso que transporta. Ambos acuerdan vigilarla para descubrir quien retirará el peligroso elemento y así desbaratar un posible atentado. En el ínterin llega Kim pero O’Jack la despacha hacia otro hotel, lo que provoca la furia de aquella. Luego de un nuevo encuentro amoroso Helga acude a la cita con el hombre al que debe entregar el bolso, quien la asesina y parte hacia una central nuclear cercana con el propósito de sabotearla. Pero el trío O’Jack, Kim y el policía retirado están ya tras sus pasos y luego de una persecución logran matar al terrorista cuando este había ingresado ya a su objetivo. Si bien se trata de historietas eróticas la proporción de escenas de sexo es reducida, en este caso apenas seis paginas sobre algo más de treinta. Tal en síntesis algunas de las características de esta serie que en los años ochenta convirtió a nuestra recordada actriz en involuntaria protagonista de estas aventuras para adultos. La carencia de material que ya hemos apuntado nos impide saber si finalmente el calvo policía reparaba en los encantos de su compañera o seguía prefiriendo la compañía de las ardientes mujeres que condimentaban cada episodio de la saga, aunque en definitiva lo realmente importante es haber recordado este nuevo tributo que el comic rindió a la belleza de Marisa Mell. Carlos R. Martinez* (*) Diseñador gráfico, periodista y coleccionista. Ha colaborado en distintas páginas sobre historietas y actualmente está a cargo de TOP COMICS, Blog dedicado al estudio de la historieta argentina. "

Thanks Carlos for this entry! It is highly appreciated!

If you would like to read more about comics in Argentina, Carlos R. Martinez has an excellent blog called

TOP-COMICS

http://luisalberto941.wordpress.com/

"The Lonesome Road of Jesús Franco!" by Carlos Aguilar

During the mid 60's untill the mid 70's Marisa Mell was at the height of her movie career in Europe and South America. She was one of the most beautiful and demanded actresses of her time by producers and directors alike. As top of the bill she asked and earned top money for being part of your movie. In the end she made during that decade around 30 movies in all kind of genres, you name it she did it.At the same time on the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain and later in France, there lived a man who became in later years an icon and living legend with a large cult following. His name: Jesús "Jess" Franco! As a director, writer, cinematographer, musician and actor he made during the before mentioned period in time around 50 (!) movies, often more than 5 movies a year, many of them unfinished due to low financial backing. He was a man with thousand ideas at the same time not knowing which idea to execute first on film. His filmography is around 200 movies! To know more about the life and work of this prolific artist on the internet you need to visit the excellent and always interesting blog: "I am in a Jess Franco state of mind" http://robertmonell.blogspot.com/So it isn't strange that many fans of both cult cinema stars sometimes asked themselves "Did Jess Franco and Marisa Mell have ever worked together on a production?" And that is a very good question but not so simple to be answered. Fortunately for us in Spain there is an award winning man by the name of "Carlos Aguilar" who knows it all, the in's and out's about everything connected to Jess Franco and his movies. Last month publisher "Catedra" has published in her series of monographies "Signo e Imagen/Cineastas" his latest book titled "Jesús Franco". More about that later. Carlos Aguilar was born in Madrid in 1958 as the son of the doctor and writer Miguel de Aguilar Merlo. A cinemaphile and avid reader since he was a teenager, he began writing unpublished short stories, film reviews and articles while still in school. In 1976, he enrolled in the psychology program at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, and in 1978 he began publishing articles in the "fandom", in both Spain and France. In 1980 he edited the first Spanish fanzine in the Fantasy and Horror genre "Morpho" of which four issues would later appear... In 1982, as a result of Morpho´s succes, Aguilar received two offers to work professionally: to write in various cinema magazines in Barcelona and to collaborate in the "Festival de Cine Imaginario de Madrid". Thus, while studying cinema in the Taller de Artes Imaginarias, Aguilar´s long and multi-faceted career began. His facets include cinema critic, journalist, collaborator with entities such as the Fimoteca Española, AISGE, and Federacion Nacional de Cineclubs. He has directed conferences and cinema forums. He has worked as assistant director and press agent on various films and has been a member of the executive committee of several fim festivals. (Madrid, Cadiz, Tenerife, Trieste...) Carlos Aguilar lives in Madrid with his beautiful and also very talented wife, the Canadian writer "Anita Haas".
The Marisa Mell Blog is very honored that Carlos Aguilar was willing to answer the question about a possible working relationship between the cinematographic beast Jesús Franco and beauty Marisa Mell.

Here is Carlos Aguilar with his answer to this question:

"MARISA MELL CON JESÚS FRANCO?
No te extraña que Marisa Mell nunca trabajase para Jess Franco, en la época dorada de ambos? Pues bien, esta colaboración estuvo a punto de producirse!. La revista española “Pantallas y Escenarios”, en su número 115, aparecido en Febrero de 1972, publicó la noticia, en su página sobre proyectos. La película iba a titularse The Lonesome Road, y como co-protagonista figura Barbara Bouchet. Evidentemente, el rodaje nunca tuvo lugar, y de este modo el cinéfilo sufrió por partida doble: 1) el sentido del erotismo de Jess Franco y la especial sensualidad de Marisa Mell se habrían entendido muy bien 2) Marisa Mell habría añadido otra entrega a su magnífica mini-filmografía sobre roles dobles, rubia y morena, en la misma película. Cómo puede saberse esto segundo? Porque diez años después Franco rodó esa historia, pero con distintos intérpretes, producida por él mismo en España, Camino solitario (literalmente, el mismo título en español). Así, se advierte que el trabajo previsto para Marisa Mell lo desempeñó la propia mujer de Franco, Lina Romay, puesto que sus personajes son dos, la bellísima y elegante esposa, rubia platino, de un millonario, y la hermana hippie de ésta, morena y grunge. Del mismo modo, el rol previsto para Barbara Bouchet (la ex amante lésbica de la protagonista/rubia) lo retomó otra modesta actriz española, Carmen Carrión. Por último, el detective protagonista, que se llama Al Pereira, en 1972 iba a interpretarlo Mark Damon, y en la película definitiva lo personificó Antonio Mayans, tan inseparable como Lina Romay de la filmografía de Jess Franco en los 80. Camino solitario no está mal, sobresale dentro de las últimas décadas de la obra de Jess Franco. Pero cuando ves esta película y te imaginas a Marisa Mell en los dos roles que interpreta Lina Romay… sufres mucho!"

"Marisa Mell and Jesús Franco?

Have you ever wondered why Marisa Mell and Jess Franco never worked together during the golden years of their careers? Well, they almost did once!
This news appeared on the ‘new projects’ page in issue 115 of the Spanish magazine Pantallas y Escenarios in February 1972. The film was going to be called The Lonesome Road and would co-star Barbara Bouchet.
Obviously, the shoot never took place, and so the film buff suffers on two counts: 1) Jesús Franco’s special sense of the erotic would have gelled exceptionally well with Mell’s unique sensuality. 2) Marisa Mell would have added yet another piece to her collection of blonde-brunette double roles in the same film.
How do I know this last bit? Because ten years later, Jess Franco filmed and produced the exact same story, but with different actors. It was called Camino Solitario, literally the same title as the original poject, but in Spanish.
Jess Franco’s wife, Lina Romay, plays the part that would have been Mell’s, and she plays both the beautiful, elegant platinum blond millionaire’s wife, and her dark-haired, grunge, hippy sister.
On the same token, Barbara Bouchet’s would-be part as the elegant blonde’s ex-lesbian lover, went to little-known Spanish actress Carmen Carrión.
And lastly, the part of the detective, which Mark Damon was supposed to play 1972, ended up going to Antonio Mayans. Like Lina Romay, Mayans was another regular in Jess Franco’s filmography of the 80s.
Camino Solitario isn’t a bad film, in fact it stands out among the last few decades of Franco films. But, to be honest, when you watch Lina Romay playing the part, and you imagine Marisa Mell in the same role, you suffer!"It would have been very interesting to see what kind of movie it had become when Marisa Mell did made it with Jess Franco but as so often in movie making there are a lot of projects that are being discussed, planned and produced untill the first day of shooting and than fall together for some strange raison so as a film maker you are glad that once in a while a film does get made as visioned. The above mentioned series edited by Spanish publisher "Catedra" called "Signo e Imagen/Cineastas" is a wonderfull informative series of monographies about the most important contributors to Spanish and world cinema ranging from Fritz Lang, Frederico Fellini, Jean-Luc Goddard over Steven Spielberg, Pedro Almodovar, Woody Allen to Serio Leone, Julio Medem, Tim Burton and many many many more. More than 80 titles have appeared in this series of beautifuly edited books of more than 400 pages each with hunderth's of photo's often published for the first time in history from the private archieves of the people involved in the professional careers of the subjects written about. And now you have the latest entry in this series written by Carlos Aguilar.

The back cover of this books says it best what this book is all about:"Carlos Aguilar, premiado historiador cinematografico y novelista, aborda tan insolito caso mediante un minucioso ensayo que auna la cronica historico-biografica con la valoracion cinéfila, incluyendo la glosa de professionales vinculados en particular con el cine de Franco, no menos "de culto" and "(Franco) Entroncado con una familia de ilustre tradicion cultural, Jess Franco supone una figura absolutamente anomala en historia de cine espanol. Tanto por llamatives cuestiones estéticas (su obra aborda una serie de géneros, sobra todo el fantastico y el policiaco, des planteamientos muy personales, con progressivo hincapié en el erotismo) cuanto por inauditos factores industriales (su filmografia roza la cifra récord de doscientos largometrajes y se ha desarrollado en diversos paises europeos à largo de cincuenta anos). Justifica, pues como ningun otro cineasta espanol el califcativo "de culto"!

The book has been divided into various sections:

1. A description of the unique case of Jess Franco in the flm industry;
2. An analysis of the aesthetics and different aspects of Franco’s cinema like sex, his love of cinema, jazz, mystery...;
3. A chronological journey through the various stages of Franco’s career from his early beginnings as an assistant to his last film in 2010. There is also an important part about his colaborators like the stunning Soledad Miranda or Howard Vernon, Jack Taylor, Harry Alan Towers and many more;
4. To complete this book you have a very indeep filmography and bibliography of his work.
Could you ask for more? After reading this book Jess Franco as a person and his work are no longer a secret any more for you!

As a fan of Marisa Mell I hope that one day such a thorough work about the life and work of Marisa Mell would be available in such a beautiful edition. That would make me a really happy camper!

Would you like to know more about Carlos Aguilar and his work than you can visit his website:

http://www.carlosaguilar.net/

If you would like to order this book or any other book written by him you can contact Carlos Aguilar directly at:

caguilar1958@yahoo.es

Thanks Carlos for this great entry and to me unkown information about Marisa Mell and Jess Franco! Gracias Mi Amigo!

UPDATE BY CARLOS AGUILAR FOR ALL THE JESS FRANCO FANS LIVING IN SPAIN

El miércoles que viene, es decir el 30 de marzo a las 19.30, se presentará mi libro sobre Jesús Franco en el Cine Doré-Filmoteca Española. La película que hemos seleccionado es "Necronomicon", por ende el acto lo presentará su protagonista, mi viejo amigo Jack Taylor. ¡Velada sexy! ¡Os espero!

Cinesex and all the others!

There was a time not long ago that Euro Cult fans had not the access to the various multimedia gadgets that we now have at present day like the Internet, Computer, Iphone, Ipad, DVD to see and re-see a beloved movie or social networks like Facebook to connect fans all over the world. The world was a lot smaller and simpler then. The options for entertainment after a hard day of work were limited to televsion, radio, books or going to the movies. If you were a fan of a certain movie the next best thing you could do to revist the film that you loved was buying the original soundtrack and if you were lucky you could buy a novelisation of the movie based on the original script which was often a cash in and hardly worth buying.

Another way to cash in on a movie, especially in Italy, were the cine photo magazines. Italy has always been the home to a special kind of entertainment known as the "Foto Romanzo". These photo romance novels were during the 60's and 70's very big in that country read by millions of women and very often stars and starlets from the Euro Cult scene switched between their movie work and the foto romanzo work.

During the sexual revolution in the 60's, especially at the end of this decade, another kind of photo novels appeared on the news stands in Italy. Their prime target audience were not the romance hungry women but men. Contrary to the photo romance novels which were specially created by the publishers with original storylines the cine photo novels were photo strips of popular movies at the time that were running in the movie theatres. To cater to the male audience not just any kind of popular movie but movies that had as central theme a lot of sex and/or violence, better yet a combination of both in one storyline. So the covers of these magazines like Cinesex, Bigfilm, Cinestop... were always centered around a very sexual situation mostly women in some kind of sexual act with a lot of T's and A's showing. And what sold the most copies for publishers was a lesbian act on the cover. Nothing beats two women going for it! These photo fumetti's were always taken from the negative print of the movie in black and white, even if it was a color movie. To further the story these photo's were highlighted with word balloons.

Marisa Mell has never been an actress in a photo romance novel for publishers like Lancio but indirectly some of her movies from the early 70's became cine photo novels like her 1971 movie "...dopo chi che uccide il maschio e lo divora" or better known in English as "Marta" with then real time lover and co-star Stephen Boyd in the november 1971 issue of Bigfilm. Stephen Boyd was at that time still best known as the counterpart of Charlton Heston in the homo erotic movie "Ben Hur" but his career in the 70's was dwindling very fast so he had to make movies abroad like Spain or Italy to keep the much needed money flowing. Notice that Stephen Boyd is credited on the cover of this Bigfilm issue as "Stephen Body". Comparing the cover of this cine photo magazine with the orginal Spanish movie poster the difference could not have been bigger!

Death Will Have Your Eyes!

On March 22nd 2011, the Italian based DVD company "Mya Communications" will release one of the rarest and much sought after giallo's from the golden age of this still much loved movie genre. The English title of the movie is "Death Will Have Your Eyes" but to fans of the genre it is better known under the Italian title "La Moglie Giovane" or in Spanish "Infamia". Untill now this movie was only available on DVD as a bootleg copy from a dark and grainy video print in Italian language without subtitles. This print is in Italian with English subtitles if wanted. Mya Communications has to be applauded for giving us in the past years access so many rare out-of-print Italian genre movies. The only problem with this company's (re-)issue of movies is that a) often announced releases get postponed or never published; b) you will never know in advance what the quality will be of the print or what kind of master was used to transfer the movie to DVD and c) if the movie is cut or uncut. So it remains to be seen when the DVD is issued in a few weeks what the quality will be of this print. I hope not that they used the video master of the previous mentioned bootleg because that would be very sad to giallo and Marisa Mell fans who deserve better for a first official release ever of this rare movie. The movie is an Italo-Spanish production from 1974 directed by Giovanni d'Eramo with Marisa Mell, Farley Granger and Helga Liné in the main parts. Music is by one Italy's best composers Stelvio Cipriani so that is also a plus. Marisa Mell plays a young women named "Louisa" who wants to make a living for herself in Rome, but soon falls prey to some very shady characters that force her into prostitution. While struggling to keep herself afloat, she meets a fascinating doctor played by Farley Granger who is also a would-be poet. When Louisa gets involved in murder, blackmail and violence ensue, untill the shocking final relevation. There are no bonus items like interviews or behind the scene footage except the standard trailer and a poster gallery. The cover of this DVD has nothing to do with this movie but was taken from another Marisa Mell movie called" Masquerade" from 1965 showing us an eleven years young Marisa Mell while in this released movie she was already 35 years old. The cover picture was selected by Mya Productions because it is one of the best pictures of Marisa Mell highlighting her beauftiful eyes in reference to the English title and Spanish poster of this movie!