During the same period that he was making the certifiably insane INCONFESSABLE ORGIES OF EMMANUELLE, SEXUAL STORY OF O and CRIES OF PLEASURE for Spain’s Golden Films Internacional, Goya Award winner Jess Franco also wrote and directed this delirious hybrid of sexy caper comedy, EuroSpy suspense thriller, hard-boiled erotic noir, and depraved fetish shocker complete with jaw-dropping girl-on-girl violence. Jess’ equally legendary partner/muse Lina Romay – here at her most lusciously uninhibited – stars with Antonio Mayans (CANNIBAL TERROR), Lorna Green (MACUMBA SEXUAL), Albino Graziani (MANSION OF THE LIVING DEAD) and even Jess himself in this “fast-moving and slyly humorous” (El Franconomicon) rarity, now scanned in 4k from the original negative with all-new Special Features.

Travis’s Take (3 / 5)

Yet another Jess Franco-Lina Romey movie to review. The last title (Cries of Pleasure) was a bit under-whelming, so I went in with lowered expectations. I could count on a few mandatory features; nude women, zooms, Franco cameos, and a plot skimpier than some of the clothing. I think low expectations is the best way to approach this one.

Night of Open Sex starts with some grainy footage of a car driving around during the opening credits, but cut with Romey grinding nude on top of a muscle car in the middle of a bar (obviously shot separately from the club members). And be prepared, because this goes on for a while and gets pretty graphic. The camera gets in nice and close. You could scrape out a dirty Crock Pot with the amount of pubic Brillo on camera. So I was obviously paying attention and hoping that this would go somewhere beyond just extended gyrating because that can only last for so long before you get bored. Luckily a decent story follows. Decent for Franco at least.

I’m curious if there was any inspiration from Raiders of the Lost Ark with this, since it involves Romey agreeing with a pimp to try to track down old Nazi gold. She attempts to impersonate the niece of a guy who might know something, who is actually close to death. He catches on once he sees that their pussy hair is different, which leads me to ask a few questions I probably don’t want to think about too much. Since that ended in failure, the two also end up interrogating a woman for information. And by interrogate, I mean torture. Not any lighthearted waterboarding either, instead they take a hot iron to this woman’s pussy. You can actually see smoke coming off her lips in a nice close up. I wasn’t expecting this level of sadism, so already this movie was more engaging than the last Franco.

Oddly enough the movie lightens up after that, and in some spots almost becomes comedic. Some of it is on purpose with the choice of songs playing or dialogue during the sex scenes, other times it is laughable in how goofy this is. At one point she gets kidnapped and raped by another guy hunting the gold, and she just decides to flip allegiances and works with him instead. Sure, why not? They end up pulling a home invasion of a count (Franco) while trying to translate a book that might have all their answers. They have a really hard time focusing though and have multiple screw sessions including shots of the guy’s floppy frank. They eventually do end up finding the gold, but not before some more twists and double crosses. The movie ends with them screwing more and zooming into crotches, which is completely fitting and ties it all together.

While there are some negative quirks on display like extended shots of aimless driving and shots of the admittedly nice looking locales, the positive quirks outweigh them. There is just enough plot to make this watchable, which enhances the extended nudity and masturbation. Any fans of Romey are definitely going to Fran-cum watching this. There are a few special features on this, continuing from the previous title. This has the second part of Land of Franco, more vintage interview footage of Franco, and some background on the making of this movie. Probably just enough in total here for me to recommend this disc. Maybe the bar was low, but it was entertaining in a kind of bizarre way.

Hidden Treasure/Dumpster Fire?

Travis says: Hidden Treasure!

Travis's Take:	(3.0 / 5)
Blu-ray Extras:	(3.5 / 5)
Average:	(3.3 / 5)

• In The Land Of Franco Part 2: Stephen Thrower Tours Multiple Franco Locations in Portugal
• When Donald Met Jess and Lina Part 2: Filmmaker Donald Farmer Interviews the Power Couple in 1993
• The Night of Open Jess: Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of ‘Murderous Passions & Flowers of Perversion – The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco