Girls in the Night Traffic (1976) German Blu-ray ADDED

[Darrel_Griffin]

Title: Girls in the Night Traffic AKA Mädchen im Nachtverkehr (Jess Franco, 1976)
Country: Germany
Region: ALL
Releasing Studio: Ascot Elite Home Entertainment
(part of the Jess Franco Golden Goya Collection)
Case Type: Keep Case
Aspect Ratio: approx. 1.81:1
(has about 10 pixels of black top and bottom)
Codec: AVC MPEG-4
Picture: 1080p, 24fps
Soundtracks:

German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
German Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Subtitles: English (optional)
Cuts: no cuts (softcore version) (71:36)
Commentaries: none
Extras:

Trailers:
- "Love Camp" (2:42)
- "Voodoo Passion" AKA "Call of the Blonde Goddess" (3:38)
- "Doriana Grey" (1:49)
- "Women in Cellblock 9" (2:59)
- "Ilsa, The Wicked Warden" (2:09)
- "Die Sklavinnen" AKA "Swedish Nympho Slaves" (2:52)
- "Sexy Sisters" (3:09)
- "Wicked Women" (2:57)
- "Jack the Ripper" (2:53)
- "Down Town" (2:41)
- "White Skin Black Thighs" (2:26)
- "Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun" (3:01)

Theatrical Trailer (1:48)

Photo Gallery (18 photos)

Audio-only Archival Interview from 1976 with Jess Franco (40:49, in French with optional German subtitles)

"Eric im Nachtverkehr" (Eric in the Night Traffic) interview with actor Eric Falk (11:04, in German with optional English subtitles)


Notes: has reversible sleeve with option of no classification logo

Easter Eggs:

Yes - go to any item in the top line of the Extras menu, then press UP then ENTER to play complete hardcore version of the movie (apparently known as "Wilde Lust" (German) or "Wild Desire" (English)):
Aspect Ratio: approx. 1.81:1
(once upscaled on a 1920x1080 screen, it has about 20 pixels of black on all 4 sides)
Codec: MPEG-2
Picture: PAL (SD, 25fps)
Soundtracks: German Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: none
Cuts: no known cuts - probably uncut (hardcore version) (93:09 at 25fps, equivalent to approx. 97:02 at 24fps)
(Note that this version is NOT English friendly.)


Amazon ASIN: B00KGDFO16
Source: I own a copy

[Eric_Cotenas]

Added, thanks!

[Darrel_Griffin]

Thanks Eric. I have a few more of Franco's Blu-rays that aren't yet in your database. I will try to submit them over the next week or so.

As with my suggestion for "Mondo Erotico" (specs NOT provided by me), can I suggest the same for "Girls in the Night Traffic" and "White Skin Black Thighs", namely that the name "Jess Franco" is included in the director credits as an alternative name? This would be consistent with almost all of the other Franco movies, and would mean that when people do a director search for "Jess Franco", all of his movies would appear. Currently, the above titles do not.

[Eric_Cotenas]

I have been meaning to do that with all Franco titles since he is more popularly known as "Jess Franco" and to include that even on films with other pseudonyms (I don't know about the blu of Doriana but I don't recall any other credits but the marquise von Sade title card on the DVD). I will do the others you have put up today

[Darrel_Griffin]

Er... I'm not sure what point you are trying to make re: Doriana Grey. If you mean you don't know what pseudonym he used, then yes, I've just checked and there are no on-screen opening credits at all apart from "Avis Film zeigt" (which I think translates as "Avis Film presents") which appears at the very beginning, and no credits at the end either. In my experience, this lack of on-screen credits seems to be quite common with his films, though not universal (I've watched about 70 so far).

I assume there are records stored somewhere about who the various cast and crew were for each film, for the purposes of wages, tax etc., and these may well contain the pseudonyms he used, but I've no idea how to access these. IMDb often lists the pseudonym used for a particular film, but I'm not sure how accurate this is.

In any case, Franco used so many pseudonyms - perhaps around 100 - that it would take a lot of effort to check the database for each one. Good luck if you attempt it! But it may well be that you wouldn't find any other stray entries - by the time the DVD format first appeared, I think most people knew which films were directed by him, so DVD and Blu-ray releases have generally been credited to him, and therefore the database entries will be too, in all likelihood.

The only issue with the ones I mentioned is not really to do with pseudonyms, but merely that they use the original spelling of his name i.e. "Jesús" instead of the pet version "Jess". I just think the database should be consistent, that's all. I quite often use the database myself to search by director so that I can track down movies by that director that I didn't know had been released on DVD/Blu-ray. When using the database in this way, obviously you want it to list all releases by that particular director. I have been able to discover quite a few Franco releases this way, and then buy them and enjoy them

[Eric_Cotenas]

The pseudonyms are pretty well documented. The IMDb usually lists the pseudonym after Franco's name (as "Clifford Brown") but we have to depend on scholarly research for credits if they are not on the film (and even then foreign versions may have different crew listed for quota purposes or in an attempt to make the film look less foreign). I've only seen the DVD of doriana so I don't know if it always had those few credits or if Dietrich didn't bother to try to restore the rest of the title sequence. I know there was a German tape (probably the softcore version) but I haven't seen any posters so I have no idea how he was credited then (as opposed to more recently when Dietrich realized he could exploit them again as Franco films rather than just sex films; as such, I have no problem just listing it as being directed by Franco but I am still curious as to which if any pseudonym it was credited with originally

[Eric_Cotenas]

I've lost count of the number of Franco films I have seen but I imagine Franco himself had little input or interest in the content of the credit sequence other than perhaps the background scenery for them. He had little input into the final edits of many after doing the initial assembly (he had more input on the Eurocine ones but I'm not sure about the Dietrich ones, especially since Dietrich himself was also pumping out his own directorial efforts at the time as Michael Thomas, including Rolls Royce Baby with Lina Romay)

[Darrel_Griffin]

I own both the DVD and the Blu-ray, and neither have any credits other than what I mentioned. But having seen loads of Franco movies, it certainly feels like a Franco one, plus Franco is interviewed on the disc. I'll have to watch the interview again as I can't remember what he said.

However, I have also seen several movies directed by Dietrich, and I must say that both "White Skin Black Thighs" and "Girls in the Night Traffic" feel more like Dietrich movies. Suddenly announcing that he has rediscovered some previously 'lost' Franco films does sound like an attempt to cash in on Franco's relative fame. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed them both, so I have no regrets in buying them!

[Darrel_Griffin]

Ok, this is for "Doriana Grey" (I realise this is a different topic to the original thread, but I don't know how to resolve this - sorry).

Anyway, I've re-watched the interview on the "Doriana Grey" Blu-ray, and also checked my DVD copy. Here's a few points:


1. It turns out the interview is the same on both my DVD and Blu-ray. I hadn't checked thoroughly enough before - the interview is with Lina Romay too (speaking in French), so ideally the database should be corrected for the "Doriana Grey" Blu-ray as follows:


Interview with Erwin C. Dietrich, Jess Franco and Lina Romay (11:17, in a mix of German, English and French, with optional English or German subtitles)

(Note the difference in runtime (11:17 vs 11:44) is purely due to the Blu-ray one being PAL and the DVD one being NTSC.)


2. For my DVD (which I assume is the Swiss one), I can confirm that it is NTSC. You could add the following to the database:

It is a progressive transfer.

It is the uncut hardcore version (78:59).


Here is a more comprehensive list of the extras on the DVD, which you could use to replace the existing list:


"DVD Production Report" featurette about restoring various Franco movies (17:24, in German with optional English subtitles)

Interview with Erwin C. Dietrich, Jess Franco and Lina Romay (11:44, in a mix of German, English and French with optional English subtitles)

Trailers (totalling 40:54):
"Sexy Sisters", "Blue Rita", "Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun", "Barbed Wire Dolls", "Doriana Grey", "Jack the Ripper", "Porno Shock" (AKA "Voodoo Passion" AKA "Call of the Blonde Goddess"), "Ilsa, the Wicked Warden", "Rolls Royce Baby", "Mad Foxes", "Fräuleins in Uniform", "Come Play with Me 2" (AKA "Die Nichten der Frau Oberst"), "Island Women" (AKA "Gefangene Frauen"), "Come Play with Me 3" (AKA "Julchen und Jettchen, die verliebten Apothekerstöchter"), "Me - a Groupie"

"Documentary" featurette featuring Erwin C. Dietrich talking about working on various Franco movies (21:42, in German with optional English subtitles)

"The Jess Franco Collection" - 2 pages of text advertising Franco DVD releases

Photo Gallery (20 photos)

Cast & crew filmographies and biographies


(If you would prefer me to submit this information separately in "Comparison Corrections" section, then please let me know.)



3. In the "Interview" featurette, each person is interviewed separately, and the interview segments don't really match up. Dietrich talks about how Franco went off to shoot "Barbed Wire Dolls", and returned with a 'gift' of a second movie he shot at the same time, the implication being that this second movie was "Doriana Grey". This could be true I guess - there is a lot of overlap with cast and crew for these two movies, although I'm not sure whether the shooting locations are the same.

Then it cuts to part of an interview with Franco. He talks about how Dietrich had accused him of shooting a second movie at the same time as "Barbed Wire Dolls". This second movie was another WIP movie for a different producer, which Franco says was called "Prison Cell". Franco says that he did shoot this other movie, but only afterwards, not simultaneously. I reckon this "Prison Cell" movie is probably "Women Behind Bars" AKA "Des diamants pour l'enfer" (1975), for Eurociné. Whatever, this story seems to have nothing to do with whether or not Franco shot "Doriana Grey", and seems to be a story about a bone of contention, and NOT a story about Franco giving Dietrich a 'gift', which would surely have pleased Dietrich, not annoyed him.

So my suspicions are now aroused - perhaps Franco did not direct "Doriana Grey" after all. On the other hand, the DVD was apparently released in 2003, 10 years before Franco's death. If he didn't direct it, wouldn't someone have found out during that time perhaps during an interview with Franco or Romay? Also, IMDb lists him as being director, and does not say "uncredited". I don't know how IMDb staff source their cast and crew information, but I would have thought they wouldn't list him as the credited director unless they had strong evidence. Or am I being overly generous about IMDb?

As I said previously though, "Doriana Grey" does feel to me more like a Franco movie than a Dietrich one. Perhaps the truth is more blurred - perhaps they co-directed it. I would not describe myself as a Franco expert, but it seems to me they were working very closely during this period in the 1970s, and with film making being such a collaborative art, there is often a lot of crossover between various cast and crew roles. And actually, large chunks of a movie could be shot with neither a director nor producer being on set, especially when the cast and crew are small in number. For example, if you are shooting outdoor scenes in bright sunlight, the cast sort out their own makeup and wardrobe and know the script, and there is no direct sound, you could theoretically shoot scenes with just the actors and a camera operator.

In the end though, the movie is what it is. Whatever names are ultimately attributed to each crew role after the event will not change a single frame of the movie itself - the end result remains the same. Surely one's enjoyment of a movie shouldn't be reduced if one later finds out that the director credit is not what they originally thought. Of course, I do appreciate that you want the database to be as accurate as possible.

[Eric_Cotenas]

I think Doriana is Franco's film. It carries over a lot of his themes and the emphasis on natural light and composition over zooms is in keeping with the aesthetic of his late seventies Eurocine and eighties Golden Films titles. What I meant to argue about Dietrich was that he was a capable filmmaker who might have had more to do with the post production of the films than Franco (unlike the Eurocine titles but very much like the Towers and De Nesle productions).

[Darrel_Griffin]

Yes I expect you are right. The rate Franco was shooting films, I doubt he would have had the time to be involved much in post production. And if I recall correctly, the music score consisted of pre-existing tracks used in other movies, so quite likely these were chosen by Dietrich, or at least someone working for him. But my understanding is that Franco generally had a very low shooting ratio (not many takes per shot), plus he often used shots of long duration. All of this meant there probably wasn't all that much scope in terms of choices for how to edit the movie anyway!

[Darrel_Griffin]

Hi again Eric -

Good news! I suddenly had the idea of checking the Doriana Grey Blu-ray photo gallery, and the last two images are of original promotional material with credits. The very last image has the most, and reads as follows:

ERWIN C. DIETRICH
zeigt im Verleih der AVIS FILM:

Die Marquise de Sade

mit LINA ROMAY
Regie: JESS FRANCO
Kamera: David Khune
Musik: Walter Baumgartner
Produktion: ELITE-FILM AG


I don't speak German, but "zeigt im Verleih der" seems to translate roughly as "distributed by". Anyway the main point is that, on this promotional material at least, Franco is credited as director, and using the name "Jess Franco", so hopefully that answers your original question.

"David Khune" is of course one of Franco's many aliases, although on IMDb the cinematography credit is shared between "Jesús Franco" and "Peter Baumgartner" (Walter's nephew).

[Eric_Cotenas]

Cool. "David Khune" is usually his writer's credit. Peter may have been credited for co-production quota purposes or he may have shot additional inserts.