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Friday, November 26, 2010

Franco Friday! Dark Mission (1988)

Over at the Yahoo! Group Eurotrash Paradise there are those of us who loves us some European Trashy flicks. The master of these is, of course, Jess Franco. It was recently decided that we would transform Fridays into Franco Fridays! The rules are simple;
On Friday, watch a Jess Franco film.
I decided on something I hadn't seen before to start the tradition.
I talking about Dark Mission.

When most people think Of Jess Franco they think sleazy little films with an abundance of female nudity. And, while there are lots of those, Dark Mission is not one of their number.
In this one we get a secret agent sent to Central America to get the scoop on this revolutionary who might be a big drug runner. Along the way the agent runs into a lovely girl who happens to be the daughter of the aforementioned revolutionary.

Using his cover as a reporter from Detroit, our agent gets the story of how drugs are ruining the lives of children everywhere. There is a scene at a hospital of sorts where people are walking around twitching in the throes of drug dependency. A little heavy handed, but we get what he's trying to do with this.

Christopher Mitchum (son of Robert Mitchum) does a great job as the secret agent. In the beginning of the flick he's being berated by his superior for being a drunk and a womanizer. Then he's accused of letting secrets slip. He blames a woman who gave him a drink with drugs in it.
Hilarious!

Having watched a lot of Franco's lower budgeted films it was nice to see helicopters and explosions and cars going over cliffs. In addition there is Christopher Lee and Brigette Lahaie both doing a magnificent job. Lahaie gives us the one titillating scene in a string bikini, but other than that the film is pretty chaste.
Franco has done his fair share of spy thrillers so I think I might keep with that genre for a while.

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