Sara (Rosalba Neri) Bay Movies

This kinky thriller stars Barbara Bouchet as a secretary who comes to the swampland home of writer Richard Stewart (Farley Granger) and his wife Eleonor (Rosalba Neri). Her predecessor was murdered by a local fisherman-rapist (Dino Mele), but there's more to the story than meets the eye, and Bouchet soon finds herself in mortal danger. Typical of the genre, the film is full of nudity and violence, as well as some deftly-handled red herrings. Umberto Raho shows up as the butler, who gets a gaffing hook rammed through his neck for good measure. Director Silvio Amadio has crafted a sick, scary, entertaining little film which will please most Euro-thriller fans. Amadio went on to make the even better Il Sorriso Della Iena, also with Neri. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

One of cult director Jesus Franco's most popular films, this uneven adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's notorious Justine stars Romina Power, daughter of actor Tyrone Power, in the title role. Justine and her sister Juliet (Maria Rohm) are poor orphans in 1700s France forced to leave school and find a way to survive in Paris. Juliet soon becomes a prostitute, while Justine is employed as a maid by Scrooge-like innkeeper Mssr. de Harpin (Akim Tamiroff). Eventually, Justine is falsely arrested for stealing a brooch and sentenced to death. Escaping prison with the murderous Mme. Dubois (Mercedes McCambridge), Justine becomes a fugitive. In her efforts to hide from the law, Justine finds herself captured first by a perverse gay Marquis (Klaus Kinski), who subjects her to various tortures, then by a group of sadistic monks led by Brother Antonin (Jack Palance in an amazingly bizarre performance). Rosemary Dexter was originally intended to portray Justine, and might have done a better job than the wooden Power, but appears only briefly in a lesser role. Heavily censored, various prints run 120, 105, 93, and 90 minutes. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

This extremely low-budget adventure was director Jesus Franco's second Fu Manchu film for British producer Harry Alan Towers. Christopher Lee returns as the Asian madman, who has developed a way to turn the oceans into ice as part of his plan to rule the world. Kidnapping famed Prof. Herakles (Gustavo Re), Fu forces the doctor to help him with his diabolical plan. When Herakles' health starts to fail, Fu kidnaps two more people (Guenther Stoll, Maria Perschy) for a transplant operation at his Istanbul headquarters. Fu's old rivals Dennis Nayland Smith (Richard Green) and Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion Crawford) come to Turkey to foil his evil experiments. Rosalba Neri, Jose Manuel Martin, and Werner Abrolat co-star in this poor fifth installment in the popular series. The film is so poorly conceived that -- although it was made in color -- the shipwreck caused by Fu is actually a black-and-white scene borrowed wholesale from A Night to Remember. For completists only, this disastrous entry also stars Herbert Fuchs and Tsai Chin, while Franco makes a cameo as a Turkish detective. Various versions run 92, 86, and 85 minutes. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Low budget blood and breasts abound in this Italian exploitation horror film that offers yet another variation on the grisly but true story of a 17th-century Hungarian countess, Elizabeth Bathory, who bathed in the blood of over 600 virgins to retain her youthful appearance. This time the trouble begins when a pair of twin archaeologists begin searching for the mythical Nibelungen Ring, which is said to possess magical powers. Unfortunately, the ring rests upon the finger of a devilish Transylvanian countess who loves a good hot blood bath. One of the brothers heads for her castle. When he does not return, the other brother follows and discovers that she has turned the first brother into a fearsome vampire. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A lesser-known but memorably bizarre giallo thriller from Italian filmmaker Ferdinando Merighi, directing here under the pseudonym of "Fred Lyon Morris," this unusual shocker has a petty thief named Antoine falsely sentenced to death for the murder of a high-class prostitute (Barbara Bouchet) at a brothel run by Madame Colette (Anita Ekberg). The first of the film's risible plot machinations has the wrongfully condemned Antoine putting a curse on his accusers, escaping as he is about to be guillotined, and then being decapitated anyway after leading authorities on a motorcycle chase. One of the judge's friends is a doctor named Waldemar (Howard Vernon) who does experiments on the deceased non-killer's eyeballs; when the judge is murdered, everyone is sure that Antoine is getting revenge from beyond the grave. It certainly seems coincidental that everyone who is being murdered was at Madame Colette's brothel on the night Antoine was arrested, but the real killer was there too, and gorily claims several more victims before being chased up the Eiffel Tower in the film's mind-boggling conclusion. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

This lurid but entertaining Italian/Spanish twist on the Frankenstein legend begins with Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten) being assisted in his research by his sultry daughter Tania (Sara Bay). The doctor's first attempt at a stitched-together creation results in a lumpy, pop-eyed monstrosity with little of the expected respect for its creator. In fact, the monster begins its rampage by murdering the Baron and escaping into the surrounding village. The younger Frankenstein returns from medical school with newly-acquired surgical expertise and a desire to follow in her late father's footsteps. She soon begins work on a creation of her own by transplanting the brain of her brilliant but deformed assistant Charles (Paul Müller) into the body of a brawny handyman. The result is a handsome and powerful male creature not only capable of destroying the original monster, but virile enough to satisfy his creator's overwhelming sexual appetites. Tania is apparently quite eager to test the latter, and she does quite frequently, as indicated in the film's numerous softcore sex scenes. This lengthy romantic interlude is cut short when the first monster returns to finish what he started. Directed by Mel Welles (who B-movie fans will remember as Gravis Mushnik from Roger Corman's cult classic Little Shop of Horrors), this film plays like a sexually-obsessed version of an early Hammer production. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi