Mondo Macabro: The Frenchman's Garden (1978) - Reviewed
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Courtesy of Mondo Macabro
Ten years before making his multi-role
starring career summation The Howl of the Deviland one year before
unveiling his episodic Satanic odyssey The Devil Incarnate, Spain’s Lon
Chaney known as Jacinto Molina Alvarez known as Paul Naschy briefly dabbled in
nonfiction with his dramatization of the infamous Frenchman’s Garden murders.
Courtesy of Mondo Macabro
A string of serial murders committed in
the town of Peñaflor, a
province of Seville, Spain around 1904, the story told of Andrés Aldije
Monmejá (Naschy) who operated as a bartender whose establishment was
actually functioning as an illegal gambling house and brothel with his
waitresses serving as prostitutes.In
between arranging abortions for waitresses that inevitably fall pregnant to
prostitution, Monmejá also whiles away his time bedding much of his own staff. Trying to come up with ways to rip off his customers even more, he and
his associate José Muñoz Lopera
decide it might be best to start murdering them, stealing their money and burying
their bodies in the back of the bar.But
as their mutual avarice increases, so too does the need for more murders and it
doesn’t take long for locals and close confidantes to raise their eyebrows upon
Monmejá’s homicidal ruse.
Courtesy of Mondo Macabro
Mounted as a
personal project for Naschy, while featuring the actor/director’s usual scenes
of himself in bed with a voluptuous naked actress in one of the film’s many
love scenes, The Frenchman’s Garden like Tenderness of the Wolvesbefore
it is a straight-laced serial killer horror drama.Rather than try and probe too deeply into the
killers’ mutual psyches, Naschy’s film instead tries to illustrate how these
two got away with it for so long and why the case itself was dubbed The
Frenchman’s Garden murders. Compared to Naschy’s subsequent projects, The Frenchman’s Garden rescued
from oblivion by Mondo Macabro who seem to have spearheaded the revival of all
things obscure Naschy, is one the actor/director’s more handsome looking
pictures.Photographed in sumptuous
panoramic 2.35:1 widescreen by Leopoldo Villaseñor, the film’s tawdry and gruesome proceedings
nevertheless look lovely with an organic looking period production design and
striking scenic locale.The subtle acoustic
score by The Devil Incarnate composer Angel Arteaga augments the period
setting very well also.
Courtesy of Mondo Macabro
As a Naschy film, it
doesn’t quite have the spark as his next picture The Devil Incarnate which
saw the actor/director playing the ultimate source of all evil with gusto.Nevertheless, The Frenchman’s Garden is
an otherwise solid serial killer picture albeit a bit dry and overwhelmingly
carnal at times.While this won’t be the
one that will convert nonbelievers into Nashy disciples, longtime fans of the
cult hero will be pleased to see another one of his largely underrated pictures
seeing the light of day outside of its country of origin.As usual, good job from Mondo Macabro with their
pristine 4K restoration of a film you might not have heard of were it not for
them.Not my first pick for Naschy but
definitely an intriguing one.
