The Frightened Woman [1969] [DVD]

Classy, 3 Sep 2009

By 

DAVID CRUSE (England) –

  

This film may be a bit long in the tooth but still oozes class, especially the leading lady, who after being kidnapped and tormented by her captor gets her revenge. If you like retro you will like this. Nice twist at the end also. Watchout for the leading lady doing a dance for her captor wearing a dress made of bandages, the whole scene unravels before you. It is not going to be everybody’s cup of tea and there is some slightly dodgy acting in parts, but still worth a watch.

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The Frightened Woman / Femina Ridens., 13 Oct 2011

The Frightened Woman is a curious piece of Eurocult, much along the same lines as the films that Jess Franco was churning out around the same time. The film very much captures the feel of late sixties to early seventies European cinema and the atmosphere is definitely the film’s best asset. The style, atmosphere and content are similar to Jess Franco’s “Succubus” and Massimo Dallamano’s “Venus in Furs”, yet they’re both widely considered as sexploitation classics whereas “The Frightened Woman” is virtually unknown. It’s all a matter of profiling and good marketing, I guess. The story revolves on a literally filthy rich doctor Sayer played by Phillipe Leroy (he lives in a gigantic secluded mansion, owns multiple old-timer cars and has a very impressive collection of artsy relics including a life-size mannequin doll replica of himself) with a bizarre and slightly offbeat attitude towards women. He considers them a threat for the survival of the male race and thus spends his days kidnapping, humiliating and sexually abusing random women he picks up from the street. Dr. Sayer then abducts the ambitious journalist Maria (Dagmar Lassander) with the intention to completely crush her female spirit, but he slowly falls for her. The film has some really weird and psychedelic scenes which is typical of late sixties European cinema, however the film was very well shot and the acting was decent and I must say that I pretty much enjoyed this bizarre film. If your a fan of trashy and weird Jess Franco type stuff, you might just like this. The Frightened Woman kicks off with a similar warning to the one on the Shameless Ratman disc regarding the varying quality of the source material used to construct this cut, but there the similarities end. Save for a few of the restored shots, the 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is damned fine, a crisp picture with excellent colour, superb black levels and great contrast.

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