The Naschycast returns to the world of Jess Franco for an erotic ramble through late 1960’s Lisbon and Berlin. Bob Sargent joins Troy and I to examine SUCCUBUS (1968) because Bob wanted to rewatch the film. Two of us had not watched it in years and the third had never even seen it before! We turned this into a trip to the unwatched DVD pile again to take a look at the starting point for a certain type of Franco cinema. Your tolerance for the director’s sense of humor and the absurd will determine your level of enjoyment.

We use Stephen Thrower’s excellent book on the work of Franco named ‘Murderous Passions’ to guide us and to provide a brief synopsis. We waffle through a discussion touching on the cast connections to Paul Naschy but mostly talk about our reactions to the often surrealistic events involving S & M stage performer Lorna (). She seems to navigating a strange period in her life with reoccurring visions of a different life impinging on her supposed reality. We see her interact with various romantic partners who end up dead at her hands. Or is that really what is happening? Along the way we get striking images, amusing commentary on arthouse pretentions and philosophical silliness draped in an encroaching ennui that seems to define Lorna’s confused life. Can cinema be therapy?

Along the way we are reminded to always fear mannequins but we also take heart from the Algernon Charles Swinburne poem Faustine that seems to have been a major influence on the film. Of course, we all wish a for a Blu-Ray release complete with multiple versions of this important effort. It clearly signposted many future Jess Franco films that fans laud to this day.

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Troy noticed that the mailbag had collected several new pieces of correspondence so we decided to find out what was on your minds. Strangely, Paul Naschy seemed to be a major subject of these missives! Will wonders never cease?

The email folder held five emails to read out and we respond to them to the best of our ability. My crushing inability to correctly pronounce several names is noted and corrected by a longtime listener and I promptly find other names to destroy. I should not be allowed near a podcast! We discuss keeping the Naschy flame burning and note recent online articles that a helpful fan of the show has provided. (See links below.) We also talk a bit about some upcoming Blu-Ray commentary tracks that are being released soon while giving a piece of bad news concerning a hoped for extra on another. Sometimes we have to hold on to older releases to sooth our collector minds. Our sick, sick collector minds.

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We take a deep dive into Jess Franco’s THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS (1963) and hope we can avoid the quicksand. Bob Sargent returns and joins Troy and I to discuss this krimi-like murder mystery. It even has a little comedy relief. Luckily, very little of that!

This film seems to be less well thought of among fans of Uncle Jess’ black & white output and I’ve never understood why. It has a great cast with Howard Vernon leading the way as the most obvious suspect when young women in an Austrian town start turning up dead. Is there anything to the legend of a Von Klaus ancestor who reincarnates every few decades to terrorize the locals? Or is there a much more human reason that lovely ladies are wise to not venture out after dark? And just how sadistic will the film be allowed to go to depict the amoral depths of the killer’s lustful urges? Pretty far, it turns out!

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