Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Das Frauenhaus" or "Blue Rita" is a co-production between Switzerland and France that resulted in a German-language film back in 1977, which means this one will have its 40th anniversary next year. The writer and director is the incomparable Spanish filmmaker Jesús Franco and if you know him, you also know what to expect here: namely a seemingly ambitious plot that gets lost in bad writing and story-telling and instead it ends up being all about the sex scenes and nudity. Or does it really? It may be true that Franco includes sensual and aesthetic sex scenes with stunning women, but not so in this one really. I must say I found the sex scenes in here really unpleasing to watch and a lot of it may have to do with the lights and colors Franco used here. I read in another review that they called his approach psychedelic and this is exactly the perfect word. Watching this film made me think that Franco really wanted to leave a creative note in here, but it really all went wrong unfortunately. The only somewhat appealing thing was the purple wig one of the girls (maybe actually the only hot one because of it) was wearing. I cannot say I am familiar with any of the cast members here and Martine Fléty, who plays the title characters, also was/is fairly unknown compared to other women Franco cast as leads in his films, such as the wonderful Soledad Miranda or Lina Romay for example. As a whole, this film was not working from any perspective. Instead it was really cringeworthy how Franco failed with the use of colors that added little to the story that was already elaborated on pretty badly anyway. I highly recommend to stay away from this movie. Don't watch.

tiemewoudstra During the 70' Jess Franco made lots of exploitation films with different success. Blue Rita is one of Jess Frano's finest efforts, because of Franco's great cinematography with many colorful scenes and carefully created atmospheric sets. Many of the scenes have a psychedelic touch and the music score is great.The storyline is kind of absurd, which should be expected by fans of Jesus Franco, involving soft erotic club performances combined with secret agency's and creative torture methods. Somehow the style feels like a combination of Succubus and Ilsa and the Wicked Warden, without the pseudo philosophy of Succubus, focusing on the atmosphere.For me this feels like one of Franco's most inspired movies and belongs to his best efforts. The overall rating may be lowered because of the many soft erotic scenes and the hard-to-follow / incoherent storyline, but for those who seek great original atmosphere like only Jess Franco could, this is a must see. The German spoken version should be preferred.

christopher-underwood Say what you like about old Jess, but he knew what he wanted from a film, and very often got it. Like with Blue Rita, barely enough budget to cover all the doors in tin foil or make the night club look very different from a waiting room, he got the girls, he got them to take off their clothes and he used lights and what props he had to make a ravishingly attractive piece of nonsense. Here is the most elegant of soft core movies that also includes the torture (albeit with green paint and promise/denial of sex) of gents in chains. Whole scenes are shot through fish tanks and although there is some sort of spy plot-line,it makes no sense so can be completely ignored.

MARIO GAUCI After a four-month hiatus, I returned to Jess Franco territory once more with a DVD rental of BLUE RITA (1977). In fact, the owner of my local DVD outlet recently purchased Anchor Bay UK's 8-Disc Franco collection while in London and, needless to say, I was immediately attracted by these titles – despite the censor-imposed cuts on a number of them – since I had only previously watched two films from that set, namely uncut (albeit dubbed and full-frame) versions of LOVE LETTERS OF A Portuguese NUN (1977) and SEXY SISTERS (1977).I must say that I was pretty surprised by the fact that BLUE RITA – and, I assume, the other titles as well – sports English subtitles on the original German-language version, which is obviously the preferred way to watch it! This fact, however, has angered me quite a bit as I had ordered the discounted R1 edition of JACK THE RIPPER (1976; from Image, and whose German version is not subtitled) only recently…and, unfortunately, this shipped just a couple of days before I rented the BLUE RITA disc!!As for the film itself, I was rather let down by it: in all probability, a Franco title from his Swiss period was not the ideal way to reacquaint myself with the director's work, especially since the last film I watched had been the rather experimental NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (1970)! Most reviews I've encountered mention the film's bizarre décor and garish color scheme – not to mention the wacky plot – among its assets but, really, I found the film's overall style thoroughly flat and the situations so repetitive and uninvolving (as if the director's heart wasn't quite in it) that it hardly matters that it is actually good to look at! The cast, apart from Pamela Stanford (who, disappointingly, is given little to do here), is rather second-rate on this occasion – especially Martine Flety, who didn't make much of an impression as the title figure – and, in fact, only Dagmar Burger (!) as the counter-agent Sun emerged with some measure of dignity! Of course, similarly to SEXY SISTERS, the film obviously doesn't take itself at all seriously and the numerous would-be torture sequences and an awkwardly-staged brawl provide nonstop hilarity throughout!! As for the nudity, well, there's plenty of it (from both sexes!) but it's never really erotic…but then this IS an exploitation piece after all!