Call Him Jess (2000)

Jesus (or Jess) Franco is one of the great names in B movies. With a number of pseudonyms (Clifford Brown, David Khunne, etc...) and a filmography including over 170 titles, it is extremely difficult to catalogue and categorize his work, despite the existence of many retrospectives and studies in both Europe and the United States. Jess began his career as an assistant director, the high point of which was working with Orson Welles whom he admired greatly. Jess himself became well known in 1961 with The Awful Doctor Orloff, a horror film which instantly became a classic. Working with Jess on the same project was Howard Vernon, an actor whose name was synonymous with Eurocine (the production company at the time most closely associated with genre cinema) and who later became one of Jess Franco's key actors. From that moment his international career took off, his credits include The Diabolical Dr Z, Lucky the Inscrutable, Count Dracula, Vampyros Lesbos and Succubus. Working with the most famous producers in B movies, Harry Allan Towers and Arthur Brauner, Jess Franco adapted classic horror and adventure films such as Fu Manchu, Doctor Mabuse and Frankenstein. In this documentary, arguably the most significant work about this director, Jess Franco speaks openly about his films, himself and his understanding of the world of cinema. He is, essentially, a director who defies conventional categorization; a director who, while working with internationally acclaimed stars such as Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski, developed his own particular style of directing, with the aid of stars such as Soldedad Miranda, Howard Vernon and Lina Romay