French Quarter

Cool movie poster.

Going back to the golden era of  exploitation I bring you French Quarter, a 1978 movie named just like the New Orleans actual french village which happened to be recently re-released by Millcreek Entertainment on the 12 movie pack Dangerous Babes.

The story is about a naive young lady by the name of Christine Delaplane (Alisha Fontaine) goes to New Orleans to find her future and winds up getting a job as a stripper at a local seedy dive (yeah, some future). So far, so familiar. But the story takes a surprising and unexpected departure into more fresh and intriguing cinematic territory after Christine has a drink with some drug in it and flashes back to the past where she was one Gertrude "Trudy" Dix, a sweet virgin who worked at a fancy bordello run by classy and kindly madam Countess Willie Piazza (Virginia Mayo) in the early turn-of-the-century French Quarter.

Alternate movie poster.

An original movie still on sale in E-Bay.

Although she's set to be literally "auctioned off" to any rich pervert who pays the highest price for her, Gertrude nonetheless falls in love with nice guy pianist Kid Ross (Bruce Davison). Director/co-writer Dennis Kane and co-writer Barney Cohen concoct a dandy yarn that makes the most out of a limited budget, soaks up plenty of deliciously tangy and colorful Big Easy atmosphere, offers a fascinatingly intricate juxtaposition of the past and present (for example, every last cast member has dual roles in the picture), and even provides a touching central love story between the two engaging protagonists. Of course, we also get the usual steamy soft-core sex and tasty female nudity, with a sizzling striptease in a giant wineglass rating as a definite erotic highlight. 

a Bordello daily life.  

Believe it or not, these scenes do make sense.

Ladies!

The movie highlights.

Adding some extra spice to an already tasty celluloid gumbo is a good dash of voodoo complete with snakes, pounding primitive drums, and frenzied tribal dancers. The supporting cast comes through with a bevy of exquisitely beautiful women: Lindsay Bloom as the bawdy Big Butt Annie, Laura Mischa Owens as the frosty Ice Box Josie, Ann Michelle as kinky, disloyal junkie Coke-Eyed Laura, and Becky Allen as the fiery Bricktop. Lance LeGault positively oozes smarm as evil lecher Tom, William Simms is properly nasty as brutal bar owner Aaron Harris, and Vernel Bagneris contributes an amiable portrayal of cocky legendary jazzman Jelly Roll Morton. The handsome cinematography by Jerry Kalegeratos makes pretty frequent use of dewy soft focus. Dick Hyman's flavorful score likewise hits the swinging soulful spot. 

Quirky, different and ambitious, this neat little sleeper is well worth a look.

More action.

Snakes are sexy.

Such a bride.

Darkness is a friend of sex.

Vodoo Sex.

Overall, this low budget movie that qualifies as a B movie has plenty more to offer than hundreds of exploitation films that were about the same story with a lesser prepared production and weak plots, so I definitely recommend it, this isn't a sex movie with little or no plot, the bordello story implies that we need to see some sex scenes.

Millcreek Entertainment has done well this time, by adding this interesting movie in their recently released 12 movie pack Dangerous Pack and you can get it for less than 10 bucks, actually you're getting a good deal with 12 movies as interesting as the one in review today.

Unfortunately I found no trailer for the film, my bad!