Barely released in this digital age, Pierre Chevalier’s HOUSE OF CRUEL DOLLS (1974) was produced by the budget-conscious specialists at Eurociné, a still-active French distribution and production company based out of Paris, who are probably best-known for producing Jean Rollin’s & Julián Esteban’s aquatic zombie snoozer ZOMBIE LAKE(1980) and a number of Jess Franco films, including The AWFUL DR. ORLOF (1962) and FEMALE VAMPIRE (1973, a.k.a. EROTIKILL).
Better known as The HOUSE OF THE LOST DOLLS to the few Eurotrash cineastes that have actually seen it, this is one of Eurociné’s notorious patchwork efforts starring Silvia Solar and Sandra Jullien (from Jean Rollin’s The SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRES [1971] fame), which utilizes redubbed footage from Gianpaolo Callegari’s AGENT SIGMA 3: MISSION GOLDWATHER (1967), an Italian spy flick also starring Solar (which undoubtedly accounts for all the reused footage) and Franco regular Jack Taylor as the titular agent. Of course, this slapdash bit of cinematic manipulation is nothing new for Eurociné, whose alternate version of Jess Franco’s A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (1971) contains numerous added reshoots (courtesy of Jean Rollin) of zombie mayhem not seen in Franco’s original edit. Probably one of their most notorious fusions of sleaze is Alain Deruelle’s JAILHOUSE WARDRESS (1979), which utilizes newly-shot footage cobbled together around redubbed scenes from Jess Franco’s BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1975) and Alain Payet’s HELLTRAIN (1977)!
Like most of these quickly thrown-together efforts, the minimal storyline is usually lost among a variety of differing footage and redubbed dialogue, which strives desperately to make some semblance of coherence; HOUSE OF CRUEL DOLLS is no exception. Opening against the supposed “House of Cruel Dolls” (the same house from Jean Rollin’s zombie reshoots, and the very same house from the opening of Jess Franco’s GOLDEN TEMPLE AMAZONS [1986], no less!), nudity fills the screen from the opening shot as Yvette (Magda Mundari) accepts “a date” with Mr. Gaston (Raymond Schettino), but he actually wants to bust her out of this prison/brothel, even though she has abandoned (quote) “all hope”. This way-out-in-the-woods, clandestine destination of sin can only be accessed via a very bumpy dirt road – which doesn’t allow our escapees to drive very quickly! – and then, in a mind-boggling bit of idiocy, our couple decide to celebrate their successful escape with a little hanky-panky in the woods. They eventually make it to a lowly police station where, via flashbacks, Yvette proceeds to recount her story to a highly doubtful police inspector.
It seems Mr. Raski (Olivier Mathot), along with his accomplice Sylvia (Solar), is running a white slavery syndicate where he conveniently gets to sample the goods. The women are then put in large wicker baskets and shipped to the titular location run by Madame Zozo (Gillian Gill), but once again, are repeatedly taken advantage of by Raski’s henchmen, led by Eurociné stock player ‘Yul Sanders’ / Claude Boisson. Much of the film unfolds through a seemingly endless parade of women being groped in grungy garages and the ship’s cargo hold, which does nothing to enhance the film’s already flimsy plotline. With the help of Yvette’s testimony, some mysterious government agency gets involved and recruits Special Agent Jack (Jack Taylor from SIGMA 3) to help infiltrate this seedy organization, which takes him from Tangiers to Barcelona. Of course, all of jack’s scenes are taken from the aforementioned Callegari film, which is mostly relegated to car chases and cut-rate punch-outs, while the unscrupulous Sylvia kills a snooping woman with poisonous fingernails. Then, much like Bela Lugosi was hilariously “doubled” by Tom Mason in Edward D. Wood, Jr.’s PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959), Jack Taylor is also doubled by some anonymous guy in a few of the sleazy, nudity-filled ’70s scenes.
After getting some solid intel from Barcelona about that mysterious cargo ship, the case is reassigned to Magda (Sandra Jullien), who ends up in Raski’s office with promises of a luxurious getaway, but is instead drugged and seduced on Raski’s office floor. Like the other girls, she too ends up being raped in the ship’s cargo hold in yet another protracted, nudity-filled scene. Eventually, Magda manages to escape after karate-chopping Sylvia, and then Jack shows up for a shoot-out on the docks as the film clumsily moves between SIGMA 3: MISSION GOLDWATHER and Chevalier’s newly-shot footage with Jullien.
Director Pierre Chevalier (sometimes credited as ‘Peter Knight’) is probably best-known on these shores for his hokey, invisible woolly-monster movie The INVISIBLE DEAD (1970) and his cheap Sybil Danning action film, PANTHER SQUAD (1984). Like most of Eurociné’s output in the ’70s, it’s incredibly cheap-looking, with harsh lighting and flat photography, this time courtesy of Franco regular Gerard Brissaud, unlike Eurociné’s usual stock DP, Raymond Heil. Incidentally, Heil went on to shoot ‘John O’Hara’ / José Jara’s similar-sounding OASIS OF LOST GIRLS (1982, a.k.a. POLICE DESTINATION OASIS), which also used many of this film’s sleazy sequences!
Originally released on Dutch PAL videocassette (courtesy of EVC) in English with Dutch subtitles under its original export title THE HOUSE OF THE LOST DOLLS, the film made its digital debut in 2006 thanks to Austria’s XT Video. Although marketed under its German release title DAS SCHIFF DER GEFANGENEN FRAUEN (“The Ship of Imprisoned Women”), the print itself sported the film’s alternate, and rather nonsensical, English language export title POLICE MAGNUM 84. Unfortunately, XT’s disc only contained German and French language audio options and a smattering of extras, including the film’s original theatrical trailer, alternate video credits and a small still gallery.
As part of their on-going Eurociné Collection, Charles Band’s Full Moon have given this little-seen sleaze opus an unexpected HD debut, which is a vast improvement over XT’s earlier DVD. This time featuring Italian credits (hence the film’s curious re-title yet again!), the transfer, which is (quote) “remastered from the original negative” looks quite good given the inconsistencies of the varying footage, and while it certainly isn’t on par with some of the other Eurociné Blu-rays on the market (Kino Lorber’s ZOMBIE LAKE comes to mind), everything herein looks well-defined with some surprisingly rich colours. Unlike XT’s non-English friendly disc, English is the sole audio option (in either a DD 2.0 or DD 5.1) this time around, which also sounds quite good given the wonky nature of most Eurociné Anglo dubbing tracks. Extras are limited to a handful of re-edited Eurocult promo trailers including one for the present title.
While it may not be the (quote) “lost sexploitation classic”, Full Moon so proudly proclaims it to be, it’s nice to see them digging deep into the Eurociné archives just the same, even if most of the films are not to everyone’s tastes. Order the Blu-ray from Full Moon Direct. The DVD is also available here.
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