Franco Noir (Death Whistles The Blues & Rififi In The City)

Jean Servais

Following his international breakthrough with THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF, director Jess Franco next delivered a startling pair of crime-thrillers that pistol-whipped European notions of film noir while lighting the fuse on Uncle Jess’ own insane aesthetic. Set in New Orleans and based on a novel by the authors of VERTIGO, DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES is a hard-boiled tale of betrayal, violence and revenge featuring smoky jazz compositions by Franco himself. Jean Servais of RIFIFI fame stars in RIFIFI IN THE CITY, a nihilistic trip through a pulp underworld of thugs, snitches, nightclub dames and black-gloved giallo-style murders. Both films – which led an impressed Orson Welles to hire Franco as his assistant on CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT – now feature HD scans from the original negatives for the first time ever.

Franco Noir — Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco”