In the final days of the ICM French Challenge I searched round for French flicks by auteur "Uncle" Jess Franco. While searching round,I find a title which had somehow been wrongly credited to Uncle Jess. Curious,I went in search of the lost dolls.

View on the film:

Whilst Jess Franco was not involved in the film,(despite online listings,Franco is not listed in the on-screen credits) the screenplay by co-writer/(with Marius Lesoeur-whose use of the alias A.L. Mariaux is what caused the mix-up,due to Franco using a similar alias) director Pierre Chevalier wears similar psychotronic clothes to Jess, thanks to a long flashback unveiling the women being shipped out as WIP-style sex slaves to a house in the wilderness. Mashing footage shot with "borrowed" footage from Agente Sigma 3 - Missione Goldwather (1967) and backed by a lounge Jazz score from Jess Franco's regular composer Daniel White, director Chevalier & cinematographer Gerard Brisseau whip up lashings of sleaze from the fittie "Lost Dolls" being used by clients, and hilariously badly staged fight scenes where punches hit thin air,in the house of lost dolls.

This could be described as a weird film or maybe just cheap, but when the name Jess Franco appears this should come as no surprise. This bit of Euro sleaze looks to have been assembled from two or more films giving the impression of a girl-trafficking film with a secret agent on the case. The film starts off well enough.

Magda Mundari plays Yvette, a girl rescued from a brothel and her story told in flashback. This is OK for about half an hour but then the film switches to a Jack Taylor film (the IMDb says Agente Sigma 3 - Missione Goldwather) in which our secret agent is put on the case. Silvia Solar also appears in both films, in both cases being part of the criminal gangs, so perhaps the two films merge - up to a point. Then there is the part on board a ship where some more girls are being held captive. Again, it looks like a Jack Taylor film but is this also from Agente Sigma or another film? Who knows?

Is this film worth a look? If you like really sleazy Euro sexploitation films then it is a definite yes. Apart from the sleaziness of pinching some-one else's film, there are also plenty of sleazy scenes in which the very attractive girls get naked, both willingly and unwillingly; and also the sex scenes, again both willing and unwilling. These are the scenes that make a Euro sleaze film, but despite these comments, this is a bad film, so only two stars.

Strange Eurocine sleaze about a girl who's forced into prostitution, made mostly from bits and pieces from other films... to make it even more puzzling, some of the newly shot footage (or is it? You can never be really sure when you're watching a Eurocine film) also ends up in the almost identical L' Oasis Des Filles Perdues, which I saw before this one. And just as in that routine sleaze film the action just drops dead in the middle for over 20 minutes from a 1960s spy film with Jack Taylor! It's very funny when the geniuses behind this opus try to mix the spy footage to make it appear as it's part of the sleaze flick! I really enjoyed this film but there is no way I can justify it.