Hot Picks

- There's No Such Thing as Zombies 2020

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Lost Cos 2023

- Sound of the Surf 2022

- The Stillness 2025

- Frankie Freako 2024

- The Texas Witch 2025

- Cannibal Mukbang 2023

- Bleeding 2024

- No Choice 2025

- Nahual 2025

- Bitter Souls 2025

- A Very Long Carriage Ride 2025

- The Matriarch 2024

- Oxy Morons 2025

- Ed Kemper 2025

- Piglet 2025

- Walter, Grace & the Submarine 2024

- Midnight in Phoenix 2025

- Dorothea 2025

- Mauler 2025

- Consecration 2023

- The Death of Snow White 2025

- Franklin 2025

- ApoKalypse 2025

- Live and Die in East LA 2023

- A Season for Love 2025

- The Arkansas Pigman Massacre 2025

- Visceral: Between the Ropes of Madness 2012

- The Darkside of Society 2023

- Jackknife 2024

- Family Property 2: More Blood 2025

- Feral Female 2025

- Amongst the Wolves 2024

- Autumn 2023

- Bob Trevino Likes It 2024

- A Hard Place 2025

- Finding Nicole 2025

- Juliet & Romeo 2025

- Off the Line 2024

- First Moon 2025

- Healing Towers 2025

- Final Recovery 2025

- Greater Than 2014

- Self Driver 2024

- Primal Games 2025

- Grumpy 2023

- Swing Bout 2024

- Dalia and the Red Book 2024

- Project MKGEXE 2025

- Two to One 2024

- Left One Alive 2025

- Burgermen 2020

- Conspiracy of Fear 2025

- The Haunting of Heather Black 2025

- The Caller 2025

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Bloody Judge
Il Trono di Fuoco / Der Hexentöter von Blackmoor / El Juez Sangriento / Night of the Blood Monster

UK/Italy/Spain/West Germany 1970
produced by
Harry Alan Towers for Towers of London, Fénix Cooperativa Cinematográfica, Prodimex Film, Terra Filmkunst
directed by Jess Franco
starring Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Leo Genn, Maria Schell, Margaret Lee, Hans Hass jr, Horard Vernon, Peter Martell (= Pietro Martellanza), Milo Quesada, Diana Lorys
screenplay by Anthony Scott Veitch, based on a story by Peter Welbeck (= Harry Alan Towers), music by Bruno Nicolai

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dick Turpin

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kamen Rider

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

1685, at a time when King James II & William of Orange fought for the throne of Britain: At this time, Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys (Christopher Lee), loyal to King James, ruled the West of England with terror, torturing, killing & burning people as witches like nobody's business, mostly innocent commoners whom he deemed guilty by suspicion. Innocent people like Alicia (Margaret Lee), whose only fault it was to be caught with the wrong man at the wrong time.

Her sister Mary (Maria Rohm) even pleads for her, but when Jeffreys asks for sexual favours in exchange for her sister, she is shocked & refuses ... & thus Alicia is burned.

Later, Jeffreys finds out that Mary has a relationship with Harry (Hans Hass jr), the son of the Earl of  Wessex (Leo Genn), who despite being a King's loyalist (or so one thinks) has long been a thorne in the side of Jeffreys. So Jeffreys decides to accuse Mary of being a witch, and, under the pretencethat he suspects Harry of being bewitched, arrests hjim too. Even when Wessex presents him with a letter of pardon for his son, Jeffreys remains unimpressed, claiming the letter is merely a suggestion.

In prison, Harry & Mary & especially their fellow prisoners, have to undergo the most brutal of tortures ... until Jeffreys gets horny again & promises Mary to set her lover free in exchange for sexual favours. But after sex, he seems to have somehow mislaid his noble intentions ...

Ultimately, Harry can organize a prisoners' revolt, that ends in the chief guard Satchel (Milo Quesada) being eaten alive, & when they have at last made it out of prison, they realize that William of Orange has already conquered the throne, with the help of none other than the Earl of Wessex.

King james II has fled the country, & suggests that Jeffreys, whom he has just made Lord Chancellor, to do the same - but self-righteous Jeffreys sees himself as a mere servant of the law, whom nobody can harm.

In the end, he sits imprisoned in the Tower & from his window sees Jack Ketch (Howard Vernon), once his own faithful executioner, hang a man ... & Jeffreys knows he is next, when a merciful heart attack saves him from the gallows ... but not from death ...

 

After the incredible success of Witchfinder General, producer Harry Alan Towers (like many others) decided to jump the bandwagon, & chose the historical Judge Jeffreys - even in his time dubbed the Bloody Judge - as cut-out material for his film. True, Jeffreys never did burn people as witches in real life, but behaviour as judge was at least as arbitrary as that of a genuine witchhunter (truth to be told, the references to witchhunting in the film do not quite fit in with the rest of the story, even if one has never heard of the historical figure).

The film marks one of the few occasions where Jess Franco did have sufficient money, excellent actors & impressive sets (historic Portuguese buildings admirably doubling for 17th century Britain) for a film ... & Bloody Judge really proves to be a well-crafted violent historical drama - but the film falls between a few too many stools (which Jess franco later himself remarked in an interview): It tries to be historical drama, torture travelogue, horror film & erotic cinema all at the same time, with different versions for different countries always emphasizing more on one aspect or the other. Also large portions of the film look rather impersonal, like ready-made historical drama, only in a few erotic scenes does Franco's real genius away from the mainstream really shine through.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Bloody Judge
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Bloody Judge here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!