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For the longest time, popular actress Annette Lamark (Glenda Allen) has
put her own interest above everyone else's ... and thus, she has left her
young (circa 5) son Christian in her sister Valerie's (Montserrat Prous)
care in her own remote island home for the longest time. Valerie has come
to hate her sister, mainly because she has grown to love poor abandoned
Christian quite that much. But now, Annette has decided to bring her
lover Vincent (Mario Álex) and her entourage (also including two former
lovers of hers [Luis Induni, Francisco Acosta]) to her island home with
her for a bit of partying. Valerie despises all of them of course, except
for the private detective Juan (Alberto Dalbés) Annette has brought along
to guard her (rather ridiculous) jewelry ... and then, Christian is
kidnapped. Annette of course is thrown into a film-worthy depression, but
it's Annette's heart that's really broken. Problem is of course, the
island this all takes place is so remote and so deserted that it has to be
one of those in the house who has kidnapped Christian. What's even worse,
Valerie's guests start dying like flies, starting with Vincent, actually,
and even including Annette. Eventually, the survivors are down to
Valerie and Juan, and since Valerie hasn't done it, it has to be Juan,
right? And now she finds out he has spent some time at a mental
institution, too, and might be many things but not a private detecitve -
which means the only man she has trusted, even fallen in love with, is the
killer. Fortunately, Valerie grabs a gun before Juan can and manages to
lock him in ... when out of nowhere, Vincent shows up and wants to kill
her. You see, Vincent has faked his own death because he wanted to have
his revenge on Annette and her entourage. Annette, it turns out, has once
been his son's lover, but she was only with him to drain him of his money,
then she dropped him like a rotten apple, upon which he killed himself -
and thus Vincent has become a bigshot in the movie industry to become her
lover and trap her and her friends on the island to kill them. Sure,
Valerie had nothing to do with these people, but now Vincent of course
can't let her go ... thing is, Vincent didn't know Valerie was still
holding onto her gun because of Juan, and when he attacks her, she shoots
him. The happy ending re-unites her with Christian (this part is a bit
murky), and Juan proposes to her. Turns out he might not have been a
private detective, but the only reason he spent time in an insane asylum
is because he's a psychiatrist, and Annette brought him along to look
after Valerie ... One of the most mainstream movies Jess Franco
has ever made, a murder mystery of the 10 Little Indians-variety,
devoid of nudity and sex and with very little in terms of tongue-in-cheek
humour - and it looks and feels like a very decent movie, low budget,
sure, but better than quite a few other low budget mysteries from the era
- which is kind of the problem of the film: It lacks the signature style
of Jess Franco, his spontaneity and inventiveness, the obsession that
permeates all his best movies. Basically, it's just a run-of-the-mill
murder mystery, and you really couldn't tell that it's a Jess Franco movie
if you weren't told.
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