With the French productions The Lustful Amazons (1973) and Les
gloutonnes, Jess Franco wrote and
directed two brazenly erotic takes on Italy’s own Hercules counterpart Maciste,
a recurring cinematic hero from the peplum genre with respectable origins
dating back to the silent film era, starting with Cabiria (1914). A different character altogether, Franco’s Maciste, played by Wal Davis, is more of a medieval
playboy, adventuring to new lands full of sex hungry Amazons, randy mythical
queens, and horny Atlanteans, saving the day, satisfying entire tribes, and
living to tell about it.
The Lustful
Amazons contains some of the most entertaining comedic sex scenes, with top
tier Franco babes Alice Arno, Kali Hansa, and Lina Romay,
that are quite arousing to watch, and they manage to keep an otherwise
underwhelming film lively enough to sit through with a minimal level of
enjoyment. On the other hand, the longer sex interludes in Les gloutonnes manage to drag down what is actually an intriguing
erotic fantasy/adventure film. The settings for some of the more detached porn
scenes, seemingly edited into the film, are dark and surreal (done with Franco’s tendency for up-close body
worship) but couldn’t be more unnecessarily drawn out, even in a Jess Franco film, where I’m usually
conditioned for such lengthy interludes.
Kali
Hansa, born Marisol
Hernández, sort of put a spell on me with her role as Tunika in Amando de Ossorio’s THE NIGHT OF THE
SORCERERS. I would have dreams that were kind of like my own imagined sequel to
the film, where, in a sickly state, I would travel to the African forest where
this film took place. Knowing my time was running short, due to some sort of
terminal illness, I would travel up a mountain and to a place where I knew I
would find Tunika, in her vampire form. Longing to end my suffering, I would
find her in a shallow moonlit river where she would welcome me, and through an
act of vampiric intercourse, she would make me like her, curing me, making me
immortal, and also inflicting her curse upon me.
Thus is the effect her
presence in THE NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS had on me. With her constantly lingering
in my mind, I eventually viewed several more films that she was in, sometimes
credited as Gaby Herman or Kali Hansen. I was slightly saddened to find out
that she was usually just a supporting/minor character and had an acting career
that didn’t really take off, and it seemed to have ended circa 1976 after
shooting a hardcore porno for Jess Franco, WHITE SKIN BLACK THIGHS and an erotic comedy, GIRLS IN THE NIGHT TRAFFIC. Despite usually having small roles and frequently
being killed off, she visually stood out the most amongst other characters and gave off an ‘Oh-wow, who’s-that?’
impression. She apparently vanished after filming her last movie. She is from Cuba and was the girlfriend of Alberto Dalbes.
(Rumor bin: According to Jess Franco she moved back to Cuba to use her exceptional strength to fight against Fidel Castro!!!)
For this tribute to Kali Hansa, and possibly a new series for AT
THE MANSION OF MADNESS (Venomous Vixens), I’ve organized a few thoughts and
images from a selection of some of her films.
