Tweet
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: November 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco, Lina Romay
Cast: Lina Romay, Antonio Mayans, Eva León, Muriel Montossé
Year: 1983
Purchase From Severin Films
Thong Girls – Movie Review:
Co-directed by Jess Franco and his muse, Lina Romay, 1983’s Thong Girls isn’t a movie likely to convince those without a pre-existing appreciation for Franco’s work to investigate his filmography further, but it’s an entertaining, if minor, entry in the enigmatic director’s filmography. It also features Lina frequently naked, which – let’s be honest here – is definitely going to be part of the draw.
The film is set in the quiet, coastal town of Benidorm in Spain just as the summer tourist season is about to begin. Here, we meet the main characters of the story, whose individual narratives start to mingle as the movie plays out. Lola Clavijo (Lina Romay) is the sexy chanteuse who performs in the area and who can't seem to control her raging libido. Her personal assistant, Marga (Eva León), does what she can to keep Lola in line, but when she meets a new arrival (José Llamas) all bets are off. Lola wants what she wants, even if her new boy toy isn't nearly as trustworthy as she thinks he is.
Elsewhere, a Dutchman named Philip (Juan Soler) arrives in town to explore the town and soon falls for a pretty local girl named Ana while lusty Tony (Antonio Mayans) does his utmost to get sexy French tourist Muriel (Muriel Montossé) to sleep with him. Meanwhile, a ridiculous muscleman named Pablo may or may not find true love, while a woman named Juana finds out what really happened to her estranged husband when she runs into him in a nightclub.
Silliness abounds in this breezy sex comedy. It’s quick in its pacing and not afraid to show off plenty of skin, but those expecting the softcore (or hardcore) couplings so often associated with Franco’s output might consider this one fairly modest in that regard. Still, if you’re in the right frame of mind for you and your expectations are held in check, it’s entertaining enough. The women all look great, and get plenty of screen time, and as you’d expect, there’s quite a bit of nudity here to enjoy and appreciate.
While not all of the gags land as effectively as you’d hope, Romay gets a lot of screen time here, which will certainly appeal to her fan base, and proves to be quite good as handling the comedic side of things without diminishing her ever-important sex appeal. She and the equally foxy Eva León have some fun moments here, while Antonio Mayans also proves he could handle ‘funny’ as well as he could any other genre.
As is typical of Franco’s work from this period, the movie features some really nice cinematography and great location work. The town serves as a nice backdrop for the shenanigans that occur in the film, and the score mixes it up nicely as well.
Thong Girls – UHD/Blu-ray Review:
NOTE: As this review is based on an online screener provided by Severin Films for review purposes, the technical portion and the extras review for this release will is not complete. If/when finished product is made available, we’ll update this review accordingly.
The stream offered for review presents the movie in a 1080p high definition transfer, framed at 1.66.1, while the Blu-ray would, obviously, be an AVC encoded “scanned in 2K from the original camera negative.” Despite the compression inherent in the stream reviewed, the image here is quite good and similar in appearance to other Franco films made around the same time. Expect nice color reproduction and warm, natural looking skin tones to complement good black levels and solid levels of detail.
Audio chores on the stream are handled by a Spanish language 2.0 Mono track with optional subtitles in English. Audio sounds good, the track is balanced well and the dialogue is clear. There aren’t any problems with sibilance, hiss or distortion to note and the track is properly balanced.
Extras slated for this release include:
-Audio Commentary With Francomania's John Dixon And William Morris
-Jess Franco's Naked City – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Flowers Of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco
-In The Land Of Franco Part 11
Thong Girls – The Final Word:
Thong Girls isn’t necessarily an essential Franco/Romay collaboration but it’s a quirky and breezy sex comedy featuring a cast of Franco regulars and some nice cinematography and location work. Expect the formal Blu-ray edition from Severin to look quite nice and for some decent extra features to accompany it.