Sumuru, la cité sans hommes

Obviously a sequel produced by Harry Alan Towers to his earlier 'Sumuru' (1967) relocated from Hong Kong to Rio de Janeiro, this film originally opened in West Germany as 'Die sieben Männer der Sumuru' ('The Seven Secrets of Sumuru'), but for some reason in the English language version Shirley Eaton's brunette arch-villainess has been renamed Sumitra (Samantha in the Brazilian version), despite her creator Sax Rohmer still being named in the credits. Not quite as sleazy as Jess Franco's usual fare, it represents for him an excursion into James Bond territory amidst his usual welter of zooms and scantily clad females with sapphic inclinations and torture scenes borrowed from 'Barbarella'. Although as usual plainly shot on a shoestring, Rio's Museu de Arte Moderna has been brought in to give the production a carapace of Bond-style extravagance by providing an imposing backdrop as Sumuru's all-women city of Femina, from which she plans to launch her bid for global subjugation of the male sex. Her army of gun-toting henchbabes, when not lined up dramatically for the camera, torturing victims wearing almost as little as they are, or using each other for target practice tend to scurry about aimlessly when actually called upon to deal with opposition. They wear a much sillier uniform here than in 'Sumuru', again with bare midriffs but now with red capes and huge black PVC collars that make them look like beetles. Sumuru herself works her way through an extensive wardrobe of exotic garments, ranging from a spectacular fishnet body stocking in which as a blonde she attempts to seduce the hero ("What kind of a space age sorceress are you?" he asks) to a green Peter Pan outfit with silver boots and a large 'S' on her chest that she wears for the finale. We see disappointingly little of the fetching 18th Century trouser suit and wig worn by Maria Rohm for the carnival sequence; the less said about Richard Wyler's loud check jacket, the better. Also involved is poor George Sanders, who actually manages to give a fairly lively performance as rival villain Masius, whose goons wear dark formal suits and homburgs.

Another film inspired by "That Man from Rio" (1964). And not only by that, the idea with the army of lobotomized women is stolen from the first Commissioner X, "Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill"(1966). Something good might have gone out, but in the end something really stupid came out: the script! One of the last(and most mischievous) roles for George Sanders, who was a very good actor in many other movies. Here, he had to compete with buttocks, bellies, buttocks, bellies, nipples and nipples... Sumitra, Sunanda or Sumuru? Actually, it doesn't matter, it's the film with which Shirley Eaton has completed her cinematic career. Poor helicopters! They could have use them for some humanitarian purposes...

RELEASED IN 1969 and directed by Jesús Franco, "The Girl from Rio" (aka "Rio 70") stars Richard Wyler as a handsome man on a mission in Rio who's caught between a mobster (George Sanders) & his heavies (Herbert Fleischmann) and a femme fatale (Shirley Eaton) who wants to rule the world with her army of machine gun-fortified feminazis. This is the second part of a duology after "The Million Eyes of Sumuru" (1967), which I've never seen and you don't need to view to appreciate (or withstand) this one. "The Girl from Rio" is a tacky late 60's spy-adventure that combines elements of "That Man from Rio" (1964), Franco's "Kiss Me, Monster" (1969), "Invasion of the Bee Girls" (1973) and Bond flicks of the same period, albeit without the budget and compelling script. If you have a taste for those types of movies you'll probably enjoy "Rio." Like "Kiss Me" and "Invasion" there's a lot of filler and the corresponding tedious sequences. A full 35 minutes of the runtime could've (and should've) been cut to make the movie more enthralling, but then it wouldn't be "feature length," which is why filmmakers add dull "filler" material. What makes a movie like this worthwhile is the late 60's chic, the outlandish spy rudiments and the babes. Eaton, the gold-painted girl from "Goldfinger" (1965) leads the way on the latter front with capable assist from Marta Reves (Ulla), Beni Cardoso (Yana), Elisa Montés (Irene) and Maria Rohm (Lesley). In an interview Eaton said she wept on the plane home from Rio because filmmaking was so exhausting and she desperately wanted to be with her husband & children. It was understandably her last film. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hours & 34 minutes and was shot in (aduh) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with studio work done in Spain. WRITER: Harry Alan Towers. GRADE: C

Shirley Eaton repeats her role as the villainess from the earlier "The Million Eyes of Su Muru". Except that here she's referred to as "Sunanda", while being listed in the end credits as "Sumitra", and basically playing the role of the Sax Rohmer character "Su Muru". All right. Now that that nonsense is out of the way, Sunanda abducts Jeff Sutton (Richard Wyler, who gives a flat performance), a playboy on the run. She's got her eye on the $10 million with which he absconded, yet so does Masius (ever wonderful George Sanders), a genial crime kingpin in Rio. He's prepared to mobilize underworld forces against her and her city of "Femina", which is inhabited only by Sunandas' women warriors. The directing reins are handed over to Euro-cult favourite Jess Franco, but fans of the filmmaker may find this rough going for a while. At first, it often gets dull and plodding. But it does eventually improve somewhat, leading to a colourful finale. There's enough to take in to make the trip worth taking: plenty of eye candy (of both the feminine and scenic variety), an effectively exotic setting, a dynamic music score by Daniel White (and catchy theme song), a fun sense of costume design, and some enjoyable acting. Eaton once again looks like she's enjoying the part of the feminist baddie, in what turned out to be her final role in a motion picture. Wyler is rather insipid, but Maria Rohm, Marta Reves, Elisa Montes, and Beni Cardoso are all enticing as the various women with which he interacts. Herbert Fleischmann is fine as a dapper henchman named Carl. But, other than Eaton, it's Sanders who's the most fun. He plays an antagonist who doodles on a tablecloth when bored, and who doesn't seem to have much of a stomach for violence. (He turns away when his underlings are roughing people up.) Not exactly one of Francos' best, but it's all fairly pleasant to watch anyway. Those who favour his output of the 1970s will note that it's not as sleazy as some of those films. All in all, it's decent cheesy espionage fare. Six out of 10.

I had heard of Jesus Franco before through James Rolfe's review of the three Dracula vs. Frankenstein films (one of which he directed). I watched this film as a Rifftrax and I didn't expect it to be that good to begin with but The Girl From Rio is worse than the low budget trash I was expecting. The plot, assuming one could call it that, concerns a secret agent Jeff Sutton (Richard Wyler) who travels to Rio de Janeiro to do something concerning this war between a goofy British mobster Masius (George Sanders) and Sumuru (Shirley Eaton) who leads Femina, a city (supposedly in Brazil but we don't actually know) made up only of women who seek to dominate the world. If that sounds like a really bad story, don't worry because it is. Femina, which is made out to be a super city, seemingly consists of an office building and an airfield. None of the acting is really that good and like I said, there's barely any plot. It's pretty much all filler. In fact when the plot is invoked we don't know why we're supposed to care. You feel that they forgot to fill you in on what you were supposed to know. We hardly know anyone's motivation. In addition the film is fairly boring as well. I didn't expect quality cinema but I at least expected to be entertained. But with all the filler in place of plot that The Girl From Rio has I found that difficult. Watch the Rifftrax. This film has no redeeming qualities otherwise.

Sumuru , Shirley Eaton, is a gorgeous but evil woman who plans world domination by having her sexy all female army to eliminate male leaders. Her main purport is to replace them with her female agents, and eventually the male people to be used as slaves, while propagating the female genre . Along the way an allegedly swindler named Jeff Sutton , Richard Wyler , carries a suitcase with 10 million dollars , and a nasty ganster : George Sanders , as well as Sumuru , want to take it . Shorly after, Sumuru kidnaps Sutton and brings them to her headquarter : Femina. Then , the villain enemy with his local army invade the quarters in a modern Río de Janeiro . She is the most sadistic...diabolic..woman who ever lived!. She rules a palace of pleasure ...for women ! Where men are used in a diabolic plot to destroy civilization !.See this daring motion picture , never before exhibited ¡ A Carnivale of Sex and Violence from the director of Vampyros Lesbos and Eugenie . These are the future .. Based on a series of cult novels by Sam Rohmer, who also wrote Fumanchu, about a magalomaniac femme fatal who wants to rule over the World. This is the sequel to "The Milion Eyes of Sumuru" 1967 directed by Lindsay Shonteff with Shirley Eaton, George Nader , Frankie Avalon, Klaus Kinski, Wilfrid Hyde White , and followed many years later by "Sumuru" 2003 by Darrell Roodt with Alexandra Kamp, Michael Shanks . All of them were produced by British producer Harry Alan Towers who married to Austrian Maria Rohm , usual actress in his films and occassionally producer . This follow-up "The seven secrets of Sumuru" also has a good cast , being a British/Spanish coproduction here appears Brits as Shirley Eaton, Richard Wyler , and Spaniard players as Elisa Montes and Marta Revers . Again Shirley Eaton as the ruler Sumuru who schemes remove all the men who are currently in power and replace them with her army of beautiful women . Shirley reprised this role for amusement , as she said : I did enjoy being the wicked Lady in two rather bad movies , which I had not had the chance to be before , however, retiring from performing shortly afterwards . She is well accompanied by a lot of young girls , most of who are shown in skimpy mini skirls , light dresss and bikinis and they can all perform complex tasks . Stars the mediocre actor Richard Wyler who starred some Spaghetti Westerns , here he plays a roguish hero who turns a pawn in a confrontation between two nasty contenders while frees the damsel in distress . Regularly directed by Jesús Franco or Jess Frank with his usual tics , brands and botcher style . It contains a colorful and sunny cinematography by Manuel Merino shot on location in Museum Arte Modern Río Janeiro, Brazil, Barcelona, Catalonia and La Manga del Mar Menor, Murcia , Spain . As well as thrilling and peculiar musical score with strange sounds by Daniel White , Franco's regular . This is a run-of-the-mill Jess Frank made in medium budget with his common elements , such as erotism, nudism, masochist scenes , perversion, prisoners locked in glass cages and habitual zooms.

This film is like it's trying to be a James Bond movie but a spaced-out version Bond. Plenty of eye-candy for the guys that just want to "space out" and see pretty girls in sci-fi costumes - and that's all this film really has going for it: lots of beautiful woman. I couldn't get into the film at all, I watched the first 5 minutes of the movie then watched the rest in fast-forward. Mainly all I saw was pretty girls kissing and making love to bland looking men. I guess that is how Sumuru tries to take over the planet, having men seduced because that is all I really saw. It's not really a soft * but just the indication of "making love" and lots of kissing. Really boring. I mean really, really boring to watch. I acquired this from the Sci-Fi Invasion 50-Film Pack... and will add this one to my Garbage List of films. I didn't like it at all. 1/10

Hi, I'm Harry Fonnies. I like seeking out things that sound like my name, you know, like Scary Bunnies and what not, and a good friend of mine directed me towards a certain Jesus H Franco's film, saying that they are full of Hairy Fannies. That's good enough for me! Okay, my name isn't really Harry Fonnies, but I do like looking at hairy fannies. Or is that fannys? What is the plural of fanny? That's the UK fanny of course. This isn't going anywhere. I like hairy fannies, and Joe D'Amato films are hard to find sometimes, so if you want to look for hairy fannys, then Jess Franco is your best bet (barring the internet, but let's forget that exists for a moment). Lina Romay's fanny, for instance, turns up a lot. But not in this film. Not very many hairy fanny/ies in this film, which is disappointing as you'd expect a pseudo-pish take of feminism mixed with James Bond to be full of naked hairy fannies, especially as most of the cast are women (probably with fannies that are hairy I'd imagine, and had to imagine, as Jess only put a brief glimpse of a hairy fanny once in this film. What's the script? My copy also had an intermittent high pitched buzzing noise for that extra 'Jess Franco Pain' feeling. Hairy Fanny. Also if you're ever diagnosed with something horrible and given a limited amount of time to live, I'd recommend Jess Franco films as they seem to last three times longer than the running time. Debbie Harry. Harry Fanny. Hari Krishna, Fairy Danny. Whup! If I ever 'get' Jess Franco, someone shoot me.

Cunning and ruthless femme fatale Sumuru (deliciously played with lip-smacking wicked aplomb by Shirley Eaton) leads an all-female army who are planning to take over the world while operating out of Sumuru's base nearby Rio de Janeiro. Handsome American playboy Jeff Sutton (dashing Richard Wyler) reluctantly joins forces with shrewd crime kingpin Sid Masius (George Sanders in peak suave and sardonic form) in order to stop Sumuru. Director Jess Franco, working from a campy script by Harry Alan Towers, relates the entertainingly goofy story at a snappy pace, maintains an engaging tongue-in-cheek tone throughout, makes the most out of the exotic Rio locations, offers a few inspired bizarre touches (for example, a gang of chortling flunkies wearing freaky devil masks), delivers a funny sense of sharp sarcastic humor, and stages the reasonably exciting action set pieces with more competence than usual (the lively climax is especially rousing). Moreover, there's a nice sprinkling of tantalizing peek-a-boo nudity and a bevy of beautiful women to make things more sexy and merry: The luscious Maria Rohm provides a tasty eyeful as the sweet Lesyle, the comely Marta Reeves likewise impresses as fetching rich babe Ulla Rossini, and the foxy Elisa Montes is a kittenish delight as Sid's loopy, yet sultry main squeeze Irene. Daniel White's jazzy and energetic score hits the swinging syncopated spot (the groovy theme song is a total gas, too!). Manuel Merino's vibrant and stylish cinematography gives the picture a funky psychedelic look. Extremely enjoyable vintage 60's kitsch.

Back when this came out on DVD through Blue Underground, I used to purchase films on disc regularly, and I even acquired about a dozen of this notorious director's work in the said format (including a number of Harry Alan Towers productions such as this is and 2 Fu Manchu pictures – created, like the Sumuru figure here, by Sax Rohmer). However, I gradually started to hold back and then stopped altogether (though I did place a couple of orders during the last few months, with Franco's LORNA…THE EXORCIST {1974] actually figuring among the titles!), so that most of what came my way thereafter – THE GIRL FROM RIO included – was via ulterior sources. The film - known by a variety of other inappropriate monikers such as FUTURE WOMEN, MOTHERS OF America (!}, THE SEVEN SECRETS OF SUMURU (the English translation of its official German title) and RIO 70 - is a sequel to the recently-viewed THE MILLION EYES OF SUMURU (1967), with Shirley Eaton reprising the lead role (though she is actually called Sunanda here!); being Franco, the erotic element is much more to the fore in this case, with some mild if gratuitous nudity (straight from its opening moments!) which, however, does not involve Eaton but rather heroine Maria Rohm (Towers' own wife!). Typically, we get an ageing would-be star for the hero (CHARGE OF THE LANCERS {1954}'s Richard Wyler!) and a veteran presence clearly there to pick up a paycheck (George Sanders, who is made to ogle girls more than half his age and read comic-books while his henchmen rough-up the heroine!). While it is clear that Franco made these sort of films as a director-for-hire, he still attempted to incorporate his trademark concerns and imbue them with his recognizable style – at least on that front, this works to a certain extent: the colorful Rio locations are striking (we are also treated to a title song!) and, though carnival footage (which was also featured in the director's masterpiece VENUS IN FURS {1969}) is adopted as padding more than anything else, there is a chase scene in which the pursuers are rendered more sinister by donning masks; equally notable are the vaguely futuristic sets and kinky costumes. Wyler is ostensibly a criminal who had looted 10 million dollars; this attracts both mastermind Sanders and ruler of 'Femina' Eaton (amusingly, she has been 'collecting' similarly audacious malefactors, among whom is the infamous Great Train Robbery fugitive{!}, and torturing them via a beam-less laser gun, that would also turn up later in Franco's DEVIL'S ISLAND WOMEN {1972}!). Another form of cruelty has the men pinned down to the floor and left at the mercy of a succession of voluptuous and previously-repressed girls (which, again, the director seems to have liked and re-used in the similarly below-average BLUE RITA {1977]). Along the way, the hero is also involved with Rohm (who surprisingly proves duplicitous), Sanders' kooky secretary and, of course, Eaton herself (in this, she frequently forsakes her dark wig from the previous film to show off her naturally, and frankly more appealing, blonde hair!). The film then climaxes with a virtual retread of the original's, as Eaton's compound is raided (by Sanders' men in choppers) and, though they put up a valiant fight (somewhat better than before since both Sanders and his mistress succumb themselves), it still ends with an explosion and Eaton herself fleeing…but Sumuru would not be back for another adventure (at least from these hands)!