This exploitation movie with fantasy elements deserves points for going off the beaten path, but in all honesty it's pretty awful. The start, in 1978 New Orleans, is decent, but when the "action" moves to an unspecified past the film loses all sense of direction and purpose. The "past" scenes are also shot with an annoying "soft focus" lens, as if we wouldn't be able to tell that they are set in the past otherwise. Some wonderful jazz music, some nudity, and an appealing performance by the beautiful Alisha Fontaine barely keep this one watchable. * out of 4.
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gridoon202416 March 2018
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I guess it would only be fair to say that French Quarter is a fairly atypical sexploitation film from b-movie producers Crown International Pictures. It's pretty unusual in that it's oddly ambitious for such an obviously drive-in oriented movie. The plot structure is the reason for this where we have two parallel narratives, one set in the contemporary 70's and an earlier thread set in the early 1910's. Both take place in the Storyville red light area of New Orleans, otherwise known as the French Quarter of the title. The modern segment features strip clubs settings, while the historical part is set in a bordello. All of the characters feature in both stories as different yet similar people. They all seem to have been reincarnated by voodoo or something.
So what we have is an erotic melodrama with supernatural plot elements. It's fairly original I guess and it should be given some definite credit for being so, especially given that most low budget drive-in features are more genre specific and less adventurous artistically. That said, I can't honestly say that it's necessarily a great movie. Its story wasn't really all that interesting and it did drag somewhat in places. So I would have to file this one under 'admirable yet lacking'. -
Leofwine_draca24 November 2015Given that the production company behind it is the notorious Crown International Pictures, you'd expect FRENCH QUARTER to be a run-of-the-mill sexploitation story about a young woman with plenty of aspirations who finds herself exploited on the sleazy streets of New Orleans. Instead, for the first part of the film this is exactly what plays out, except that the film takes on a sci-fi twist by transporting the characters back a century to when they were working at a brothel with all of the trials and tribulations of prostitute life.
It's a pretty quirky little production, made with more imagination than talent and no real explanation for what's going on. There are mild voodoo and magic elements to the tale. The cast is surprisingly decent for a forgotten, zero budget outing, particularly Alisha Fontaine as the beautiful, tragic Gertrude, and Bruce Davison as her love interest, Davison of course achieving fame of sorts in Hollywood later on in his career. The introduction of real-life supporting characters into the cast and some thriller elements make this more interesting than most, so you get actual story alongside the skin, which typically involves striptease routines from the starlets. It's better than you'd expect. -
cfc_can1 October 2002This is one of those hard-to-find drive in movies of the 70s which is worth seeking out. The basic story concerns a young woman (Fontaine) who comes to the French Quarter, badly in need of work and ends up dreaming that she is back in another century, or is she in fact an 19th century woman dreaming that she is in the future? The other characters around Fontaine are played by the same actors from the contemporary story. The sets, costumes and ambiance are incredibly detailed (it was shot on location). It features a lot of sex and nudity but at the same time, there is far more plot than usual. In fact, it may take more than one viewing to fully notice, understand and appreciate the nuances. It must have surprised drive-in audiences of the 70s who were probably expecting something far more basic. The actors are reasonably good and the dual storyline is well handled. Some of the scenes may have bordered on an X-rating back when it first came out. Star Bruce Davison did quite well for himself and is still active in Hollywood but most of the rest of the cast did little else after this film. It occasionally shows on late night cable and is worth the wait. An added plus is the jazz score as well as the very offbeat narration.
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mark.waltz25 January 2023This is a very weird film that fails to land, being set in two time periods with the same cast of the present playing different characters in a different era to show how New Orleans had changed, and even with period costumes and lots of up hairdos on the women of loose morals, it doesn't really come off all that convincing. It's interesting to see Virginia Mayo playing a kindly barkeeep in the present, looking quite blowsy, then playing a Polly Adler style madame when the film unconcingly moves back to the turn of the century. Alisha Fontaine plays the dual role of the young exotic dancer in modern times and a prostitute who in the early 1900's sat in a giant bottle of champagne and girated to the delight of the brothel audience.
Then there's Vernel Bagneris as Jelly Roll Morton, the real life brothel piano player, seen as a cop in the modern sequences. Anna Filamento is creepy as a voodoo priestess who somehow turns Fontaine into a prostitute in the modern era, having been even creepier in the past, arranging for a ritual dance involving a giant python. The weird photography of the flashbacks is very weird to behold, and the focus on the perversion of the early 20th Century makes the modern era seen tame in comparison. This is a very weird movie, seemingly made with no point other than to show it's ensemble cast in wearing as little as possible, although the classy Mayo stays completely dressed. Bruce Davison plays characters in both errors that really have little development and could have been completely edited out. His only purpose in being there is to get Fontaine someone her own age to play off of. This seems like one of those period TV movies that obviously couldn't pass censorship to get on the tube so it had to be in the theater. Sets and costumes are great, but as a film, this serves no real purpose, even as a history lesson of New Orleans. -
dbborroughs30 July 2009Okay drama about a woman going to the French Quarter in search of a job and drifting back through time and reliving past events. Well acted drama actually is worth a look see. Or rather might be depending upon your tolerance for the films major conceit, namely all of the sequences in the past are filmed through a filter which puts a gauzy border around the entire image. The border will either blend into things for you or make you completely nuts. I didn't mind it at first but after a while it really made me crazy since it distracted my attention away from the story. I was always aware of the filter and so I never believed that the film was anything other than artificial. Try the film and if it clicks you'll enjoy yourself, if not it will be a long haul.
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We watched this 70s film because we love the city of New Orleans so much, and as it turns out, the footage of the city was all that was likable about this film. The story might have been a pretty decent frivolous novel, but as a poorly made 70s-wannabe-taken-seriously movie, it was terrible. The gaudy disco make up, the clumsy regional accents, the acting, all of it together kept my face in an irritated grimace and my husband's finger on the fast forward button. Back to the New Orleans footage, that was fun. We enjoyed seeing bits of its beautiful architecture and glimpses of places we had been, all largely unchanged in thirty years. But the movie itself... Ugh. The female lead was a weak, whiny, overly made up blonde floozy version of Shelly Duvall in the Shining. The prostitute costumes were ridiculous, even for turn of the century New Orleans. That's enough, just do not waste your time.
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Christine (Alisha Fontaine)is a country girl who moves to the city when her father dies and leaves her in debt. She manages to find employment as a topless dancer. Attempting to leave town she meets a gypsy woman who gives her a potion that cause her to believe she is working in a brothel about 100 years earlier. Here she meets the same people she already knows, but by different names. The older era is seen as a dream like state as the placed some Vaseline around the edges of the camera while filming most of the scenes.
The acting was B grade, as was the plot. This is a first feature drive-in movie film. What I didn't like was the narration during much of the film attempting to show off the lack of creative talent the writers possessed.
F-bomb, sex, nudity, girl/girl sce -
RavenGlamDVDCollector5 August 2017{my thanks to reviewer "inhopewell" whose info made me save the best for last}
One thing's for dang sure, this one's way up high on top of the Crown International pile. I've seen almost all of the Dangerous Babes box-set now except my revisit to NIGHT CLUB, and none of the others are worthy movies (though worthy moments are provided by some really pretty chicks-of-days- gone-by) but this one kicked off great. So much so that I began seeing the wonderful A+ report I was gonna write for it. Then everything changed. The Late Seventies backdrop shifted back in time and it was the Teenies (not these Teenies, but the Teenies of a hundred years ago) and the clear-cut story- line was no more, the movie falters, which is why, I suppose, it landed up in the Crown International domain (a film junkyard) where decomposing dead-end movies go to be distributed nonetheless, or whatever. (I've only recently learned about Crown, back when I first saw NIGHT CLUB decades ago, the golden crowned globe would have had no meaning, nowadays, with this being my eleventh outing in that territory, I boo the damn thing!)
Point is, though, what with the pampered girl whose daddy died having to go to the city to find an income, and ending up in a burlesque strip club, there guys, there you had a story, and it was going great, till you got all artsy and veered off course with this time traveling/dream thing. The first twenty or so minutes, that should have been the way the movie should have gone. But some schmook had other loftier ideas and went and ruined it.
Still, besides the story-line, there is a lot to see. Some really pretty ladies almost completely starkers... classy in a Dita von Teese sort of way. This is, like I said, top of the heap. It delivers way-hot panting-for-it tease without the sleaze, in fact. Better than almost all modern stuff. There's a beautiful all-out fixation on legs and rumps. Let me single out the dancer in the red feather boa. That music became my anthem! She is gloriously delightful in the most awesome way, and the living embodiment that a tan is overrated! Notice that her performance is classy and never vulgar, just drop-dead dynamite.
So, a visual delight, aside from the story-line gone haywire, worth whatever it takes to obtain.
Recommended by leg-loving The Raven for glam. -
bbhlthph5 February 2005I recently had the opportunity to acquire an old tape copy of this film. I did not remember much about it as almost 20 years must have passed since I saw it; but, although I clearly recollected it as a low budget production, I also remembered it as one of the better films based on the concept of reincarnation, which provided a heady mix of the atmosphere of old New Orleans, Voodoism and Creole culture, together with quite a spicy and interesting story line. In addition I particularly remembered the sound track - something I seldom do as I am a predominantly visual person - which featured some excellent jazz music in keeping with the locale. I was therefore happy to accept this chance, and was not disappointed when I watched the film again after all these years. Certainly I became aware of many faults which I may not have even noticed when I first saw it, but on balance I felt it made much more rewarding viewing than many of the comparable dramas released today. I did not expect too much as I believe this was originally regarded as a B movie, predominantly intended for midnight showings in regular cinemas or perhaps for showing at drive-in theatres. However, for the ultimate test of how I rated this film, I can report that I certainly intend to convert my tape to a VCD disk where some of the inevitable video noise on my very old and rather battered tape can be filtered out. I can also say that, should this film be chosen for digital remastering and release as a DVD, I will certainly be in the market to purchase a copy. When a chance arises I would recommend any lovers of period pieces to watch this film.
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inhopewell14 May 2013I found "French Quarter" in a MillCreek 12-film set, Dangerous Babes. To be honest, most of the films in the set I've viewed so far, (including the infamous "Sextette"), were awful. "French Quarter"was much better than I'd expected, well done, entertaining, and not an insult to either my intelligence or tastes.
I know nothing of its release history-indeed, I'd never heard of it prior to buying Dangerous Babes. I would've gladly paid money to view it theatrically, which certainly can't be said for a lot of Crown International / MilllCreek releases.
The film's split between past and (then) present New Orleans was novel, at least for this type of film, and the use of actual historical figures added to the entertainment value. The acting, lead by Bruce Davidson, was quite good, not the usual mumbling often found in Crown International product.
I highly recommend "French Quarter" to anyone with an interest in soft fantasy films, and / period pieces. -
aeichler17 September 2002Unusual flashback film with lead characters playing dual roles. Virginia Mayo gives one of her best latter-day performances. An underrated film and a greatly underrated actress. Tongue-in-cheek melodrama mixes "Pretty Baby" plot with "French Lieutenant's Woman" structure, but actually predates both.
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Woodyanders25 December 2008Naive young lady Christine Delaplane (a solid and sympathetic performance by the luscious Alisha Fontaine) goes to New Orleans to find her future and winds up getting a job as a stripper at a local seedy dive. So far, so familiar. But the story takes a surprising and unexpected departure into more fresh and intriguing cinematic territory after Christine has a drink with some drug in it and flashes back to the past where she was one Gertrude "Trudy" Dix, a sweet virgin who worked at a fancy bordello run by classy and kindly madam Countess Willie Piazza (finely played by Virginia Mayo) in the early turn-of-the-century French Quarter. Although she's set to be auctioned off to any rich pervert who pays the highest price for her, Gertrude nonetheless falls in love with nice guy pianist Kid Ross (the always excellent Bruce Davison). Director/co-writer Dennis Kane and co-writer Barney Cohen concoct a dandy yarn that makes the most out of a limited budget, soaks up plenty of deliciously tangy and colorful Big Easy atmosphere, offers a fascinatingly intricate juxtaposition of the past and present (for example, every last cast member has dual roles in the picture), and even provides a touching (if occasionally too mushy) central love story between the two engaging protagonists. Of course, we also get the usual steamy soft-core sex and tasty female nudity, with a sizzling striptease in a giant wineglass rating as a definite erotic highlight. Adding some extra spice to an already tasty celluloid gumbo is a good dash of voodoo complete with snakes, pounding primitive drums, and frenzied tribal dancers. The supporting cast comes through with a bevy of exquisitely beautiful women: Lindsay Bloom as the bawdy Big Butt Annie, Laura Mischa Owens as the frosty Ice Box Josie, Ann Michelle as kinky, disloyal junkie Coke-Eyed Laura, and Becky Allen as the fiery Bricktop. Lance LeGault positively oozes smarm as evil lecher Tom, William Simms is properly nasty as brutal bar owner Aaron Harris, and Vernel Bagneris contributes an amiable portrayal of cocky legendary jazzman Jelly Roll Morton. The handsome cinematography by Jerry Kalegeratos makes pretty frequent use of dewy soft focus. Dick Hyman's flavorful score likewise hits the swinging soulful spot. Quirky, different and ambitious, this neat little sleeper is well worth a look.