The House of a Thousand Joys (1967)

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Movie
German title The house of a thousand joys
Original title La casa de las mil muñecas
Country of production Germany , Spain
original language English
Publishing year 1967
length 90 minutes
Age rating FSK different 12, 16 + 18
Rod
Director Jeremy Summers
script Peter Welbeck
production Louis M. Heyward
Harry Alan Towers
music Charles Camilleri
camera Manuel Merino
cut Allan Morrison
occupation

The house of a thousand joys is a German-Spanish crime film. It had its German premiere on December 7, 1967. The Spanish original title or rental title is La casa de las mil muñecas , the English House of a Thousand Dolls or House of a Thousand Pleasures . The leading roles are cast with George Nader , Vincent Price , Martha Hyer and Ann Smyrner .

action

Felix Manderville and his partner, Rebecca, who is as cool as she is beautiful, appear with an illusion and telepathy number in the northern Moroccan Tangier as part of an international variety show. However, this site is actually the linchpin of a thriving girl trafficking syndicate. This organization is run under the direction of an ominous puller named "Herz-König". While Rebecca would rather get out of the dangerous organization, Manderville warns of the incalculable consequences. In front of the establishment in Tangier, a man lies in wait for the artist couple and threatens Manderville with a pistol. He is the fiancé of one of the missing girls and wants to shoot Manderville if Manderville doesn't tell where his girl has gone. But someone kills the fiancé in an ambush, and Manderville and Rebecca continue on their way unmoved.

Tanger's most exclusive meeting place for men and women is the noble club “The House of a Thousand Joys”. Here, admission is only granted on recommendation, the 'entrance ticket' is a small doll that has to be shown at the entrance. In fact, “The House of a Thousand Joys” is nothing more than a noble puff with girls from all over the world. One of the newcomers among the paying male guests is the young Spaniard Fernando, who suspects his missing bride, the Viennese Diane, to be there. In fact, he finds her in the brothel. He tells Diane that he was an American forensic pathologist and friend from their Madrid studies, Dr. Steve Armstrong and his wife Maria have arrived in Tangier. Both wanted to help him find her. Since the conversation between Fernando and Diane is bugged, the boss of the establishment now also knows about it. When Fernando wants to leave the brothel, a couple of sinister figures lie in wait for him. They catch him, there is a serious explosion, and the hiding Fernando is discovered and stabbed by one of the villains. When his body is found, he is holding a small doll and a king of hearts playing card.

Armstrong is said to have identified Emile at the morgue at the request of the Moroccan police inspector. From now on he plans to smash the girl trafficking ring on his own and expose the mysterious boss behind it. Meanwhile, the brothel boss takes on her girls and tries by force to find out something about this certain Mr. Armstrong. An attempt to escape by Diane and one of the other girl-friends fails. That evening, Armstrong's wife Maria attends a performance with Manderville, who already knows that she is Steve Armstrong's wife. He cleverly integrates her into his magic number and makes Maria disappear from Steve's eyes. When Steve visits Manderville in his cloakroom, he sees a number of King of Hearts playing cards lying around. He insists that Manderville tell him where his wife has gone. This causes a lackey to fetch Maria, who looks a little damaged since an alleged little accident backstage. Obviously, like the other women during previous performances, she should be put into a trance by means of hypnosis and then taken to the girl trafficking ring.

Armstrong is picked up by Inspector Emile in Tangier by night. Both go to the apartment of the mysterious photographer Hapu. Hapu and Armstrong also already know each other, he had made the last joint recording of Armstrong and Fernando. But he can't tell anything worth mentioning about Fernando's murder. On the way home Armstrong is ambushed, but he is able to fight off his attackers. When he later returns to the photographer's apartment, Armstrong finds him murdered. Meanwhile, Rebecca has Maria Armstrong kidnapped. When he was persecuted again, Armstrong was knocked down and the gangsters put a piece of paper on his body that said in cut-out newspaper letters that his wife had been kidnapped. Armstrong goes to Emile and reveals his real identity. He is in truth an FBI agent, his kidnapped "wife" the Danish police agent Maria Jensen. This is brought to the other kidnapped girls in the "House of a Thousand Joys".

Armstrong goes to Rebecca, who he knows is behind Maria's kidnapping, and proposes a deal. She is supposed to bring him to his "wife", for which he wants to help her and Manderville. Both go to the "House of a Thousand Joys". Meanwhile, Manderville is told by his assistant that Rebecca is obviously acting on her own. Rebecca goes to the noble puff alone to get “Maria Armstrong” out. Manderville also arrives at the house a little later. Rebecca's attempt to help all of the girls in the house to escape fails. There is a scuffle between the house guards and the kidnapped girls. Manderville arrives with his revolver drawn, while Armstrong breaks into the house with the Moroccan police. Armstrong poses Manderville on the roof of the house. More girls-trafficker thugs come to the rescue. Manderville shoots Armstrong but fails to hit him. During his escape, Manderville fell over a parapet and fell into the depths. Manderville has a queen of hearts playing card in hand. There was never a king of hearts, the boss of the "House of a Thousand Joys" is Rebecca. She is arrested by the police, mourning the death of her husband.

criticism

The Lexicon of International Films writes: “Illogical crime adventure with strong links to sex and crime”.

Kino.de spoke of a "lurid European thriller that promised interested cinema-goers bare facts on the subject of girl trafficking." The story of the film was found to be "sometimes a bit confused".

The Protestant film observer came to the following conclusion: “With intrusive tastelessness in sex and sadism interspersed, the plot is not even interesting for George Nader friends. Superfluous."

DVD

The film was released on DVD on January 11, 2013, published by Elea-Media, playing time 94 minutes. The FSK rating is 18 here.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Das Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 3, P. 1516, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1987
  2. ↑ The house of a thousand joys at kino.de. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  3. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband Munich, Review No. 542/1967, p. 683
  4. ↑ The House of a Thousand Joys at dvduncut.com. Retrieved July 5, 2013.