The Bloody Judge

1685: England is a divided country. King James II sits on the throne, whilst conspirators plot against him. Chief Justice Judge Jeffries (Christopher Lee) supports his King unhesitatingly sending his real and imaged enemies to face the executioner whether as traitors or witches.

When Alicia Grey (Margaret Lee) is brought before Jeffries on suspicion of witchcraft and sent to be tortured by Jack Ketch (Howard Vernon), her sister Mary (Maria Rohm) pleads with the Judge for mercy. He is willing to grant it but only if she will submit to his sexual demands. Horrified, she flees and Alicia is duly burned at the stake as witch…

A month later Jeffries visits the Duke of Wessex (Leo Genn) with a warning: Noting that Alicia came from Wessex's village and that Wessex's son Harry is rumoured to have fallen in with the known traitor Barnaby he questions whether the Duke's people are entirely loyal. Wessex tries to assuage Jeffries suspicions, but his disloyal servant Satchel (Milo Quesada) lets slip that Harry is now wenching with Mary Grey…

Wessex tries to urge his son to be cautious but the hot-headed young man pays no heed, and is in due course captured by Jeffries's men.

Wessex goes to Jeffries with a plea for clemency from the King himself but Jeffries, increasingly drunk on his own power and unawares of how precarious his position is becoming, refuses the request, prompting both Mary and the Duke to take matters into their own hands, the former by offering Jeffries sexual favours the latter by making contact with the rebels…

Conceived as an obvious cash-in on the success of Michael Reeves's Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General, The Bloody Judge emerges as a showcase for Jesus Franco's rarely recognised ability to produce a workmanlike film to order even if it lacks the personal vision of its model or its director's own guerrilla-style productions.

This said it is questionable as to whether this composite version, piecing together as it does English and German language materials, is really be the best showcase for Franco's vision – or visions, or lack thereof – as distinct from his ability to handle historical drama, inquisition-style torture, romance and (s)exploitation modes. Certainly the contrast between Ketch's treatment of the Grey sisters – a strategically clothed Alicia is brutally branded and pricked whereas a naked Mary is forced into some pseudo-lesbian fondling – is a somewhat jarring one.

While the zoom lens is in evidence, Franco's use the device here lacks the experimental quality of his personal, low(er)-budget work. Rather the zooms are for conventional shock effect when they coincide with violence and torture or motivated by character as when the camera, identified momentarily with Jeffries point-of-view, picks out Mary amongst the crowd at the assize.

This relative visual restraint, coupled with conventional cinematography and some comparatively subtle, yet still expressive visual effects, give the viewer more room to breathe and appreciate the quality of the performances, production design and widescreen visuals. This is a film where the money is very much there on the screen, with some surprisingly expansive battle sequences that can be compared favourably to their perfunctory and unseen but reported counterparts in Witchfinder General.

The performances are likewise impressive. Lee and Genn work well as foils for one another, the arrogant self-confidence of the former's Jeffries nicely counterbalanced by the latter's quieter yet ultimately more wordly-wise Wessex, such that one can even feel a tinge of sympathy for Jeffries, monstrous as he may be, for his political naivete and misplaced loyalty. Maria Rohm continues to impress, once again belying her casting on account of being Ms. Towers with a gutsy display that sees her do all that Franco asks without embarrassment, condescension or complaint. Milo Quesada and Howard Vernon are likewise good, imparting their minor villain roles with major menace.

Bruno Nicolai's score is a further asset. The composer once more shows his versatility by producing a straightforwardly lush, romantic score – a sharp contrast to his contributions to, say, Lucky the Inscrutable and Eugenie: The Story of Her Journey into Perversion – whose idiom and application complement the visuals perfectly.

In sum, The Bloody Judge is an assured, if impersonal film from Franco that has a lot to recommend it, its achievements all the more remarkable when one considers the compromises undoubtedly forced on the director by the different interests and the sheer number films he was churning out around the time.

Blue Underground's Region 0 DVD of The Bloody Judge is presented as part of their four-disc Christopher Lee collection. Whereas the other three titles in the set – Jesus Franco's The Castle of Fu Manchu and The Blood of Fu Manchu and John Moxey's Circus of Fear – are available separately, Bloody Judge is only obtainable with the set.

It's a shrewd marketing move but a shame for those who cannot afford the box set for, despite the above qualms about the composite nature of the film – which might have been better presented as a multi-disc set with separate alternate cuts – this is a very impressive disc.

The film itself is delivered in a clean, sharp 2.35:1 presentation with vibrant colours and solid blacks, coping equally well with both dungeon interiors and open air battle sequences. The mono audio is clear and showcases both dialogue and music to good effect.

The 25-minute retrospective documentary "Bloody Jess" includes interviews with Franco and Lee, which provide a nice contrast. Though the two men did not always see eye to eye on the production, with Lee favouring a more historically accurate approach than Franco took and confessing to never having seen the finished film with its torture scenes added after his participation had ended, both men remember one another with affection. Franco is typically forthright about the problems he encountered during shooting and the strengths and weaknesses of the piece, while Lee recognises the problems that Franco has always had qua artist in finding the support he needs to achieve his vision.

A six minute sequence sourced from Spanish video shows one of the deleted scenes that might eventually resurface should Franco's original two hour director's cut eventually resurface – though one doesn't hold out hope – and makes the relationship between Mary and Harry clearer.

Four other fragments from the German release add less, merely re-presenting scenes one is familiar with, though it is also interesting to see how Franco shot different versions of a nightmare scene, the one here containing more overt superimpositions.

Three US trailers under the alternative Night of the Blood Monster name; a TV promo spot; an extensive gallery of posters, lobby cards, stills and other artwork; concise biographies of Franco and Lee, and Tim Lucas's liner notes round the package off well.