Linda

It's difficult to beat Linda's opening gambit: A crowd awaiting a floorshow and an announcement from the mistress of ceremonies that "And now dear guests, we come to tonight's star attraction. The high point of tonight's entertainment: The whipping…"

But Betsy Norman (Ursula Buchfellner) is hardly a willing participant in the scene. Rather, "This is a lesson for young ladies who try to leave us."

As the mistress cum madame (Raquel Evans) wonders whether Betsy attempted to escape from her brothel on her own initiative, we backtrack in time to see what led to this sorry state of affairs:

Betsy is the receptionist at the Transatlantic Hotel. She is also conducting an affair with the hotel's manager, Ron (Antonio Mayans). Sheila – the mistress of ceremonies – catches the two in flagrante delicto and forces Ron to make a choice. Whether down to pragmatism, the attentions of "the most desirable witch in the world" or a combination of the two, he elects to abandon Betsy.

What Ron does not realise, however, is that Sheila isn't going to let the matter lie: "She is a young lady with a lot to learn and I'm going to help her". First, Betsy is asked by Sheila's men to type up a confession to the effect that she took $10,000 that has gone missing from the hotel safe. Not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, she doesn't realise something is afoot until it's too late. Then she is coerced into signing.

Ron attempts to help Betsy escape, but Sheila gets wind of the plan and sends her men to intercept Betsy and spirit her away to the Rio Amore. There, "a man can realise any fantasy his hearts desires, anything," while the girls "are required to do only one thing: satisfy the customers"

An organ trill and we zoom in on a castle; the convent that Betsy's younger sister, Linda (Katja Bienert), is about to leave. The mother superior warns her that she "will have to face the world with all its sins," receiving the reply "I will do as I was taught and shall return here as virtuous as ever." But, seeing as the next scene sees Linda engage in a decidedly non-Vatican approved sapphic romp with a classmate, that may not be saying very much…

With Ron seemingly unwilling to help Betsy, can Linda save her sister? Or will a similar fate befall her? Or will she even care, now that she has embarked on a holiday romance?

Although on paper Linda – AKA Captive Women, Naked Super Witches of the Rio Amore, Orgy of the Nymphomaniacs, The Story of Linda etc – has all the right ingredients to be a classic Franco sleazefest, right down to Betsy's Mickey Mouse T-shirt and at first random looking shots of scorpions, things rarely seem to really come together.

Scenes that you feel ought to have parodic and subversive qualities tend instead to come across as cheap and nasty, the mise en scene evincing enough restraint that the zooms and cutaways are difficult to regard as deconstructions of conventional cinematic praxis while also extensive enough to deny the possibility of a film driven by careful, pictorial compositions.

Still, there are definite moments and pleasures to be had. A sequence where Ron watches Sheila being massaged by naked women, framed in the doorway and mirrored, a combination of voyeurism and exhibitionism before succumbing to her polymorphous perversity and joining in is beautifully expressive without dialogue, while German sexploitation veteran Gerhard Heinz’s joyously cheesy soundtrack breezes keeps things breezing along nicely.

All told, Linda comes across as a ‘must try harder’ effort that might be of interest to the more devoted Franco fan but does not represent a good starting point for the novitiate.

Dutch company Shock's Region 2 PAL DVD is none too great. The letterboxed transfer is rather grainy and not in the best of condition, especially when compared to the likes of the VIP Franco releases. The sound fares better, although the English dub – the only language option excepting the optional Dutch subtitles – is also good for unintentional laughs thanks to the accents adopted by some of the supporting cast. Both factors do, however, also indicate the possibility of an alternative version that might just, maybe, reveal a lost classic.

The extras comprise the film’s trailer ("a journey into a tropical sex paradise… this is the picture you’ve dreamed of") and that for Bloody Moon ("a holiday you won’t soon forget") a picture gallery and a nice four-page booklet.