''The Blood Rose'' (french: La Rose écorchée/ translation: ''The Flayed Rose'') is a 1970 French horror film directed and co-written by

Claude Mulot Claude Mulot (1942–1986) was a French screenwriter and film director who mainly specialized in adult films, but also made various attempts in other genres like horror films ('' The Blood Rose''), comedies (''Le jour se lève et les conneries co ...

. The French title translates as "The Flayed Rose". The film involves a portraitist named Frederick Lansac (

Philippe Lemaire Philippe Lemaire (14 March 1927 – 15 March 2004) was a French actor. He appeared in more than ninety films between 1946 and 2004. Lemaire was married three times; Nicole Pinton (1949–1951) (divorced); Juliette Gréco Juliette Gréco (; ...

) wanting to restore his wife Anne's (

Anny Duperey Anny Duperey (born Annie Legras; 28 June 1947) is a French actress, published photographer and best-selling author with a career spanning almost six decades as of 2021 and more than eighty cinema or television credits, around thirty theatre pro ...

) face to its former beauty after it was disfigured in an accident. Lansac tries to force a surgeon named Rohmer (

Howard Vernon Howard Vernon (15 July 1908 – 25 July 1996) was a Swiss actor. In 1961, he became a favorite actor of Spanish film director Jesús Franco and began starring in many low-budget horror and erotic films produced in Spain and France. After po ...

) to perform a transplant on her.

Plot

Frederick Lansac is a botanist and portraitist who runs a beauty salon. Lansac meets and falls in love with Anne at a dress ball and the two get married. The two move into Lansac's home but at one of Lansac's portrait exhibitions, Anne's face is pushed into a bonfire by a jealous woman which horribly scars Anne's face. Anne isolates herself in her home where she slowly becomes less mentally stable as well as having erotic dreams about her nurse Agnès. Lansac learns that one of his clients, Dr. Rohmer is a former plastic surgeon who has halted from practising medicine and currently only performs plastic surgery on criminals. Lansac blackmails Rohmer into performing a grafting surgery on his wife to restore her former beauty. Lansac tricks two of his female clients to his home to become the donors for his wife's new face but the two die in the process. Barbara (

Élizabeth Teissier Élizabeth Teissier, née Germaine Élizabeth Hanselmann (born 6 January 1938) is a French astrologer and former model and actress. Between 1975 and 1976, she created a daily horoscope on French television channel Antenne 2, and in 1981, she lau ...

), the sister of Anne's former nurse comes to the chateau to look for her sibling, but finds Anne who demands to have her face. Barbara manages to escape and Rohmer commits suicide. Realizing how far his wife has grown into madness, Lansac has his wife killed by his servants and then gives himself up to the police.

Production

The film was shot between May 8, 1969, and June 2, 1969. The film is one of the many unofficial remakes of the film '' Eyes Without a Face''. Other unofficial remakes include ''

The Awful Dr. Orloff ''The Awful Dr. Orloff'' ( es, Gritos en la noche, translation=Screams in the Night; french: L'Horrible Docteur Orloff) is a 1962 horror film written and directed by Jesús Franco. It stars Howard Vernon as the mad Dr. Orloff (sometimes spelled ...

'' and ''

Corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

''.

Release

''The Blood Rose'' opened in France on September 25, 1970. The film was shown in the United States in Detroit on October 28, 1970.

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

, 1997. p. 104 The film had scenes involving lesbianism that were cut for its American theatrical release. Contemporary advertisements hailed it as "The First Sex-Horror Film Ever Made." The film was released on DVD by Mondo Macabro in 2007.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blood Rose, The 1970 horror films French horror films 1970 films 1970s French-language films Erotic horror films 1970s French films