(Very Minor) Brilliance on a Budget: X-312 FLIGHT TO HELL (1970)
Must. Save. The. Teddy. Bear.
Although there are no big names in Jess Franco’s X-312 Flight to Hell / X312 – Flug zur Hölle (1971) – star Thomas Hunter had appeared in several spaghetti westerns, and Gila von Weitershausen would become a prolific TV actress – in this particular production, the manic director had a more complex script which begins as a plane crash / disaster thriller, shifts to a jungle survival thriller, and gradually concludes as a film noir / femme fatal thriller.
And amazingly, it kind of works.
Franco was still limited by a tight budget, but with an ace veteran editor he was able to deliver a briskly paced thriller with a genuinely exceptional shootout near the finale. X-312 is a perfect B-movie which probably would’ve rented well on home video shelves, action, nudity, a gorgeous poster, and lush tropical locations.
Image released a bare bones DVD way back in 2003, and it’s an adequate albeit imperfect transfer, which more or less means the film deserves a proper Blu-ray release with contextual extras. Franco was averaging roughly 4 films a year in the 1970s, and he would augment his output with a greater variety of erotica and adult material by the 1980s.
Besides a few bouts of flagrant nudity, the story mandated an emphasis on action, which is why X-312 is worth a peek.
Coming next: Greyhound (2020) from Apple TV + BSX Entertainment’s double-feature U-Boats: The Wolfpack / B-17: The Flying Fortress, boasting early scores by Christopher Young, and Severin’s superb double-bill Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson (2019) + The Female Bunch (1971).
Thanks for reading,
Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com
Category: EDITOR'S BLOG
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