Gemidos de placer

Cries of Pleasure, from prolific Spanish sleaze-merchant Jess Franco, is mostly soft-core sex with very little story. If non-stop bumping and grinding is what you're after, complete with full frontal nudity from both sexes, then this is the film for you, but I would have liked a bit more plot to go with endless nookie, which I soon found rather tiresome.

The film stars Antonio Mayans as moustachioed stud Antonio, who has three women on the go: new acquaintance Julia (Lina Romay), lover Marta (Elisa Vela) and wife Martina (Rocío Freixas), who has just been released from an asylum. With help from Julia, Antonio plans to kill Martina for her money, but his newest conquest has made prior arrangements. Meanwhile, simpleton Fenul (Juan Soler) plucks his guitar as he watches the trio indulge in sex and sadistic debauchery.

Shot in a luxurious villa overlooking some spectacular scenery, Cries of Pleasure is one of Franco's better looking films, but it's also one of his most tedious, the numerous sex scenes becoming a boring blur of bums, boobs and bush. Occasionally, the action borders on the ridiculous, such as when a naked Julia arches her back and writhes in ecstasy on a sofa until Antonio and Martina come and give her something to moan about. And occasionally, it teeters on the brink of hardcore. But most of the time it's just really dull.