FUTURE WOMAN (1969)
aka THE SEVEN SECRETS OF SUMURU
Article 2070 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-16-2006
Posting Date: 4-13-2007
Directed by Jesus Franco
Featuring Shirley Eaton, Richard Wyler, George Sanders

A man who is believed to be in possession of a suitcase with a large amount of money in it is being pursued by both a crime boss and a cabal of women who plan to take over the world.

Anyone who has followed my reviews up to this point knows that I’m not big fan of Jesus Franco, but given that I’m destined to encounter a huge number of his movies, I’ve decided to make every effort to give him a fair shake. I’ve seen enough of his work that I know that the times I’m least impressed by his work is when he engages in action thrillers, and the last time I encountered his name in tandem with that of Sax Rohmer’s was in THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU, which I found intensely dull. This is just more of the same. It is here that I find his somewhat detached style becomes positively sleep-inducing, and I get the impression that far more time was spent on the costumes of the female characters than was spent on acting, pace, story and tightening up the action sequences. Even the presence of George Sanders doesn’t do a thing to bring this one to life, probably because he looks a little embarrassed whenever he’s on the screen. The fantastic element is the presence of some lame spy-style gadgetry, particularly some ineffective torture devices in the possession of the villainess.