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Released by: Ascot Elite
Released on: January 27th, 2015.
Director: Erwin C. Dietrich (as Michael Thomas)
Cast: Christa Free, Herbert Fux, Michel Jacot, Marianne Dupont
Year: 1974
Purchase From Diabolik DVD
The Movies:
Directed by Erwin C. Dietrich and released in 1974, Der Teufel In Miss Jonas and Was Geschah Wirklich Mit Miss Jonas? would seem to have been made in an obvious attempt to cash in on the success and notoriety of Gerard Damiano's The Devil In Miss Jones. Now Ascot Elite, in their ongoing (and noble!) attempt to bring all of Dietrich's sexploitation pictures to Blu-ray, have released both pictures in high definition for the first time.
Der Teufel In Miss Jonas:
The first film begins with a striking scene in which a beautiful buxom blonde named Marilyn (Christa Free) has her head chopped off by some masked inquisitor types who have accused her of witchcraft. After her passing, she meets Satan himself (Herbert Fux), who tells her that she's arrived a day ahead of schedule. She wants that day back not to make amends for her lusty life, but to indulge in whatever sexy kinks she can in her last twenty-four hours.
From here, she heads back to the land of the living and proceeds to get it on with various male callers, all of whom are only mildly surprised to find out that, huh, she's not dead after all. None of them ask any questions, and once she strips down, you realize why. She also hangs out a bit with her not so loyal maid, Dorthe (Marianne Dupont), a lovely lithe blonde who has been snogging a few of her men on the side - hey, she thought her boss was dead after all! While Marilyn and Dorthe screw around with whoever they can, we witness some outdoor action where a man in a strange African tribal mask has his way with Marilyn in the dark, rainy night.
It all ends just as you'd expect it to, at least if you've seen Damiano's film, though really the connection to that picture is pretty loose even at the best of times. Dietrich does ape the finale a bit but never even tries to reach the depths of emotion that the earlier film does. Christa Free, as gorgeous as she is (and she IS gorgeous), doesn't quite have the range or the thesping skills of a Georgina Spelvin and Dietrich doesn't seem nearly as interested in exploring deep-seated themes of Catholic guilt as Damiano does. So what we wind up with is a fairly light film despite the grim, and admittedly very bizarre, death by guillotine at the beginning.
The movie is nicely shot but doesn't have the same sort of travelogue thing going on that a lot of Dietrich's other movies go. The softcore action is well framed but sorry ladies, most of the guys on display here are pretty haggard looking - the obvious example being an appearance by the chubby grey haired guy who also appeared in The Sex Adventures Of The Three Musketeers made three years prior.
Was Geschah Wirklich Mit Miss Jonas?:
The second half of this double feature starts off with an opening credits sequence in which some jaunty music (courtesy of frequent Dietrich collaborator Walter Baumgartner) plays as the camera pans over a very naked Ms. Free standing atop one of those awesome white fun-fur rugs that pop up in most of Dietrich's movies from this era. The camera moves up and down and Free looks confused, but from there we head to a nice country home where a man calls the Jim Bent detective agency. The cute blonde secretary gets Jim (Michel Jacot) on the phone and he heads out to that home to meet with this prospective new client.
It turns out this man wants some help with a problem - he desperately wants to meet a nude model (Ms. Free again) he came across in a dirty magazine! The man offers to pay Bent handsomely and he takes the nudie magazine and in turn, the case as well. From here he heads back into the city to see if he can track this woman down. He does this by checking out a nude photo shoot and interviewing the photographer who thinks her name is Christa. Flashback to a shoot he did with her and we find out then that he did more than just take her picture. So now able to work with with at least the knowledge of her name, Bent splits with the photographer's model in tow. She offers to take him to Christa's place but really, she's just trying to seduce him as they wind up in her apartment. It works.
Bent gets into a few more sticky situations - doing shots with a black chick and then banging her, peeping around a ladies dance class, taking in a show at a strip club… you know, stuff like that. He winds up getting closer and closer to finding this mysterious Christa, all while we stay up to date with her promiscuous activities too - at one point she visits a movie set that looks familiar (or at least it should if you watched the first movie) and is inhabited by none other than Marianne Dupont! There's that rug again.
Having gone through all that, once Bent does find her (in the shower), will he be able to convince her to go back to his client's place and even if he can, will she be interested in the man? And what's with the hippies!?
This second film (and it is a second film - the IMDB says it was made earlier but given that it uses footage from Der Teufel In Miss Jonas that seems highly unlikely!) is quite a deviation from the first. It's played more for laughs than for anything else, though again, it's populated by frequent softcore sex scenes. Dietrich isn't straying too far from his formula here. Free does a good job vamping it up and seeing Dupont pop up again is a nice bonus. Michel Jacot (who also appeared in the first movie, albeit as a different character) does a fine job playing the private detective and the movie goes at a nice pace. This might be light, fluffy stuff but at least it's sexy, fun, light fluffy stuff. It's also well shot and it uses a few more locations than the earlier film used, giving it a bit more variety in terms of locations and backgrounds.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Both movies are presented on a 50GB Blu-ray disc in AVC encoded 1080p high definition presentation, framed at 1.78.1 widescreen, is a strong upgrade over the previous DVD release (which looked very good for its time). Any print damage that pops up is minor as there are some minor specks here h here and there but no massive scratches or anything like that. The elements used for the transfer were obviously in good excellent shape. Detail is really strong here and you'll notice this in close up shots (some more than others!) and medium/long distance shots as well. Colors are nice if maybe slightly faded in spots. There are no problems with compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues and print damage is never problematic despite the presence of a few small scratches here and there. A welcome bit of grain pops up from time to time and there's no evidence of noise reduction. Flesh tones, of which there are plenty on display here, look nice and natural, never waxy, and the blacks of Lina's lingerie and of the car in which she's driven around look nice and strong.
Audio options are provided in both German and French DTS-HD 2.0 Mono Master Audio tracks with optional subtitles for both movies provided in English. The clarity of the tracks is fine, but they are a bit limited by their original elements. Dialogue stays clean and clear and the music has some good depth to it. No problems to note with the English subtitles, they're clean, clear and easy to read.
The extras on the disc are movie specific. Relating to the first movie we get a featurettes called Der Teuflische Mister Fux, which is a sixteen minute long video interview with the late Herbert Fux. Sadly, it's in German without any English subtitles. Additionally we get a three minute long restoration demonstration that shows some interesting side by side comparison clips showing the difference between the un-restored version and the restored version included on this Blu-ray.
For the second feature we get a featurettes called Michel Jacot In Der Z-Bar Berlin in which the actor speaks for just over twenty-minutes about his career. Again, it's in German without any English subtitles provided.
Both movies also get individual still galleries, menus and chapter selection options.
The Final Word:
Ascot-Elite's The Miss Jonas Double Feature is a good one, offering up two interesting vintage sexploitation pictures in excellent condition. The extras aren't subbed, which is a shame, but otherwise the presentation is top notch. If you're a fan of Christa Free, this is pretty much essential!
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
