Sexy Sisters

“Sexy Sisters” (original title: Die teuflischen Schwestern) is a Swiss-German erotic thriller/jesus Franco exploitation filmmaker who has tastefully mastered the genre. The film is focused on the family betrayal, psychological manipulation, sexual obsession intertwined with wealth, and deceit.

🎥 Strory Synopsis

Countess Edna Luise von Stein (Pamela Stanford) keeps Milicent Antonia von Stein (Karine Gambier) her younger half-sister in a sulking room locked away in their grandiose mansion. Following a sexual assault with Edna (her half-sister) and a gigolo named Tom (Eric Falk), Milicent is constantly in shock. Milicent is heavily sedated (illegally) and put under deep sleep with a routine given by aurosexuals supervised by the Dr. Charles Barnes (Jack Taylor). Curtsy treatment causes Milicent to be inflicted and exacerbating nymphomania, which is not specific and increasing meltdown symptoms.

For Edna, the aim is to ensure that she manages to make Millicent legally insane before Belfry turns 21. Regardless, a rich plot laid out by the father, which is based on incompatentative insanity. Joe (Kurt Meinicke) comes horrifyingly close to ruining Edna’s well laid out world when he dares to form an honest bond with Millie.

🌆 Main Cast

• Pamela Stanford as Edna Luise von Stein: The greedy sister archetype who lies and cheats her way to the top.
• The television cast includes:
• Karine Gambier as Milicent Antonia von Stein: A delicate traumatized younger sister.
• Jack Taylor as Dr. Charles Barnes: An unethical physician aiding Edna’s schemes.
• Eric Falk as Tom: The gigolo caught up in the darkest truth of the sisters’ past.
• Kurt Meinicke as Joe: Milicent’s sympathetic outsider who gives her an opportunity to escape.
• Esther Moser as Sarah: One of the maids in the Von Stein residence.
• Marrianne Graft as Maria: A nurse attending to Milicent’s care.​

🖋️ Themes and Tone

The film explores the underlying themes of internal and external greed through the familial bond of sisters. Power and sexual exploitation in a relationship form a powerful weapon for control and dominance. As is characteristic of Franco’s direction, it combines elements of eroticism and psychological horror.

🎞️ Style And Cinematography

Franco’s direction is renowned for its reliance on visual storytelling. The use of soft focus and extravagant sets culminates in a dreamlike aesthetic that borders on the surreal. Franco takes this approach pervading his scenes with silence, prolonged shots, and laden tension within the characters to showcase their torment, instead of verbally narrating the story, the fury that bristles beneath the placid surface, and captures the conflict.

Reception

Upon release, it garnered divided reception, some applauding the untamed use of provocative subjects and its bold style of visual representation, while others condemned it for lack of narrative coherence citing excessive erotic content, sexually- suggestive depiction of sisters and vulgarity. This film continues to gain notoriety among enthusiasts of European-exploitation cinema.

📺 Final Thoughts

In spite of the criticism leveled against it, augments abound, and the standing reputation of Sexy Sisters continues to grow. Even over four decades later, it endures as one of the most controversial erotic thrillers of the seventies.

This film represents a distinct piece of cinema of its time for admirers of unconventional storytelling in the genre of psychosexual drama.