Well, that Janine is really inspiring me these days, doesn’t she ? Following yesterday’s post, here’s a video containing scenes from Succubus and it can be considered a nice visual introduction to this fine lady. There’s no real nudity; for that, you’ll just have to rent the movie! Music by Killer Barbys (a band that took its name from the title of a Jess Franco movie, BTW).

Today, I’m going to talk about someone I met around 1974 or so, on a summer day in the country, shortly after I celebrated my tenth birthday. Yes, it was on that kind of holiday that I first discovered who Janine Reynaud was… and now, 33 years later, I still don’t know much about the lady. But met her I did and she has never really left my mind.

Putting things into perspective: since I was (and still is) a rabid comic books fan, I had just borrowed one of my older cousin’s Vampirella French magazine. Yes, at that time there was a translation published of the Warren classic book heroine’s adventures, in the same B&W format. Of course, both the English and French formats were available in Quebec in many convenience stores. But being a magazine from France, that version had a major difference: it didn’t shy away to include some nudity, mainly stills from current horror films.

The issue that I was going through had some reviews of recent Jess Franco films (back in the day when Jess was cranking about 10 of them each year), mainly La comtesse aux seins nus (better known in the U.S. as Erotic Kill, among many other alternate titles). Yes, there were a couple of images of La comtesse herself, all bare-breasted and on the hunt. Remember, I was 10 years old and finding all this very exciting and dangerous. Dangerous because I didn’t want to be seen with this material and also because I knew that at my age, this was not proper litterature, as I was feeling this on a very personal level. Unknown territory, here I am!

Also included in the mag was a small dossier about Janine Reynaud, of which I didn’t know nothing about, obviously. I was still years away for finding a passion for strange movies, let alone Euro-cult favorites. But even then, I was not insensible to the charms of Brigitte Bardot, Raquel Welch and some others, so Janine became all right with me on the spot. I was decades away to actually see one of her films!

Needless to say, I never got my hands on the magazine again after precious minutes of browsing through it and still deplore the fact that I’ve forgotten vital info about this fascinating actress. Searching the web is still no help, oddly enough, as info is still scarce about this cult personality.

It is speculated that she was born between 1940-45, but I remember reading (in the Vampi article?) that she was already into her late thirties when she got underground fan adoration (meaning what? 1968? 1973?). Her career seemed to have started around 1965, as she got to play in some European spy adventures à la Bond. But the big break came in 1968, as Janine’s fiery red hair got to be displayed in a most alluring and erotic manner in Jess Franco’s classic Succubus (or Necronomicon; the thing with Franco’s films is that they have many diverse titles, depending on the market where they were released).

Then came, still under Franco’s direction, a duo of sexy spy thrillers with fantastic overtones, Two Undercover Angels and Kiss Me Monster. This trio of films is mainly responsible for Janine’s cult status, but then came a couple of giallo projects, like Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, a Western co-starring Ringo Starr, Blindman, and of course the purely erotic phase.

This latter period includes films like The Chambermaid’s Secret, Libido, The Felines, etc. Eventually, many of these titles will be revisited in depth for the purposes of this site. Her last movie work remains the 1978 entry Tire pas sur mon collant.

There was something mysterious about Janine, with her sometimes alluring androgynous looks, amazing pile of hair and lesbo-chic allure. Even playing in what the majority of film fans would term dubious projects, she WAS a great actress, projecting tragedy, threat or predatory qualities in equal good measures.

I’ve been trying for years to include Janine on the main Cult Sirens site, but lack of personal info as kept me of doing so (as it is for many more actresses, to my eternal chagrin). There’s a vague rumor that she eventually married an American millionaire and retired to Texas. We also know that her former husband was actor Michel Lemoine, another fan favorite, whom which she co-starred and was even directed by a couple of times. Jeez, a whole blog should be dedicated to her! I will try my best in the future to pay the most worthy tribute.