La fiancée de Satan

Master shlock film-maker Bert I. Gordon makes a return to the director's chair for this sleaze classic. Satan's Princess is portrayed by Lydie Denier (man she's HOT!)and Robert Forester stars as mr. paycheck...er a detective looking for a missing girl (she looks waaay to old for a runaway). The path to the young woman's disapperance leads him right into the arms of Lydie (lucky Chump). Satan's Princess feature's adequate directing, hammy acting and a pedestrian script. But it all takes a back seat whenever Lydie makes a very welcomed apperence.

I like It!

B+

Apart from the always solid, Robert Forster, this film features some very telegraphed performances, an uneven script, connect-the-dots direction and the sizzling Lydie Denier, who steals the show every time she peels off an article of clothing, which is in just about every second scene. Kudos to director Bert Gordon for at least understanding that when you're dealt a bad script, there's always the lovely Lydie to keep the interest levels up.

After years of churning out cheap, badly made sci-fi "epics," director Bert Gordon turned to sex comedies and "erotic" thrillers. I haven't seen any of his sex comedies yet--I shudder to imagine what they're like--but this combination horror/softcore sex film was surprisingly better than I expected. Few modern actors can do world-weary burn-outs better than Robert Forster, and the combination of his solid acting skills and the staggeringly beautiful Lydie Denier in various states of nudity more than make up for the script's shortcomings, which really aren't as overwhelming as Gordon's usual opuses. The story is actually a bit more coherent than you'd expect in a Bert Gordon film, there's a fair amount of tension and suspense throughout, and as noted, Denier thankfully begins to strip down whenever the picture starts to lag. Overall it's really not that bad, and worth a look.

My review was written in December 1990 after watching the movie on Paramount video cassette.

Fifties sci-fi maven Bert I. Gordon is back with the sexy horror film "Satan's Princess". Okay performances lift this mundane direct-to-video release.

Robert Forster comfortably essays his familiar role as a down-and-out detective hired by Nick Angotti to find his missing daughter Leslie Huntly.

Trail leads to vampiric beauty Lydie Denier (a stunning Canadian actress) who runs a modeling agency. She turns out to be over 500 years old, periodically killing people to stay young.

Plenty of nude scenes keep the viewer awake until Forster predictably fights fire with fire by unleashing a flamethrower on Denier in the final reel.

Alternately running through several shooting titles, including "Heat from Another Sun", "Princess of Darkness" and "Malediction" (last named referring to a 17th Century painting Denier owns), film is poorly structured. After reels of searching for the alluring young Huntly, Forster accidentally bumps into her at the modeling agency, chases her and she commits suicded rather than be apprehended.

Typical epilog to set up sequel possibilities is trite. A subplot establishing Denier as a lesbian is not followed up but merely included for its titillation possibilities.

Forster, Denier and underutilized heroine Caren Kaye all deserve more challenging assignments than this potboiler.

Burnt out retired cop Lou Cherney (Robert Forster) reluctantly takes the case of a missing 19-year-old girl. He has no clues until a model is killed in downtown L.A. and a search of her apartment produces a picture of the missing girl. This leads Lou to a modeling agency run by Nicole St. James (Lydie Denier), who just may or may not be a soulless human (like everyone else in the fashion industry). This was Bert I. Gordon's last film to date and nary a colossal beast is seen during its quick running time. Instead, audiences get a real genre blender that is part cop flick, part satanic possession flick, part softcore Skinemax outing, and part monster movie. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of it is that that Forster really gives his all for the performance of the wounded ex- cop. There is also a good performance given by the kid who plays Cherney's retarded son (Phillip Glasser, who did the voice of Fievel in the AN American TAIL flicks). Denier is stunning, but has a really thick French accent that makes her "w" heavy dialog rough to hear. Gordon is definitely trying to deliver a competitive modern flick with all the T&A on display (including a Forster/Denier sex scene where he slaps her ass), but it is surprisingly low on blood. Well, until the end where St. James rips off her skin to reveal a goofy SPECIES-looking dread-locked beast underneath.