Venus In Furs

I had a date with Venus In Furs earlier today. I was eager to see the film again after reading Steve Thrower's vibrant, illuminating analysis of the film in the Murderous Passions book. Catching up with the excellent 20min Jesus In Furs piece on the Blue Underground DVD I was excited to learn that Franco had Miles Davis in mind for the lead role when he was writing the Black Angel draft, and it was interesting to backtrack thru the film and imagine Miles in those scenes instead of James Darren. Still I like Darren very much, and watching his scenes on the bandstand I was admiring his fingerwork on the trumpet, and was pleased to discover that Darren himself was a player. I wish there was more jazz in the film and less Rio - there's a wonderful moment when Darren and Manfred Mann look like they're really cooking on stage. Mann's score for the film is really terrific, especially the piece played when the hypnotically beautiful Maria Rohm engages her former tormentors in a dance of death. Watching the scene where Dennis Price falls under her spell I was wondering who the actor reminded me of, looks wise, and realized I was thinking of a middle-aged J.G. Ballard...