Naive young lady Christine Delaplane (a solid and sympathetic performance by the luscious Alisha Fontaine) goes to New Orleans to find her future and winds up getting a job as a stripper at a local seedy dive. So far, so familiar.
Given that the production company behind it is the notorious Crown International Pictures, you'd expect FRENCH QUARTER to be a run-of-the-mill sexploitation story about a young woman with plenty of aspirations who finds herself exploited on the sleazy streets of New Orleans. Instead, for the first part of the film this is exactly what plays out, except that the film takes on a sci-fi twist by transporting the characters back a century to when they were working at a brothel with all of the trials and tribulations of prostitute life.
I found "French Quarter" in a MillCreek 12-film set, Dangerous Babes. To be honest, most of the films in the set I've viewed so far, (including the infamous "Sextette"), were awful.
We watched this 70s film because we love the city of New Orleans so much, and as it turns out, the footage of the city was all that was likable about this film. The story might have been a pretty decent frivolous novel, but as a poorly made 70s-wannabe-taken-seriously movie, it was terrible.
Christine (Alisha Fontaine)is a country girl who moves to the city when her father dies and leaves her in debt. She manages to find employment as a topless dancer.
I guess it would only be fair to say that French Quarter is a fairly atypical sexploitation film from b-movie producers Crown International Pictures. It's pretty unusual in that it's oddly ambitious for such an obviously drive-in oriented movie.
This exploitation movie with fantasy elements deserves points for going off the beaten path, but in all honesty it's pretty awful. The start, in 1978 New Orleans, is decent, but when the "action" moves to an unspecified past the film loses all sense of direction and purpose.
{my thanks to reviewer "inhopewell" whose info made me save the best for last}One thing's for dang sure, this one's way up high on top of the Crown International pile. I've seen almost all of the Dangerous Babes box-set now except my revisit to NIGHT CLUB, and none of the others are worthy movies (though worthy moments are provided by some really pretty chicks-of-days- gone-by) but this one kicked off great.
Okay drama about a woman going to the French Quarter in search of a job and drifting back through time and reliving past events. Well acted drama actually is worth a look see.
