If I had a nickel for every time I’d muttered, “Damn, I wish I could buy that soundtrack!” I’d probably have been able to amass the largest DVD collection on Earth by now, though I’m probably not alone on this score. Throughout the fan community, the inaccessibility of soundtracks to European cult movies seems to be one of the greatest annoyances plaguing collectors. Thank god (or gods; or don’t, if that’s not your thing), then, for Digitmovies, which, in recent years, has undertaken the task of putting out some of these long-desired scores on CD in order to satisfy legions of fans. For one reason or another, though, up until a few days ago, I had only heard about these fine folks’ work. Thankfully, that dark age has now come to an end as a result of my assignment to check out their recent release of the soundtrack to Jess Franco’s 99 Women.

For anyone who’s seen 99 Women, the question of why exactly we need a soundtrack shouldn’t be too hard to answer: 99 contains some really great instrumental work and a particularly lush score, in addition to its famous opening theme “The Day I Was Born.” In my opinion, just having this whole song would be reason enough to pick up the CD; I guess it was quite sporting, then, of Digitmovies to include the rest of the music too.

Anyway, fan satisfaction being of the utmost import, the disk begins with “Day” and kicks things off to a grand start in the process. The song’s just as good as you remember, except it’s twice as long in its uncut form. Already I felt I was getting my money’s worth...

The rest of the CD consists of tracks labeled “99 Women—Sequence (1-24, inexplicably omitting 18)” which consist of the instrumental score to the film. After the excitement of the initial track, things level off with track 2 (from the arrival at the island), but quickly pick up again with the third track, which is the music from Maria Rohm’s rape flashback. Again, this piece is much, much longer than the portion of it that’s used in the film, and I would venture to say it’s the secret treasure of the disk and potentially its best track. Its mixture of rock, choral accompaniment, and strange overtones of a military march just scream Eurocult craziness; and it’s a great track to just sit and groove to.

After that, things slow down with the more nuts-and-bolts music that helps the movie along, driving its action scenes and softly underscoring the dialogue sequences. (And let’s not forget that luscious jazz piece that plays during Rosalba Neri’s striptease, either.) While this portion is somewhat less exciting, it nevertheless is lush and jazzy enough to make for a good listen; it’s just not as re-playable as the opening tracks.

Finally, the last two tracks pick up again with a couple of different versions of the mournful “Maria Schell walks away in shame” theme from the end of the movie.

All in all, this excellent release from DigitMovies provides a great listening experience, whether through the more visceral joys of the opening and closing tracks or through the subtle and sensuous melodies of the CD’s middle.

To top this all off, presentation is excellent, with the music sounding almost like it were recorded yesterday. Now, I ought to profess that I make no claims to understand the details of music remastering as I do the details of film remastering; however, if the two are anything alike (and I have a hunch that they are at least vaguely similar), DigitMovies’ work must stand as a remarkable achievement since their release of this obscure 35-year-old soundtrack sounded just as clear and crisp as something produced weeks ago. All in all, this is a very satisfactory package that should bring joy to anyone with an interest in the music of late 60s / early 70s Eurocult cinema.

And as if this music weren’t enough, the package also includes a booklet of liner notes that passionately and intelligently address some of the tracks individually or put the whole of the score in context in relation to Franco and Nicolai’s other work. Along with this, we get a few nice stills (including some nude shots I don’t remember from the film) and an addfor Blue Underground’s 99 Women DVDs, which includes the only acknowledgement I can remember of them putting out the “X-Rated French Version.” All in all, the booklet makes a wonderful little cherry on top of the big scoop of ice cream that is the disk itself. Enjoy!

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