Trivia

Openly despises his own movies and claims he doesn't think he has ever made a good film, and what he would really like is to have made Citizen Kane (1941) or The Grapes of Wrath (1940) or something like the films of Stanley Donen or Vincente Minnelli.

One of the secrets of his success is his reputation for completing projects on time and within the budget. This usually gives him the directorial freedom to do whatever he wants.

In the 1970s he, along with Luis Buñuel, was declared one of the most dangerous filmmakers for Catholics by the Catholic Church. Upon hearing this, Buñuel got interested in meeting Franco, and said so to his frequent collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière, who was at that moment developing a script with Franco. Carrière introduced them to each other.

Among his vast number of pseudonyms, Franco frequently pays tribute (of sorts) to jazz greats working from the '20s through the '50s by signing his film with the monikers of trumpeter Clifford Brown, pianist James P. Johnson and drummer Dave Tough.

After a hiatus of several years, he returned to directing in 2005 with one feature film and two video features at the age of 75. That gives him over 180 directing credits.

Together with Lucio Fulci he had three films listed on the original UK list of 74 official video nasties: "Women Behind Bars" (aka Women Behind Bars (1975)), "Devil Hunter" (aka Devil Hunter (1980)) and "Bloody Moon" (aka Bloody Moon (1981)).

At the end of 2007 a biographic long feature, "Los Blues del Tio Jess" will be finished. Directed by Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez and produced by microgenesis producciones / canalmicro and Maestranza Films. (September 2007)

Uncle of Javier Marías and Miguel Marías.

Uncle of Ricardo Franco.

Brother in law of philosopher Julián Marías.

Of Cuban and Mexican parentage, Franco was born in Madrid and studied at the city's Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas and the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques in Paris.

Franco worked for various production companies on the European continent, notably the French firm Eurociné, specializing in very low budget.

Throughout his career, Franco has held every position: director, screenwriter, producer, editor, actor, composer, sound engineer and director of photography.

In a career spanning from 1954 to 2013, Franco wrote, directed, produced, acted in, and scored approximately 173 feature films, working both in his native Spain and (during the rule of Francisco Franco) in France, West Germany, Switzerland and Portugal. Additionally, during the 1960s, he made several films in Rio de Janeiro and Istanbul.

He worked as an assistant director for Orson Welles on the filming of Falstaff, and edited his unfinished Don Quixote.