Hot Picks
|
|
|
El Secreto del Dr. Orloff
Dr. Orloff's Monster
Dr. Jekyll's Mistresses
Spain / Austria / France 1964
produced by Marius Lesoeur for Eurociné, Leo Films
directed by Jess Franco
starring Hugo Blanc (as Hugh White), Agnès Spaak, Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui, José Rubio, Luisa Sala, Pastor Serrador, Perla Cristal, Manuel Guitián, Ramón Lillo, Jess Franco, Magda Maldonado, Marta Reves, Danel Blumer, Mer Casas, Rafael Hernández, José Truchado, Juan Antonio Soler, Javier de Rivera, Julio Infiesta, Julia Toboso, Maribel Hidalgo
screenplay by Jess Franco, based on a story by David Kühne (= Jess Franco), music by Daniel J. White
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
Melissa (Agnès Spaak) pays a visit to her uncle, Doctor Fisherman (Marcelo
Arroita-Jáuregui), a scientist who lives in an old
castle, not knowing that Doc Fisherman was actually the man who killed her
father (Hugo Blanco) long ago because daddy had an affair with Fisherman's
wife Ingrid (Luisa Sala) ... but not only that, Fisherman is also quite
mad - a mad scientist, so to speak - and he has revived Melissa's father
and ucontrols him via ultrasonic sounds to use him as his zombie slave to
kill several women, mostly showgirls of one kind or another, Fisherman
first gives necklaces to - why exactly Fisherman wants those women dead
and why he uses a zombie for exclusively this purpose is never quite
explained.
When zombie-daddy stumbles upon Melissa though, he starts to develop a
little bit of a will of his own (though by and large he remains a mindless
zombie), while Melissa (who never knew her father who died before her
birth) more and more starts to realize there's something wrong in Doc
Fisherman's castle, and ultimately she asks her boyfriend Juan Manuel
(José Rubio) to watch over her ... and not a moment too soon, because
ultimately Doc Fisherman attacks Melissa, but she is saved by her zombie
dad, who kills Fisherman. Juan Manuel, misjudging the situation, tries to
shoot the zombie but is instead himself almost killed by him. Then the
zombie gets away and roams the streets ...
Juan Manuel and inspector Klein (Pastor Serrador), who is investigating
the case, convince Melissa to act as lure for the zombie since she is the
only one who seems to be safe with him, and ultimately she lures him into
an ambush where Juan Manuel can properly shoot him, hitting his one
Achilles heel at the back of his neck ...
The script of Dr. Orloff's monster might be silly, a somewhat mindless
collection of pulp horror clichés that - brought into a context - make
rather little sense. The resulting film however is a pretty impressive
piece of genre cinema, showing cult- and trash-director Jess Franco on the
top of his game: Every shot seems to be carefully set up, there is hardly
a camera angle that is not at least interesting, many of the camera
movements are nothing short of inspired, and most of the set-ups are so
flashy they seem amazingly fresh even more than 40 years after the film
was made. Plus the sets help give this one a properly creepy atmosphere,
with added nightclub performances and a bit of topless nudity to spice
things up a bit.
So if you are not put off by the silly script (that is actually quite
exhilarating if you don't take it too seriously - I'm sure Jess Franco
didn't), this one's a real treat, probably one of the best (and most
underrated) European horror flicks of the 1960's.
|