El secreto del Dr. Orloff (1964)

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writers:

Jesus Franco (screenplay)
Jesus Franco (story)

Release Date:

1964 (Spain)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A mad scientist creates a hideous monster to carry out his murderous plans. |

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Mad Scientist | Stripper | Female Nudity | Nudity

Cast

Hugo Blanco	...	Andros (as Hugh White)
Agnès Spaak	...	Melissa
Perla Cristal	...	Rosa
Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui	...	Dr. Conrad Jekyll
Pepe Rubio	...	Juan Manuel (as José Rubio)
Pastor Serrador	...	Inspector Klein
Marta Reves
Daniel Blumer
Luisa Sala	...	Ingrid Fisherman
Manuel Guitián	...	Ciceron
Mer Casas
Rafael Hernández
José Truchado
Juan Antonio Soler
Javier de Rivera		(as Javier Rivera)

Also Known As:

Brides of Dr. Jekyll
Die Geliebten des Dr. Jekyll (Austria)
Dr. Jekyll's Mistresses (UK)
Dr. Orloff's Monster
El secreto del doctor Orloff
Les maîtresses du Docteur Jekyll (France)
Les maîtresses du Dr. Jekyll
The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll (USA)
The Secret of Dr. Orloff (USA)

Runtime:

90 min | Spain:99 min

Country:

Spain | Austria | France

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:12 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Eurocineac

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Son of Svengoolie: Dr. Orloff's Monster (1964) (#1.100)" (1981)

When Franco still cared

If you've suffered through some of the hack work Jess Franco cranked out in the last two decades, you may find it difficult to believe that he once took some pride in his craft and evinced a certain mastery of cinematic technique, as well as a modicum of discipline. "Dr Orloff's Monster" is a case in point. Despite the title, it bears no direct relation to the creepy and perverse opus, "The Awful Dr Orloff", which put the director on the map back in the early 60s. However, it shares the same doom-laden aura -- with the expected (but always riveting) kinky asides -- that so resemble that earlier picture as well as the German Edgar Wallace 'krimi' series which was reaching its peak at the same time.

The picture is rife with carefully-executed camera angles and atmospherics, something that would become anathema to Franco's slash-and-burn methods of the 80s. The best scenes are reminiscent of (dare I say) Lewton and Franju. It builds up a strong pathos for the title character, thanks to a subtle, wordless portrayal that evokes Cesar in 'Cabinet of Dr Caligari' and Christiane in 'Eyes without a Face' (such homages were a Franco specialty). There is a particularly poignant sequence in which the zombie stumbles about near his own tombstone in a bleak, wintry cemetery. No matter what depths Franco's movies plunged to, they always offered a few wonderfully oddball cabaret scenes in smoky jazz or rock bars, and this is no exception. One singer performs a wacky, rhythmic Latin ditty that must have sparked the imagination of the members of the retro band 'Les Rita Mitsouko'. (These cabaret scenes were a welcome staple of the Euro-thriller genre of the 60s, also perking up the krimi series, several of the campier works of the Italian Gothic revival, and especially the outlaw melodramas of Jose Benazeraf.)

There are already foreshadowings of the director's latter-day carelessness -- a few too many zooms, cutting from the middle of one scene to another, and a general neglect of motivation. And, of course, he'd end up doing the revenge plot to death. But overall, this one (along with the much more perverse 'Sadistic Baron von Klaus') comes highly recommended for Franco skeptics and genre fans alike. Surprisingly, this film was immediately followed by his magnum opus, the delirious 'Succubus' (aka 'Necronomicon'), which in its pseudo-sophisticated Radley-Metzger-like style is miles removed from the Gothic horror of his early work.