The Awful Dr. Orlof

source: The Awful Dr. Orlof

Moviecut—The Awful Dr. Orlof

AWFUL DR. ORLOF, THE (1960) **1/2 (D: Jess Franco) It's hard to believe Franco directed this. Well-directed horror film with nice black and white photography, much atmosphere; swamp, gothic sets, castles. Perhaps a tad long at 83 minutes. Howard Vernon is good as Orlof... yet there isn't much original here as a sinister doctor abducts young girls to perform skin grafts (what else?) for his disfigured daughter. Typical bug-eyed assistant/monster, and the usual female assistant who objects to her boss' misdeeds.

After having waited years to see this film, I was surprised at how relatively tame it is, at least on the surface. Unlike, say, The Brain That Would Not Die, released the same year (1962), The Awful Dr. Orloff is free of any overt gore. Rather, this film disturbs on a more subtle level, in the attitude that director Jess Franco takes towards Dr. Orloff. Unlike its obvious role model, George Franju's extraordinary Eyes Without a Face, this film makes no excuse for its central character's sadism. Dr. Genessier in Eyes has forced himself to become immune to the sufferings of others through guilt at the role he played in the disfigurement of his beloved daughter. Like many a previous mad scientist, his base actions are a means to a noble end. Dr. Orloff, on the other hand, is something new. His actions are not reducible to traditional motivation; they are not explicable in the ordinary sense. Orloff is not doing evil for the greater good; he is not seeking revenge; he is not insane; he is not really conventionally evil. Orloff is operating under an entirely different moral system. Orloff genuinely enjoys himself, taking perverse pleasure in the horrible deeds that he perpetrates. This is most obvious during the film's one explicit moment, when Orloff begins operating on the * body of his still living victim. As he starts making the incision, the lewd expression on his face as he fondles the girls exposed breast shows where his true interests lie. Orloff's daughter's disfigurement is only the catalyst that enables him to fulfill his unspeakable desires, and explains why she dies, for no apparent reason, when Orloff is killed. She has no further purpose. Another odd touch in this very odd film is that the only vaguely sympathetic character is Morpho, Orloff's twisted, child-like assistant. Blind and seemingly dumb, with bulging eyes and odd, twitching mannerisms, Morpho is a genuinely unsettling creation, as he lurches and bites in the shadows at Orloff's murderous command. Incongruous shots of Morpho lying in his bed, staring, make him appear wretched, lonely, and pitiable. A killer from an early age, instinctively, impulsively bad, Morpho is an automaton, incapable of acting otherwise, in contrast to Orloff, who, we are told, was once a good man, and who is now something very different by choice. The Awful Dr. Orloff is atmospherically photographed, with the occasional evocative image, but Franco is no Mario Bava, and the film has zero poetry, again unlike Eyes Without a Face. The plot is tedious, without drive, mystery, or tension; the dialog is dully expository; and Franco takes no interest in the block-headed police or in the shrill, sluttish victims. Typically, for a Franco film, the ending is rushed and abrupt, as if the director cannot bear to kill off his most interesting characters, although custom dictates that he must. This is the first true spatter movie, albeit without the splatter. Although it looks like a Universal Horror, The Awful Dr. Orloff points the way directly to Blood Feast, which came a year later, and beyond, to the modern horror film, in which the killers are the de facto heroes. Morpho is Jason Vorhees without the hockey mask, and Dr. Orloff is a dry run for Dr. Lector. In The Awful Dr. Orloff, the age old moral landscape of the horror film is altered for the first time. That, for what it is worth, is its dubious achievement.

The Awful Dr.Orloff is one of the greatest tales of terror ever told...in my opinion that is, of course. But I also think the concept of Doctors or Scientists "gone mad" delivers the best horror films. They're great villains and their motivations for killing is usually very original. Dr Phibes comes to mind when speaking about this matter of course. This doctor took revenge by killing the medicals who weren't able to save his wife from death. Dr Orloffs reasons are different, but highly fascinating as well. ----------Small Spoilers Ahead----------- Dr Orloff is a retired and respected ex-prison doctor. Nobody knows he helped escaping 2 severe criminals. One of them is his wife, the other one is the horrible mutilated Morpho. Morpho assists Orloff in his new business...killing young woman. Not for joy or revenge like most ( less creative) slashers do but to cure his own daughter. He wants to replace her deformed skin by that of innocent woman. When the operations keep on failing, Dr. Orloff wants to try something new...He might succeed if he uses living skin ! Therefore he needs an attractive girl and he knows just who...The future bride of the inspector who hunts him !! ------------END SPOILERS------------------- The biography of director Jess Franco is impressive to say the least. As a director, this movie came rather early in his career. He made this film in by order of producer Serge Newman, who realized there was big money to earn in the field of disgusting horror films. With the famous Hammer movies as a role model, he asked Franco to do the same. And did it work ? Yes, The Awful Dr. Orloff is one of the biggest cult successes in history. This movie often receives the negative comment that it's a rip off from Eyes Without a Face. Well, Franco clearly based his movie upon this one, but the atmosphere stands for itself I think. About the acting performances I can be very brief...Howard Vernon as Dr. Orloff himself is terrific. San Martin as the inspector on the other hand, is despicable....Pretty normal, I guess. Vernon did his very best jobs when working together with Franco. And he clearly enjoys himself when impersonating Dr. Orloff. This is probably Franco's best known movie. It's also his most accessible one, I think. I'm a fan of his but many of my friends don't care the least bit for his work. I've seen a good share of his work but still way to less in my mind. His movies are hard to trace down and when you do find a cheap DVD or VHS-release, it usually is severely cut. Damn shame...If you're interested, I mean REALLY interested in Franco try every possible source to find original copies. Of course, dubbed versions are better than nothing at all, but it's really frustrating from time to time. Those are pretty much my final conclusions...no negative thoughts about the movie at all, only about the "tortured" versions out there on the market. Dr. Orloff gets a rating 8.5/10 from me !! Recommended !!

I watched this film after having seen Vampyros Lesbos, and then read a comment on that film regarding The Awful Dr. Orloff. Where Vampyros Lesbos mostly succeeded, Dr. Orloff fails dismally - the characters are two dimensional and poorly acted, the dialogue varies from boring to inane, and the plot fails to grip the viewer at all. Add to this that the film is absolutely riddled with errors, and you end up with a result that is only worth watching if you're a fan of cinematography's poorest works. Like Ed Wood? Watch this? Like the genre and want a good film - rent something else.

Jess Franco's breakthrough film is a straight retelling of Yeux San Visage, albeit with some of the poetry removed and a more straightforward 'thriller' structure added. It's probably Franco's most 'normal' film, with only only a few of the the sleaze diversions that became the raison d'etre of his work from then until the present day. However, look closer and you can trace his obsession with nightclubs and mirrors (put to best effect in one scene in Vampyros Lesbos!) back to this film. Overall, a little on the long side for today's audiences, but a very important taboo-busting film at the time, and contains some very good cinematography, occasionally in an almost bava-esque style.

This film has nothing outstanding or even average about it, on the whole, it is the work of a very immature director who only wanted to make a film for money on the quick. The plot, or the tedious 1 & 1/2 hour worth of filler, is absolutely ridiculous. Insane dialogue is scattered in long tedious shots. The acting is atrocious, most of the actors look like they belong in some cheap cabaret in a skid row area of town; they can't express true emotion that the roles demand. Take for example the lead inspector, he is an insincere and unbelievable character whose inability to solve the obvious murder case is incredulous. I sat there bored to death, and the other reviewers said it was 'scary'. Nothing at all was frightening about this, the dumb monster is played by a guy in rubber makeup and he's also blind, someone should have just torched him. The ending is not only expected (heroine saved, monster killed) but abrupt and absurd, as the lead inspector shoots the monster while it is holding the heroine from about 80 yards, while it is up on the castle balcony. Avoid this if you can, it isn't worth anything.

'The Awful Dr. Orloff' is obviously ripped off the extraordinary 'Eyes Without A Face'. I didn't really have a problem with that in itself, only that what Franco does with such potentially rich material. Which is, nothing much. Sadly this early Jess Franco effort, though entertaining enough, never reaches the surrealistic heights of his late 60s/early 70s peak ('Vampyros Lesbos', 'Succubus',etc.). My enjoyment of this movie was lessened by it being the badly dubbed American version with inane dialogue. The way English versions of European horror invariably dumb down the scripts/characters is one of my pet peeves. Why do they do this? Lack of respect for genre movies? Or some kind of reverse Hollywood snobbery? Not having seen the original Spanish cut though I'll give this movie the benefit of the doubt. It just might be better than I think. Veteran character actor (and Franco regular) Howard Vernon ('Alphaville') is excellent in the title role, and his side-kick Morpho (Ricardo Valle) is suitably menacing, but the Inspector Tanner character is a joke, and the scenes of police "procedure" really drag this movie down. Disappointing overall knowing what Franco would achieve in later, more original movies, but still a reasonable way to waste a rainy afternoon.

Jess Franco's Awful dr. Orlof aka Gritos en la noche (1962) stars Howard Vernon as dr. Orlof, who makes experiments and skin transplants on girls he kidnaps in order to return her savagely injured daughter back to her physical beauty. He has Morpho, a horribly disfigured human monster, with him helping him and kidnapping the girls. A police detective starts to investigate the strange disappearances and soon he gets some clues where the missing girls might be.. The story is pretty close to many classic monster horrors like King Kong (1933) and other stories in which a desperate character tries to fight against wrongs and obstacles he has encountered, only to find himself even deeper in the misery. Orlof wants to safe his daughter's face and beauty, but by doing bad things (murder, torture) he cannot reach his goal, and this is the moral and message of this film. The ending in Orlof is very sad and tragic, and also close to King Kong's ending. It is all as tragic as the life itself, and by watching these immortal classics among cinema we have an opportunity to understand little better how things in our lives should be solved and by which means, no matter what. Also this film teaches us to value all the positive things in our life, not just to think about what there ISN'T in our lives. There are always somebody whose life is very sad and miserable compared to yours and mine. Orlof is also very atmospheric horror film and shows the talent of director Franco, who has also specialized in trash and exploitation in many of his films. His other achievements among many are Bloody Moon (sex/slasher), Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (nunsploitation), Sadomania (WIP), Faceless (ultra gore), Virgin Among the Living Dead (sexploitation, vampires) etc etc. Awful dr. Orlof is definitely among his greatest cinematic achievements, and is as effective and valuable as other black and white Euro classics like Mario Bava's La Maschera Del Demonio (1960) starring Barbara Steele. There are many great scares in Orlof and atmospheric segments in the castle of Orlof and in his chamber. Franco uses weird camera angles effectively here and they work fine and create the ominous feel to the film. This is the kind of film which should be seen in movie theatre on big screen. I give Awful dr. Orlof definitely 9/10 rating and recommend it highly to every one interested in classic black and white European horror cinema, which has all the unique elements usually lacking in nowadays' commercial efforts. Awful dr. Orlof is also a must see for those who think Franco is bad film maker.