Leofwine_draca This is a successful, if not brilliant, Gothic entry which marked the debut of director Jess Franco, that prolific Spaniard who would go on to film all manner of sleaze and depravity within the next thirty years. Desperately hoping to cash in on the success of the Hammer films, as well as the various Italian Gothic chillers of the time, THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF models itself on these films, but truth be told, Franco is no Bava or Fisher. While all the trappings are right, there are none of the odd camera angles and stylistic touches which made contemporary directors like Freda and Margheriti such masters of their art. Throughout this film the camera is fairly static, although thankfully there are none of those annoying zooms of which Franco became so fond of in later years.The plot itself seems merely to be a retread of the 1959 French classic, EYES WITHOUT A FACE, except with the added sleaze trappings you would expect from Franco. Actually, the sleaze here is very tame, but Franco still finds ways to incorporate all manner of exotic dancing, chained females, and women in tight-fitting clothes into his film. The black and white photography works in this film's favour, highlighting some spooky buildings and drawing out the shadows in darkened streets, the starkness of which would have been lost in colour. Unfortunately, the low budget is rather obvious too, with most of the action being consigned to office sets and little in the way of scope - all of the scenes are character-focused, without any of the scene-setting that Hammer might have inserted by having, say, mountains or landscapes in the background. Some of the incident in this film is also too dark, making it hard to see the events playing out on screen.Despite some poor dubbing, the acting, while not brilliant, works here, chiefly with Howard Vernon's villainous turn. Vernon uses his bizarre, cruel features to create a truly loathsome mad scientist, unflinchingly murdering innocent girls in the name of science. Vernon later became a Franco regular, appearing in many of his films such as THE BLOODY JUDGE and FACELESS. Ricardo Valle has the role of the deformed sidekick, complete with dodgy-looking bug eyes, and manages to evoke a grain or two of sympathy for his wretched character. Quite surprising for a character who is both blind and mute. The ladies are all very glamorous-looking, but only the lead actress possesses any real talent.A police investigation manages to slow events down to a crawl, but there are still plenty of memorable images which this film conjures up. The opening has an unsuspecting victim opening her wardrobe to find the bug-eyed manservant jumping out at her, while other scenes evoke Jack the Ripper with the doctor, replete in cape and top hat, prowling the gloomy streets looking for more victims. Sadly, despite being by all accounts a rather tame film, the film is trimmed of all surgical scenes in the UK so I am unable to give an account of these. Most of the action is saved for the finale, as is the case with these films, and it doesn't disappoint. Altogether, this is very much an average affair which goes through the motions but is too happy to feed off other classics which have gone before it.

Michael_Elliott The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Jess Franco reworks EYES WITHOUT A FACE with Howard Vernon stepping in as Dr. Orloff, a doctor using a deformed man (Richard Valle) to kidnap women so that the doctor can use them to rebuild his daughter's face, which was scarred in a fire. I will say right off the bat that I find it rather impossible that Franco wasn't aware of EYES WITHOUT A FACE when he made this but I guess there's always that slight shot that two people pretty much came up with the same story idea is a short period of time. With that said, there's no doubt that the "other" film is the true classic but this one here manages to be worth watching even through its sometimes silly moments. I think Franco is at his best here whenever there's a murder/kidnapping sequence going on. One could argue that the opening sequence is among the best work Franco has done as we see the deformed Morpho break into an apartment to kidnap a woman while terrified neighbors look on not wanting to help her. Another strong point to the film are the performances with Vernon doing a very nice job as Dr. Orloff. What makes his performance work so well is that he manages to be both sympathetic but also evil in his own way. Valle is also quite memorable in his role. The atmosphere is another major plus with the B&W cinematography adding another dimension to the film. The bad moments are many of the supporting performances and certainly the awful dubbing if you happen to be watching an English track.

Scott LeBrun Legendary cult director Jesus "Jess" Franco does well with this "Eyes Without a Face" type story that he wrote himself. It has many of the trappings of a traditional old style horror film, complete with a spooky old castle, a creepy henchman, darkly lit streets, and an occasionally overpowering score. Its acting is good, its atmosphere undeniable. The plot is spiced up a bit by the inclusion of some eroticism and some very mild gore. Overall, it's very enjoyable.Franco regular Howard Vernon stars as the mad Dr. Orlof, a surgeon determined to restore beauty to his daughters' face (she was disfigured in a lab accident) by using unwilling female donors. At first, he and his scar faced lackey Morpho (Ricardo Valle) take women whom he thinks people won't miss - namely, prostitutes - but gets more bold when he believes that the key to a successful operation is the use of living flesh. Meanwhile, a dogged police inspector named Tanner (Conrado San Martin) tries to figure out the identity of the maniac.Set in Paris in the early 20th century, "The Awful Dr. Orlof" is considered by some to be the first horror film to come out of Spain. It certainly shows that Franco was a man of real talent, as he creates a wonderful Gothic feel throughout. It plays kind of like a police procedural for a while, with an extended sequence of Tanner interrogating witnesses as to the appearance of Orlof and Morpho, who have been glimpsed at the murder scenes. It may not appeal to some horror fans as it is quite talky, but otherwise it works just fine.The cast features some gorgeous woman and some men with distinctive character faces, such as leading actor Vernon. He's effectively low key in the antagonistic role, and Valle is fine as a hulking brute who's not completely unsympathetic. San Martin is engaging as the likable cop in love with his ballerina girlfriend, Wanda (Diana Lorys). Faustino Cornejo is a delight in a neat role as a sometimes drunken but helpful informant. Lorys is enchanting and pulls double duty by also playing the role of the disfigured Melissa. Perla Cristal is likewise appealing as Orlofs' disapproving associate Arne.Fans of the horror films of the 1930s and 1940s should find a fair deal to enjoy here. It's well made but fairly straightforward, and the story moves along at a good clip.Eight out of 10.

MARIO GAUCI I first-watched this on Boxing Day 2004 in the wake of my DVD viewing of Georges Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960), which clearly inspired it; being in Spanish with no subtitles, I recall admiring the film's undeniable pictorial qualities but only ended up rating it **1/2 (incidentally, I know I jotted down notes back then but never opened these up into a proper review and, regrettably, I seem to have misplaced them in the interim!). Going through it a second time, in English now (its Spanish origins – again, this was allotted the French "Eurocine" stamp – are given away by the songs being performed in that language), the film proves every bit the solid effort the director's hardened fan-base has always claimed it to be! For the record, I am not sure off-hand how long the original was, or how it may have differed from this current copy, but the latter runs for 83 minutes. Anyway, Franco's fourth feature (but only the Spaniard's first genre outing) is naturally a seminal work within his vast canon but also the "Euro-Horror" movement since the title character (subsequently spelled with an added 'f'!) would become something of an icon and appear in myriad other (though usually unrelated) 'vehicles'! As I said, THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF – by the way, I much prefer the original title, which translates to SCREAMS IN THE NIGHT – looks great (especially given the period setting) but obviously also benefits from lead Howard Vernon (previously relegated to eccentric character parts)'s star-making turn and the presence of his unforgettably bug-eyed assistant Morpho (again, for whatever reason, Franco's filmography is littered with mute and vaguely sinister manservants, sometimes played by the director himself!); incidentally, it was an inspired touch to have Morpho introduced emerging from a closet and, needless to say, his nightly rampages for fresh victims constitute some of the film's definite highlights. The "DVD Savant" review rightly remarks of the incongruity of Morpho's condition to diligently carry out his tasks (for one thing, he has to be guided by Orlof's tapping of his cane!), but is not that part of what makes these films endearing to begin with?!; similarly, Morpho regularly attacks his victims by biting their necks ("Savant" suggests this is an externalization of the audience's own desires, with the obvious detachment represented by the assailant's own disability!) which, blind as he is, he might damage their visage...then where would he (and, more importantly, Orlof) be?! Two other recurring devices (which I also denoted in reviews of recently-viewed titles by this notorious exploitationer) are the chanteuse and the cop (a Police Procedural sequence here, unfolding two very diverse identikits of the presumed assailant, would virtually be replicated wholesale in Franco's much-later JACK THE RIPPER {1976}…who even gets stuck with the Orloff moniker!). In this case, however, they are adopted by the figures of the heroine (played by the stunning Diana Lorys, with whom Orloff becomes obsessed because apparently she looks like his daughter: the actress was later the protagonist of NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT {1970}, dealing with another much-reworked Franco premise i.e. the hypnotized assassin) and hero (called Tanner, who also recurs a lot in Franco's oeuvre…though, typically, he is depicted as lacking the insight to be anything like the villain's equal, when he decides to shun a letter – even if it keeps turning up – until it is nearly too late!).The plot, then, is among the first to rehash the afore-mentioned Franju masterpiece: practically contemporaneously there were MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN from Italy and THE WITCH'S MIRROR from Mexico – the three of them, along with Franco's own subsequent THE DIABOLICAL DOCTOR Z (1965) and the French-made THE BLOOD ROSE (1969), actually constitute the best of countless variations over the years…though none really came close to recapturing the deft (one might even say, audacious) mix of haunting poetry and in-your-face realism that marked the original. One significant shortcoming here is that the fire-victim daughter whose face Orloff intends to restore remains nothing more than a cypher throughout, being confined to a bed the whole time and deemed of only a handful of shots along the way (unlike the poignant Edith Scob, with her eerie blank mask, in EYES WITHOUT A FACE)! In the end, Orloff commits an imprudence by eliminating another (female) aide when objecting to more killings and especially his assertion that, for the operation to be a complete success, the face-grafting has to be done when the (unwilling) donor is still breathing! Since she had been sympathetic to Morpho, he rebels and cuts short Orloff's plans – and life – when inconveniently (indeed literally) stumbling upon her body at the climax! When he takes up the abducted Lorys to the roof of Orloff's castle (his intentions unclear – is he going to toss her over the walls or will he be keeping her as a personal prize for his pains?), Morpho is promptly shot by the nick-of-time arrival of the hero – a scene which is practically recreated in the first loose sequel to the film, namely DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER (1964; also helmed by Franco).