El secreto del Dr. Orloff (1964)

... aka: Brides of Dr. Jekyll
... aka: Dr. Jekyll's Mistresses
... aka: Dr. Orloff's Monster
... aka: Maîtresses du Docteur Jekyll, Les
... aka: Mistresses of Dr. Orloff, The
... aka: Secret of Dr. Orloff, The

Directed by:
"Jess Frank" (Jesus Franco)

An Austrian / Spanish / French co-production, this was originally released in both America (Dr. Orloff's Monster) and Spain (El secreto del Dr. Orloff / "The Secret of Dr. Orloff") as a sequel to Franco's earlier hit Gritos en la noche (1961) aka THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF (1961), though not in France, where it was titled Les maîtresses du Docteur Jekyll ("The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll"). So, is it a sequel to the original Orloff film or not? Well, yes and no. Technically-speaking, the French title is the most accurate since the film deals primarily with Professor Jekyll, though there's a brief appearance by an elderly man who's presumably Dr. Orloff. Sort of passing the torch down if you will. Sequel or not, the two films have much in common, including similar characters (though the names have been changed), bawdy musical numbers, an old castle setting, numerous scenes in jazz clubs and a disfigured killer being controlled by an evil, intelligent scientist / doctor mastermind. Most seem to think this one isn't nearly as good as the first Orloff film, but I beg to differ. It's just as good.

Ditching the period setting of the first, this updates the story to modern times but keeps the atmospheric Gothic trappings intact. Dr. Conrad Jekyll (Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui) has just learned (from his elderly superior Dr. Orloff) the secret of how to use ultrasonic sound to activate and control a humanoid robot. So what's the first thing he does with his newfound power? Why, make the robot strangle a topless stripper, of course! Conrad is constantly haunted by memories of an affair his wife Ingrid (Luisa Sala) had with his brother, which angered him so much he ended up killing his sibling. Actually, the robot killer, Andros (played by "Hugh White" / Hugo Blanco), is his brother. Andros (who's tall, pale, gloved, dressed in all-black, walks upright and stiff and will instantly remind viewers of Cesare in the silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) still has vague memories of his past, but is at the mercy of Conrad, who keeps him locked up in an upright glass coffin when he's not using him to kill.

Because of an inheritance she's supposed to get on her twenty-first birthday, Jekyll's niece Melissa (Agnès Spaak) arrives over Christmas break with a male admirer of hers named Juan Manuel (José Rubio) in tow. Melissa never got to actually meet her father, and her mother passed away after saving enough money for her to attend college. Melissa is immediately perplexed at her aunt and uncle's erratic behavior. Ingrid is a sickly, bitter and reclusive alcoholic who hates her unfaithful, neglectful husband and suffers from nightmares where she screams "Murderer!" over and over again. Uncle Conrad forbids anyone from going into either his tower laboratory or his dead brother's room and refuses to allow Melissa's beau to come inside and forces him to stay at a hotel in town. After seeing a picture of the father she's never met and then seeing Andros walking about, Melissa decides to try to solve the mystery before heading back to school.

While not quite as atmospheric as the first Orloff opus, this is still fairly stylish (the art direction, photography and lighting are all good) and has the superior screenplay. There's more of an actual plot here, better-defined characters and more natural, sometimes even humorous, dialogue. There are also surprisingly affecting scenes of Andros going to visit his own grave and sneaking into his daughter's bedroom at night to take a gander at the now-grown daughter he never got to meet and now refuses to harm. Franco's favorite milieus; smoky jazz clubs, seedy strip bars and even an opium den, are exploited as the mad Dr. Jekyll gets his jollies sending Andros out to murder innocent (well, sort of...) women. Perla Cristal , who played Orloff's reluctant female companion is the first film, shows up in this one, too, as a victim who performs a memorable song called 'Pepita.' Also in the cast are Pastor Serrador as the obligatory police inspector, Manuel Guitián as the Jekyll family's servant and José Truchado and Ramón Lillo as cops. Franco himself has a cameo as a blind piano player whose girlfriend is attacked after taking a bath; one of two instances of nudity in the film. Daniel White contributes an outstanding score to the proceedings.

Based on a novel by David Khune (Franco). Image handled the DVD release and put out a nice-looking, subtitled print. Other films in Franco's Orloff series include THE ORGIES OF DR. ORLOFF (1969), THE INVISIBLE DEAD (1971), THE SINISTER EYES OF DR. ORLOFF (1973) and THE SINISTER DR. ORLOFF (1984).

★★★

Gritos en la noche (1962)

... aka: Awful Dr. Orloff, The
... aka: Cries in the Night
... aka: Demon Doctor, The
... aka: Diabolical Dr. Satan, The
... aka: Screams in the Night

Directed by:
Jesus Franco

Franco's very first foray into the horror genre gives fans of vintage Gothic horror exactly what they want to see: a mad scientist played by a charismatic, distinctive-looking actor, a murderous and disfigured killer who has both zombie and vampire tendencies, voluptuous ladies in distress, an isolated castle, beautiful shooting locations, lots of fog and plenty of atmospheric, shadowy shots of forboding sillhouettes being cast upon roadways and buildings. Most important of all is the quality of the black-and-white cinematography, which is more crucial to the success of one of these things than either the acting or the screenplay. Thankfully, this film is very successful in that regard. It's a beautifully-shot and crafted film with obvious love and care put into both the lighting and shot compositions. And hell if this thing doesn't go one extra step further by even providing a few topless shots, which needless to say wasn't a common occurrence at all in the early 60s. Naturally, the nudity (including a scene of a naked woman getting sliced with a scalpel) was censored in both the American and British theatrical prints of the film, but have since been restored for our home viewing enjoyment.

Set in 1912, the film opens as a drunk tart is strangled to death by blind, googly-eyed henchman Morpho ("Richard Valley" / Ricardo Valle) after he pops out of her closet. Morpho then wanders off with the body in the company of his master, the caped and top hat sporting Dr. Orloff (Howard Vernon). Orloff sets his sights on a not-too-bright cabaret performer named Dany ("Mary Silvers" / María Silva). He promises her jewelry in exchange for her romantic attention, lures her to a large home, locks her inside and lets Morpho do the dirty work for him. The two then place the body in a coffin aboard a stagecoach and take it back to his secluded castle home, which is so far out of the way that it can only be accessed by boat. At the castle, we discover that Orloff is keeping his depressed daughter Melissa (Diana Lorys) in a glass coffin until her beauty can be restored after being severely burned in a lab fire. The women he has been abducting and killing are to provide skin for his unsuccessful grafts. Orloff eventually determines the grafts aren't taking because he's been using the tissue of dead women instead of trying to strip it right off of living victims. He tries this technique out on his latest victim - busty blonde singer Irma Gold (Mara Laso) - and then chains her up in a secret room after disfiguring her.

Since five ladies of easy virtue (whom Orloff deems "utterly worthless") have disappeared in just a three month period, Inspector Tanner ("Conrad Sanmartin" / Conrado San Martin) and his trusty assistant Martin (Fernando Montes) are put on the case. Tanner is dating famed ballerina Wanda Bronsky (Diana Lorys again), who Orloff has been eyeing from afar since she looks identical to a pre-accident Melissa. Deciding to help her boyfriend out (though not informing him she's actually doing it), Wanda puts herself in harm's way by dressing provocatively and frequenting the smoky nightclub where numerous victims (including Dany) have already disappeared from in hopes she can trap the killer. It isn't long before she finds herself being drugged, rushed off to Orloff's castle and in need of saving.

Aside from the wonderful look and feel of the film, we're given interesting insights into Orloff, Morpho and Arne (Perla Cristal) - a bitter woman who lives as a virtual prisoner in the castle with them, is getting increasingly more disgusted with Orloff's activities and is the only person to give a hoot about Morpho. Orloff used to be a respected prison doctor and had all but disappeared seven years earlier. Before he'd left, he'd saved Morpho (who had murdered his own father, a little girl and numerous others) from the gallows. He'd also rescued Arne from life in prison by giving her insulin to induce a death-like state and then removing her from her casket before it was buried. Orloff threatens to kill Arne if she leaves him. Morpho's current grotesque appearance is due to the fact that Orloff has used him as a guinea pig in previous experiments.

The scenes dealing with the police drag at times, there are several instances of unsuccessful humor (an artist trying to do a police sketch from conflicting stories, a nutty man who wants to take credit for the killings...) and the plot line completely rips off the French classic EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1959), but for the most part this is a nicely-done little chiller. It was based on a novel by "David Kuhne" (an alias for Franco).

Dr. Orloff would be a recurring character in many of the director's other films, though not in any kind of connected series. Vernon is best associated with the character, though he'd only actually play him in THE ORGIES OF DR. ORLOFF (1966), THE INVISIBLE DEAD (1971), THE SINISTER DR. ORLOFF (1984) and FACELESS (1987). In the first (sort-of) sequel; DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER (1964), the character had just two scenes (and was played by an elderly actor), and in JACK THE RIPPER (1976), Klaus Kinski's titular killer was named Dr. Dennis Orloff. Dr. Orloff was also played by Siegfried Lowitz in THE VENGEANCE OF DR. MABUSE (1972), Jean-Pierre Bouyxou in FEMALE VAMPIRE (1973), William Berger in THE SINISTER EYES OF DR. ORLOFF (1973), Ricardo Palacios in ALONE AGAINST TERROR (1983) and others.

The run time is usually listed as being 87 or 90 minutes, but the version I saw (distributed by Image Entertainment in 2000) seems complete and runs 83. Image also released a "Dr. Orloff Collection" box set in 2004.

★★★

Another Son of Sam (1975)

... aka: Hostages
... aka: Son of Sam

Directed by:
Dave A. Adams

After several minutes worth of pre-credits acknowledgements and then a loooong list of serial killers from Jack the Ripper up to Son of Sam and The Hillside Strangler eating up even more time, we finally cut to a couple in "a small town" in "early summer." They drive around in their boat and water ski, then head out to the Treehouse Lounge night club where some man in a bell bottom leisure suit named Johnny Charro sings the syrupy "I Never Said Goodbye." By this point we're already ten minutes into a 67-minute film and if you're anything like me, you'll be wondering "Uhhh, so where's the psycho?" Our fears are soon vanquished as the film cuts to a mental hospital where Harvey, a nutjob in a straight jacket, has just finished up a shock treatment session. He's given a sedative and has visions of his loving mother (who sexually assaulted him in his youth) rubbing his hair. For some reason the sedative doesn't kick in and Harvey strangles an orderly with a phone cord, impales another with a coat rack and beats up his psychiatrist Dr. Daisy Ellis (Cynthia Stewart) rather badly. The professional diagnosis? Well, apparently she's in a coma "but it's more shock than anything else." Daisy's boyfriend happens to be Police Lt. Claude Setzer (Russ Dubuc), and he's put on the case to help apprehend the psycho.

Harvey goes to a park, kills a couple of policemen and then heads off to State College campus for more of the same. He sneaks into the girl's dorm. It's pretty vacant since most are away on Spring Break (hmm... in "early summer?"). Tina (Pam Mullins) seems to be on edge since she stole five hundred bucks from the administration building, but that will be a moot point after the psycho murders her and stuffs her under her bed. Soon enough, Lt. Setzer, his partner Mike Shuster (Larry Sprinkle), their boss Captain Thompson (Robert McCourt), some other cops and a handful of SWAT team members surround the premises and manage trap the killer inside the dorm. The rest is a game of cat-and-mouse as the police try to locate and snuff out the madman. To further complicate matters, Tina's roommate Heather (Bonnie Schrier), armed with a paddle, and Darlene (Kim Saunders), the girl who snitched Tina out, sneak back into the dorm to try to kill the psycho on their own and are taken hostage.

I seriously doubt you will find a more ineptly staged staged police raid than the one seen in this film. The police chief tells everyone to use the buddy system, but the officers are constantly wandering off by themselves and getting killed, which provides our psycho with a pistol and then a machine gun (!), which he uses to gun down three people standing outside. There are numerous shots with policemen casually pointing loaded guns at themselves or each other. While waiting in hallway, our hero even uses his pistol to scratch his own face! One of the SWAT team members repels off the roof, taps on the window with his foot and then, when some curtains move, a sniper takes a blind shot... shooting one of the girls in the face and killing her! Without any proof that they actually snuffed out the killer, another officer tries to enter the room and is shot dead.

Its laughable depiction of police procedural (... and I seriously doubt this is some kind of sly commentary criticizing the fuzz), isn't the only thing that's utterly inept about this one. Everything else is, too. From the horrid dialogue and awful acting to the negligible contuinity and unnecessary filler to push the run time up to an hour, this thing is just one huge mess. The editing is truly terrrible and there's a car chase at night that's too dark to see, poor use of slow-motion and even worse (over)use of freeze frames at the most unnecessary moments. Oh yeah, and constantly close-up shots of the killer's emotionless eyeballs. Johnny Charo (whose song is heard no less than three different times) sings us out... and hopefully off to a better damn movie.

In addition to directing, writing and producing, Dave Adams also edited, was the stunt coordinator and cast the film. It was filmed in 1975, but not released until two years later (the opening serial killer scroll was obviously added at a later junction). The film was released on VHS by a company called Neon, then was distributed on DVD-R by Something Weird.

★

Vagabundo en la lluvia (1968)

... aka: Drifter in the Rain
... aka: Vagabond in the Rain
... aka: Wanderer in the Rain

Directed by:
Carlos Enrique Taboada

Although not well-known here in America, director Carlos Enrique Taboada (who passed away in 1997) was fairly well-regarded in his home country. His reputation there as a horror master seemed to lie primarily on his two best-known works; 1968's HASTA EL VIENTO TIENE MIEDO ("Even the Wind is Afraid") and 1969's EL LIBRO DE PIEDA ("The Book of Stone"), though he'd also make BLACKER THAN THE NIGHT (1975), POISON FOR THE FAIRIES (1984) and other genre films. While both Hasta and Libro dealt with ghosts / the supernatural and were popular enough to eventually prompt remakes (in 2007 and 2009, respectively), Vagabundo ("Drifter in the Rain" or "Wanderer in the Rain") is a low-key psycho-drama / thriller that may be the least-watched of all the director's genre films. It's a small-scale effort centering around just a few principal characters and set primarily in just one location; very much like something that has been adapted from the stage to the screen. The good news is that the film does a reasonable job fleshing out its characters and, while not really overtly horrifying, contains several effectively creepy moments and some suspense. The bad news is that it's not particularly original and it's difficult to find.

Things begin on an amusing note as we see two Nazi's step out of their car and demand to enter a home only to realize the men are just dressed up for a wild costume party. Angela Ayala (Christa Linder) has to cut the festivities short because she's expecting to meet her husband, who's away on business in New York, at their secondary lakeside home (located several miles from the nearest residence) the following day and claims she needs to straighten the place up. Upon arriving, Angela puts on a record, lights the fire, makes herself a drink and then calls up her husband to check in. Something's clearly bothering her and things are only going to get worse after she starts noticing signs that someone has been in her house; food's been eaten, there's a lit cigarette on the floor, a door lock is busted...) She grabs a rifle, heads down into the basement and discovers a bearded vagrant (Rodolfo de Anda) hiding out. Though he claims he just broke in for some food and seems harmless enough, she forces him leave, despite a raging thunderstorm going on outside.

Upon retrieving her luggage out of her car, Angela discovers that a drunken woman named Monica (Ana Luisa Peluffo) had climbed into her car and passed out in the backseat before she'd left the party. The vagrant pops by long enough to help carry her inside. Angela gives him a little money and asks that he be on his way. When Monica awakens, the two women start to get to know each other. Monica is an older, embittered, hard-drinker trapped in a loveless marriage to a wealthy man; possibly the type of woman Angela may become one day if she doesn't watch it. Monica senses that Angela is uneasy because she's having an affair and is awaiting her lover, and she's only partially right. Angela is indeed having an affair, but she's actually awaiting Raquel (Norma Lazareno). Raquel eventually shows up with incriminating photos of Angela's affair demanding money. Meanwhile, the vagrant snaps, kills a cat, trashes the boat house in a rage, flattens Angela's tires, starts lurking around the home, peeks in windows and such.

Despite having some competent moments of terror and suspense, the film is really at its best during character-driven scenes between Angela and Monica, where we get a cautionary 'don't become like me' moral delivered to the younger, more idealistic Angela by the older, experienced and more cynical Monica. The difference between the two women is one of years. Having her marriage threatened by both her own actions and by Raquel only strengthens Angela's feelings of love for her spouse, while in Monica's case (Raquel had already tried to blackmail her for her own affair) it was basically too late.

Star Linder (a real knockout that I'm surprised isn't more famous than she actually is) was born in Germany and went on to represent Austria in the Miss Universe pageant (which she almost won) before embarking on her acting career. She appeared in a couple of American films and TV shows, but worked primarily in Europe and Mexico on such films as the German krimni STRANGLER OF THE TOWER (1963), the sleazy Mexican film NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CATS (1972) and the horror-western HOT SNAKE (1976). She also appeared alongside Boris Karloff in his final films; THE SINISTER INVASION (1968), and was in the Italian vampire sex comedy YOUNG DRACULA (1975) for director Lucio Fulci. The other actors; Peluffo (THE LIVING HEAD), Lazareno (NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES) and de Anda (FURIOUS ENCOUNTER) were all veterans of the Mexican film industry with a good number of genre films to their credit.

Like most of Taboada's other films, this was never released in America. It's on DVD, though (Spanish-language only) on the Cinema Inc. label.

★★1/2