KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Nigel P Howard Vernon, dapper and hidden in shadows for his first few appearances, abducts silly young ladies in order to transplant their faces onto that of his scarred daughter. Vernon began his long association with Spanish Director Jess Franco with this film, often starring as main characters in often low-budget European horrors after a career playing mainly playing 'gangsters and heavies'. As his billing in mainstream films got lower and lower, his star rose under Franco. Vernon is excellent in this, as he is in all Franco's films – an underrated actor often starring in underrated productions.He plays Orlof, a villain with a smattering of sympathy and a henchman called Morpho (Ricardo Valle). The practicalities of employing a totally blind assistant must be limited – Morpho's scarred, boggle-eyed make-up is not dissimilar from that of the titular monsters in Franco's 'Oasis of the Zombies' twenty years later. The name Morpho would be given to many villainous underlings in future projects.Inspector, Tanner (Conrado San Martín), finds his time divided between this gruesome case and his new fiancée Wanda (who on occasion, bears a resemblance to Yvonne Monlaur's character from Hammer's 1960 hit, 'Brides of Dracula' – a film that inspired Franco to pursue a horror film career). Imagine if Orlof decides that she should be his latest victim! Taking cues from 'Frankenstein', 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and especially the French classic 'Eyes Without a Face (1960)' – there's even a black cat thrown in for good measure - this is reputedly Spain's first horror film. It is a chiaroscuro triumph, striking in black and white, almost film noir. Directed with assurance and almost completely lacking Franco's predilection for camera zooms, 'The Awful Dr. Orlof' is the film that put Franco on the map – and deservedly so. Otherwise known as 'Screams in the Night'/'L'Horrible Docteur Orloff', there are few signs of his future in cut-price 'exploitation' that would become his trademarks. An entirely respectable, well played, good looking and confidently produced horror, it ticks all the right boxes and a few more besides.

gavin6942 Dr. Orlof (Howard Vernon), a former prison doctor, abducts beautiful women from nightclubs and tries to use their skin to repair his daughter's fire-scarred face... yes, this is a dark, twisted version of "Eyes Without a Face".This is considered to be the earliest Spanish horror film, and Jess Franco's directorial debut. The second point hardly surprises me, though I have to say this was a strong start (his earlier films in general seem to be more well-developed than his later attempts). The first point seems odd -- was Spain so far behind in film that it took until the 1960s to have a horror film? Franco was influenced by comic books, particularly the work of Manuel Vázquez Gallego, who has a small role here. He was also influenced by Orson Welles, and there are some cinematography moments that suggest "The Third Man". Film historian Tim Lucas calls out the cinematography, and also the composers, comparing the music to the score for Ken Russell's "The Devils".Lucas notes this film introduced the idea of an "oral sadist" rather than vampire or zombie -- a monster who bites necks, but has no interest in drinking blood or eating flesh.Which version is best is beyond me. The Spanish version is longer, particularly in the opening scene, and the wild music is more muted. Plot-wise, it is probably stronger than the French. Anyway, a fine little film with some good black and white shots and a creepy atmosphere. Franco seems to be somewhat focused on people with weird eyes, a theme he would return to in "House of Usher"... okay.

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).

JoeytheBrit Knowing Jess Franco's reputation, and having been subjected to his dire Flight X12 to Hell (or some similar title - I can't be bothered to look it up) I watched this early effort fearing the worst but was pleasantly surprised. The Awful Dr. Orloff is no classic, but it's not as bad as you'd expect. It probably ranks somewhere up there with a minor Hammer horror from the same period, perhaps. The guy who plays Orloff is eerily effective, and Franco manages to conjure up some eerie scenes and images. Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the character of the dimwitted police inspector - a kind of late Victorian Inspector Closeau who stuffs urgent messages scrawled in lipstick by endangered heroines into his pocket to have a look at while he smokes a fag before turning in for the night, and who needs the town drunk to point out crucial clues to him. This is no classic, but don't be turned off by the prolific Mr. Franco's unenviable cinematic reputation.