The Awful Dr. Orloff

In early 1900s Paris, Police Inspector Tanner inspects a series of abductions of beautiful women from nightclubs. The perpetrator is Dr. Orloff, a mad scientist who wants to repair his disfigured daughter's face with skin grafts from other women with the aid of a slavish, blind henchman named Morpho. ==Cast==

While filming his tribute to Hollywood musical films (Vampiresas 1930), director Jesús Franco convinced his producers to watch the British film The Brides of Dracula (1960). Spanish censors were also concerned with films that would damage the reputation of their country. To avoid this, Franco set the film in France, ==Release==

The Awful Dr. Orloff premiered in Madrid, Spain on 9 March 1962 It premiered in Paris on 1 October 1962 The Awful Dr. Orloff became the first internationally successful horror and exploitation film production from Spain. The most complete print is the Spanish print, running 93 minutes. ==Reception==

The film received a negative reception from critics on its initial release. The Monthly Film Bulletin described the film "at once appalling and unique, so bad as to be almost enjoyable for its ludicrous qualities, so singular that curiosity hunters are likely to look at it agog." The review noted that one or two shots were "worthy of James Whale or Epstein" and that the score was "quasi-musical noises." The review concluded that it was "a singular film...really most extraordinary." From retrospective reviews, Donald C. Willis described the film as one of many "mainly trivial variations on Eyes Without a Face", while praising the "lighting of the castle and the night exteriors". In Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984), he stated that The Awful Dr. Orloff was declared as "the initiator of an entire subgenre mixing horror and medical Science Fiction in a gory way bordering on the pornographic". == Home media ==

A remastered Blu-ray of the film was released in August 2013 by Kino Lorber, containing the French and English-language dubs of the film. == Sequels ==

A sequel to the film, titled El Secreto del Dr. Orloff ("The Secret of Dr. Orloff", also released as The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll) and also directed by Franco, was released in 1964. Despite the title, the film had no direct storyline connection to its predecessor, instead featuring a new mad scientist character called Jekyll. The "Dr. Orloff" was reused by Franco in several subsequent films, usually with Vernon reprising the role: • Only a Coffin (1967) • Orloff and the Invisible Man (1970) • The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff (1973) • The Sinister Dr. Orloff (1984) • El siniestro doctor Orloff (1984) • Faceless (1988) Franco also reused footage from Awful of Dr. Orloff in Revenge in the House of Usher, which starred Howard Vernon as a different character. == References ==