Available on the Library’s Kanopy movie streaming service and just in time for Halloween is writer-director Jess (Jesus) Franco’s horror masterpiece, 1962’s The Awful Dr. Orlof. A weird, surreal, and starkly lurid film, not for kids, Orlof will hold a viewer’s interest from start to finish!
Here’s the trailer:
The plot: In the turn of the century Europe (the movie was filmed in Spain, yet dialogue & various street signs suggest France), crazy surgeon Dr. Orlof (Howard Vernon) is hell-bent on restoring the now scarred face of his daughter Melissa (Diana Lorys). To accomplish this, Orlof & his blind assassin/servant Morpho (Ricardo Valle) kidnap & later murder young attractive women so Orloff can take skin from them to graft onto his daughter. Inspector Tanner (Conrado San Martin) can’t seem to make any headway with the case, so his dancer girlfriend Wanda (also played by Lorys) decides to act like Nancy Drew and act as bait for the killers.
Yes, there is a similarity to director Georges Franju’s more sedate 1960 classic Eyes Without A Face, but The Awful Dr. Orlof, despite having more grisly scenes, stands out on its own. The grim, dark atmosphere, helped along by Godofredo Pacheco’s photography and a harsh musical soundtrack by Jose Pagan & Antonio Ramirez Angel, seems to transport the viewer into another world. It’s like an ongoing nightmare that the viewer can’t escape from, yet feels compelled to see through it to the end.
Kanopy offers the uncut French version of Orlof. If you’re looking for Halloween thrills, this is for you!
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