Product Details

• Actors: Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui, Hugo Blanco, Daniel Blumer, Mer Casas, Perla Cristal
• Format: Black & White, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 15, 2002
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005TNG3
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #54,205 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Dr. Orloff's Monster" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Melissa, an attractive Austrian college student, travels to Holfen to spend the Christmas holidays at the castle of her uncle, Dr. Conrad Fisherman, but the mood she encounters there is hardly festive. Her uncle's behavior is cold and furtive, and her Aunt Ingrid is perpetually drunk, trying to forget the night so many years ago when Conrad caught her making love with his brother Andros (Melissa's father) and murdered him. Melissa's chance discovery of a photograph of her late father, whom she never knew, awakens her curiosity about the past, just as Dr. Fisherman, a disciple of the mad Dr. Orloff, awakens the corpse of Andros as a human automaton with a high-frequency command to kill! This is the full length version with sequences shot especially for French audiences.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good Dr. Orloff, May 14, 2006

By	Timothy Ramzyk (Milwaukee, WI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Another one of the prolific Jess Franco's films, that features the awful Dr. Orloff. Actually, that's a little misleading as this time around it's Dr. Fischer, the dying Dr. Orloff's assistant who is up to no good.

Dr. Fischer uses Orloff's secrets to turn his own brother into a radio controlled zombie, as payback for sleeping with his wife. For no obvious reason, the good doctor also uses his robotic brother to murder several local nightclub tarts. I guess his wifes infidelity took a rather large toll on his sanity. To complicate matters Dr. Fischer's grown niece comes to stay, and has no idea her reanimated father is lurking about the family castle.

Dr. Orloff's Monster is a fairly solid entry from Franco's B/W period, and displays a lot of polish that Franco would soon abandon in favor of non-linear, seat-of-the-pants production techniques. I think he must have taken in a couple Bergman films, because there is a lot somber moody photography, dissolves of angst-ridden faces, and a general aura of depression throughout the film.

My guess is that some will find it dull, even with the added spice of nude scenes from the Euro-version. I rather liked it's low-key, dreary atmosphere and had no problem with the deliberate pacing.

This Image DVD looks pretty good and shows some of the nicely realized B/W cinematography. The nude scenes have a little jitter and appear to be taken from a slightly lesser source, but it's not a glaring contrast.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Flesh and the Robot, March 8, 2002

By A Customer

I saw this originally in a Spanish-language version called "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll" and was not very impressed. But the longer, French-language version presented by Image is definitely an improvement.

The introductory material here helps to better explain the relationships between Jekyll, his wife, and his brother. The Spanish version deletes most of the female nudity, but since the murder victims are usually nude or near-nude when the robot killer strikes, that makes the murder scenes pretty hard to follow. Fortunately, that is not a problem with the French edition.

"Dr. Orloff's Monster" is not a great classic of the horror genre, but it is an entertaining excursion in the European Gothic mode, and worth a look. The print used by Image for the DVD is quite good.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Orloff's Monster, January 26, 2002

By A Customer

The story to this Franco film is interesting, but at the same time weak. Just why is Dr. Jekyll/Fisherman killing these women? Revenge against female kind? Visually the movie is great with atmospheric b&w photography. Nice bit parts abound in the film: the rude police inspector, the boxer/pimp, Franco as the pianist, the Spanish nightclub singer. But Dr. Jekyll is just too self pitying to generate fear. The print has a some scratches here and there but overall looks fine. The sound has crackles and a little hiss, but this doesn't make anything inaudible. Two trailers and some "deleted/alternate" footage is included. The "alternate/deleted" footage being unused takes of the first two murders. It points out how economical Franco is with what he shoots, no goofs, mistakes, every take is almost identical. Another great edition to your Franco collection!