(1961)
Overall: MEH
Historically important for basically being the first Spanish horror film and it does have one or two creepy moments, but The Awful Dr. Orloff, (Gritos en la noche, Screams in the Night), is really nothing more than a sub-par homage/rip-off of the much lauded Eyes Without a Face. While this one may have its cult following as its director Jesús Franco surely does, it also pales in comparison to the film whose footsteps it is clearly trying to follow in. For one, our male hero played by Conrado San Martin makes one of the most mind-numbingly idiotic yet convenient for the plot decisions near the finale that both reeks of cheapness and inept screenwriting. There is also a throw-away scene at the same moment where he and his partner, (who have been desperately trying to catch the man responsible for kidnapping and murdering so many women), both have a hysterical young girl run up to them in the street saying she was chased by a lunatic with a knife to which the inspector's logical response of course is to say "Ah get outta here will ya. This whole town's gone crazy." Besides the stupidity, the film is your standard, "mad doctor kidnaps girls for experiments" stuff where we are just waiting for the inevitable moment where his mute and deformed assistant with a heart of gold turns on him, the main female protagonist outsmarts him, and the hero male comes dashing in.
(1965)
Overall: MEH
Yet another evil doctor titled horror outing from Jesús Franco emerged in The Diabolical Dr. Z, (Miss Muerte, Dans les griffes du maniaque). The opening is a bit rough with Antonio Jiménez Escribano appearing as what a five year old would draw if you asked them what a mad scientist looks like, (huge goggles, crazy Gene Wilder white hair, wheelchair, etc). He rushes into a room full of scientist having some sort of meeting and proceeds to not only get scoffed and threatened for spouting his "crazy but of course correct" theories of good and evil being curable, but he also dies from all the stress right then and there which is pure silliness. After that though, things become far more interesting and Franco executes them very well. Mabel Karr is a formidable evil female lead as Doctor Zimmer's deranged daughter and it is a pleasant "twist" to have her be the actual title character. We even have a surprisingly exciting man-on-man fight to the death near the end, surprising because it is not the ole "one punch to knock em out" stuff. Estilla Blain is also excellent as the sultry-dancer come unwilling living instrument of revenge. There are more goofs in the form of several plot points that are just too advantageous to be convincing, but it all remains compelling enough to ultimately work.
(1968)
Overall: WOOF
Succubus, (Necronomicon - Geträumte Sünden), is the first movie that Jesús Franco made outside of his native Spain, at last fully fed-up with said country's strict censorship laws. A curiosity then in that respect and ripe with many of the elements that Franco would continue to explore throughout the following decade, namely naked women and gore, though the latter is very tame this go around. It is also an incredibly difficult film to follow. The opening scene is well executed enough and tips us off appropriately that all is not what it seems, but once the foggy-lensed dream sequences take over for seemingly the rest of the durration, it becomes an unfollowable mess. Lead Janine Reynaud floats around one setting to another, has interactions with numerous people who call her different names and may or may not have previously known her, there is some guy's eyes we keep seeing who is apparently supposed to be Satan, (which you would never guess), there is a castle she maybe lives in, there is a psychiatrist she talks to, the narration changes characters, and then she starts killing people. Well, or something. All this would make for a nice, surreal horror outing if not for the undeniable fact that it is so painstakingly sluggish and boring. Sadly, Franco movies are routinely this humdrum so it is hardly an isolated case.
No comments:
Post a Comment