The Awful Dr. Orloff

The Awful Dr. Orloff (Spanish: Gritos en la noche, lit. 'Screams in the Night') is a 1962 horror film, written and directed by Jesús Franco.[3] It stars Howard Vernon as the mad Dr. Orloff (sometimes spelled Orlof) 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. The film is considered to be the earliest Spanish horror film.[4] Howard Vernon continued to appear in a number of Franco's horror films up until his death. Franco would later feature a number of blind or disfigured henchmen also named Morpho in many of his later horror films, such as Vampyros Lesbos and Revenge in the House of Usher.

The Awful Dr. Orloff
Spanish theatrical release poster
Directed byJesús Franco
Produced by
  • Leo Lax
  • Serge Newman
Written byJesús Franco
Screenplay byJesus Franco
Starring
Music byJose Pagan[1]
CinematographyGodofredo Pacheco[1]
Edited byAlfonso Santacana [1]
Production
company
  • Hispamer Film
  • Plaza Films Intl.[1]
  • Eurociné
[2]
Distributed byDelta Films
Release date
March 9, 1962 (Barcelona premiere)[1]
Running time
93 minutes[1]
Country
  • Spain
  • France[2]

Cast

Production

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).[5] After the screening, Franco proposed that he could make similar films "in the same vein, but with a different style".[5] Franco eventually convinced the same French co-producer who produced Vampiresas 1930.[5]

Franco was concerned how the film would be handled by Spanish censors. As a result, he produced two versions of the film, one that was unedited and one that was for British and Spanish audiences that had the scenes with nudity in them cut.[6] Spanish censors were also concerned with films that would damage the reputation of Spain. To avoid this, Franco set the film in France.[7][6]

Release

The Awful Dr. Orloff premiered in Madrid, Spain on March 9, 1962[1] under the title of Gritos en la noche (lit. Screams in the Night).[4][8] It premiered in Paris on October 1, 1962[1] under the title L'horrible Dr. Orloff and was released in the United Kingdom as The Demon Doctor in late 1963, with a "X" certificate.[1]

In the U.S. it was released on October 7, 1964[1] as the second half of a double feature with The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962).[7] The Awful Dr. Orloff became the first internationally successful horror and exploitation film production from Spain.[5] The most complete print is the Spanish print, running 93 minutes.[1] A sequel to the film, titled El Secreto del Dr. Orloff and also directed by Franco, was released in 1964.[9]

Reception

The film received a negative reception from critics on its initial release.[4] In 1964, a review in the New York Times for a double feature of The Horrible Dr. Hichcock and The Awful Dr. Orloff stated "For once, the adjectives in the titles were not only descriptive but also accurate."[10] 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."[11] 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."[11]

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".[12] 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".[13]

References

Footnotes
  1. Thrower, Stephen (2015). Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco. Strange Attractor Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-907222-31-3.
  2. "Credits". BFI Film & Television Database. London: British Film Institute. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  3. Thrower, Stephen (2015). Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco. Strange Attractor Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-907222-31-3.
  4. Hortelano, 2011. p. 221
  5. Shipka, 2011. p. 175
  6. Shipka, 2011. p. 176
  7. Shipka, 2011. p. 177
  8. Munden, 1971. p. 52
  9. Firsching, Robert. "Dr. Orloff's Monster". AllMovie. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  10. Archer, Eugene (December 3, 1964). "L'Orribile Segreto del Dottor Hitchcock (1962) A Pair of Films". The New York Times. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  11. "Gritos en la noche (The Demon Doctor), Spain/France 1961". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 30 no. 348. British Film Institute. p. 86.
  12. Willis 1997, p. 28.
  13. Hardy 1984, p. 214.

Sources
  • Hardy, Phil, ed. (1984). Science Fiction. New York: Morrow. ISBN 978-0-688-00842-0.
  • Hortelano, Lorenzo J. Torres (2011). Directory of World Cinema: Spain. Intellect Books. ISBN 978-1-84150-463-6.
  • Munden, Kenneth White (1971). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Issues 1921–1930. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20970-1.
  • Shipka, Danny (2011). Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France, 1960–1980. McFarland Press. ISBN 978-0-7864-4888-3.
  • Willis, Donald C. (1997). Horror and Science Fiction Films IV. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-3055-4.
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