Nigel P Howard Vernon, dapper and hidden in shadows for his first few appearances, abducts silly young ladies in order to transplant their faces onto that of his scarred daughter. Vernon began his long association with Spanish Director Jess Franco with this film, often starring as main characters in often low-budget European horrors after a career playing mainly playing 'gangsters and heavies'. As his billing in mainstream films got lower and lower, his star rose under Franco. Vernon is excellent in this, as he is in all Franco's films – an underrated actor often starring in underrated productions.He plays Orlof, a villain with a smattering of sympathy and a henchman called Morpho (Ricardo Valle). The practicalities of employing a totally blind assistant must be limited – Morpho's scarred, boggle-eyed make-up is not dissimilar from that of the titular monsters in Franco's 'Oasis of the Zombies' twenty years later. The name Morpho would be given to many villainous underlings in future projects.Inspector, Tanner (Conrado San Martín), finds his time divided between this gruesome case and his new fiancée Wanda (who on occasion, bears a resemblance to Yvonne Monlaur's character from Hammer's 1960 hit, 'Brides of Dracula' – a film that inspired Franco to pursue a horror film career). Imagine if Orlof decides that she should be his latest victim! Taking cues from 'Frankenstein', 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and especially the French classic 'Eyes Without a Face (1960)' – there's even a black cat thrown in for good measure - this is reputedly Spain's first horror film. It is a chiaroscuro triumph, striking in black and white, almost film noir. Directed with assurance and almost completely lacking Franco's predilection for camera zooms, 'The Awful Dr. Orlof' is the film that put Franco on the map – and deservedly so. Otherwise known as 'Screams in the Night'/'L'Horrible Docteur Orloff', there are few signs of his future in cut-price 'exploitation' that would become his trademarks. An entirely respectable, well played, good looking and confidently produced horror, it ticks all the right boxes and a few more besides.

lemon_magic The main lesson that "ADO" gives us is that Franco was capable of pretty good work when he took his time and polished it...but even early on, it's obvious from this movie's choices that Franco was mostly interested in shock and exploitation in his films, even at the cost of common sense or real story telling. The movie is an obvious retelling of "Eyes Without A Face", not as well plotted or acted overall. It's still quite watchable thanks to some effective black and white cinematography, some attractive (or at least interesting looking) actors and character designs, and a weird, churning organ/drum based sound track that helps maintain the mood even when things drag. Alas, there are pacing problems, holes in the plot you could drive a submarine through, and some gimmicky nudity (I'll grant that the topless shots actually make sense in the context of the scenes). Franco overuses certain kinds of shots - seemingly half the movie consists of Morpho carrying dead/unconscious women from place to place. And what's the deal with Morpho, anyway? He's got some kind of vampire neck biting thing going on which is never explained, so it's obviously just Franco translating sexual assault through ripping off Universal's and Hammer's versions of "Dracula". And the dubbing (at least in the DVD I saw), sinks it. None of the English voice talent is incompetent, but it seemed as if the "main" voice roles were performed by actors not really fluent in English on a native level - lines are shouted, declaimed, recited and delivered,but nothing sounds authentic. I am sure the movie would be much better with subtitles. Decent. There were moments I forgot I was watching a Jesse Franco film - but inevitably,I would quickly be reminded. See it if you like Franco, exploitation in general, or "Eyes Without A Face".

Dalbert Pringle Completely putting aside all of the rest of this decidedly dumb, B-grade horror movie (from 1962) - My full 3-star rating goes exclusively to Morpho's absolutely priceless make-up effects. In the story, Morpho was the awful Dr. Orlof's bug-eyed, mute, lunatic, assistant/whipping-boy (who just so happened to like to bite the women he abducted).Every time Morpho made an appearance on screen it was, again, another wonderful opportunity for me to get in a good, hearty laugh, or two. Morpho's goofy, never-blinking eyes, along with his petrified-wood performance, made those idiot aliens in 1954's Killers From Space look positively first-rate by comparison.Yes, indeed. Morpho's screen presence was, without a doubt, the absolute highlight of this pure dead-end picture with its ultra-cheap chills & thrills.Set in the year 1912, this sadistic, little fright flick (directed by Jess Franco), also featured a grate-on-your-nerves romance between the big, brave police inspector, Edgar Tanner, and his lovey-dovey, little, prima ballerina girlfriend, Wanda Bronsky.Stunned by this woman's sheer stupidity, I couldn't believe it when Wanda-dear foolishly went way out on a very daring limb in order to help her handsome hero solve the perplexing case of the 5 missing whores.

christopher-underwood This has its moments and there are some splendid b/w street scenes amid the torrential rain. Good use is also made of the interiors with excellent and strange accompanying music/sound. So its not 'awful' but just not as good as it might have been, indeed, of course, not anything like as good as the earlier and quite amazingly scary/poetic, Eyes Without a Face. Howard Vernon is okay and Diana Corys does well in the dual role. Mind you having had the great idea to have the same actress play Orlof's disfigured daughter and the inspector's fiancé, more could have been made of this. As it is you would be forgiven for not even realising it were the case, but for the portrait on the wall. This is not a terrible early effort from Franco and better than some of his more really awful ones, but he did also make some great Euro trash cinema and whilst I think it was always a struggle as to how much he should really let himself go, he often got it right, even if too lurid at times, for some. Worth a look.