Nigel P "Who sent for me to see the master of the house?" asks Dr. Garondet (Frances Valladares). "Don't ask me," replies the surly menial. "Then who should I ask?" persists the doctor. "Me," replies the menial.Some of the English dubbing occasionally threatens to tip this French/Spanish horror film into farce. Such ill-advised dialogue never gets a hold though, and it is entirely possible to enjoy this effective mad-scientist story. Orloff is played by Jess Franco veteran Howard Vernon, who once again is excellent in this mad-eyed role. Director Pierre Chevalier might lack the imagination of Franco, but his straightforward style makes great use of the locations and doesn't shy away from various unnecessary scenes of young ladies disrobing.Garondet is called out in a storm-lashed night to the mysterious Orloff's tremendously Gothic château. Such is the ferocity of the storm that Garondet stays the night in the company of Orloff, his allegedly deranged daughter Cécile (Brigitte Carva) and the invisible man/creature Orloff has created.The story seems a kind of mix of Dracula (Garondet's trip to the castle is more than a nod to the classic vampire story) and Frankenstein, with Orloff as the insane experimenter. With an invisible ape-man thrown in, we end up with a weird and not unenjoyable tapestry of horror elements, with wonderfully creepy Gothic tunnels and a hero with the most garishly red lined cloak. The invisible man-thing of the title isn't the focal point of the film until the final reel, his longest scene being the rape of the young housemaid in a stable (the sight of an invisible character indulging in the sex act has to be seen to be believed). This and his brief reveal are the film's most eccentric moments.This is a definite oddity. Jess Franco-esque, muddle headed and lacking a satisfying ending, this is what I suppose you might call classic Euro-horror from the 1970s. An ape-man with an insatiable desire for sex and mayhem is one thing, but an invisible one is a different budget-free ball game entirely.

MARIO GAUCI Apparently, the Orloff name was strong and universal enough to be dealt with by hands other than Jess Franco's, who created him (like, say, Dr. Mabuse, whom the notorious Spanish film-maker eventually got to grips with himself). As for The Invisible Man, he would go into even wilder directions over the years from what H.G. Wells had envisioned in print and James Whale immortalized on the screen in his classic 1933 adaptation!Incidentally, while the 1961 film that spawned the Orloff character unfolded within a period setting, the second (which was helmed by the same director but did not feature the actor best-known for playing the titular figure i.e. Franco regular Howard Vernon) was updated to contemporary times; this, then, takes it even further back than the original to the Gothic era (though belying this fact by accompanying the proceedings with incongruous jazzy rhythms, complete with finger snaps that half-promised the inclusion along the way of a Jets-vs.-Sharks skirmish)! While it would like to evoke the style of the series, the result is decidedly more low-brow than Franco had so far gotten with this character (incidentally, two other of the director's efforts from this early phase, namely THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS {1962} and THE DIABOLICAL DOCTOR Z {1965}, come far closer to the established formula) – for the record, I would like to check out Franco's similarly-titled THE SINISTER EYES OF DR. ORLOFF and THE SINISTER DR. ORLOFF from 1973 (this was recently released on DVD) and 1982 respectively.Anyway, here we get a young doctor (played by an actor who, apart from being bafflingly adorned in a Dracula cape, never once changes his facial expression, irrespective of what situation he may be facing!) being asked to the Orloff estate – and hilariously shunned off by the townsfolk when he dares mention the name, even the horseman who offers himself to take the hero up there – ostensibly to treat a patient (why he does not even bother to ask himself how come Orloff did not do this in the first place is anybody's guess). However, it transpires that Orloff's daughter had requested his presence (one wonders whether she got his name off the epoch's equivalent of the "Yellow Pages"!) because she fears for her father's sanity and her own life, as he seems to be involved in a weird experiment of some kind. Ironically, when he confronts Orloff, the latter not only expresses surprise at seeing the young man but claims that it is the girl who is unwell…after having been buried alive, robbed in her grave by their ungrateful servants, and stabbed by same when she interrupts their greedy labor by inconveniently waking up! While Orloff manages to imprison one of the culprits ("Euro-Cult" regular Fernando Sancho) in his dungeon, their layabout replacements prove not much better! Still, things soon start to go bump in the night as the hero notices a book's pages apparently turning by themselves (the heroine had already mentioned to him a curious episode in which she went before the mirror but could not see her reflection as something was obscuring it!). Orloff explains to the hero (whilst ordering his 'creation' to serve them coffee!) that he has found an invisibility serum and intends creating a super-race to take over the world (talk about a Five-Year Plan!). However, The Invisible Man turns out to be not only a rapist (ravaging Vernon's new girl servant – cue gratuitous extended nudity: this is where it really feels like a Franco movie...big deal! – in the dungeon via zoom-happy simulation that actually anticipates Walerian Borowczyk's notorious THE BEAST {1975}!) but not even human (as the heroine has the ingenious idea of sprinkling flour behind them while roaming the castle grounds so that they will know if the monster is in the vicinity but, of course, it never occurs to these twerps that he might be in front of them all the time – in any case, we get a fairly good glimpse of his hairy ape-like hide after one fortuitous flick of the white powder!).Following this, the monster catches the leading lady and undresses her in a split-second (uncovering a veritable bush wherein birds could freely nest!). The ending, for what it is worth, has the castle go up in flames and Orloff ostensibly staying behind to destroy the Invisible Man – but the heroes, all cuddled-up outside, actually witness the monster emerge alone and be mangled (conveniently unseen) by a pack of dogs! At a mere 76 minutes, I guess the film (whose original title translates to THE LOVE LIFE OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, even if it was also released as THE INVISIBLE DEAD!) is tolerable but, at the same time, too dull – and clearly incompetent – to really entertain for the duration; finally, being the first film I have watched from this director, I cannot say to be anxious to catch more of his dubious gems any time soon...

marxtafford Anyone encountering this film on VHS in the UK as the Invisible Dead, tag line; " god help us if they rise again" will find themselves utterly baffled or just ripped off by the content of the actual film. Not only have they been lead to believe that it's a zombie flick by the sleeve art but the film itself has been sliced and diced, presumably by the distributors following the 1982 video act,so that sleazy content of any kind is absent, and what we are left with is essentially 80 odd minutes of people wandering through corridors very....slowly.....indeed. As others have doubtless pointed out, none of the dialogue bears much relation to the action on screen, some of the soundtrack has been left blatantly undubbed, and that goddamn music clangs away throughout for all the world like a troop of drunken boy scouts assaulting each other with biscuit tins. Listing the inconsistencies and "what the heck?.." moments would take too damn long, but suffice to say that it's one of those eurosleaze offerings that manage to conjure up a surreal, dream-like atmosphere chiefly through being incoherent and flat out badly made.And judging by the speed of the opening doors and "magically" appearing footprints, the invisible ape-man doesn't really pose much of a threat to anyone who can move faster than a relaxed stroll.It's crap. I quite enjoyed it

Coventry I always assumed that it was Jess Franco who had a monopoly on this type of cinema, namely: the routine euro-exploitation flicks with an always-returning villain (Dr. Orloff), absurd story lines (invisible ape-creatures??), truckloads of sleaze and absolutely no logic at all. Every small detail in "Orloff Against the Invisible Man" has got Franco's name written all over it, so it was quite a surprise to find out that he actually hasn't got anything to do with it. But still Franco admirers don't have to fear that this will be a 'soft' film, because director Pierre Chevalier proves himself to be "Godfather of Sleaze" as well and his movie is delightfully trashy and nonsensical. Howard Vernon (normally a Franco-regular as well) stars as a totally insane man of science who created an invisible monster, supposedly for his daughter that got traumatized after being buried alive when she was 16. How exactly this creation helps the poor girl's situation is entirely beside the point, as are many other sudden twist in the script. Everything eventually revolves on the sexual aspect when the invisible ape-man goes completely berserk after graphically raping the housemaid (sickly illustrated by an overlong scene showing the poor woman struggling naked on a pile of hay). Every normal film-loving person will most likely detest this film, but for exploitation-fans, there is always the weird atmosphere and morbid set pieces to admire. Orloff's castle is genuinely ominous, with lots of dark cellars and secret tombs and Howard Vernon looks uniquely sinister again. Great entertainment for the slightly more demanding cult-freaks among us.