gridoon2018
When you watch a Jess Franco film you must set your expectations accordingly, but "Dr. M Strikes" (which apparently has nothing to do with Mabuse or Orloff, although it name-drops both) is probably one of the worst films of his entire (huge) output. He tries to do sort of a straight spy film this time, with few exploitation elements (apart from the "monster" with the cellotaped eye who strangles people), and he fails miserably. Most of the short running time is padded with conversations between people who keep repeating the same things - you know, like it happens in those daily soaps. But at the end Franco apparently is in a hurry to get home, so he wraps up the entire "plot" in literally 3 minutes! You can have some laughs with the TERRIBLE night-to-day-to-night continuity at one point, but most of this film is a dreary slog that even Franco fans will not appreciate. 0.5 out of 4 stars.
Boba_Fett1138
Jesus Franco's take on the Dr. Mabuse franchise...well that should sum up pretty much how this movie is like. Jesus Franco is a director who has always distinguished himself by delivering extremely bad and poor movies. He's always fascinated with putting a lot of nudity and explicit sexuality into his movies. He began early in his career by making mostly bad horror flicks in the '60's and '70's but his career has now reached a point that he's stuck to mostly soft-erotic movies. In many ways his career parallels that of Ed Wood's, also not in the least because of the comparable qualities of their movies. Who ever gave him the green light to do a Dr. Mabuse movie? Fritz Lang is turning over in his grave.As you would expect, this movie has actually very little to do with the previous Dr. Mabuse movies. It features an extremely muddled story with all kind of oddness's over it and you just simply don't bother to try and understand what the story is all about. It's some extremely bad and disjointed storytelling within this movie. Often the scenes and different characters and plot lines just don't blend in with each other.The characters (Really, a couple of cowboy cops?) and dialogs are often just horrible and simply laughable. And yes, of course the movie also features a couple of lesbian actions. A thing Jesus Franco also really seems obsessed with. The nudity and sexual content within this movie just seems terribly out of place and makes this more a 'dirty movie' than a real serious attempt by Franco. Not that I expected this in advance though.Like a typical Franco flick, it's also a real cheap looking movie, with bad locations, laughable make-up effects (what was that monster creature all about?) and shot sequences without the use of any additional lighting, or anything of that sort. On top of that, Jesus Franco also felt to urge to compose the music for this movie. What an horrible, horrible choice that was.Seriously only watchable for the fans of Franco-trash.2/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
DJ Inferno
Another masterpiece by one of the ultimate godfathers of campy Euro sleaze - Jess Franco! This more indirect installment to producer Arthur Brauner´s "Dr. Mabuse"-series is silly, cheap, but also damn entertaining if you like hilarious trash movies! Especially the great 1970s flair blew my mind: 1970s style as far as the eye can see, plus a stunning psychedelic score complete this funny trashfest! The actors: Moisés Augusto Rocha as monster is the best second-class Boris Karloff-double I´ve ever seen. Franco´s all time favorite actor Jack Taylor is quite good as villain, however his sly helper Eva Garden steals the show whenever she´s on the screen! The director himself is wonderful campy with his role as police chief and German actor Wolfgang Kieling fills some gaps with an amusing performance in playing a drunk angler. Don´t expect intelligent dialogues or a demanding plot, because this is a perfect symbiosis of trash and fun! Just switch off your brain for 70 minutes, lay back and enjoy!
HumanoidOfFlesh
Jesus Franco's movies are really strange:on the one hand they're really trashy and brainless,on the other hand they always deliver a good amount of sleaze and are simply fun to watch."La Venganza del doctor Mabuse" is an enjoyable trashy romp filled with bad acting,sleaze and nudity.The monster is extremely laughable and the characters(especially those stupid cops)are very funny.So if you like Franco or Spanish cinema give this one a look.