The Awful Dr Orloff [Gritos en la noche] *** (1962, Conrado San Martín, Diana Lorys, Howard Vernon, Ricardo Valle) – Classic Movie Review 9710

Writer-director Jesús Franco’s 1962 Spanish horror movie The Awful Dr Orloff [Gritos en la noche] stars Howard Vernon as Dr Orloff.

He is a mad doctor who kidnaps beautiful women to operate on them and find bits of them to use on his badly fire-damaged daughter to restore her to her former beauty. He is assisted by deformed monster Morpho Lodner (Ricardo Valle). But a young police inspector (Conrado San Martín) and his ballerina girlfriend (Diana Lorys) are onto him.

The Awful Dr Orloff is neither a particularly awful nor a very good creepshow, but it is entirely watchable and has acquired a cult reputation over the many years as a minor classic of black and white European horror cinema.

In its disfavour, it started a long series of actually awful Orloff movies: El secreto del Dr Orloff [Dr Orloff’s Monster] (1964), Orloff Against the Invisible Man (1970) and Revenge in the House of Usher (1983).

The story and screenplay are by Jesús Franco (as David Khune).

Franco proposed to make it similar to the British horror film The Brides of Dracula (1960), ‘in the same vein, but with a different style’.

Franco has a Director Cameo as ‘Man playing piano in bar’.

The Awful Dr Orloff [Gritos en la noche] is directed by Jesús Franco, runs 93 minutes, is made by Hispamer Film, Plaza Films International and Eurociné, is released by Delta Films and Sigma III Corporation, is written by Jesús Franco (story and screenplay), is shot in black and white by Godofredo Pacheco, is produced by Leo Lax and Serge Newman, and is scored by Jose Pagan.

It premiered in Barcelona on 9 March 1962. It was released in the UK with a X certificate as The Demon Doctor in late 1963. It was released in the US on 7 October 1964 as the lower half of a double bill with The Horrible Dr Hichcock (1962). Despite bad reviews (‘appalling’, ‘ludicrous’) , it became the first internationally successful Spanish horror film, and a sequel, El Secreto del Dr Orloff [Dr Orloff’s Monster], also directed by Jesús Franco, was released in 1964.

Franco prepared an edited second version of the film for British and Spanish audiences without the nude scenes. He set the film in France as Spanish censors objected to films that might damage the reputation of Spain.

Vernon continued to appear Franco’s horror films. Franco also featured disfigured henchmen named Morpho in many of his later horror films, such as Vampyros Lesbos and Revenge in the House of Usher.

Orloff is a variant of Orlov, derived from the Slavic word ‘orel’, meaning ‘eagle’.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9710

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