The notorious Spanish writer/director Jess Franco made an incredibly large amount of movies in his career, more than two-hundred, but the vast majority of them aren't very good and many titles actually vanished into total obscurity by now. One of the very first films Jess Franco made, "The Awful Dr. Orloff" in 1962, always remained his best and most successful piece of work, so it's only logical that he never stopped exploiting the name of the main character. This is supposedly already the sixth entry in the Orloff series, but the story has nothing in common with the original plot, the titular doctor turned from a surgeon into a psychiatrist and he's not even depicted by the same actor anymore. The story of "The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff" definitely has potential and could easily have worked as a stand- alone thriller/horror film in its own right, but Franco nevertheless opted to link it to his best-selling franchise. The film tells the story of the young and beautiful but introvert and mentally traumatized Melissa Comfort, who's bound to a wheelchair since the age of ten and living with her uncle, his unfaithful wife and lurid daughter Martha. Melissa is plagued by nightmares in which she vaguely witnesses the death of her own father, which is why her family enlists the acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Orloff to help her. However, Dr. Orloff seems to know the girl very well and has different plan with her. Soon, poor Melissa's nightmares handle about her committing gruesome murders with a piano cord and – surprise, surprise – the victims turn out missing for real when she wakes up the next day. Franco really did his best to deliver an intriguing mystery thriller, but the screenplay is unnecessarily complex, overly talkative and features far too many supportive characters. The members of the Comfort family have interesting but irrelevant backgrounds, while Dr. Orloff himself remains too much of a closed book. Too many of the supportive characters are too in- depth and receive more screen time than necessary, like the creepy romanticist butler Matthews, police inspector Crosby and the hippie neighbor musician Sweet Davey. The latter's full name is actually Davey Procop Robert Eugene Hutchinson and he also provides the film with a few repetitive and monotonous musical interludes. I watched the film in Spanish, and the only English words are the lyrics of Davey's song "Open your eyes again" which appears to be sung in a voice that is altered by helium. For a Franco movie, this one contains astonishingly little sleaze and perversion. I mean, this was directed by the same man who made dozens of obscene "women-in- prison" and deranged "nunsploitation" movies, but even the slutty aunt and daughter remain fully clothed the entire time! In spite of many positive vibes, "The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff" is difficult to sit through because it's so dull and talkative. If you blink at the wrong moments, you'll miss all the action.
Review of The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff
