Moody terror movie about a mad doctor and revolving around an invisible man . The newcomer Dr. Garondet (Francisco Valladares) is called for healing sick professor Orloff (Howard Vernon) , but people in his village are afraid of going to his castle . The insistent doctor asks for his whereabout but the feared villagers tell nothing . The newcomer Dr. Garondet reaches the castle and the servants send him to talk to Cécile Orloff, who is the daughter of the professor and is worried about the insane health of her daddy . Eventually , Dr. Garondet meets professor Orloff and he tells what happened to Cécile sometime ago . But results that evil scientist has created a murderous , invisible ape man-lookalike . Due to strange circumstances , Dr. Garondet has to spend the night in the creepy location and soon he learns there's a dangerous being stalking the castle .
Austerily eerie terror film that contains thrills , chills , fantastic events and being mostly set at a sinister castle . This so-so Spanish/French co-production is generally characterized by botcher images , sleaziness , nudism and contaning a symbolic attack on the ethics of science . Although the film passed European censors upon its original release in 1970 the nudism , grisly killings and the susprising rape by the invisible monster still caused controversy , existing a double version , both , a light Spanish and another hard French one . Being produced in short budget by Marious Lesoeur : Eurocine , Célia Films and Producciones Miguel Mezquíriz . Initial releases of the film were met with negative reactions from film critics , while the general critical reaction had been poor , however ,today is considered an acceptable terror picture . Nice acting by Howard Vernon as Doctor Orloff , his classic role who would repeat over and over again . As Vernon is brilliant as a demented researcher/scientific/surgeon haunted by a past tragedy. Functional acting by the Spanish Francisco Valladares as the doctor who figures out the mysterious events . By the time , Valladares getting big success thanks to his role in hit Spanish TV series as Ana Karenina and Diego de Acevedo . And secondary acting by the great Fernando Sancho , the Mexican antihero in hundreds of Spaghetti/Paella Westerns .The motion picture was regularly directed by Pierre Chevalier . He was a director and assistant director, known for Escuadrón pantera or Panther Squad (1984) with Sybil Danning , Pigalle carrefour des illusions (1973) and La maison des filles perdues (1974). He made various exploitation films , though in his starts he directed A-films with known stars , such as : Micheline Presle , Raymond Pellegrin , Fernandel , Gino Cervi or Eddie Constantine.
This is third entry on the long series about Doctor Orloff , a former prison doctor who tries to use skin of his victims to repair his beloved daughter's fire-scarred face and whose role subsequently to show up in various flicks mainly directed by prolific writer/producer/director Jesús Franco . The Orloff character starred a saga , using the same shots in more than one film ; some of his actors relate how they they were hired for one film and later saw their name in two or more different one . Orloff was habitually played by Howard Vernon who initiated the terrifying saga in ¨Gritos en la Noche¨ (1962) , the best of all them , also titled "The Awful Dr. Orlof" , considered to be one of the best films in his first period and deemed to be the first movie of the ¨Spanish Fantaterror¨. This vintage horror motion picture , a classic in some circles , was well directed by Jesús Franco who never considered the film to be a terror story , but instead felt it was tale of "anguish" . Here Franco established his uniquely poetic , stunningly filmed in black and white and expressionist darkness with visually striking style , including unforgettable images that owed a great deal to early cinema in general and German Expressionism in particular , though imitating to classy "Eyes Without A Face" (1960) , the masterpiece directed by George Franju , packing a haunting poetic fantasy . It's followed by ¨El Secreto del Dr. Orloff¨ (1964) aka "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll" - USA . It's gone on by " Orloff y el hombre invisible (1970) aka "Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster" , ¨Ojos siniestros de Doctor Orloff¨(1973) . Furthermore , ¨El enigma Del Ataúd¨ (1969) aka "Only a Coffin" and ¨El Siniestro doctor Orloff¨ (1984) aka "The Sinister Dr. Orloff . Finally, ¨Faceless¨ or ¨Depredadores de Noche¨(1987) in which Orloff appears as a secondary role and of course, performed by Howard Vernon.
