Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

The Sinister Dr. Orloff Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 18, 2024

Jess Franco's "The Sinister Dr. Orloff" (1984) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Mondo Macabro. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new program with actor Antonio Mayans; exclusive new program with author and critic Stephen Thrower; and exclusive new audio commentary by critics Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

If you have already explored Jess Franco’s oeuvre, what I am going to mention below will not surprise you. If you have not done so yet, this information could be helpful to you in the future.

Franco left a massive number of films, and several of them feature the character Dr. Orloff. For example, Franco made The Awful Dr. Orlof in 1962, Dr. Orloff's Monster in 1969, and The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff in 1973. A little later, in 1988, Dr. Orloff also popped up in Franco’s Faceless. So, who is this special character, and why did he keep reappearing in Franco’s films? Well, Dr. Orloff is a creation of Franco’s imagination, and he was usually played by the very good genre actor Howard Vernon. However, and this is the information that could be very helpful to future explorers of Franco’s oeuvre, the films that are listed above are not thematically related. Or, at least, they are not related in a way that would require that they are seen in chronological order. Why is that? Well, it is hard to tell, but if I had to guess, I would say that Dr. Orloff exists for the same reason Al Pereira does. Who is Al Pereira? He is another creation of Franco’s imagination, an international spy-turned-playboy, who kept reappearing in his films. I think that Franco had some sort of emotional connection to Dr. Orloff and Al Pereira, and whenever he felt that it was beginning to fade away, he brought them back. Also, Franco did so by finding parts for them, rather than creating complete projects for them, which is why in a few of the films the two reappear they do not have any star power. And just to be perfectly clear, Franco never forced Dr. Orloff and Al Pereira to compete for his attention or become enemies, which I always thought was a bit of a letdown.

In The Sinister Dr. Orloff, the son of the notorious doctor, Alfred (Antonio Mayans), has evolved into a monster while trying to reconstruct the body of his beloved mother in a secluded, private laboratory. To complete the reconstruction, Alfred needs different body parts, human skin, and the right type of blood, all of which he acquires from clueless prostitutes that he hires to entertain him and then kills. When Alfred’s experiment becomes a hot news story, Inspector Mario Tanner (Toni Skios) begins tracking him down, but the harder he tries, the more perplexed and frustrated he becomes. To help him regain his sanity, Tanner’s wife then secretly goes out on the streets, pretending to be a prostitute, and begins baiting the elusive monster.

Most of the material that Franco shot for The Sinister Dr. Orloff has the familiar borderline hallucinatory quality that makes viewing his films a bit like participating in a bizarre séance. However, even by Franco standards, which are notoriously flexible, this material does not come together very well. The main reason is Alfred’s inability to create excitement, either by transforming his obsession with the reconstruction and resurrection of his mother into a fascinating psychedelic nightmare or forcing Tanner into a wild hunting game. Oddly, Franco remains passive too, which quickly creates the impression that The Sinister Dr. Orloff was one of those very, very quick projects that happened while his mind was already engaged in the conception of a different and more ambitious future project.

Dr. Orloff’s presence is essentially meaningless, too. This time the old man plays a good man with a conscience, but his only contribution to the drama is a series of statements that highlight the obvious, which is that Alfred has gone mad.

Franco shot The Sinister Dr. Orloff on location in Spain for the tiny local production company Golden Films International, S.A. However, unlike the other films that he made for it in the 1980s -- like Night of Open Sex, Macumba Sexual, and Cries of Pleasure -- The Sinister Dr. Orloff does not impress with great footage from spectacular locations.

The Sinister Dr. Orloff Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Sinister Dr. Orloff arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Mondo Macabro.

Quite a few of the films that Jess Franco made for the Spanish production company Golden Films International, S.A. have been released on Blu-ray by Severin Films, and The Sinister Dr. Orloff, which is from the same bunch, is one of the best looking ones. Obviously, Franco's smallest films, and the films from this arrangement were quite small, will never look as spectacular as big projects like The Girl from Rio, so you need to adjust your expectations, but the overall quality of the presentation here is very, very good. Despite obvious fluctuations, delineation, clarity, and depth are typically very nice, and the entire film looks healthy. Color balance is convincing, too. However, some areas show a bit of unevenness that appears to have been introduced by aging. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. Also, I did not encounter any encoding anomalies. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

The Sinister Dr. Orloff Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

I have to mention first that I found the English subtitles incredibly frustrating. They are very small and in some areas almost impossible to read. I have a big TV too, so this was pretty disappointing. The quality of the audio is slightly inconsistent, but this is to be expected from a small Jess Franco film. There is dynamic unevenness and the music can sound a bit flat. The dialog is clear and easy to follow.

The Sinister Dr. Orloff Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Antonio Mayans - The Wild Years with Jesus Franco - in this exclusive new program, Antonio Mayans, who frequently collaborated with Jess Franco, recalls how he met the late director and discusses in great detail his working methods. Mr. Mayans also served as a production manager on a massive number of films, which was work that he was enormously happy to do. There are some very interesting comments about Howard Vernon's frequent collaborations with Franco as well. In Spanish, with English subtitles. (27 min).

• Interview with Stephen Thrower - in this exclusive new program, author and critic Stephen Thrower discusses the conception and production of The Sinister Dr. Orloff, Jess Franco's lasting relationship with the character of Dr. Orloff, and the exact period in which the film emerged as well as the evolution of Franco's work. In English, not subtitled. (39 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson. There is a lot of interesting information in this commentary that addresses Jess Franco's return to Spain and deal with Golden Films International, S.A., Dr. Orloff's reappearance in his work, and the style and tone of The Sinister Dr. Orloff.

The Sinister Dr. Orloff Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you plan to begin exploring Jess Franco's oeuvre, The Sinister Dr. Orloff must not be one of the first ten films you see. You should plan to return to it much, much later, long after you have viewed the likes of Attack of the Robots, She Killed in Ecstasy, Vampyros Lesbos, and Venus in Furs. The Sinister Dr. Orloff reintroduces one of Franco's beloved characters, but it is a small and flawed film that only completists will appreciate. This recent release from Mondo Macabro presents a very nice 4K restoration with several very good exclusive new bonus features, one of which is with Franco's frequent collaborator Antonio Mayans. RECOMMENDED only to Franco completists.