Doctor Garondet (Paco Valladares) is the new physician in the village. One night a young boy knocks on his door with a message from the castle of Dr. Orloff (Howard Vernon). The boy tells him that he is needed at the castle. Garondet has trouble getting a driver to take him to this particular castle. Everyone is afraid of Orloff and refuses to go there. Eventually one of the men at the local pub agrees to take him. Halfway to the castle the cabbie abandons Garondet on the road forcing the doctor to walk the rest of the way.
At the castle he gets a cold greeting from one of the servants (Eugene Berthier). He is taken to see another servant (Evane Hanska) who tells him that he was summoned by Cecile Orloff (Brigitte Carva), the daughter of Dr. Orloff. Cecile tells Garondet that strange things have been happening in the castle and that she is worried about her father.
Garondet visits Orloff in his laboratory. When Garondet sees objects move without anyone moving them Orloff tells Garondet that he created an invisible superhuman man six years ago and that the creature roams the castle freely. The man lives on the blood of others.
Orloff then tells Garondet that his daughter is insane and tells him that years ago Cecile supposedly died from a weak heart. She was put in a coffin and placed in the family crypt wearing her finest jewelry. Later two servants, the game warden (Fernando Sancho), and his girlfriend, Marie (Isabel del Rio), broke into the crypt to steal the jewels. Cecile, who was in a catatonic state, woke up. The game warden stabbed Cecile and the two took off with the jewels. Cecile was wounded but managed to get to her father to tell him what happened. Orloff hunted down the culprits. Orloff then says that the event broke Cecile’s mind.
With all the strange stories that Orloff has been spinning, and all the strange things going on in the castle, Garondet is left with trying to figure out who is actually the insane one and comes to believe that he is in danger from the unseen creature.
“The Secret Love Life of the Invisible Man” AKA “Orloff Against the Invisible Man” AKA “Orloff and The Invisible Man” AKA “Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster” AKA “Love Life of the Invisible Man” AKA “The Invisible Dead” AKA “La vie amoureuse de l’homme invisible”, plus a few others, was released in 1970 and was directed by Pierre Chevalier. It is a French and Spanish horror film. Any relation to H.G. Wells’ 1897 story “The Invisible Man” does not exist.
Of course, there are various versions of the film to match the various titles. Some have the rape scene, some don’t. There is also a version where the woman in the rape scene is clothed. The original scene itself is strange and a bit gratuitous but this is a European film, so nudity is going to most likely be in it somewhere.
I actually kind of liked it, although I couldn’t really tell you why. It may have been the music score or the imagery, or some combination, but it was more interesting than not even though there are a lot of unexplained threads in the story that went all over the place.
Rumor has it that the film was actually directed by Jesus Franco using a pseudonym but no evidence of that has ever been forthcoming. Perhaps the connection is being suggested because Franco basically created the Orloff character and used it in several films.