“Conrad suspected. He watched us like a green-eyed cat.”
Dr. Orloff has a secret formula for bringing the dead back to life. His apprentice is Dr. Conrad Fisherman (Marcelo Arroita-Jauregui). Orloff is in bed ill so he gives his formula to Conrad. Conrad is trying to bring back to life his brother Andros (Hugo Blanco). Conrad had previously killed his brother in a jealous rage when he found him in bed with his wife Ingrid (Luisa Sala). With the loss of her lover Ingrid has become an alcoholic. Now Conrad is using Dr. Orloff’s formula on his brother. All he managed to do is turn him into a zombie.
To get back at his wife for cheating on him Conrad has affairs with strippers and nightclub singers. A lot of them. When he is tired of one mistress he gives them a radio transmitter necklace. The ultrasonic radio waves that emanate from it cause Andros to seek out the person wearing it and kill them. Of course with all these ladies being murdered the police are having fits. Enter Inspector Klein (Pastor Serrador).
Conrad invites his niece Melissa (Agnes Spaak) to his castle in Austria for Christmas. He says he wants to turn over her inheritance to her now that she is of age. Tagging along with her is Juan Manuel (Pepe Rubio). Melissa begins to suspect something is not right in the castle. Her aunt is having nightmares. Uncle Conrad is acting strange. Plus there is a man in the castle that walks around at night. And he looks a lot like her father.
“The Secret of Dr. Orloff” AKA; "Dr. Orloff’s Monster" / "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll" / "Dr. Jekyll’s Mistresses" / "Brides of Dr. Jekyll" / "El Secreto del Dr. Orloff" was released in 1964 and was directed by Jess Franco (Jesus Franco). There are several Franco movies that use the name Orloff in them. The first Orloff movie was in 1962 and was titled “The Awful Dr. Orloff”. “The Secret of Dr. Orloff” is said to be a sequel by some, but others disagree. Whether it is or not doesn’t really matter. Franco made so many pictures that I don’t think even he knows. He is credited with some 181 writing credits and 206 directing credits under various names and movie titles. I don’t think it’s really a sequel since, other than towards the end, Dr. Orloff is only in the movie in the beginning to pass his notes on to Conrad.
Born Jesus Franco Manera (1930-2013) Franco was referred to as a sleazemeister in Euro-cinema. His specialties are ‘sexploitation’, ‘nunsploitation’, and ‘horrorotica’. (Not my terms.) The movie is based on a novel by David Khune which is a pseudonym for, guess who? Jess Franco. Franco himself has a small part in the movie as a blind piano player.
The version I saw I believe was “Les Maitresses du Docteur Jekyll) the French version dubbed in English. Of course character names were changed in some cases depending on the version you’re watching.
The second time through I distinctly heard a necrophilia reference by Ciceron (Manuel Guitian), the servant. There are some boob shots. No blood, guts or gore. It’s fairly tame for Franco.