The Invisible Dead

Orloff and the Invisible Man (1970)

** (out of 4)

Answering the call of a medical emergency, a young doctor avoids all warnings and goes to the home of Dr. Orloff (Howard Vernon) where he is told about a medical breakthrough where Orloff has created an invisible man. Vernon would play the Dr. Orloff character several times in his career so it's obvious a role he has no trouble in doing. ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (one of its many titles) is a decent time killer if you don't expect anything too good or too serious. The entire film suffers from a very low-budget and it appears that director Pierre Chevalier doesn't have much faith in anything that he's doing. Most of the scenes seem extremely rushed or at least made quickly without too much effort put into them. There really isn't any story of vision on display here as it almost seems as if Chevalier was just a director-for-hire who got the film in the can as quickly as he could. It's certainly not on the same page as THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF or DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER but there are a few interesting ideas here. It's funny how the entire doctor coming to the castle is handled because it's clearly ripping off the start of Dracula. The entire relationship between this young doctor and Orloff is a tad bit weird to say the least and the story never really bothered to explain why we need this younger doctor around. At just 75-minutes the film certainly goes by pretty quickly, although, to be honest, not much really happens in regards to the invisible man. The strangest sequence comes towards the end when a woman is stripped totally naked and sexually assaulted by the invisible man. Obviously the special effects aren't that good and the actresses acting isn't all that good either so we're left with an extremely weird sequence that belongs in the Euro Horror Hall of Fame. Vernon is good in his role and the supporting players aren't too bad either. There's plenty of nudity to keep fans of that entertained and there's some mild humor as well.

The newcomer Dr. Garondet (Francis Valladares) is summoned by professor Orloff (Howard Vernon) but people in his village is afraid to go to his castle. The insistent Dr. Garondet reaches the castle and the servants send him to talk to Cécile Orloff (Brigitte Carva), who is the daughter of the professor and is worried about the mental health of her father. Dr. Garondet meets professor Orloff and he tells what happened to Cécile sometime ago and his experiment with an invisible man, and he explains that his daughter is deranged due to the reported incident. Dr. Garondet has to spend the night in the castle and soon he learns who is the insane in the castle.

"La vie amoureuse de l'homme invisible" is a lame and funny euro trash sexploitation by Pierre Chevalier, a wannabee of Jess Franco and Ed Wood. The silly story has poor acting, awful scenarios and gratuitous nudity. The rape of the servant by the invisible man and the bush of Brigitte Carva are scenes of so bad taste that become hilarious. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Monstro do Dr. Orloff" ("The Monster of the Dr. Orloff")

Everyone else's reviews on here pretty much say what I would say, however, I wanted to add that that music score is quite impressive. I usually don't listen to the music in a film unless it strikes me and this one stuck me as being more than just boring background music. Also, the lighting they used really gave the movie a unique feel. It seemed like everyone was lit up brightly with a light right in their face. It added much needed color to the film. Without the color and music, this movie would have been very drab. Also, the "horror" nature of this film focuses on rape more than anything gory or gross. The rape scene with the maid was too much for me to watch, I had to close my eyes. It seemed to go on forever. Quite unsettling and distasteful. And the ape suit guy was hilarious. Very far from the "superior race" of people the doctor thought he was creating. It seemed like just a dumb ape to me.

3/10 because of the music, lighting and unintentional humor.

This Gothic horror film was released by Eurociné who were purveyors of cheap French exploitation movies. While it has slightly higher production values than most of the others released by this distributer, it's still a pretty bargain basement effort. It's one of a series of Dr Orloff movies. The character was a Euro horror alternative to Dr Frankenstein and seems to have fulfilled a similar role. The story starts when a new village doctor is summoned to Orloff's castle on business unspecified. The local populace are aghast that he would consider going to such an evil place. On arrival, it seems it was the doctor's daughter who has requested him secretly in an attempt to turn her father around from his dangerous experiments that she fears are endangering her life and his sanity. It turns out that Orloff has created an invisible man…

I think the chief problem with this one is that an invisible man makes for a very underwhelming villain. Aside from a few simple trick shots an invisible character involves very little effort to create. He is certainly a cheap alternative to a decent monster that's for sure. We are treated to floating drinks trays, pages of books turning by themselves, footprints in flour and…eh…invisible rape. The latter was clearly added to up the requisite sleaze factor that the early 70's Euro Gothic horrors were aiming for. There is quite a bit of nudity in general in the movie but it's never in danger of becoming erotic unfortunately. From the horror side of the fence, aside from the invisible man, there is a back story involving premature burial and grave robbery. Nothing of which is anything too memorable. Perhaps the single most original idea in the film is the fact that, for reasons never really explained, the invisible man appears to be a gorilla! The invisible ape…you couldn't make it up! Acting performances are generally dull but Howard Vernon (Dr Orloff) is always watchable.

OK, so the plot is risible, the acting woeful, and the production values worthy of Ed Wood. However this early Eurocine outing is a great "B" movie- at least for those who understand cinematic irony.

Crumbling castles, dandyesque clothing and buxom wenches all give it the authentic sexploitation feel. The camera angles add that dangerous and unpredictable quality that only lovers of bad movies can really appreciate.

More than that, the film is best known for the most famous bush in cinematic history, that of Brigitte Carva. Oh for the days when women were not just plastic-packed crotch-shaven dollies! The women in this film are real, and the creaking plot makes their naked exploits all the more impressive. For collectors of the genre (or admirers of the hirsute), this B-flick is a must. The plot is only marginally of relevance.