Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Franco's cheap follow-up to THE AWFUL DR ORLOFF is a sequel in name only. A character named Dr Orloff does indeed appear, but only briefly at the beginning of the film, and from then on we spend time in the company of ANOTHER mad scientist, this time a guy named Fisherman. Even though he isn't a fisherman. It's that kind of film, and to make things even more confusing he seems to have been renamed Dr. Jekyll for some reason! This is fairly ludicrous, as he doesn't change into a monster or anything, instead he controls a "monster" in the same fashion as Dr. Orloff in the first film. Except that this time he's gone technological...Confused by this? Just try watching the film, which is one of the most disjointed and confused messes that I've ever seen, all thanks to the inimitable (thank god!) and tireless work of director Jess Franco. Here, Franco's taste for the zoom lens starts to show itself with endless zooooms into the mouth of a telephone, eyes, and anything else that comes to mind. This film unsuccessfully tries to replicate the original by throwing in many similar elements, like a controlled murderer, a string of nightclub singers being murdered, and plenty of stalking down long lonely streets at night. Sadly all of these things aren't as fresh or exciting this time around, and due to the poor direction (compared to this, the original looks like a masterpiece!) this movie is a pretty difficult one to watch.Plenty of it doesn't make sense, and the fact that it was made quickly and on the cheap is clear, with scant regard for reason or logic. "Jekyll" uses his dead brother to go on a killing spree and strangle a number of women - for what reason? (other than it makes for good exploitation, of course). He doesn't seem to get any satisfaction from it as he stays sitting in his car while this happens! The victims are all at the same nightclub, but otherwise they're unconnected. Perhaps he just enjoys the thought of pretty women getting murdered. You may think that he's doing this to get back at his adulteress wife, but as she is still alive and well at home, unharmed (but on the bottle), it seems to make little sense to the common viewer. Maybe something's lost in the dubbing, I don't know.The acting is pretty bad, varying between wooden and extremely wooden. Arriota-Jauregui is no Howard Vernon, and his bearded scientist comes across as a bit of a bore rather than a frightener. Meanwhile, Agnas Spaak - the film's young lead - fails to display any conviction in her actions or line-reading, and is also very boring. Thankfully there is a silver-tongued guy around called Juan Manuel who is very amusing in a distinctly Spanish way, and a weirdo inspector who spends more time eyeing up the legs of the witnesses than investigating the case! The biggest disappointment is with Hugo Blanco as the film's "monster", Andros. Whereas Orloff's assistant in the first film was pretty creepy, especially with his bulging eyes, Andros is just a normal-looking guy with dry skin. Or scaled skin. The black and white nature of the film makes it hard to distinguish. Thus, Blanco is forced to act using his eyes only, no easy task, and his performance is more often than not unintentionally amusing rather than frightening. Sadly this means that there is no real horror in the movie. The actresses playing the female victims of Andros are also all unusually muted, and don't even scream when attacked - instead, they submit meekly to their attacker as he proceeds to strangle them!The biggest problem with this movie, for me, is the pacing. For the first half, nay two-thirds, nothing much really happens to further the plot, and things got pretty boring at times. There's a lot of action towards the end which makes things more exciting, and cool scenes where people shoot at Andros only for the bullets to have no effect. You can guess what happens but it's interesting and watchable here nonetheless. One other thing I liked was the plot device of having the dead controlled by radio waves - not very realistic perhaps, but so ingenious that Franco later reused it for his film ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS. DR ORLOFF'S MONSTER is a disappointing Euro-horror which I would recommend only to die-hard fans who have some idea of what they're letting themselves in for. Everyone else, beware!

A mad scientist creates a hideous monster to carry out his murderous plans.I watched this on Netflix streaming, so I have to say I do not think they had the best copy possible. At times it seemed like a poor digital transfer from an old source. This did not really hurt the movie, but I just want to say if you want to see this film in its best light, you may want to look elsewhere. (Though, for all I know, no good copy exists.) How this film ties together Orlof, Jekyll, an robots is a bit confusing, not helped in the least by the translation issue. I watched it as "Monster of Dr. Orlof", which seems to suggest a far different film than "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll", and yet they are one and the same.

The second "Orloff" movie is apparently unrelated to the first (a re-acquaintance with which will follow): in fact, this name is omnipresent throughout Franco's filmography; anyway, it is more or less on the same level of THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS (1962) – even if I watched ORLOFF in English rather than French (or, for that matter, the original Spanish language). Again, Franco shows to be fairly adept with genre conventions and even manages to blend them relatively easily with a modern-day setting – still, he cannot help being himself and resist incorporating nightclub performances (in fact, this rather lazily makes the artistes themselves the victims so that we get a song every 20 minutes or so!) and, inevitably, erotic overtones.Incidentally, Howard Vernon (the actor most associated with the Orloff role) is sorely missed here – the character himself is only of secondary importance and appears very briefly – but the memorable Morpho figure, a disfigured zombie-like creature obeying its master's will (not unlike Cesare from the German Expressionist landmark THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI {1920}), is now assumed by Andros. The latter – played by Hugo Blanco, the villainous latest member of the Von Klaus family and whose brooding good looks suit his mute stalker here – is perversely turned into a monster (hence the title, though the print actually bears the absurd moniker DR. JEKYLL'S MISTRESSES - which would, in any case, have better suited Walerian Borowczyk's masterful 1981 film, DOCTEUR JEKYLL ET LES FEMMES!) by his own scientist brother (Vernon's bearded, rather gruff replacement and saddled with the peculiar surname of Fisherman) when he catches him in bed with his own wife (she, of course, also pays for her infidelity by being driven to the bottle).However, the plot this time around is decidedly contrived: we never learn why Andros (who sleeps upright in a class cage, as Cesare himself did albeit in a wooden-box) is sent on a murderous rampage – after being revived, and subsequently controlled, by sound-waves – every once in a while (most effectively when he nonchalantly moves through a crowded nightspot following yet another attack). The "Digitally Obsessed" website review suggests the reason for the various killings is because Fisherman wanted to get even with his spouse…but this is hardly EYES WIDE SHUT (1999), is it?! Similarly, the heroine – the monster's daughter, whom she believed was dead and buried (at one point, he even visits his own grave!) – turns up to stay with the central family only so that we get the obligatory damsel-in-distress and add an admittedly refreshing touch of pathos to Andros' condition; Agnes Spaak, sister of the more famous Catherine(!), appears in this part. On the other hand, the girl's bland male counterpart is extremely annoying, and the presence of the Police basically only serves to keep the audience abreast of the villains' eventual apprehension.

Mysterious and reclusive evil scientist Dr. Conrad Fisherman (a solid turn by Marcelo Arroita-Jauregui) resurrects his slain brother Andros (well played by Hugo Blanco) as a lethal automaton so he can kill hookers and strippers. Fisherman's feisty niece Melissa (an endearingly spunky portrayal by the adorable Agnes Spaak) finds herself in considerable jeopardy when she visits Fisherman during the Christmas holiday. Writer/director Jess Franco effectively builds an intriguingly eerie mood, offers plenty of elegant visuals courtesy of Alfonso Nieva's crisp black and white cinematography, maintains a steady pace throughout, stages the murder set pieces with real style and panache, and even tosses in a generous sprinkling of tasty female nudity. Since this a Franco flick, we also get a few groovy nightclub scenes: One memorably sultry scene boasts a sizzling striptease by a hot blonde while another sequence features a lovely brunette belting out a snazzy jazz song (Franco has a nifty cameo as a pianist in one of these scenes!). Daniel White provides a neatly varied shivery and/or jaunty score. The dark themes of adultery and voyeurism give this picture an extra luridly compelling edge. Fisherman's moldy old castle rates as a perfectly creepy location. Moreover, Andros makes for a genuinely pitiable, if grotesque monster; the scenes between Andros and his daughter Melissa are surprisingly tender and touching. A worthy item.