ma-cortes Intriguing as well as thrilling Euro-horror film stunningly shot by recently deceased Jesus Franco or ¨Uncle Jess¨ , born Jesús Franco Manera , a prolific Spanish film-maker who specialised in psychedelic Gothic terror , often laced with sex and violence . The sadistic Baron Klaus deals with a woman (Mabel Karr who married Fernando Rey) seeks to revenge her dad's (Antonio Jimenez Escribano) death by using a stripper (Stella Blain) , with long poisonous fingernails , to do her bidding . As she kidnaps a local dancer and controls her mind so she can seduce the scientific (Chris Huerta , Marcelo Arroita , Howard Vernon) who panned and mocked him . At the end takes place a twisted surprise about the murders . Nothing ever stripped your nerves screamingly raw like the Diabolical Doctor Z . Enjoyable and above average rendition about European terror , a habitual genre during the sixties . This very campy picture contains thrills , action , phantasmagoria , horrifying situations , and being compellingly developed . Here Franco manages to give us an appropriate ambient , an evocative production design , being rightly narrated , including a criminal plot enough to keep you intrigued throughout the flick . Interesting screenplay and adaptation by Jean-Claude Carrière , Luis Buñuel's ordinary writer . The picture was made by the time in which Franco directed nice movies such as : ¨Rififi En La Ciudad¨ , this ¨Miss Muerte¨ or ¨Diabolic Doctor Z¨ , ¨Necronomicon¨ and ¨Gritos en la Noche¨ , developing a consolidated professionalism , as his career got more and more impoverished in the following years, but his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres , from "B" horror to erotic films . Others , however, have been downright atrocious : ¨Emmanuelle Exposed¨ (1982) , ¨Red Silk¨ (1999), and his last picture ¨Al Pereira vs the Alligator Ladies¨ (2012) one of the worst films I have ever seen . ¨Miss Muerte¨ belongs to his peculiar series about ¨Doctor Orloff¨ , as he is also called ¨Doctor Klaus¨ or ¨Doctor Z¨ , the first was "The Awful Dr. Orloff" , it's followed by various sequels such as ¨El Secreto del Dr. Orloff¨ (1964) aka "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll" , "Orloff y el hombre invisible (1970) aka "Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster" and finally "Faceless" (1987) . Fine acting by Mabel Karr as vengeful daughter and unforgettable Stella Blain who plays an arty/spider dance . And other notorious secondary actors in brief appearances as Howard Vernon , Cris Huerta , Jose Maria Prada , Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui , Rafael Hernández and Guy Mairesse , some of them uncredited . And , of course , a special and sympathetic intervention by Jesús Franco , as always . Evocative and adequate cinematography in black and white by Alejandro Ulloa (Horror express) . Atmospheric original music by Daniel White (Franco's usual musician) who appears as a British Pólice detective . The motion picture was well directed by Jesus Franco ; being professionally written , produced and often deemed among his very best . Jesus Franco was a Stajanovist director , as his filmography boasts 203 directorial credits from 1957 to 2013 , a record few can match in the era of talking pictures . Given that many Franco films exist in three or four variant versions, sometimes so radically different that alternative cuts qualify as separate movies , his overall tally might be considerably higher but embarrassing . However , here he doesn't use his trademarks , as he pulls off a traditional narration , without zooms , neither lousy pace . As the picture belongs to Franco's first period in which he made passable flicks . Franco used to utilize a lot of pseudonyms and customary marks such as zooms , nudism , foreground on objects , filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY and managing to work extraordinarily quickly , realizing some fun diversions, and a lot of absolute crap . Many pictures had nice photography , full of lights and shades in Orson Welles style , in fact , Franco was direction-assistant in ¨Chimes at midnight¨ and edited ¨El Quijote¨ by Welles . He often used to introduce second , third or fourth versions , including Hardcore or Softcore inserts or sexual stocks many of them played by his muse Lina Romay . In many of the more than 200 films he's directed he has also worked as composer , writer , cinematographer and editor . His first was "We Are 18 Years Old" along with the documentary ¨El Arbol de España¨ and his subsequent picture was ¨Gritos en la Noche¨ (1962) , the best of all them . Like ¨Justine¨ , some of these films have been extraordinarily entertaining : ¨The Diabolical Dr. Z¨ (1966), ¨Vampyros Lesbos¨ (1971), ¨A Virgin Among the Living Dead¨ (1973) , ¨The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein¨ , ¨Female Vampire¨ , ¨Women Behind Bars¨ (both 1975), and ¨Bloody Moon¨ (1981). As his ¨Necronomicón¨ (1968) was nominated for the Festival of Berlin, and this event gave him an international reputation . He also directed to the great Christopher Lee in 4 films : "The Bloody Judge" , ¨Count Dracula¨, ¨The Blood of Fu Manchu¨ and ¨The castle of Fu Manchu¨ . Jesús's influence has been notable all over Europe . Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video . More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older films . He broke up with all that and got the independence he was seeking . He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals . But time doesn't pass in vain, and Jesus' production has diminished since the 90s ; however he went on shooting until his recent death .

Witchfinder General 666 Jess Franco, who is (with over 180 directed films) probably the most prolific exploitation director of all-time, is far too often dismissed as a creator of nothing but worthless junk. It may be true that many of his films fall into that description, but fact is that Franco's amazing repertoire, especially that of is earlier years, includes several downright brilliant films. Such as "The Awful Dr. Orloff" (1962), "Venus In Furs" (1969) or "The Nights of Dracula" (1970). Or this sublime film. Along with Franco's first success, the earlier classic "Gritos En La Noche" ("The Awful Dr. Orloff", 1962), "Miss Muerte" aka. "The Diabolical Dr. Z" (1966) is easily the greatest Franco film I've seen, an incredibly creepy, atmospheric and absolutely amazing gem that no lover of Horror or Cult-cinema could possibly consider missing."The Diabolical Dr. Z" follows "The Awful Dr. Orloff", and it even references the eponymous Doctor of the earlier film. The wheelchair-bound Dr. Z, to whom this film owes its English aka. title is only diabolical for about ten or fifteen minutes into the film, after which his daughter plans diabolical revenge through her father's successful experiments in mind-control, a serial killer escaped from death row, and the razor-sharp fingernails of a sexy exotic dancer named 'Miss Muerte'... The film delivers less sleaze than your typical Franco flick (which is, of course, due to the earlier release date), but stands out with an incredibly creepy Gothic atmosphere, fantastic settings, a brilliant score and an ingenious and genuinely morbid storyline. Antonio Jimenez Escribano is delightfully weird as the eponymous Dr. Z, and Mabel Karr is wonderfully malicious in the role of his vengeful daughter. The cast also includes Franco-regular Howard Vernon, who is always an enrichment for cult-cinema fans. The cast-member which is the most convincing reason to watch the film, of course, is the sexy 'Miss Muerte' herself, Estella Blain. Director Franco has a cameo as a police inspector. "The Diabolical Dr. Z" is eerily shot in Dark mansions, laboratories and old mansions and accompanied by a haunting score which intensifies the uncanny atmosphere. The storyline is ingenious and the characters are wonderfully demented. This truly is an immensely enjoyable gem for fans of Cult-Horror. I am tempted to give it the highest rating, but even without an extra star for personal delight, this is an absolutely awesome film that no Horror lover should miss. "Miss Muerte" comes with my highest recommendations and a more than well-deserved rating of 9 out of 10!

Scarecrow-88 Those of the scientific community(mainly three in particular, doctors Vicas, Moroni & Kallman)who berated Dr. Zimmer(Antonio Jiménez Escribano), whose experiments concerning mind control procedures which have the ability to cease the violent tendencies in the criminal element(for a while Z worked on monkeys amongst other animals before an exhausted escaped convict dumped right in his lap)they vehemently disagreed with, cause him to ultimately die of stress when they threaten to stop him from completing his work. Zimmer caused a major outburst at the conference where he proposed a chance to use a convict on death row(..a human being)as part of testing his theories before them proving that he could change human behavior. His daughter, Irma(Mabel Karr), goes mad from the loss of her father and hatefully vows revenge against the main three culprits she considers the cause of her father's death. Using a pretty actress who goes under the stage name "Mrs. Death", with these long fingernails, named Nadia(Estella Blain)as an instrument to possibly seduce the three doctors one at a time, Irma has a plan in place while adopting her father's controlled convict Hans Bergen(Guy Mairesse)as the muscle(..he is often used to kill when Nadia fails in her part of the scheme). Irma will fake her own death by running over a hitchhiker who resembles her, burning the body with a specific ring she's known for wearing, in her car driving into a pond. Meanwhile, an ally(..of sorts)of her father's work, Dr. Phillippe Brighthouse(whom Irma sleeps with)who attended the conference Dr. Z was ridiculed at, lends a hand to two Scotland Yard detectives working the case of Irma's supposed death and the sequential murders of the doctors who "killed Irma's father." Phillippe and Nadia had begun a love affair when Irma kidnapped her, using the experiments to control Mrs. Death's will. Will Phillippe find Nadia in time to save her before Irma decides to dispose of her? Can the detectives and Phillippe silence the blind rage of Irma before more people come to violent harm? Can Phillippe stand a chance against convict Bergen? Fantastic mad Scientist/revenge thriller, beautifully photographed in moody B&W by Alejandro Ulloa. Thankfully, this is a focused, finely paced, well crafted thriller which doesn't wander from it's story staying on course delivering the goods. I particularly like how Franco shoots Mable Karr's face in angles which show hints of the dementia thriving behind her beautifully, sweaty reconstructed face(her face had been burnt during Irma's attempt to push the flaming car into the pond containing the look-a-like hitchhiker).

The_Void It has to be said that The Diabolical Dr Z is a lot like Jess Franco's most famous film, The Awful Dr Orlof (in fact, said doctor even gets a mention here); but if you ask me, the superior film is this one. This time, rather than deal with facial reconstruction as Orlof did; sleaze master Franco deals with mind control. The plot, unlike many of Franco's films, is straight forward and here Franco proves that he can actually be quite a good story teller, when he doesn't get bogged down by too many sub plots and things that don't make sense. The film takes obvious influence from George Franju's masterpiece, Eyes without a Face (as many Euro horror films at the time this was made did), but Franco injects a lot more of his own stuff here than he did with Orlof. The doctor of the title doesn't appear for long, but before his death; he does provide the film with its main plot point - that being a mind control machine. When he suffers a heart attack, his daughter takes it upon herself to gain revenge - and so she takes control of the mind of a beautiful dancer calling herself 'Miss Death', who dispatches the doctors who caused Dr Z to suffer a heart attack by way of her long, poisoned, finger nails! The main talking point where this film is concerned is, of course, the style! Franco has shot the film in beautiful black and white, which, along with the excellent use of shadows, locations and cast members ensure that the film has both a dark, gloomy atmosphere and a real sense of beauty. Jess Franco's name has become synonymous with trashy Eurocult rubbish - but if you'd only ever seen this film from him, I wager that you wouldn't know why! The Diabolical Dr Z is art, pure and simple. The locations shot are one thing - but by far my favourite aesthetic element of the film is amazingly beautiful Miss Death, played by Estella Blain. The exotic dancer enters the film in a great sequence that sees her performing her nightclub act, in which she travels across a spider's web to seduce and kill her victims. From then on, she lights up every scene she's in - especially the ones that see her wearing the suit from her act! The film isn't very gory, but the horror appears from the ideas behind the plot, and scenes such as the one that see Dr Z's daughter hideously burned are definitely very gruesome. I've got to say that I'm surprised at how great this film is - and I'll finish off this review by giving The Diabolical Dr Z the highest of recommendations!