Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Diabolical Dr. Z, The
Collapse
X
Collapse
-
Diabolical Dr. Z, The
Released by: Redemption Films
Released on: February 6th, 2018.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Estella Blain, Mabel Karr, Howard Vernon, Fernando Montes, Marcelo Arroita, Antonio Jiménez Escribano, Lucía Prado
Year: 1966
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Dr. Zimmer (Antonio Jiménez Escribano) and his daughter Irma (Mabel Karr) are, with the help of servant Barbara (Lucía Prado), continuing the work of the late Dr. Orloff. What does that entail, exactly? Using Z-rays and acupuncture techniques to manipulate the brain and spine into adjusting one's behavior in very specific ways. He figures this can be used to help cure the world of murders, criminals and other unsavory types. When Zimmer presents the results of his research to a conference full of his peers - Vicas (Howard Vernon), Moroni (Marcelo Arroita-Jí¡uregui) and Kallman (Cris Huerta) - he's essentially shunned. His fellow neurosurgeons have no interest in supporting his clandestine research or assisting with his unorthodox projects. Zimmer wants to conduct his experiments on living human beings and it's decided that this is just too dangerous.
What Zimmer's peers don't know is that he's already started doing this without their blessing. An escaped convict named Hans Bergen (Guy Mairesse) is the perfect guinea pig! Sadly, for Zimmer at least, the stress proves to much for his old ticker and he soon dies from a heart attack. But before he passes, he asks that Irma continue his research. When, later, Irma accidently runs over a hitchhiker named Juliana (Ana Castor), she decides to use the crash as a chance to stage her own death. When she sets the car ablaze to hide the evidence, she winds up burning herself in the process. Back at the family home Irma repairs her disfigurement with a little impromptu plastic surgery and then decides to use the Z-rays her father was using for good to get back at those peers of his that she now holds responsible for his death. She does this by controlling a sexy nightclub performer named Nadia (Estella Blain), dubbed Miss Death in her act, and has her seduce and then attempt to murder the doctors, but inspectors Tanner (Jess Franco) and Green (Daniel White) are snooping around and getting closer… and then there's the matter of Nadia's intrepid boyfriend Philippe (Fernando Montes) and his interesting past.
Not quite as steeped in gothic horror traditions as the three horror pictures he made in black and white prior to this outing, The Diabolical Dr. Z is never the less a really solid genre film with a whole lot of those oddball Franco touches that the director's fanbase loves. Swanky nightclubs, sexy women, a great soundtrack, quirky camerawork and a cameo from the director himself all provide plenty for the eyes, ears and mind to appreciate. The pacing is pretty solid here and production values decent enough to work. The settings and locations used for the shoot never want for atmosphere and there's plenty of appreciable mood throughout the movie.
As to the performances, Antonio Jiménez Escribano is enjoyable as the first Dr. Z., but it's Mabel Karr who is far more interesting as his successor. She manages to be attractive and sinister at the same time - diabolical even - and she's a lot of fun to watch here. Estella Blain as Nadia is a complete knock-out and steals most of the scenes in which she's involved. Her nightclub scene, where she performs an exotic dance with some help from a giant spider and a skeleton, is one of the film's genuine highlights. It's fun to see Franco regular Howard Vernon show up as one of the doctors while cameos from Franco himself and composer Daniel White are also enjoyable.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Diabolical Dr. Z arrives on Blu-ray from Redemption Films in a new AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer taken from the original negative and framed at 1.66.1 widescreen. It looks really nice, with strong black levels, good contrast, and noticeably improved detail over the old DVD release (which, to be fair, looked very good for its time). There's nice depth and texture evident here, and the image is quite clean showing only minor and sporadic white specks and what not while the picture is free of compression artifacts, edge enhancement and noise reduction.
LPCM Mono tracks are available in French and English language options with subtitles available in English that translate the French track. Both mixes sound quite good - they're clean and properly balanced and while they're understandably limited by the source material, they sound just fine. Note that if you watch the film in English, it automatically reverts to French dialogue for a few scenes that were never dubbed. The English subtitles do not automatically appear for these scenes if this language option is chosen - a minor quibble, but worth mentioning.
The main extra on the disc is a new commentary track from Tim Lucas in which he discusses the film's themes of revenge, examines quite closely why certain character traits matter as much as they do in the film, talks about the film's location and cinematography and puts the film into context along similar early Franco films like some of the Orloff pictures as well as later films like Venus In Furs to name only a few. Like pretty much all of Lucas' tracks, it's well researched and very professional.
Aside from that we get a trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
The Diabolical Dr. Z stands the test of time quite well, one of Franco's better black and white pictures that somehow manages to both pay tribute to the gothic horror films that were obviously such an influence as well as foreshadow things to come in the director's filmography. The Blu-ray release from Redemption Films looks excellent and features a strong commentary as its main extra feature.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (270)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4139)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (295)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Lee Frost
Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
Year: 1969
Purchase From Amazon
Hot Spur – Movie Review:
Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:53 AM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Max Pecas
Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Death Squad – Movie Review:
Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:46 AM -
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
Year: 1970
Purchase From Amazon
Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:07 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Saul Bass
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Phase IV – Movie Review:
Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:02 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -
blackiederke
Not sure if it received any updating.