THE DIABOLICAL DR Z
****
Directed by Jess Franco.
Starring Mabel Karr, Estella Blain, Fernando Montes.
Thriller, France & Spain, 87 Minutes, Certificate 15.
Released on Limited Edition Blu-Ray by Eureka Entertainment on October 20th
With over two hundred films to his name, where do you even begin to tackle the filmography of Jess Franco? Perhaps best known for his collaborations with Soledad Miranda, including the lurid SHE KILLED IN ECSTACY and VAMPYROS LESBOS, there are a host of other films spanning all manner of genres from exploitation to sci-fi to gothic horror. A good place to start, if you are unfamiliar with the infamous Spanish director is right here with THE DIABOLICAL DR Z, aka MISS MEURTE, in this nicely presented edition of one of his early films that marries the gothic sensibilities that were so popular in European horror cinema at the time with his own sensibilities and motifs that would go onto become trademarks of his own style.
As you can guess from the title, a mad scientist is at the centre of events here. The dark goggled Dr Zimmer, played by Antonio Jimėnez, claims to have identified what drives a person to madness with the aid of a robotic surgical apparatus, which due to the film's budget comes across as amusingly cumbersome and near useless, wanting to experiment on society’s condemned to prove his results. Ridiculed and driven to an early grave, his daughter Irma, Mabel Karr, uses her fathers methods in the name of revenge by reversing the results to manipulate the alluring dancer Miss Meurte, Estella Blain, with her distinctive poisoned talons, to murder those she holds responsible.
Over a swift eighty-six minutes, Franco, with the aid of screenwriter and Luis Buñuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière, weaves an atmospheric slice of pulp. The black and white cinematography sparkles nicely in the 2K restoration lending the interior and outdoor locations a certain haunting majesty that lends itself to the narrative. Fans of LES YEUX SANS VISAGE will easily spot its influence here, not only visually but thematically. This was not the first time that Franco had used such themes and visual motifs, his Dr. Orloff films use similar plots, and Orloff himself is mentioned here. Even into the 80’s, Franco was still revisiting the same plot of a doctor driven to deranged medical revenge in the far gorier FACELESS so this particular film is at once typical of Franco’s obsessions and unique in seeing them come fully into form here.
Although nowhere near as explicit or racy as his later works there is no shortage of sapphic, kink edged domination here. It adds to the rest of the film's Euro-pulp trappings that will no doubt appeal to fans of cult vintage cinema. Eureka Entertainment have presented the film with a number of extras that not only contain plenty of behind the scenes info and gossip, a lot of which can be found in Tim Lucas’s audio commentary, but help contextualise it within Franco’s large body of work. An interview with Jean-Claude Carrière details his own experiences with the mercurial director, despite his own claims of not being able to remember anything from so long ago. Another interview with Franco expert Stéphane du Mesnildot helps shed light on Franco and his work, providing valuable and enlightening information that may lead the curious to search out his other works.
Rounding off the package are more interviews and video essays that show the films place in the gothic horror and mad scientist sub-genres from the likes of Sam Deighan and Lucas Balbo. Along with the pristine video and audio presentation, the extras make this a more than worthy purchase not only for Franco completists but for those who may have wondered about checking out his work and not knowing where to start. Far from typical of the type of film that he gradually became known for, this is still an excellent example of one of cinema’s most distinct personalities and a fun example of atmospheric and entertaining cult cinema.
Iain MacLeod