Young Dr. Garondet (likable Paco Valladares) goes to the castle of batty Dr. Orloff (the always reliable Howard Vernon in peak sinister form). At the castle Garondet meets Orloff's daughter Cecile (lovely Brigitte Carva) and runs afoul of Orloff's dangerous invisible man experiment. Boy, does this gloriously ghastly atrocity possess all the right wrong stuff to qualify as a real four-star stinkbomb: we've got plodding misdirection by Pierre Chevalier, ragged editing, poor dubbing, a talky script, sluggish pacing, crude, zoom-happy cinematography by Juan Fortuny and Raymond Heil, paltry (not so) special effects (the invisible maniac turns out to be some zhlub in a hopelessly cheesy and unconvincing ape suit!), and a limply staged and unexciting fiery climax. Naturally, there's also a generous sprinkling of tasty gratuitous female nudity. This movie reaches its hilariously inept apex with a protracted sequence depicting the invisible maniac raping a hapless maid. The supporting cast flounder with the patently ludicrous script: Isabel Del Rio as the bitchy, greedy, treacherous Marie, Fernando Sancho as Marie's despicable weakling accomplice, and Evane Hanska as a surly servant. Extra kudos are in order for Camille and Claude Sauvage's wildly inappropriate, but still insanely groovy finger-snapping swinging jazz score. In fact, this flick is downright Jess Francoesque in its endearingly awful crumminess. A complete schlocky hoot.
Review of The Invisible Dead
