The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966) *** (out of 4)Dr. Zimmer (Escribano), a student of the one and only Dr. Orloff, is at home when an escaped convict arrives at his doorstep. The doctor does an experiment on him, which should make him famous but when he takes it to a board of doctors they basically shun him and put him down. This causes his death so his daughter Irma (Karr) swears to seek vengeance for her father.I've seen the majority of the films by Jess Franco and I will gladly admit that I prefer his sleazier pictures from the early 1970s. I've always respected these early B&W films but I also admit that I prefer the less stylish pictures that mixed in the nudity and sleaze. I will also admit that I prefer SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY, which was the remake of this film and the one that featured Soledad Miranda. With that said, I think it's safe and honest to say that THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z is the director's best looking film.There's no question that this here is the most stylish film that Franco ever directed and it also features the greatest cinematography. I was really amazed to see how beautiful this film looks but it really does seem as if each shot was storyboarded. All of the camera movements look very professional and it seems as if hours were spent setting up each shot. You may be wandering what the big deal is but if you're familiar with Franco then you know that a large portion of his movies seem to have been shot very cheaply and very quick without too much thought put into the framing.The film does benefit from its beautiful look but there are also some very good performances here. Mabel Karr steals the film as the avenging daughter who will stop at nothing to make sure her father gets revenge. Estella Blain is wonderful in her bit as Miss Death, a stage performer who the daughter kidnaps and forces into this murder spree. Franco regular Howard Vernon has a brief part as does the director himself who plays a police inspector.THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z isn't what I'd consider a masterpiece as there are plenty of flaws to be found in it. At the same time there's no doubt that it's a visually dazzling picture and one that even Franco haters can respect.

Dr. Zimmer (Antonio Jimenez Escribano) is a blind, wheelchair-bound scientist with radical ideas about where the impulses for good and evil reside in the human body, and how to isolate them. By doing this, he hopes to rehabilitate criminal types. But when his peers scoff at and demonize his research, he suffers a fatal heart attack, and his daughter Irma (Mabel Karr) carries on his work. However, she is the truly diabolical one, perverting her fathers' ideas in the name of old-fashioned revenge. She telepathically controls an exotic dancer, Nadia a.k.a. Miss Death (Estella Blain), into murdering the mocking doctors Vicas (Howard Vernon), Moroni (Marcelo Arroita-Jauregui), and Kallman (Cris Huerta). This poor Nadia is made to do thanks to curare-tipped fingernails.One of the handful of traditional genre films made by cult icon Jess Franco, "The Diabolical Dr. Z" is good fun, as it adheres to classic trappings of horror. It's not really a Gothic; it's set in modern times. But it still has that great old-style feel, complete with stark black & white photography. Franco utilizes themes that would then recur throughout his filmography, enhancing the standard revenge plot with touches of eroticism. The ladies are gorgeous, and the cast is uniformly solid, with Karr suitably icy as the Frankenstein-wannabe on a mission. Fernando Montes is enjoyable as the man of medicine *and* the man who ends up dating Irma, and sometime after she has faked her death, her unwitting murderer. Guy Mairesse has a great character face as the strangler who gets employed as a henchman. Adding to the fun is seeing Uncle Jess himself in an uncredited supporting role, as one of two detectives investigating the crimes (the other is played by the films' composer, Daniel White). Jess even gets a character detail: his inspector is sleep-deprived because his wife recently had triplets.The cinematography by Alejandro Ulloa is striking, Whites' music is atmospheric, and the pacing is pretty consistent. The tale being told (scripted by Jean-Claude Carriere, based on a story by Jess) is not a great one, but it does hold your attention. It's sexy, and sordid, and has some nice touches along the way.Seven out of 10.

Proof Jess Franco can make a movie.I shouldn't say it like that since I'm a fan, of sorts, and Franco can make a good film usually after a long run of ones that make you scream otherwise (One need look at most of his recent shot on video stuff to wonder how he keeps getting money to make movies).Beautifully shot in black and white this is the story of a woman who wants to get revenge for the death of her father, a doctor involved with mind control experiments. Filled with odd images that never seem distracting or out of place this is a film that drifts through the surreal and has it make perfect sense. (The spider motifs). Its an odd mad scientist revenge thriller that is somehow hypnotic as the twists and turns of the plot walk the fine line between real and unreal (killer nails?). Its a very good euro-horror of the type that was being cranked out during the mid 1960's. Its also a film that perfectly fits the over used slogan "if you see one movie..." which in this case would be "If you see one movie by Jess Franco see this one." Between 6 and 7 out of 10

This is one of the best, creepiest and most stylish from the Godfather of Eurosleaze. "The Diabolical Dr. Z" is a semi-sequel to the classic "The Horrible Dr. Orlof" (1961). Dr. Zimmer, who calls himself a disciple of Dr. Dr. Orlof, dabbles in mind control with the help of a weird spiderlike metal contraption which injects electric needles into victims brains. After other doctors laugh at him and his experiments, he suffers a stroke but before he dies his daughter promises to continue the experiment. She visits a nightclub where an exotic dancer, Miss Muerte, perform a "show". Miss Muerte then becomes a zombie-like killermachine for Dr. Zimmer's daughter and goes after the doctors who ridiculed him. The film is loaded with sinister atmosphere, beautifully shot - a masterpiece of the macabre!