Welcome to Zombie Strange, the podcast that watches all the zombie films. Today, we have a naive mentor. “You're ambitious, yet you're a dedicated genius. Not an unscrupulous madman.”

Family drama. “He murdered your father.”

 And a condescending detective. “Then you think that one of your bullets at least rock the murderer. Although it doesn't seem you shot them out at all.”

That's right, this week we have 1965's Dr. Orlov's monster.

You know, I've seen people act like that in pictures. What do they call them, zombies or something?

Zombie. What's a zombie?

Just what is a zombie?

Well a zombie…there’s um... ...Mr. Bill there’s... ...the living dead.

They are the living dead.

Get me the zombies!

Against an army of zombies, no armies could stand.

Because a Zombie has no will on his own.

What is wrong, what is wrong.

Welcome everybody to the internet's only international zombie podcast as we watch zombie films from around the world. I'm John.

I'm Andy.

And I'm Brad.

Yes, hello producer Brad. Yeah, this one is I can't tell if it's French, German or Spanish because I listened to it with an English dub. So it's got a lot going on. How about that? In your intro, from that clip you play the intro. No, in my English dub, the detective says Roba. He does. OK. Well, I did wonder because that clip featured the phrase, Madman. Ah, yes. So I wonder if we have a new word. As Roba exits the stage, if Madman is me. Madman. It's the Madman's. You know, we'll have the Madman's over for dinner. Oh, yeah, exactly. So, uh, Yeah, this is an interesting one. I'm excited to get to talk about it, but first um, anybody have any fun movie stuff or zombie stuff. They've experienced recently that they want to share with the crowd. I have a couple of orders of business to go over guys. Oh, that's here. I'm sorry. Like brace yourselves. I think I have three things I want to mention. Yes. First, so Valentine's Day was a little while ago, and my wife got me a lovely gift. And that gift was a miniature of Vincent Price. Oh, which has, uh, a bunch of different paraphernalia from his different movies that you can use like a Vincent price action figure. Yeah, it's like an action figure. You could put like a raven on him. There's a bunch of skulls. There's all sorts of cool stuff. So that's amazing. Oh, yes. Uh, let's see. I don't number two. I've heard from a listener who is also my mother that I say the word shenanigans too much in the So I did go back and spot, listen to a few past episodes and I do appear to say shenanigans about every 40 seconds. So feel free to help me come up with a different word that conveys the same subtle nuance as shenanigans. Well, we'll make a pact. I'll stop saying for sure, and you stop saying shenanigans. Okay, all right, let's all detail it out to it. Pretty sure Brad will make sure that. Well, that's interesting. I haven't noticed the shenanigans. I think we just enjoy the word, yeah, so it does remind me of a dad joke I heard which is well if she shenance she's gonna shenan again Yeah, that's kind of funny. Yeah, and I'm sorry. I mean, she made it against just encompasses so much of just the boring garbage that these movies have a fun word for for it's a word that gives too much credit to the films we watch sometimes. So my third quick item is as far as zombie cinema not a lot except I have started watching the 1974 TV show Colchak the night stalker Oh, yeah, have you watched it before? I have never seen it before. Now, I watched it a long time ago. I have not. So there is an episode coming up. I have not at watch it. And the episode is just called Zambi. And the preview image is of a very stereotypical looking woman in Vudu Garb. So I wonder if we're going to viewer back into the early days of the Zambi with its basis in Haiti in Vudu, or I don't know what's happening. What's coming up, but I'll get to it soon. Well, I would be curious if, like, for us, right, 1968, we are barreling towards 1968 and the night of the living dead, but I think at the time, like, people thought that was a cool idea, but I don't think it had completely co-opted the zombie term yet. That probably took some time. I am curious. I mean, we're a podcast. We do movies. We generally don't do TV shows, but I do wonder if at a certain point it might be worth doing kind of a catch all episode that snags a few episodes from TV shows in the 50s, 60s, 70s that featured zombies. Just to see how they reflect or don't reflect what's happening in zombie film. That's like a fun idea, actually. Yeah. My only comment is stay tuned. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. I like to hear that. All right. That's all three of my important critical updates. How about the rest of the game? And hi, Andy's mom. What's your mom's name? Debbie. Hi, Debbie. Hey, anything from you? Producer Brad? That my week was quiet. No zombies. Well, I had a good week. I know zombies for me, except for Dr. Ordoff. My son was home, and he picks movies that he considers quote-unquote classics that we watch together. So this is ranged from tombstone to 2001 a space out of sea to other things this week. His choice was fight club, which a movie I only think I saw once in the theater, not that I hate it, but it was interesting to see today. partially because if there were cell phones that movie couldn't exist like the plot and the twist of it just wouldn't happen with cellular telephones. So anyway, just wanted those artifacts from the late 90s. Yeah, and it doesn't I mean, I guess I don't want to spoil a 30-year-old movie, but it doesn't kind of end with something that no longer works quite as well in film as it did maybe in the 90s. No, it does. It does. It's got a twist and I will say this is peak cool bread pit though like like he ends up being awful But like as he's strutting around it is ridiculous out fits in sunglasses smoking cigarettes with bruises all over his face like He just looks so cool and cocky throughout the whole film. It's kind of a man. That has Hellenown Bottom Carter now, right? It does. Is there any actor more just locked into the decade into a decade than Hellenown bottom Carter in the 90s? No, she looks like a goth person. Speaking of the goth thing, film we're about to watch. Anyway, I have a couple of things. So we are just fight club, and then I saw, actually before we watch fight club, I watched the Oscar nominated train dreams and I am now dedicating my life to telling everyone to watch this film. Okay, like I gave it four and a half stars, I'm going to go back and give it five. If you know what I mean when I say like Terrence Malik style of sort of wonder-inducing film, it's that kind of film, it looks like I can't I don't know if it was shot on film or not it's the best looking most gorgeous film and in fact my son walked in once I was halfway through it in tears because it's it's a very sad film and I paused the movie to talk to him and he said that looks like a painting and it was just a it was just a frame from the movie so if you like that sort of deep sort of you know reflective metaphysical sort of beautiful film like Train dreams has got you all the way. It's great. So does it have zombies though? No. Okay, so minus minus two stars right off of that. Why was it in my zombie segment? I mean, I just, I had to. I had to. Well, John, because I'm like who is dedicating his life to evangelizing the good news of this film. So, there's a certain type of person who thinks this kind of film is pretentious and boring. And I see it. I understand that. When a film like this doesn't work, it's a disaster, but this one works. So, that's what I'll say. All right, enough non-zambi talk. Let's get into the zombie talk. This week, we're watching Dr. Orlov's Monster. We have a lot to say about it. All right, so producer Brad, tell us about the making and release of this film. Dr. Orlov's Monster was released in Spain in 1965 and in France in 1966. It's also known as Dr. Jackal's Mysteries, the Brides of Dr. Jackal and the Secret of Dr. Orlov. Just Franco was a Spanish filmmaker. He co-wrote and directed this film. He is considered one of the early pioneers in Spanish horror. His given name is Haisu, but he often used jazz to make his films more marketable. I'd also like to comment, this film is hard to find. Yes. I guess just not lying around out there in the internet like so many of these films. Well, this was a low budget film, and it looked like, well, I'll tell you, I'll get to the end and I'll talk about it to distribution problems. Franco's studied music in school in Dr. Orlov's monster. He has a cameo as the piano player in the club scenes. Do you remember him? Yes, now I do. That is the director, Jess Franco. In the 1950s, Franco worked at many films in a variety of capacities. He wrote screenplays, composed scores, and worked as a assistant director. He directed his first film in 1959, in 1960 he was inspired by hammers the bride of Dracula to make horror movies. Wrangler directed his first, the awful doctor Orlov in 1962. Okay, that was confusing as heck, because when I was searching for this movie, I found that movie all over the place. The Orlov films are very hard to research, because sometimes things are retroed into Orlov by a dub or a subtitle, and so I can't commit to what the full list of films are without a lot of academic research, right? In the awful doctor Orlov, Dr. Orlov's daughter has burned scars so he kidnaps young women to graph skin onto his daughter's face. So there are some similarities to this film as when we get into it you'll discover. Yeah. Dr. Orlov's monster is not a sequel to the first film. Howard Vernon played Orlov in the first film but the budget for Orlov's monster was too small to bring Vernon back. Vernon did later play Orlov in three more Franco films. in Franklin made at least five O'erlaaf films between 1962 and 1988. I'm curious about this now. Yeah, there's a lot going on in the O'erlaaf world. There's a movie in the 80s called, it's Franklin did the fall of the House of Usher and some people consider it an O'erlaaf film because it's similar. And I think there are dobs that switch the names. So there's an O'erlaaf verse is what you're saying. which is a little weird because Orlov has in this movie for about 90 seconds. Yeah, right? Yeah. Okay, interesting bookends the film. Yeah, I thought it was the main character's last name as Dr. Orlov because he was in the whole movie. And I just made the assumption I didn't realize until we before we started recording that I had a backwards. So anyway. So now that you know, we'll get into this, but who is Dr. Orlov and who is the monster in the film? Yes, we will get into that because now I like the title more. How many movies have we watched where there were two mad scientists? Yes, but we also have an ethical mad scientist and an unethical mad scientist, which is a new twist, I think. Just Franco described his films from the early 60s as his museum pieces. Franco's career shifted more towards exploitation movies in the late 60s and the 70s. He directed films like, then Piero's Lesbos in 1971 and the erotic rights of Frankenstein in 1973. Nice, don't forget to female spies with flowered panties from 1980. That would be later. Yes, and then later he does go to hardcore too, but we'll get to that. Oh, yeah, that podcast we're doing with the good movie titles is is rack and up movies. Yeah, we had who was it that that we just had another director that followed this exact same path. And I can't remember, was it the teenage Abby's guy? Maybe. Well, I think what we're finding we're about to see is that many of these guys in the 60s, the exploitation films and the 70s start to blossom. Yes. And there's a lot of crossover between horror and the exploitation. Yeah, and there's a lot of exploitation in this movie as well, like it's just any shot of a half-naked woman it goes for. So. In 1989, Franco directed the film Night of the Eagle starring Christopher Lee and Mark Kamel, so he did work with the big stars, but he also did hardcore porn in the 80s and 90s. And yet in 2013, the Spanish Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences awarded him their lifetime achievement award. He died in 2013 with 204 directing credits and four of those films are on a zombie list. Wow. Still to come are a virgin among the living dead, a wacest of the zombies and mansion of the living dead. Those last two sounds pretty good. And they're the last two are 30 years apart. Holy moly. I was going to say the first one sounded good. No last two sounded not as good, but I guess that's why we have two hosts on this show folks. That's right. Well, the version among the living dead film AD is going to, I think it's going to be a pretty strong exploitation film. Uh-oh. We're in trouble. Just heads up. Yeah. We're not ready for the 70s. Daniel White scored the film. He was a Brit who lived in Paris. He was a frequent collaborative with Franco, and I think we all agree that the score for this film was pretty great. Yes. Yes. In fact, I pulled a cup, I asked you to pull a couple of just music sequences in it. Yeah. Agnes Spot played Melissa, the niece of the mad scientist, and daughter of the zombie. Is that remind you of another film we've watched? Yes, it does. It reminds me of a number of films, but specifically the Frozen Dead. Rack, because also in that film, the niece comes back to the castle from school to visit her uncle and believing her father's dad only discover that he is a zombie. Yep, and there's that don't go in my lab business in both. Now, Spock only acted for 10 years before she turned to photography. She became a successful fashion photographer and a still active. You can find her work on Instagram. She even posted last in February. So I don't know how old she is, but she's still going. Marcello, Arota Haragi. We try that again. I had a spell of phonetically. Marcello, Arota Haragi, played the mad scientist, Dr. Fishman, or Jackal, depending on which version you watch. This is one of the few leading roles he had. You Blanco plays Andros, the zombie. This is his third film, Franco gave him his first big role in 1962 in the film, the sadistic barren von Klaus. Oh dear. And then he had a steady career in spaghetti westerns after this. Was he the villain? Is he any westerns? I could see him as the villain. Ah, I haven't seen any of the films. But he looks grizzled. He's a creepy looking guy. Like I can easily see him being typecast as the villain in a lot of westerns. Yeah, maybe like if he ever smiles that like changes his face, Dr. Oralov's monster had distribution problems in Spain. It was distributed by a small company that had limited reach. In France, it was retitled the mistresses of Dr. Jackal, which Franco disliked and thought harm the film success. He thought it should have had Oralov in the title. And while the film did have a Canadian theatrical release, the film went straight to TV in the U.S. airing in April of 1966. I assume they cut out all the gratuitous shots of women with their clothing off from behind in that kind of stuff. I think it's safe to say American TV was pretty chaste in the 60s. I think so. All right. So yeah, I'm curious about the in invocation of Dr. Jackal by the French because it's not there is a there is a contrast right between Dr. Orlov and Conrad Fisherman, the actual mad scientist, but It's not that much like it's like Conrad is in a loon I mean he is a lunatic but he's not like a slavering killer you know what I mean he is like a slavering killer so Andy you know what let's refresh people on historical context we've been in the 60s for a while it's 1965 so maybe just even if you don't know what's going on in Spain France and Germany what's going on in the US at this time Yeah, so far more in-depth look at how we think the events of the 60s influence horror go back a couple of episodes and listen to our episode specifically devoted to that. That's that here we are in 1965 and just as a quick refresher, so JFK was recently assassinated in America, LBJ is president. And probably the most important global event going on is that the Vietnam War is starting to expand, I guess. So only until the later 60s where it really explodes into the big divisive international debacle that it was. But in the mid 60s, it was definitely a fire that was burning. Yeah. And I didn't, I was quite frankly confused about the nationality and location of this film, which got in the way of my looking up historical facts about that country. So yeah. Um, yeah. So just remember the 60s, you know, the 60s are underway and, The civil rights movement anti is also the a huge thing that is still divisive in our country sadly to this day so it's yeah it's a it's a big landmark as well. So I did wonder about this you know this film like a couple of other movies we've watched that were either Gothic or sort of adjacent to Gothic. Yeah, felt more disconnected from my contemporary events. It was almost like trying to figure out what it might have been riffing on from pop culture at the time, and I wonder if that in itself is kind of significant. All right. Well, I did have one specific thing that came up in this movie that sent me down a little bit of an in the internet rabbit trail. Oh, yeah. John, you'll recall in this movie. There is a couple of scenes that take place in what I would describe as an opium den. Yes, I was in my notes. I was like, wait, are we in an opium den? What is happening? Yeah. So I went this sent me down a little bit of a trail. So history-wise, just so opium-dens were kind of on their way out by the mid-century. They weren't really a thing. John, in the 50s and 60s, what European country do you think was the last refuge of the opium-den? And do you have a guess as to why? my instinct is France and my reason is because they're French. The answer is the France, specifically the city of Paris. And the reason is a bunch of French soldiers were returning from French into China. Yeah, and other areas around it and they were bringing back this I they were keeping the opium dim idea a lie I guess you might say oh weird so into the 60s you could plausibly in France have been Attend like going to an opium done where you would lay around Getting high on opium that said Pretty quickly the opium den gave way to I guess more sorted ways to get your high, and that is with the shooting gallery, is what replaced the opium den. And the shooting gallery was a much cedar, like we're going to rent a room. We're going to rent an apartment for a couple of weeks. and in there you could get heroine which hit a lot harder than the opium you would get an opium done and it just got a lot cd or in grosser and more depressing i guess but this this film good old days of opium addiction that's right this film manages to make the opium It's very artfully shot. All right. Well, let me summarize this movie. I think what we're going to do is I'm going to do a summary of the plot beginning to end and then we're going to go through and just sort of pick out the best parts. I don't think we'll cover every plot element like we have for some in the past. So we open with a man lying on a bed and he's having a flashback about catching somebody in the act of having an affair. And as we go through the film, we realize that this is a Dr. Conrad Fishman and he lives in an isolated castle conducting experiments that we learn are to control the daughter of the corpse, Melissa. Also here are Ingrid, his long-suffering wife, and Melissa's sweetheart, Juan Manuel. As they go through this film, Dr. Orggescom Conrad, Conrad, goes through and uses his zombie to take vengeance on the woman who cheated on him by murdering showgirls and musicians throughout the film until he starts to get sloppy in the police start to catch up with them. And it all sort of culminates with the police arriving to arrest him just as Melissa is about to be murdered. And it has quite an exciting ending, which we'll cover in more detail. But did I miss any of the big plot points there? now I think that's the big plot point. Maybe the big thing to address here is the confusion of names throughout the films. So I don't know about you, John. I watched this. I watched this in the, I think, original French with English subtitles. Right. And the names were very confusing. uh yes so and a few other characters had slightly different names so we'll go with the way you refer to them but it does it I did a little googling around a reading on this movie and it does make it a little confusing because there is no there does not seem to be a a an agreed upon standard for what the names of the characters are in this film. No, it's very strange and I watched it with in English because I wanted to pull even though the dub is in great. I wanted to pull some clips. And they, they only saved Dr. Fishman like once near the end and then I had to turn off the English subtitles because they were so far from what was being said on the screen. that I just listened to it. I didn't do any subtitles. So, but they did show that name later in the cemetery at the tombstone. That's right. That's where it says fisherman or fisherman. So strange. Okay. So our main mad villain is not Dr. Orlov. So let's get to the details and talk about how we got here. So like I said, I just want to cover the beginning because I think it's crucial. Um, so we, we start with Dr. Fishman, he's lying on a bed and he's having this flashback of, he's sort of looking through a door and he locks eyes with a man and the woman in bed with the man has her back to him. Um, and we realize this is a haunting memory for him. Uh, we find out throughout the movie that what he's actually done is that man is his brother and that woman is his wife, Ingrid, and what he does is kill his brother. and bring him back to life as a zombie, but it's not that simple. So let's start with some of the important things. So the doctor or law in this movie is not this man. It's not Dr. Fishman. It is his mentor, a professor, and Dr. Orlov, who has uncovered the secret to controlling reanimated corpses. And he wasn't going to tell Dr. Fishman, but when Dr. Fishman looks so for Lauren and not being able to control his newly created zombies, Dr. Orlov caves and tells him how to do it. I think you want to say about that because I think that puppy dog, guys. Yes. It's absolutely bizarre. But he also, like an opening clip, Dr. Orlov says, I know basically I know I can trust you. You won't be a madman about it. Yep. Oops. Yeah. So that's sort of our opening. Then we have a murder, right, of a different woman. that happens. So Dr. Orlov likes what he likes to do throughout this film is go to nightclubs and then one point in opium den, meet women and then they end up getting murdered by his zombie and we'll get into the mechanics of that later. Um, in what seems like Dr. Orlov taking vengeance against all women for the betrayal of a single woman. It's a little majorly psychotic. Um, as a character, is that how you interpreted his actions? Yes, I think so. I mean, movie does not really explain why he's doing what he's doing. I think we can guess that he's taking out his anger against his wife on other women, I guess. Yes, it's, it's became such a trope. The interesting thing about that is, It became, it is such a trope in like 70s and 80s, like slasher, killer bad guy movies that I don't, but I don't think we've seen it before in the movies we've watched. Now, it could have happened outside of zombie movies, but this feels very like 1960s Freudian psychology to the rescue of creating a motivation for a man and putting it in the background if that makes any sense. Yeah, well, this might be one of our first zombie masters who is not using his zombies for a quote, rational purpose. No, like he doesn't stand to gain from the nefarious deeds. He sends his zombie off to do. No, instead it's what he does with his zombie is more reflection of his own psychological angst. Yes. Yes. He's not claiming to push science forward. He's not looking none of that. No, he's just a murderer who doesn't like to get his hands dirty. It's very strange. Okay, so in this first act, we also meet his niece, Melissa, and we meet his wife, Engrid, who lives in a gothic castle. And in the plot is Melissa comes home from school. She visits her uncle at the castle and they're going to sort of settle her father's estate once and for all. She'll inherit all the money. She knows her father's dad. She does not know the doctor that Conrad will just calm Conrad. They Conrad actually did it, but that's part of the plot that we'll get to. But what Melissa's thrown into, she gets a ride there from a guy who's sweet on her that's trying to catch her attention. That's Juan Manuel. and they and then she goes to the cast on he's like well I'll stay at the hotel in town in case you want to you know go get a drink or something um and Melissa's thrown into this gothic castle with this weird caretaker named Cicero and this alcoholic woman named Ingrid who's talks about nothing but how miserable she is and um she barely sees her uncle conrad uh it's very strange we don't I don't want to go for beat by beat but When they are at dinner together, I think this clip pretty much sums up the dynamic of this family. Is there a reason to think that youth has a power to make this immune to death? I know that my days are numbered in this veil of sorrows, but that's why I'm impatient. Most impatient. He's playing a trigidian tonight, and it suits him. What's a matter now? Are you scared or bothered by conscience? Hold on! I will not! I will not! I'm sick and tired of talking to no one. I've lived too many years alone. I've lived too many years, shut up in this odious dazzle! Come now, control yourself. I'm quite aware of your nervous condition. Forgive me. So, that's what Melissa finds herself in the middle of. That was Conrad talking to his wife, Ingrid. What is she called him there, Andy? Like I would have said tragedy in Ah, that's probably it like the like the gloomy. Yeah, like a gloomy moment. Yes. Yeah, character. Yeah. I got you. Okay. That makes sense. Have you ever by the way? This this just calls the mind. Have you ever like when you were younger did you ever go over to a friend's house and like their parents were having an argument. Like at the dinner table or something like that. Not exactly like that, but I did. Yeah, a special kind of awkwardness when you're a guest and your hosts are arguing with each other. Yeah, I remember I had a friend whose father was much more a disciplinarian than my parents were, and like he got in trouble and like that was super awkward. Yeah. Yeah. I think in trouble that often, is not me you're talking about. Yeah. No, Brad, if there's a parent with that, I think it was an extreme disciplinarian, your father does not come to mind nor does your mother, but, you know, don't, there's not the time to reveal any secrets. He's a producer friend, so. All right. In any case, so far we've got Dr. Fishman. He's got this formula from Dr. Orlov. He can now control his ambie. He's used the zombie to murder a random show girl that he met. And now Melissa is in the middle of all of this. Just to sit the tone, there's a wonderful scene where she's walking into the castle and they just sort of longingly, shoot the parapets and the towers in the castle to make her to just sort of show how oppressive it is. And then at one point, Ingrid is having a nightmare and I'm not going to play the nightmare here, but there's just one, the soundtrack of this is wonderful for horror movie, and here's a sample of the music that's playing during her thrashing nightmare. like that is so good horror movie music like every horror movie should have music like this but you know that's sort of the beginning of the movie the set up the first act and he's anything you wanted to pull out of that that I that I didn't mention I think so I want to talk about the zombie because this is this is a movie there are movies we've watched where the zombie is there in the first 60 seconds there are movies we've watched where the zombie appears in the last 60 seconds yes this is a movie that introduces us to a zombie pretty fast so pretty early on in this sort of first act of the film we see conrad up in his mad scientist layer complete with a human skull and we see him successfully controlling a zombie he's resurrected. So do you want to talk a little bit about that? What is our, so we know who our zombie is pretty much right up front in this film. Yes. And at the beginning of this film, Konrad has just learned the secret of controlling a zombie from his well-intentioned but naive mentor. So what is that secret, John? And then maybe let's talk about what it looks like when the zombie is kind of animated and then sent off to do contracts bidding. Yeah, so the secret is is manipulating ultrasonic, like sub-human hearing sounds, though we can hear them throughout the movie, that he sort of tweaks to get Andros is the zombie's name to get him to do different things. And this works with a varying degree of results, sometimes it works great, sometimes it doesn't work at all. So it's interesting, he sort of has a machine that he uses, that emits frequencies, and that can make the zombie do stuff. So for example, whenever the zombie kills one of these showgirls on behalf of Dr. Fishman, there's this, like grading ultrasonic, you know, high-pitched sound playing in the background all the time. Yeah. Yeah, so the zombie he's resurrected is Andrews, Melissa's father. And his brother. Yeah, Andrews, brother. Also the brother of Conrad. And he looks like a cool guy in 1960's spy. He's got black suit on with a black turtleneck and shiny black shoes. You know what I mean? He looks like something out of Austin Powers Act. So I think they'd have put makeup on them and it's, I think to make him look a little dead and decayed, but it's not, it's not super convincing and it's not super. This like parchment paper looks wrinkled. His face is cracking. Yeah, it's like when you put, I don't know if you ever did this one in your kid, you put Elmer's glue on your hand and you let it dry and then you heal it off. You know, like, that's what it looks like. Totally. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So we have, you know, we have a science zombie, I think. I think so. Yeah. No hint of Vudu or anything like that. This is just, this is, I was interested that this movie skipped the part where he reanimates the corpse. Yes. And the plot centers around how does he control it once it's animated? That's just just something that other movies we've done have not. most of them have spent most of their time on how is the corpse being reanimated in the first place. Not this movie. We don't get any of that, but what is interesting about this, I mean, we'll get into a more, is that it seems to have an inner life. It seems to have some memory of its previous existence and we'll come back to that as we go through. So yeah, I mean, and Dr. Skip ahead, but this is a zombie as a tragic victim, I guess. If we're talking about our zombie tropes. Yep, he does some bad stuff, but I think ultimately you're meant to feel sorry for this guy. I think so. And he sort of, he has no other tools other than violence like he seems to degraded to that point, but he still recognizes his daughter and sort of, you know, wistfully remembers what it was like. So, but we'll get into that as we go. Anything else in this first part before we before the plot thickens? Hmm, I think the only other thing I want to call out is you said that the first murder takes place in this opening act. Am I wrong about that? No, you're correct. It takes place quite early on. And we don't know it yet, but as the movie goes on, we're going to realize what? like so conrad what's like the what's the tell of these murders that the police are later going to latch on to and that we don't realize yet is the tell but it ends up being a recurring theme. Yeah, so what happens is Conrad goes to these burlesque shows or whatever these cabaretes meets these women and gives them gifts and one of the gifts he gives them is this necklace and this is the homing beacon essentially for the zombie so once once this woman has the necklace on he will send the zombie in and the zombie will strangle her. uh... let's see all right my last comment here on this opening act is that just uh... i i know it's just a feature of the times but the romance between one man well and militia is is so unpleasant by modern it's another situation where the guy is basically harassed this poor woman into finally like her defenses worn down into deciding that she likes him. It's just like the opposite of charming romance. I know this would have played differently in the 60s, but watching it today, it's so unpleasant that I was annoyed when one men well would appear on the screen because he's Yeah, I don't think that's what I would have thought that I'd have been watching this in the 60s. Oh, he's doing great. And because he's a crack shot, it turns out later. But it reminded me of woman either. There was that relationship between the mechanic and the showgirl. Yeah. He was so annoying. But he wore her down eventually. But he acknowledged it too, which I found interesting because she says, you think you're such a don-one. And he says, I'm Spanish, I'll Spanish men are Don Juan, right? He said, this is who we are, it's basically. Yeah, so yeah, though he does sort of touchingly admit he's a bit of a faker and and and and and soft under in the film, but I don't know if admitting that you're a loser is something I want to praise. I guess although I guess it's better than not admitting it. I guess yeah, I guess not. All right, let's carry on though John. Yeah, no, I think one of the reasons this seems kind of timeless is it's set in kind of a way, like for example, they use a horse and carriage at one point in the cars are older, just my quick car review. Yeah. Dr. Fishman's Conrad's cars in 1937 Chrysler, Royale, and I don't know if you know this about Chrysler, nobody in the modern age probably knows this about Chrysler. When I was first introduced up through about the 70s, Chrysler was actually a luxury Juan Manuel drives in a Spanish made car. It's called a seat in English, but it's a seat 1450C from 1942. So basically it's like an old junker. It's small, it's not as glamorous, it's like a A to B, it's like a, VW. But it doesn't look like a VW bug, but it just looks like a cheap car. Yeah. All right. Well, hey. We've got it. We've met all our characters. We've got it. We know everybody zombies been raised and we've had our first murder. So now we kind of move into the bulk of the film, John. Yeah, and in this sort of second part of the film, this is where Melissa becomes curious about her father, right? Like she, she at one point is harassing Cicero who's like the handyman around town and she and she gets a key from him that she later uses to go into her father's old room and it's a wonderful scene where but she actually sees her father or does she she where she might be hallucinating. In any case she sort of this is where she sort of commits to the bit of investigating right like I went now want to see what happened to my father. I want to know more, whereas when she came here, she didn't want to know more. And well, that's happening. A couple things happen on Conred side, her uncle's side. He has a new victim. He is, is quote unquote, quoting, and it is a singer in a cabaret. Actually, there's two musical numbers she does in this film. And they're both kind of great. Yeah. Like, I don't know how you felt about it, but she's a jazz singer and she sings like this very sort of melodramatic emotional song and then she sings this comedy song in the second part and I found them kind of delightful, but the performer is Perla Kristall. That's the the woman who sings in acts. That's interesting. And she's she singing her own. She was a real-life singer, yes. Yeah, she's great. Like her songs were really good and I really enjoyed them anyway. Other things that happen here is Conrad is plotting his next kill, right? He's met this woman. He's given her the necklace, the things that are going to happen. At one point, Andros escapes his prison, and he's gone for the evening. And this is where we sort of first get the Gothic tragedy aspect of Andros, the zombie. Where does Conrad find him the next morning? What is Andros doing? Andros has gone out to the cemetery to his own grave and he's sort of staring at it for only throughout this. So this was interesting because I was trying to remember if we've seen another zombie movie where the zombie master loses control of his zombie like this. Yes, it's almost Frankenstein-esque in a way like It feels more like Frankenstein than a zombie movie because this character of Andros the zombie seems to have a little more free will than our typical zombie. It's more like he's a reduced capacity version of himself who is subjected to these ultrasonic sounds that control him. But if Dr. Fishman of Conrad doesn't have the sounds, he can't control Andros. And it's interesting to me that the zombie off of its tether is not a monstrous killer. It actually is a pretty sedate, mournful creature that doesn't seem like it really wants to harm anyone. Yes. Yeah, so I thought that was pretty interesting. Yeah, so Melissa's interest in her father comes from a lot of interactions with Ingrid, who's yes, she's drunk or in a lot of these scenes, and she's just you know, fallen into the state of despondency, and it's from Ingrid that Melissa you know there's something there's a little bit more she never knew her father she starts to gather there's a little bit more to the story than that yeah there's two of the things i wanted to pull out here first of all we meet our new character uh... detective so so the second woman the singer perla uh... is murdered uh... by the zombie discovered the zombie is discovered fleeing and actually the the uh... the pursuers. There's an off duty policeman in the cabaret shoot at the zombie to know effect. And then the zombie punches the bouncer who's also the singer's boyfriend and knocks him right down. So that sort of sets the stage for the zombie being sort of superhuman. Yeah. So let's talk about that. And then I have one more bit. I wanted to talk about it. Yeah, I guess we should know the zombie kills by strangling you. Yes. It doesn't it doesn't it's not trying to eat you or anything like that. No, just kills you like a human murder or yes but it seems it seems unstoppable yes it's like a terminator that i think they refer to as a robot later they do robot comes up a couple of times so i like to introduce everybody to our detective detective client the most condescending detective in all of europe you're near the victim is there i feel in my girlfriend it has i tell you this kid's a lady killer i know i operates like an alberia how interesting what do you mean what don't What was your reaction to the murder? I found him with her when he started to run I grabbed him from behind and spun him around and got him all set up for an uppercut. But it was me they got clobbered. That time, my look pretty easy to handle, but I took the worst fall off him, and I ever took him my life. He punches like a human power drill. I'm telling you it's super natural the way he can hit. Suppose you restrict the rest of your account to the physical appearance of this great fighter. Tall and dark with gray eyes, pale looking, wearing dark clothes and gloves to match. Excuse me. Inspector? We just found out that the Nicholas the victim wore tonight, exactly matches the one that was warned by the other woman who was killed a few nights ago and that all night joined called free-days. Yes, sir, and what's more, the method used to kill a woman in these two murders is exactly the same in both. If you'll permit a lack of taste sergeant, I think it must express my feelings with a vulgar display of swearing. That sucks. There you go. That's what you miss when you watch the French version. Yeah, man. I missed that high moment of high comedy. That's pretty good. Do you remember what it was in the French version, Andy? I don't know. In the French version, he goes mad, but the subtitles today were up to our next in it. So these are these exploitative, but only in certain specific ways. Yes, yes, and then I want to, I wanted to mention one of the things, right at the end of sort of the second act in this sequence, after murdering this woman and coming back home, Andro's escapes again in the middle of the night, and he breaks into Melissa's room, but rather than killing her, it's clear that he recognizes her, and he sort of sits on the edge of her bed, stroking her hair, and she wakes up and realizes that that might be her father. She's just not sure certain, but when we hear Conrad coming home in the car, Andrew's fleas and goes back and lacks himself back in his room. Yeah, anything else from sort of this middle act that you wanted to bring in, I think that's all the big stuff. I don't think so so just as a reminder one man well has been lurking around the fringes of the story That's right. He's not really welcome in the castle, but he is around and he's gonna show up in the final act to sort of be our hero I suppose in certain way and yeah, I mean, there's a lot of A lot of drama with Ingrid remembering, this is where we learn here the whole story about how Ingrid fell in love with Andros, had a brief affair, and then when her husband learned about it, he murdered Andros, he and they passed off his death as like a botched surgery. Yes, but I hear I've got a clip of that and I want to play it because Ingrid is so melodramatic, it's delightfully weird. Conrad expected. He watched us like a green-eyed cat when they were lonely caught us. He murdered your father, right in front of me. He stabbed him in the back of the neck with a surgical scalpel. You know, he'd have killed me too, but he must have thought about what it would mean. He knew, I'd suffer more if he didn't kill me. He made me... ...be part of his charade that worked a perfection. Your father played the part of an infant who died under... ...the knife-during operation. With him safely in the tomb... ...your uncle had never as prostrations and so did I. So there's so many great things about that. Nervous prestrations. Also, how would it feel if you're drunk and told you that your father was murdered by your uncle? Like, just came out with it. Why not? it's pretty fantastic. We also get here an interview with the boxer, so that guy who was talking earlier about throwing a punch at the zombie is a boxer. And this is where they make the connection about the necklace and there's actually a wonderful little scene where the detective is listening and he takes out a nail file and he starts doing his nails and the boxer mentions the necklace and it's like a It's like the aha moment for the detective and he realizes that they're related but we're focused in on his hands and like he stops polishing them for a second as they're speaking. I don't know. I just found that really really delightful. Yeah, you know, speaking of the camera focusing in on stuff. I don't think we mentioned so this movie has a lot of of eye shots. Yeah, I've all seen him in. Yeah, it's it's that it I guess it's a Italian Gothic vibe. Lots of close-ups of eyes. Yeah, and there's this motif of Andros where he the first time we see him is at the very beginning of the movie in Conrad's flashback where he is looking over the shoulder of the woman he's sleeping with looking at Conrad and the eyes are huge and wide and then we see him throughout the rest of the film his eyes are like that there are I don't know if I can articulate this he kind of has to watch it there are a couple of funny moments with it with a camera rapidly zooms out on something. Yes, and Like, normally this would be kind of a tool for suspense, like it rapidly zooms out to reveal there's a monster next to you. But it's never used in that context. It's always used in more mundane contexts. Right. And so it's like this, the camera itself feels like this really melodramatic participant in the story in a way that was kind of fun. Yes, I think so. Franco is known for the handheld camera like this and doing a lot of zooms. So you're experiencing what became his style. Okay, it feels strangely modern in a way. He did, yes, totally. Yeah, even though it feels, it feels, feels both timeless but sort of more modern. It was, I thought it was really interesting. However, back to Conrad, he's getting sloppy. He needs, he needs another kill to, to feel better again, just like a serial killer. So he goes to an opium den. this scene was wild. Yeah. Do you want to say anything about this scene? I thought it was very interesting. Um, just that, uh, this is what made me pause the movie and go Google Opium Dems doesn't go down that track. Yeah, it's a, it's, you know, it's shot in a dream-like surreal fashion. Yes, sort of lounging around the listlessly. And yeah, I don't know. What do you want to call out from this scene? There's this woman who's like writhing and dancing, it's not even a dance, it's like, I don't even know what, but I want to grab another clip of music here that I thought was great that plays over her sort of rolling around. Her rolling and everyone else experiencing the opium. Yes. No, what that is. but it's kind of great. So she takes a hit off Conrad's pipe and we find out that. And then very quickly, then it's the next night in Conred sends Andros that's not going to be to kill her. What I think is interesting about this, there's a couple of interesting bits here. So the woman here who's later referred to as a den mother, I'm not kidding, in English translation, she receives a necklace from Conred. However, she doesn't keep it, she gives it to her friend. So the next night when Conred comes back with Andros, the killing machine, Andrews singles out the friend because we find that the necklace has an ultrasonic thing in it that makes Andrews track that enemy and then he throws the body in the river. However, he is witnessed. So this whole thing falls apart. But the other thing that was really creepy here was that as she's dying, you see Conrad, and he sort of has this look of like relief on his face as she's murdered, which gives you that sort of serial killer, taking vengeance on women kind of vibe that is here. Yeah, so that scene is creepy, and then something else important happens, but I wanted to see if you had anything on that scene before we moved on to it. No, I like the scene quite a bit. And I like the general sense we're getting to. I mean, the end of the movie is coming up. And we're about to tip downhill here. I enjoy that moment where the new starts to tighten around the villain. Like you said, he's getting sloppy. And there isn't really any sense that he isn't going to get caught, right? Right. And I would go so far as to say he maybe doesn't care all that much if he gets caught. I mean, he's pretty far gone, I think. Yeah, yeah, I think so, but then we get this, it's very short. We come back, this is the only other time we see Dr. Orlov, and it's, I think his wife or his nurse in, in like the sunroom, reading him the paper, and she just lays it out for him right here. Certain questions, in the case of the whole Fin Strangler, continue to baple the authorities and spectridias admitted to reporters today. How does the Strangler select his victims? What makes him apparently invulnerable? Why was each of the three murdered girls wearing the same type of necklace? What is the significance of these identical necklaces? Experts have appraised them as worthless. In fact, a prominent jeweler of this city declared that, in his opinion, they look like clumsy hearing aids rather than jewelry. So that pretty much lays it out. And this is where Dr. Orloff realizes he is created a monster. So we get to the title of Dr. Orloff's monster. It's not Andrew's the zombie. It's Conrad, right? And he's the one who is the monster here. He's the one who's always the humans that are the real monsters. That's right. That's right. Now, a bunch of stuff happens here. I just wanted to say that that set up. So what happens then is Dr. Orlov calls Inspector Diaz and tries to anonymous, but anonymously, he anonymously tips off Diaz about what's happening and then hangs up the phone immediately. And let's Diaz sort of put it together. But we're rapidly heading downhill. And Dr. in a very sort of weirdly sexual scene where she seems to be having a stroke or an orgasm or something. How did you guys, how did the scene play for you guys? Because it seemed very weird to me. So this was an interesting scene. I read it that she died basically of shock from seeing him less than him actually murdering her. So remember. This is her dead lover that she is. And she doesn't know that he's a zombie. Right. And I mean, her whole life has been ruined over her love for this man. So he appears in a room at night. She's lying in bed. And she just kind of does this series of kind of convulsions that I read as like basically having a heart attack or something like that. Yeah. It closes with this really great shot of Andra standing over the bed. She's dead lying in the bed. And a lamp is a lamp hanging lamp is is a penduluming back and forth over her body, because she hated, I think, during one of her convulsions. Yeah. I thought it was pretty great. And her acting is really over the top, but you know, it fits with the vibe of this film. Well, there's a little bit of artfulness to all of this like sort of, you know, like when like the senior describing and and when one of the when the singer is killed earlier the second woman to be killed she dies and they zoom in on her hand that like plays all the keys down the piano is she's being murdered it's very. romantic and and big in every way. So this is finally where the cops and Inspector Klein pull it all together. He gets the anonymous tip from Dr. Orlov. He's he's figured out the connection of the necklaces. He's doing some investigation. He's interviewed a couple people including the quote unquote den mother who should have been the victim but ended up not being the victim. And this is this is how he puts it all together. What's the news? Well, we've checked the necklaces and they did turn out to be ultrasonic transmitters. Do you think these sound waves could make a lifeless creature obey mechanically? That's right. They cancer. I'm reminded of the work of Dr. Orlov. He experimented with a robot which responded to ultrasonic's. The mechanism wasn't perfected, but it could certainly render a person almost invincible. But don't you think such a robot would have its Achilles heel? That's what most concerned Dr. Orlov. The vital spot has to be at the base of the skull, but the insertion of a receiver could be fatal. Uh-huh. You fit the nail on the head. Order all cars. We're leaving immediately. Yeah, so first of all, I love the jump that the inspector makes here. Yeah, I know. Thank you, Captain, exposition. Yeah. Wait, ultrasonic, couldn't you use that to control a dead body? I'm like, what? I love their confidence with which the other one responds. Like, well, of course, if you just alert it in the base of the neck as Dr. Orlov's experiments showed. Yeah. Can I just say, kind of Dr. Orlov not coming across real well in this movie and he started this all by his mad science started this all and the best he can do is an anonymous phone tip. I know. Come on. Yeah. So now we're racing downhill. Andrews kills Orlov and almost kills one manual and then the house just as the police arrive. And they have to come up with a plan to kill him because now Andrews the zombie her father is running around out there and they realize they need to do something and that he needs to be killed or office dead. They don't not have to control them, right? The secret is lost with him. So what did they ask Melissa to do? I thought this was delightfully tragic. So yeah, so I actually this was some pretty strong stuff for this movie actually. Yeah, so Melissa is asked basically to lead her zombie father out to where they can get a clean shot at him essentially. Yeah, and she agrees and it's a I would go so far as to say it was kind of a moving sequence of scenes. It really was. like she's beckoning to him and slowly follows her and she knows what he's she's leading him like a like a tentative child or something like that. She's beckoning him with her hands like come on out. It's going to be okay follow me follow me and he does and then she leads him into the open and then It's kind of funny that one man well was taking the shot here. I know. What's he doing? I guess they have police sharp shooters. I don't know. You know, he was in the movie. They didn't want to give it another character a name who knows. Yeah. And you know what else? I think sniper real snipers don't do. They don't shout. Hey Melissa, take cover before they take their shot. I guess in the point you're supposed to be shooting from surprise. I don't know. they also don't use old Winchester rifles. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I wondered if that was like high art that was just going past me or just happened to be in the shot. My guess it was advertisement for oranges. That's what I was so quick question here. Yeah. So I kind of missed how they figured out how to kill him. So what is different about this killing shot? Because we've seen the zombie shrug off bullets earlier in the film. Well, that's why I played the clip earlier from the detectives. It's a, the Achilles heel is at the base of the skull. The skull. Okay, got it, got it, got it, got it. Now, but in the French version, yeah. The dub says between the temple, so they make it like a clear head shot. Oh, interesting. The English dub, it's the base of the skull. Oh, all right, interesting. The film clearly does not show a headshot. I don't think there's Yeah, it shows his head and there's no bullet hole in his head. Yeah, he just falls over, but then we have one last clip to finish the film because I thought this was also excellent That keep Was it the only word spoken by Andros in the whole film? Well, he's lying on the ground, expiring in his daughter's crying over him. Fini, we are done. That is kind of interesting in the... So again, I watched it in French with English subtitles and the subtitles have him asking why. Oh, wow. French versus American right there. Which kind of changes the tone of the scene? Yeah, wow. That's interesting to me. Wow, okay. Well, we'll have to get into it. Yeah, and then there's our move. The question why is pretty obvious because you're a zombie because you're a zombie showing women. Yeah, you know, maybe he's asking why am I a zombie. Why did this happen to me? Yes feels like a very existential French question in your French version like Like, like, should I kill this man or not when I'm staring at the sea, you know, like, right, right. So hey, John, anything else you want to call out or do we want to get into our post movie recap questions. Let's do it. Okay. All right, this is, I'm going to walk us through the questions we ask about every zombie movie. We watch, this is to place these films in sort of the context of the zombie movie timeline. So, John, in Dr. Oraloff's monster, is there a hero party? There is, I think it's Melissa Juan Manuel and the detective, Detective Klein. I think they qualify as a, is a party hero party. So I want to talk about the detective stuff, and I might as well do it now. Yeah. So this is not the first movie where that has occasionally cut over to the place who are kind of piecing together the what's going on and then it's to set up a finale where the police come in basically and kill the monster. Yeah, I think we're so used to it now and like modern television, the sort of procedural stuff, but I think it's still fairly new for us in the timeline. That said, this wasn't very good police procedural stuff. Like because the police mostly stand around talking about how bewildered they are at what's going on. that they solve it because someone just phones them and gives them the answer kind of. So that took away a lot of the interestingness of the pretty substantial police scenes in this film. Because they're not like, you're not like solving the crime. They're just kind of observing what you the viewer already know because you watched the murder. And I think there's like a nuance to what makes a good Detective story and it's not just in like recounting to you a murder that you just witnessed, you know, yeah, anyway. Yeah, but I I think his condescension and his sort of irritating tone with everybody is the one thing that keeps him entertaining Yes. Oh, it's pretty entertaining to watch, I guess. Yeah, I enjoy the detective. They took a lot of time creating his character. He's a drummer foe, but there's all these scenes. Yes, but for people trying to touch them and he's backing away or got a cold. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought it was kind of neat how the creative was it needed or useful. No. Yeah, I think they do a lot more like he's he's more developed than than Melissa is frankly. Like all we know about Melissa is that her dad is dead and her uncles the murderer. Like that's her identity, you know. All right. Anyway, back to our questions. John, so that hero party we just identified. How did they do? How many of them survive this movie? They all survived, though. You think one mountain Wells died because Andrew's does strangling at one point, but he he survives. That's right. Yeah. All right. In this movie, let's talk about the zombie in this film, John. What kind of zombie are we dealing with here? So we're dealing with a reanimated, a dead body, reanimated, scientifically, and controlled scientifically. So it is a science zombie for sure. All right. How is that zombie destroyer killed? Actually, it's with a headshot, Andy. Yeah. Like, is this our first, Headshot? Cleats? Well, in my version, it's the base of the skull and yours, it's, you know, in between the eyes, but in either case, like it's, you kill him with a headshot. Revenge of the zombies, they talk about separating the brain from the body and that would end up. They do, but we don't see it. You don't see it. And here, it's pretty explicit, like, I don't know that there's, you know, I doubt George Romero ever saw this, but like, uh, like it's there, right, as far as the zombie clue. And this might be our first one. The idea that there's a weak point in the zombie. Yes. I think I don't think this is the first movie that is positive. I'm really trying to think how this has been handled in past movies. It is certainly not common that the zombies are invulnerable except for one spot if you shoot it, whether it's the neck of the head. Right. So, but I feel like this is new for us in our journey here. That's pretty interesting. It is interesting for a couple of reasons, I think. So, an awful lot of the zombies we've seen in these movies are just invulnerable. It can't be stopped by anything. This is a zombie that can be stopped by a very mundane, everyday thing, a bullet, but only if you hit its weak spot, which is like a Some zombies we've seen, which can just be taken out the way a human can, and the other in humanly, in vulnerable ones, right? All right, I won't be labor that further. Let's see, there's no zombie hoard in this one, because there's only the one zombie, and it's only really suggested that he ever has done this on, only his brother-in-law, right? Yes, correct. Is the world threatened in Dr. Orlov's monster? Now it's pretty small. It's a small-scale graphic family melodrama. Yeah, this is an expression of the kind of private angsts of the characters and no more than that. Yes. All right, how fast is the zombie in this movie? A superhuman speed, subhuman speed, or regular person speed? he's regular person speed though you don't know it at first at first he wanders very slowly and then like when he's being chased out of the cabaret he like runs up the stairs and like so he's any climbs over a wall so he's he's basically human speed. Yes and he's got a little bit in addition having that speed he's got a little bit i wouldn't say he's clever but he's not like a walking dead No, he seems to have some, yeah, intelligence to escape or whatever because he escapes a couple of times. Exactly. And he disposes of one of the bodies into the bay without any direction. He just feels so much like Frankenstein's monster to me. Yeah. Yeah. All can he return to being human, can his zombie state be reversed? No, he's dead. Yeah, he has that there's that haunting sense that he is a little bit aware of his fate, and he doesn't like it, but it's not enough that he ever returns. I mean, we see him choosing not to kill Melissa in one scene, basically, right? So he can sort of He has some agency. He has some agency, but yeah, and then lastly, so with all of that said and we've already answered this question a little bit. What are some of the zombie firsts if any that are in this movie and this zombie? Well, I think the headshot for sure is different. It feels like that to me, but also I don't know like a We've seen Gothic movies before. We've had the same trope with the castle and the niece, all that. Have we had a zombie sort of this tragic? It's not our first tragic zombie, but it's maybe our most tragic zombie so far. I actually marked this down too. I think it is a pretty note where the element of this, that this is zombie as tragic victim. Yes, you really don't. Again, the threat here. Yeah, the zombie is killing people, but the person who has it worse than this movie is Andrews the zombie. Yeah, and I think you have a sense that he is aware of his previous life and lives in sort of mournful regret and has has this agency. So he's more tragic than any other would. I don't think it's a first, but this is one of our most blatant examples of a zombie slipping like not following orders. Yes. This zombie master has more trouble than most of our zombie masters getting his pet zombie to behave. with the exception of John Kerry in a revenge of the zombies who gets drowned by his own zombie. Oh no, I guess it's the same because Dr. Fishman Kronrad gets strangled by his own zombie. We've had zombies break loose and kill their masters in the past. This one felt a little different like, you know, when he gets free of his masters control, he doesn't turn on his master. He just kind of goes off and does something else for a while. I just thought it was a little interesting. Yeah. It's also our first Spanish zombie, even though it's in Germany. That's right. It's made by a Spanish director. Oh, yeah. So I was going to say he has so one of the confusions about the sense of place in this film. As I think this movie takes place in Germany. Melissa is Austrian. Yep. One men well is Spanish, and they're all speaking French. Yes. So it's just, yeah, just a curious combination of cultures and languages. Yeah. All right, John. How many are early in the podcast you identified four pillars of the zombie film? Let's find out how many of them are present in Dr. Orloss monster. All right, done. In this movie, is there an apocalypse? No apocalypse. Is there contagion? No contagion. It seems very hard to become a zombie. In fact, it's a scientific miracle that was able to make this one. Yeah. Yeah. Does this movie feature tough moral choices? It absolutely does in a couple of interesting ways. So first off, Andros is doing these murders and he does not want to, right? So he is forced to. And so he has the tough moral choice of eventually killing Conrad, right? But also Melissa makes a very tough moral choice. They basically say to her, your father's gone he's a zombie the best thing for everybody and him would be for you to lure him into a place where we can kill him and that is that is gut wrenching and that is a choice that Melissa has to make yeah agreed yeah this is a pretty clear moral choice in the way that we envision it yes and lastly does this movie feature loved ones turning against you Yeah, absolutely. Andro's in theory loved his brother and his brother's wife and Melissa and he kills two out of those three people. Yeah, yes. Yeah, for sure. All right. Do you want to ask your 60s questions? Yeah, so the other thing we're doing here is asking 60s questions. These are sort of America's centric, but let's see how they stand up to European order. So do we see an increase in violence and grittiness in this film from the 50s films we'd watched before? So the violence in this movie is pretty bloodless and in line with the team movies of the 50s. I would say 40s and 50s. The blatant strangling looked a little more grotesque than in the movie. You think so? Okay, no, that we would have seen that in the 50s. Well, I think the way that it's different from the 50s is that these murders are drawn out. They're not gory or they're not bloodier, but you have to kind of sit through them and they can be a little uncomfortable for you to do that. Yep, so in other ways this movie, and I don't know if this is a European thing, where they're less interested in the gore, but you get more of the sexuality and stuff, but there is a lot of like, I don't think there's any actual nudity in this film, but at any time, a dance and girl can be shown in a state of undress she is. So this movie, I think is in line with our sixties boundary pushing elements. Yeah, what about speaking of that? What about questioning authority? I don't think I didn't get much of that vibe from this movie, and I while that's a very 1960s thing. I don't know if it feels like a gothic thing. Yeah, what about Juan Manuel and Melissa at the end where she's sort of whether sort of independent youths who are solving their own problem? Like is Juan Manuel sort of a rebel maybe a little bit I can see that. Part of the problem is that the plan at the end of this movie is really pitched to them by the police. That's true. That's true. Yeah. So it doesn't feel like something that it doesn't feel like Melissa came to a realization of what she needed to do so much as that she was convinced by the local authorities. Yeah. Where are you? So maybe a little bit, Alright, how about this one? Focus on the hero's inner life more personalized horror. So totally, yeah. This is a movie it's all about people's inner lives and their inner thoughts and how those are affected when they gain new information. So as with other one or two This is as much a movie about the villains in our life as it is about the heroes. Yeah. These murders and this whole zombie, I almost said shenanigans, but I won't. the zombie business that he gets up to is just a reflection of his kind of insane psychological turmoil from the betrayal that he felt when he found out his wife is having an affair that the two people he loved most in life were both betraying him. And all of the crime stem from that that's a real personalized sort of horror. And as far as the heroes go, you know, this is family horror, this is horrible because the people committing it and being victimized by it are all parts of your, your loved inner circle family. Yes. And that feels, uh, that feels interesting and very of the times. And I particularly like how it is sort of revealed to Melissa this whole world of personalized horror that she was unaware of and how she gets drawn into it, which really sort of personalizes it to. Yes. And it feels very gothic that, you know, behind this facade of classiness and austere authority, there is just this rot of hatreds and jellacies and bitterness. Yeah. I don't know about these next one. So you tell me, is there a fear of crime, societal chaos or anarchy in this movie? I don't think so. I think this movie is trying to be titillating a bit with the fact the murders are take place in these C-night clubs. But I don't think it's really trying to say anything when we're the other about crime and violence. No. I mean, it just sort of accepts that those places exist. Yeah. You know, the cabaret is not a men's club, it's packed, right, with men who are going to see a woman dance and sing. Okay, so what about, so these are together, but maybe we want to separate them for this movie, sense of looming apocalypse and psychological stress. So I'm going to answer yes. So there's a lot of psychological stress, and this movie does ratchet up the feeling of impending doom as it as the minutes take along. Um, the the doom interestingly is not The Doom is not that like the good guys are going to be swept up in some terrible fate. It's more like when is the new skin of clothes around Conrad and bring his story this Grizzly story to a close. So I think you can almost hear the clock ticking on how I mean, I do enjoy a good movie where the villain starts to get sloppy and his plans start to unravel as it goes along. So I'm going to say, yeah, but the sense of looming apocalypse is extremely localized, and personal, it's not any sort of a global apocalypse, and angered her whole life as psychological stress, right, induced by the crimes of the past. So yeah, horrors without solutions like I'm going to say, I'm going to give this a qualified. Yes. Oh, really. Exactly. So there's a clear villain here, but but the he's a villain because of some common to humanity, things that we do. Right. like so this is all set in motion. He's a little unbalanced I guess, but it's all set in motion by this affair between his wife and his brother-in-law and his brother-art is wife and his brother. And to me when you get, when you get to a story like that, it starts to have a little bit more of like a timeless feel. Like people are always pulling these sorts of stunts, right? And so this When it happened, one of the people involved was teetering on the brink of psychological madness. Yeah. So I want to say, I mean, they do defeat him. The threat is dead. So in that sense, yeah, they solved this problem is solved and it's not coming back. Right. But people are going to do the things that led to this over and over again. So yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. I like that. All right. Well, let's wrap it up here. All right, we close with three final questions, John, John, would you and I survive in the zombie world of Dr. Orloff's monster? I'm going to go with maybe here because if we assume we aren't part of this family, we could still get drawn in by that in the way that like Juan Manuel of the detective iron. Juan Manuel is almost killed but he's not killed. So I don't know, he's about 30 years younger than me, so maybe that's I think I would survive this one, John. And the reason is, it's kind of, you have to work pretty hard to get killed by this zombie in this movie. That's true. You have to be a hyper-specific type of person who's like the victim, or you really have to get up in the zombie master's business to get on the hit list. So you're right. I think I have a good shot at surviving this. I'm fairly confident I would survive because knowing myself, I know that I would not be a burlesque dancer. All right, John, is this a zombie movie or is this a movie with zombies? It's zombie movie, but not in the way we usually mean it. It's focused around the sort of tragedy of Andros the zombie. So I'm going to say, yeah, I agree. And I don't really have anything to add to that. Yeah, uh, lastly, John, do you recommend this movie? First is a movie that just people generally would find worth watching. Secondly, do you recommend specifically to the zombie loving fans of this podcast? So I'm going to go for the first one, no, because it's I actually liked it, but it's a little too low budget and it's a little too hard to find and there's these weird choices about what language to watch it in. I just don't know it's just not solid enough for me to say yes, you know what I mean, but but I would as far as I'll be fans because I think it's an interesting take on the zombie. It has the first headshot, which I think is. You know, if something we've been looking for this whole time, and I sort of didn't realize it until we were talking about it that it was here. So I'd say yes to our zombie fans. I would answer the same way. It's not. I didn't mind watching this one. This was enjoyable to watch, but not so much that I think you need to go hunt it down. Yeah, but I'm not terrible. It just looks like it looks like it was made very cheaply. And there's some wonderful artful direction in it, but ultimately it doesn't quite all come together. Yeah, but the zombie bits, I think, give it, I would give it a very soft recommendation to zombie fans. I don't think you need to watch this, but like John said, there's a couple of interesting zombie elements. And you know what, I am because it is, because specifically this trope has vanished from the world of zombie media and generally speaking, I'm very partial to stories about tragic zombies. Yeah, I am too. Again, it has that tragedy of Frankenstein's monster All right. Well, we've survived to the end here and that means it's time for the scariest part of the show. That's where a producer Brad tells us what zombie movie we will be watching next. Take it away, Brad. D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d- in your desire to see how zombies are portrayed in other mediums. So, I'll play the clip. I don't have a trailer for this, but I'll play a clip. And as it's playing, I will then show you the poster. Okay. Here we go. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, my goodness. The man for Uncle. The very important zombie affair. I am so excited about this oh I used to my so my mom loves this show and so that meant I watched episodes of it when I was a kid growing up so yes my dad my dad loved the show okay so just to reiterate this is an episode of the show the man from uncle called the very important zombie affair and I guess it doesn't have its own poster and stuff but we do have a pretty good still the title card from the show. Yeah, of a doctor, someone reaching out and touching the head of someone that that looks like your zombie, you know? It's hard to tell, the letters are in front of his face, but it could be. It's in Peter Graves, the guy, he's the voice, right? He's like the leader. I don't know. Robert Vaughn is Napoleon solo. All right, who's the old name of mine? Well, we'll talk about it when we get there. I am curious. I'm very curious to see what happens in the man from uncle. Has this had a, a second rate IP reboot that wasn't worth watching? I feel like it has Henry Cavill and who played the Russian. I've seen it. It wasn't the worst thing I've seen and we Cavals in everything. Yeah, so strange. I mean, more power of doing, but I just, yeah, I think I have a copy of it on the shelf. He's got a square joke. Directed by Guy Richie. It was Caval and Army Hammer. Okay. Oh, yeah. Well, we can probably skip that one. Oh, last, yeah. Well, I have to say, I'm excited, uh, I, it's been a little heavy. The show has been a little heavy lately. Yes. I am kind of excited for something that is pretty much guaranteed to be some light-hearted fun. So yeah, I think, and only 50 minutes long. Oh, and only 50 minutes long. And hopefully it doesn't feature horrible racism like the Batman thing or horrible tragedy like Dr. Orlast Monster, we could just use it a little just a nice little TV show. I'm not kind of excited. I'm, this is a good one. All right. Very good. Excellent. Well, hey everybody, if you haven't subscribed or given us a five star review in your podcast app of choice, please go do that. We will wait right here. Well, you're doing that. And seriously, thank you all for listening. We'll catch You've been listening to zombie strains. We'll be back next episode to talk about another zombie movie. If you enjoyed our podcast, please take a moment to rate us in your podcast Apple Choice. Tell a friend, follow us on Instagram at zombie strains. 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