Look out! He's got a knife!

The Diabolical Dr. Z (1965)

Doctor Zimmer has found the centres of Good and Evil in the central nervous system. Upon presenting his findings to the scientific world, the ridicule he is subjected to causes him to have a heart attack and die.

His daughter Irma promptly fakes her own death, and launches her plan for revenge: she kidnaps a local nightclub performer known as Miss Death, and brainwashes her into murdering the scientists who had ridiculed her father. The problem is that Miss Death keeps remembering who she really is, and isn't too keen on her nightclub act extending to the real world...

This is the fourth of Jess Franco's horror movies, and the last in his first major cycle. Despite some major over-reliance on coincidences, it's very good indeed. The fact that this just about was the only period in Franco's epic (160+ movies and counting) fimography when he worked on only one movie at a time probably helps. The script is by Jean-Claude Carriere, who's best known for co-writing most of Luis Buñuel's late movies (e.g. Belle De Jour, Diary of a Chambermaid, That Obscure Object of Desire, etc).

Estelle Blain is fantastic as Miss Death, both very sexy and very convincing in a difficult role. Franco turns up in one of his traditional roles as the cop on the case, and he's great as usual. Howard Vernon appears as one of Miss Death's hit list.

The music by Daniel White (who also appears as an incompetent visiting Scotland Yard detective) moves assuredly from ominous horror movie music to some pretty wild jazz for the action scenes. Miss Death's nightclub act prefigures what was to become a standard in Franco movies (it was explicitly reference as recently as 1998's Eight Legs To Love You With) and is spooky and fun.

The black & white photography is very atmospheric in the gothic mode. There's quite a bit of intentional humour, most of which actually works, especially Franco's revelation of how he solved the case.

This and The Castle of Fu Manchu are the only Franco movies I've seen to contain no female nudity. Thanks to Ms. Blain it's pretty damned sexy anyhow. This would be a splendid introduction to the uniquely insane world of Jess Franco: it contains a straight narrative; it fits into a recognisable genre; it's made with genuine polish; and it introduces or includes many of the themes that continue to obsess Franco and his fans to this day.

But beware! Jess Franco is not just a filmmaker. He is a disease. I am a carrier. You may already be infected. Stay tuned...