Dr. M schlägt zu

Doctor Mabuse strikes again in this highly-colored movie shot by Jess Franco in the mid-seventies, when he was still comitting marvels. This one has almost everything you can expect from a spanish late night masterpiece : the evil doctor and his mindless Frankenstein-like monster, Monica Swinn as her evil and sexy sidekick, a cameo by a screaming and cigar smoking Franco, some cops dressed like laughable cowboys, a few sexy girls in mini-skirts and the incredible camera angles and locations that has made old Jess famous.

It's about doctor Mabuse's evil plans - plans I couldn't understand because the movie is in spanish - and the endeavours of humanity to stop him, Franco-style. Shot in the most unusual and strange locations of Spain, it is a visual treasure and the funny characters are, as always, very parodic. It may last only about an hour, but it will remain in your hearts and minds for a long long time...

Another masterpiece by one of the ultimate godfathers of campy Euro sleaze - Jess Franco! This more indirect installment to producer Arthur Brauner´s "Dr. Mabuse"-series is silly, cheap, but also damn entertaining if you like hilarious trash movies! Especially the great 1970s flair blew my mind: 1970s style as far as the eye can see, plus a stunning psychedelic score complete this funny trashfest! The actors: Moisés Augusto Rocha as monster is the best second-class Boris Karloff-double I´ve ever seen. Franco´s all time favorite actor Jack Taylor is quite good as villain, however his sly helper Eva Garden steals the show whenever she´s on the screen! The director himself is wonderful campy with his role as police chief and German actor Wolfgang Kieling fills some gaps with an amusing performance in playing a drunk angler. Don´t expect intelligent dialogues or a demanding plot, because this is a perfect symbiosis of trash and fun! Just switch off your brain for 70 minutes, lay back and enjoy!

Jesus Franco's take on the Dr. Mabuse franchise...well that should sum up pretty much how this movie is like. Jesus Franco is a director who has always distinguished himself by delivering extremely bad and poor movies. He's always fascinated with putting a lot of nudity and explicit sexuality into his movies. He began early in his career by making mostly bad horror flicks in the '60's and '70's but his career has now reached a point that he's stuck to mostly soft-erotic movies. In many ways his career parallels that of Ed Wood's, also not in the least because of the comparable qualities of their movies. Who ever gave him the green light to do a Dr. Mabuse movie? Fritz Lang is turning over in his grave.

As you would expect, this movie has actually very little to do with the previous Dr. Mabuse movies. It features an extremely muddled story with all kind of oddness's over it and you just simply don't bother to try and understand what the story is all about. It's some extremely bad and disjointed storytelling within this movie. Often the scenes and different characters and plot lines just don't blend in with each other.

The characters (Really, a couple of cowboy cops?) and dialogs are often just horrible and simply laughable. And yes, of course the movie also features a couple of lesbian actions. A thing Jesus Franco also really seems obsessed with. The nudity and sexual content within this movie just seems terribly out of place and makes this more a 'dirty movie' than a real serious attempt by Franco. Not that I expected this in advance though.

Like a typical Franco flick, it's also a real cheap looking movie, with bad locations, laughable make-up effects (what was that monster creature all about?) and shot sequences without the use of any additional lighting, or anything of that sort. On top of that, Jesus Franco also felt to urge to compose the music for this movie. What an horrible, horrible choice that was.

Seriously only watchable for the fans of Franco-trash.

2/10

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Jess Franco directed over 180 movies in his lifetime, so it's not very surprising that he occasionally lacked inspiration. The Vengeance of Dr. Mabuse sees Jess imitating his own 1962 movie The Awful Dr. Orlof, which itself was inspired by George Franju's classic Les Yeux Sans Visage.

As with The Awful Dr. Orlof, the plot concerns a crazy scientist, the titular Dr. Mabuse (Jack Taylor), who abducts women with the help of disfigured servant Andros (Moisés Augusto Rocha) in order to subject them to a powerful ray, the aim being to create an army of robots. Parallels with The Awful Dr. Orlof abound, from the police inspector (here played by Fred Williams) whose girlfriend is called Wanda (same as in Orlof), to the woman lured to an abandoned building where she is accosted by Orlof's servant (as in Orlof), to the vagrant who catches a vital clue on the end of his fishing pole (as in Orlof). Needless to say, the film ends in the same way, with Andros carrying off Wanda, the inspector arriving just in time to kill the 'monster' and save the girl.

Sadly, this time around, the formula doesn't result in such a great film: Franco's direction is sloppy, the performances aren't very good (Howard Vernon's presence would be beneficial), and Eva Garden as Wanda isn't anywhere near as sexy as Diana Lorys, who played the inspector's fiancé in The Awful Dr. Orlof.

4/10

Q. Did the same artist who drew the police sketches in The Awful Dr. Orlof also design the sign for The Red Garter cabaret club? It's just as terrible.

Jesus Franco's movies are really strange:on the one hand they're really trashy and brainless,on the other hand they always deliver a good amount of sleaze and are simply fun to watch."La Venganza del doctor Mabuse" is an enjoyable trashy romp filled with bad acting,sleaze and nudity.The monster is extremely laughable and the characters(especially those stupid cops)are very funny.So if you like Franco or Spanish cinema give this one a look.