Prisoner Jaime Rojas finds himself cellmate to one Dr. Frankenstein. Both are scheduled for release soon, and Jaime agrees to help the doctor with his experiments. Together they create the robotic man Orlak, which Jaime takes over to enact revenge on all his enemies...
Orlak:
The Hell of Frankenstein is a movie that grabs with the title, and had
me hoping it would live up at least a little. The film does deliver on
bodysnatching, murder, mad scientists, and a homicidal monster. So if
nothing else it gets the checklist nailed!
The film runs at a pretty overlong 93 minutes, when something like this could have easily been 70. Still, it's never boring. Where it gets interesting is how Orlak is divided into four quarters! At first glance the film seems like it might have been a tv production stitched together to a full length movie, but apparently making this appear to be the case was a common tax dodge in Mexico at the time. This does make more sense, as the breaks feel quite random. If I'd been watching an Orlak episode and it just abruptly ends after a random conversation, I'd be pissed.
The story centres on ex-convict Jaime Rojas, who seeks revenge on those who jailed him. He's a good villain, but the downside is the main baddie in a movie called The Hell
of Frankenstein is neither Frankenstein, or technically the
monster. Eventually Orlak does go on a rampage, though it's a bit unclear how out-of-control he is. Like all monsters he falls in love, and seeks to carry off his would-be girlfriend away.
The characters
here look the same. Not only does it make them hard to tell apart, but it
makes the first act unnecessarily confusing, as you try and figure out
who's doing what to who. There's Jaime, his rival Felix, and the
monster's given a human face. At first I thought it'd been given Felix's, as part of some dastardly plan to frame him, but instead the plan is someone identical to Jaime will commit murders in public. That's either a stupid plan or a brilliant one!
It
took me till the singer's death before I realised she and the judge's
daughter were two different characters. I was wondering how she was
suddenly so lovey dovey with Jaime when she hated him in other scenes. Elvira is a nice enough girl, and you've gotta feel bad for her. Her beau turns out to be a murderer, and she gets no consolation love interest by the end.
Frankenstein here is a little morally grey, and has no qualms with bodysnatching or experimenting on the dead. He justifies himself, naturally, If
only the foolish police hadn't caught him everything would be ok, and he'd be
hailed as a scientific genius. Of course! Morality is actually an
interesting element here. Is Frankenstein the bad guy here for creating the monster? Or is it Jaime for controlling its violent actions?
The
monster himself, christened Orlak, is a mindless killer for much of
the film, just following Jaime's orders. But once he meets Elvira, his own
personality begins to assert itself. Or rather, a mirror image of
Jaime's, in a way.
The cast do an alright job, even if they're unable to really cut loose. I would've liked to see Andres Soler play Frankenstein in a proper entry, getting the whole film to himself. Joaquin Cordero does well as both the film's true villain, and the creation of the title.
The effects here are pretty neat. The sets are gorgeously decorated, especially Frankenstetin's lab! The box on Orlak's head looks a little silly, but gets a laugh. While Orlak spends much of the movie looking like a normal human, we eventually get a more monstrous visage after a brilliant face melting sequence!
Overall, Orlak, The Hell of Frankenstein isn't a great product, but it does enough little things right that it's not a bad watch
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