SOLO UN ATAUD (1969)
aka El enigma del ataud, Only a Coffin, The Orgies of Dr. Orloff
Article 3101 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-19-2009
Posting Date: 2-9-2010
Directed by Santos Alcocer
Featuring Howard Vernon, Maria Saavedra, Adolfo Arles
Country: Spain / France
What it is: Your basic “old dark castle” story

Doctor Orlof invites his relatives to his castle with the intent of murdering them. When he himself is found murdered, the relatives have to find who the killer is… or they may be next!

There were seven Dr. Orloff movies in all; all but two of them were directed by Jesus Franco, and the fifth (ORLOFF AGAINST THE INVISIBLE MAN) even feels like a Franco movie. This, the fourth, does not feel like a Franco movie. Nor does it feel like an Orloff movie. Nor, for that fact, does it feel much like anything but a tired retread of an overused theme. Granted, that statement should be taken with a grain of salt, seeing as how I’ve only seen this movie in unsubtitled Spanish. It’s interesting to compare the two English titles to this one; though THE ORGIES OF DR. ORLOFF probably brought in more people, I’d assume that those who saw it under the title ONLY A COFFIN would have liked it better; after all, that title doesn’t promise much, and the movie delivers no more than the title promises. Those expecting orgies should be warned that the movie would have been better titled THE GABFEST OF DR. ORLOFF, and Dr. Orloff himself, Howard Vernon, barely appears in it. In fact, if the user ratings on IMDB are any indication, this is the least of the series. Certainly, nothing happened that made me eager to hunt up a dubbed or subtitled copy of this one.