The Diabolical Dr. Z

The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966)

Miss Muerte

Nothing ever stripped your nerves screamingly raw like the diabolical Dr. Z

A woman seeks to avenge her father's death using a local dancer, with long poisonous fingernails, to do her bidding.

Date of release
1966-08-01
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (39)
Runtime
1h 26m
Genres
Horror, Science Fiction
Director
Jesús Franco
Collection
Dr. Orloff Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: €361K
  • Budget: €60K
  • Earned 6× its budget

The Diabolical Dr. Z is a 1966 horror film directed by Jesús Franco. The film stars Mabel Karr as Irma Zimmer, a surgeon who creates a machine that turns people into zombified slaves. Ms. Zimmer is the daughter of a Professor Zimmer, who was hounded to his death several years earlier by four of his scientific associates. Zimmer uses the machine to control an erotic dancer named Miss Muerte who uses her long poison-tipped fingernails to murder the people Ms. Zimmer holds responsible for her father's death.

Production

The Diabolical Dr. Z was written by Jean-Claude Carrière based on a story by director Jesús Franco. The film is loosely based on the 1940 novel The Bride Wore Black. The film's opening credits state that it is based on "a novel by David Khune" which is an alter-ego for director Jesús Franco. Franco would later re-use elements from the plot of The Diabolical Dr.

The film was tentatively titled Doctor Z. y Miss Muerte and was a Spanish and French co-production. Respectively It was 60% Spanish and 40% French. It was produced between the Madrid-based Hesperia Films and the Paris-based Spéva Films and Ciné Alliance.

Despite being one of Franco's favorite films of his earlier period, Franco has stated that the film "shouldn't have been made... Censorship was causing me troubles."

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