The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962)

Fantastic!

Awesome Movie

A Disappointing Continuation

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

I suppose how horrible you think Doctor Hitchcock is depends on your own view of necrophilia. I mean, sure, the first time we see him he's bashed the head of a gravedigger so he can have a quick go on a corpse's paps, but then he did show his kinder side by also being the Doctor who stitched up the poor guy's head at the hospital later. And it's not necrophilia is his wife is still alive, and only looks dead because of the drugs he pumps her full of, is it? It's a complicated issue.This film also gives us a Double Scouse Lead Actor Line-up! (or D.S.L.A.L for short)! Not only do we have Birkenhead born Barbara Steele in the film, but playing Doctor Hitchcock is Liverpool born actor Roberyt Flemyng! Very little is known of this actor, except that he was an aristocratic-looking character actor, with a 60-year long theatrical career stretching back to 1931. The son of a Liverpool physician, he had a brief medical career, which he abandoned in preference to becoming a thespian. Rose to prominence as Keit Neilan in 'French Without Tears' in 1936. Thereafter, had leading roles on the London and Liverpool stages. Also appeared on Broadway and went on tour in 1952 opposite Katherine Cornell in 'The Constant Wife'. During World War II, he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps, reaching the rank of full colonel. He was awarded the MC (Military Cross) in 1941, mentioned in dispatches and was awarded the military OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1944 King's Honours List for his services to the Royal Army. On 21st March, 1995, he suffered a serious stroke and was for a time comatose. He eventually recovered consciousness, but was incapable of speech and was limited in his movements. He died as a patient in St. Thomas's Hospital in London in the early hours of May 22nd, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.Barbara by the way is Dr Hitchcock's second wife, because Hitchcock accidentally killed his first wife with those drugs while trying to turn her into a fake-corpse. Hitchcock, after twelve years, has now returned to his creepy old mansion with Barabararararara, who immediately takes a dislike to meddlesome ratbag housemaid Harriet White. After some screaming is heard, an alarmed Barararararbara is told that's just Harriet's crazy sister and that she's getting shipped off to some loony bin the next day. If that's the case, however, who's running around laughing, being spooky, and making use of the mansion's standard-issue secret passageways? And why is that creepy cat still alive after twelve years?Barbara Steele sure does a lot of fainting in this film! Someone leaves a skull in her bed = faint. She's out in the garden when a ghostly bridesmaid runs about = faint. She looks through a keyhole and sees someone preparing a noose = keels over. That last one doesn't work out too well for her either. Someone's up to something, and while all that's happening Dr Hitchcock is getting a hankering for some cold flesh, and constantly nearly keeps getting caught at the hospital morgue for this troubles (mainly by suspicious Silvano Tranquili, who has the hots for Barbara).I'm going to level with you here and say that this film isn't exactly a white knuckle ride. It's pure undiluted Gothic horror that takes it's sweet time getting to conclusion, but just like his other film The Ghost, Riccardo Freda makes good use of colour and throws in loads of mood (and thunderstorms, don't forget thunderstorms). There's one particularly weird scene where Barbara hallucinates Hitchcock's face swelling up while red light fills the screen. That said, I do prefer the Ghost if I had to compare the two.

A pretty wild ride, this one, after a rather uncomfortable and disturbing start as the first coffin is interfered with. Robert Flemyng is effective as the horrible doctor but I bet he used to leave this one off his CV. Between the worrying start and the breakneck finale there is really not that much happening but we are sustained by the grisly nature of the goings on, majestic photography and, of course, the equally majestic, Barbara Steele. I read somewhere that it was reckoned this was Steele's greatest performance and, on reflection, I think that may be so. Certainly she has a lot to do and continually looks as worried as she is beautiful. Strangely, her two most impressive scenes are both shot through glass. There is a terrifying moment when she and we see a ghost in the garden, through her window and then towards the end the amazing shots of her in the coffin through the small glass window. Not a great story but this works from beginning to end, nevertheless.

Before having read anything about Italian Gothic Horror films,my original through when hearing about this title a few years ago was that it must be some sort of comedy film about Alfred Hitchcock!.As time went on,and I eventually got round to finding out a few things about this particular Italian cinema sub-genre,this title seemed to be one of the main three which are connected to the sub-genre.Searching round on Youtube,I ended up finding a subtitled video of the film where all of the colour looked like it had been covered in oil.Getting very keen on seeing the film in its full "glory",I went on a frantic search until I found a beautiful bright dubbed print of the film,which at last gave me a chance to book an appointment with the good doctor..The plot: Wanting to make the relationship that he has with his wife (Margherita Hichcock) a bit more kinky,Doctor Bernard Hichcock decides to try a chemical that will cause his wife's heartbeat to drop to a level that will cause her to look like a corpse.Shortly after giving her the injection,Hichcock discovers that seeing the effect of the chemical on his wife,helps him to reach a level of "excitement" that Bernard has never imagined.Sadly,along with the excitement Hichcock discovers a little too late that the chemical has a terrible side-effect when his wife suddenly stops "pretending" and actually becomes a corpse.Despite having a long struggle to get over the death of his wife,Hichcock meets a woman called Cynthia who he soon proposes to.After getting married to the woman,Hichcock takes her back to his mansion,where they will spend the rest of their lives happily together.How ever,although Hichcock is doing everything to help his new wife "settle in",Cynthia begins to suspect that he is trying to hide something about his past when she first notices that his mansion is covered with paintings of his deceased wife and that she is perhaps starting to see things,due to having looked out of a window,and seeing what looked to be "a ghostly,living corpse" outside the mansion.View on the film:Despite the films screenplay disappointingly not reaching my expectation levels director Ricardo Fredra gives the movie a terrific, almost twisted Brothers Grimm like appearance with his stylish directing,which brilliantly makes the film's locations look like actually interiors and not scenes that were shot in a studio thanks to Fredra making the characters long shadows a prominent feature to the look of the film.Also with the shadows Ricardo uses the Technicolor format in a fantastic eye- catching manner,as the characters faces and the castle location are brought to life in a stunningly lit up shiny style.Along with Fredra's solid directing the film also features a great performance from lead actress Barbara Steele (who interestingly,is an uncredited extra in the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps and also starred in the 1961 Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode titled Beta Delta Gamma shortly before making this film!) who along with looking beautifully striking also does brilliantly at showing the wide-eyed fear that Cynthia starts to develop as she begins to wonder if her husband (played by a wonderfully stern Robert Flemming)is attempting to hide something extremely disturbing from her,or if she is actually starting to lose a grip on her sanity.Sadly with the great work that Freda and Steele display in this film,the screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi (who also wrote the Sergio Martino Giallo All The Colours Of The Dark) deflates any feeling of terror for the first hour of what should be a very nerve- wrecking film,due to Gastaldi making the pace of the films plot move at a surprisingly slow pace,which despite the last half an hour of the movie feeling pretty energetic leaves the overall film feeling disappointing and tied. Final view on the film: Terrific stylish directing from Freda and a great performance from Steele are sadly let down by a disappointingly plodding screenplay.

In this movie Dr. Hitchcock develops a particularly effective anesthetic. Of course, it he wanted to put people to sleep he could have just shown them this movie! Woo-Hoo! Take that, "The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock"!Seriously, though, I never thought a movie starring Barbara Steele about necrophilia and people being buried alive would be so boring. Dr. Hitchcock resembles a wormy James Caan and makes goofy faces whenever aroused- that is, when he's not being played by an obvious stunt double. Barbara sports some painful looking fake eye-lashes and has a sort-of romantic relationship with a guy even blander than Dr. H. About halfway through this flick you can leave, make yourself a salad, read a book, do some light cleaning and come back and not miss anything. This makes "The Screaming Skull" look like "Psycho".