London, 1885: surgeon Dr. Bernard Hichcock (Robert Flemyng) likes his women to be quiet when he makes love. Dead quiet. Accordingly, he injects his beautiful willing wife Margaretha (Maria Teresa Vianello) with anaesthesia to achieve a death-like state before getting fruity with her, but his plan backfires when she really carks it during one of his night-time visits. Distraught, he leaves home.
Twelve years later, the doctor returns to London with a new wife, Cinzia (Barbara Steele), who is blissfully unaware of her husband's particular sexual proclivities. But old habits die hard, and it's not long before the doc is up to no good, fondling the female stiffs at his hospital, and injecting Cinzia while she sleeps. Seeing a ghostly figure roaming the grounds at night, Cinzia suspects that something is very wrong and confides in her husband's dashing colleague Dr. Kurt Lowe (Silvano Tranquilli). Will Kurt realise the horrifying truth before Cinzia follows Margheretha to the grave?
If the title didn't make it clear, director Riccardo Freda's gothic horror The Horrible Dr. Hichcock owes a debt to dear old Alfred H., not just in the Psycho-style closing scene, in which the demented doctor's true nature is finally revealed to Cinzia, but also with several other references to Hitch's work: the gothic structure of Rebecca, the poisoned glass of milk from Suspicion, the 'skull in the bed' from Jamaica Inn. Freda's imagery is great, with stunning lighting and beautiful cinematography, but his storytelling isn't a patch on Hitchcock's, the action moving at a dreary pace that threatens to send the viewer into a deep sleep, anaesthetic not required.
The ending is also more than a tad confusing: according to both my trusty Aurum Encyclopedia of Horror and Wikipedia, Margaretha was buried alive and came back from the grave, presumably a little less sane for her experience. Did creepy housekeeper Martha (Harriet Medin) look after her for all the time that the doctor was away? Why didn't Martha contact Bernard to tell him? Or did he know all along? I haven't the foggiest. Not sure why the doctor thought that Cinzia's blood would revive Margaretha's looks either!
4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for the hilarious Anglicised name given to production designer Franco Fumagalli in the opening credits: Frank Smokecocks.
Twelve years later, the doctor returns to London with a new wife, Cinzia (Barbara Steele), who is blissfully unaware of her husband's particular sexual proclivities. But old habits die hard, and it's not long before the doc is up to no good, fondling the female stiffs at his hospital, and injecting Cinzia while she sleeps. Seeing a ghostly figure roaming the grounds at night, Cinzia suspects that something is very wrong and confides in her husband's dashing colleague Dr. Kurt Lowe (Silvano Tranquilli). Will Kurt realise the horrifying truth before Cinzia follows Margheretha to the grave?
If the title didn't make it clear, director Riccardo Freda's gothic horror The Horrible Dr. Hichcock owes a debt to dear old Alfred H., not just in the Psycho-style closing scene, in which the demented doctor's true nature is finally revealed to Cinzia, but also with several other references to Hitch's work: the gothic structure of Rebecca, the poisoned glass of milk from Suspicion, the 'skull in the bed' from Jamaica Inn. Freda's imagery is great, with stunning lighting and beautiful cinematography, but his storytelling isn't a patch on Hitchcock's, the action moving at a dreary pace that threatens to send the viewer into a deep sleep, anaesthetic not required.
The ending is also more than a tad confusing: according to both my trusty Aurum Encyclopedia of Horror and Wikipedia, Margaretha was buried alive and came back from the grave, presumably a little less sane for her experience. Did creepy housekeeper Martha (Harriet Medin) look after her for all the time that the doctor was away? Why didn't Martha contact Bernard to tell him? Or did he know all along? I haven't the foggiest. Not sure why the doctor thought that Cinzia's blood would revive Margaretha's looks either!
4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for the hilarious Anglicised name given to production designer Franco Fumagalli in the opening credits: Frank Smokecocks.