'THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK'.....HE'S HELL IN BED....AS LONG AS THEY'RE DEAD........

The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962)    In the much lampooned "Love Story", the operative phrase  was 'Love means never having to say you're sorry....."  (Yeah, right....)

            This Italian gothic horror, dripping with atmosphere and candle wax, gives out a different bit of wisdom......

            Necrophilia means never having to say goodbye........

            Now here's a film truly ahead of its time for 1962.......even the most perverse, most blood drenched horror films of the era stayed away from sex with dead people. That particular kink was maybe just a corpse too far for even the most depraved producers of scary stuff......

            But not director Riccardo Freda, a prolific purveyor of international pulp Euro-trash ("Caltiki The Immortal Monster", "The Giants Of Thessaly", "Theodora, Slave Empress").

            With a poverty level budget and shooting schedule, Freda somehow slapped together this haunting, utterly bizarre nightmare. Like all iconic horror films, it bears the appearance of a bad dream you're experiencing while wide awake.....(very much like Argento's legendary "Suspiria")

             And every so often, some of the startling, brightly colored imagery in play can stay with you for decades. 

            It's near the turn of the century at the forbidding mansion of the cold, imperious medical genius Dr. Hichcock (effectively played by stiff-upper-Brit Robert Flemyng, who wanted to bail out once he found out he'd have to ravish some stiffs.....real stiffs, not just dumb starlets....)

            Doc H. loves his gorgeous wifey Margareta (Maria Teresa Vianello), but only after he induces her into a coma so she'll look dead when he jumps her bones.  But ooops.......too much sleepy-juice and poor wifey goes belly up for real, literally Margareta-ville wasting away..........leading Doc to flee for Italy.....

            But years later, he's back at haunted Hichcock-ville with a spankin' new wifey Cynthia (the exotic, drop dead gorgeous Barbara Steele, at the very height of her reign as the magnificent Malificent of Italian horror) Sexless prude that he is, Doc leaves Cyn to her own devices, since he much prefers the hospital, where he's free to cop a feel off a corpse.....

            While Doc's at his clinic, honeymooning with newly-deads at the morgue, poor Cyn's being haunted by none other than Margareta........but surprise, surprise, slightly decomposed Margie's still alive, cared for by Doc's extra creepy housekeeper Martha (Harriet Medin, who's only missing a 'Martha-Extra Creepy Housekeeper' name tag to complete her performance.)

           All these grisly goings-on finally culminate during one of those famous Gothic Movie Storms, where the thunder and lightning continuously pounds non stop, as if on a pre-recorded loop) 

          Overcooked and as silly as it sounds, I couldn't deny the film's ripe visuals and attentive artistry....especially the film's most eyeball-poppin' image of Robert Flemyng during one of Steele's nightmares.....his face, bathed in glowing scarlet, warping into a twisted representation of Dr. Hichcock's true evil nature. 

           ......which makes the film a must see for all horror completists. Even today, you won't find too many films willing to show a doctor who'll fully examine a patient with the ultimate pre-existing condition.....3 stars (***).