Hunchback of the Morgue (1975)

Better Late Then Never

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The first must-see film of the year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Paul Naschy plays a hunchback with below average intelligence who works at the morgue. He is in love with a sickly girl who happens to be the only person who is kind to him.Naschy, who also wrote the script, seems to be inspired by a number of sources. Some have said the central inspiration is "Beauty and the Beast", given the romance between a deformed man and a beautiful young woman. But more obvious sources seem to be "Hunchback of Notre Dame" (with Quasimodo and Esmeralda) and "Frankenstein", though this time the story o told from the point of view of the mad scientist's assistant.Director Javier Aguirre at this point in his career was known for experimental work, but had also worked with Paul Naschy on the slightly better-known "Count Dracula's Great Love" (1973) earlier the same year. In fact, "Hunchback" came about in part because of a delay on "Great Love" due to a car accident. I hope that over the longer run, the better-known film becomes "Hunchback", because there are some crazy scenes in here.We start with a crafted miniature model of a Bavarian town, which you have to give them credit for. (The non-model village shots are in Vielha e Mijaran, Catalonia.) And then the makeup. Sure, it does not take much to make a hunch. But some of the other nastiness, especially the mad scientist's creation, are in many ways way ahead of their time.The realism goes above and beyond what we typically see in films of this type. For one thing, the corpses are allegedly real and Naschy was allowed to cut into them and use them as they pleased. Exactly how that permission was granted seems like a story in itself. But also the rat sequences. There exists a story that some of the rats are really guinea pigs colored to look like rats, but that seems hard to believe -- the two are very distinct looking to anyone familiar with both rodents. Regardless, having so many rodents crawl on multiple actors in abundance had to be a challenge. Even tame, friendly rats would make most people uncomfortable in such huge numbers.For his role as Gotho, Naschy won the Georges Meliés Best Actor Award for his portrayal from the International Festival of Fantastic and Science-Fiction Cinema of Paris in 1973. According to Mirek Lipinski, Naschy at one point shared the stage with both Peter Cushing and Terence Fisher. If only a photo existed of this powerful trio!The Scream! Factory Blu-ray (2017) has everything we could want really. The film in both Spanish and English, audio commentary from Naschy experts, and a booklet of valuable information to complement the commentary.

A superior Spanish shocker, which charts the life of a hunchback as he is abused by some and falls in love with others. However, being an X-rated horror flick, heavy lashings of gore and general grisliness are added into the mix, to create unforgettable moments and alleviate from the otherwise routine story. The film's strength lies in the evocative and moving musical score, which really helped to set the scene for me, and the atmospheric location of the underground cavern which is brimming with Gothic dread and foreboding. Paul Naschy takes the lead role and brings life and sympathy to his anti-hero, a villain who is drawn into his acts either as a last resort or as a result of someone else's evil.What could have been just another brutal monster turns out to be a pathetic but deeply just and noble person; moments of Naschy kissing the feet of those he appreciates are at odds to shots of him brutally murdering numerous victims, and in the end Naschy's strong acting means that you can't help but like him, even if he is a multiple murderer and sadist! The strong Spanish supporting cast includes Alberto Dalbes' fine performance as a deranged and evil scientist, genre regular Maria Perschy as a doctor and Rosanna Yanni as a genuinely beautiful love interest - yes, even a hunchback can love! Once again, this Naschy film's strength is in the numerous plot strands and ideas that it throws into the mix to keep it going nicely. As well as the character study of Gotho, the film includes romance and sex and themes of power and its abuse. The horror elements are also varied and interesting. The film begins with a scene of a corpse being bloodily cut up with a knife and doesn't get any easier to take from there! Corpses have their faces eaten apart by rats, there's a string of gore murders, hijinks involving a severed head, grave-robbing, and a mad scientist, and a convenient acid bath into which many characters fall and are lovingly dissolved in detail. One of my favourite aspects is the monster in the cellar which screams and cries with terrible noises, really building up the unseen terror. When it finally escapes to go on a rampage, the slimy humanoid creature doesn't disappoint in special effects either.The gore is over-the-top and extremely explicit, even for a Naschy movie. Characters are decapitated and eviscerated (guts everywhere), strangled, dissolved, spiked in iron maidens, have their faces destroyed with acid, and mutilated. However, the film's most unpleasantly memorable scene doesn't involve any special effects whatsoever - yes, it's an unfaked scene of animal violence! This mondo madness occurs when Gotho discovers rats eating his girlfriend and attacks them with a torch (Naschy himself was famously bitten during this ordeal). Cue lots of shots of scampering, squealing, and burning rats; for a rodent lover such as myself, these scenes are really quite hard to take and unnecessarily long with it! Thankfully this is the only example of mondo violence in the film - and in Naschy's long career also.Otherwise, the action/fight scenes are well-staged and exciting, the acting pretty good all things considered, the dubbing not too intrusive, the effects good, and the atmosphere and suspense strong. Worth checking out for all genre fans and a must-see film for Naschy followers in particular, this more than stands up against the best of his Waldemar Daninsky - werewolf output. Highly recommended.

Even though it doesn't feature one, I can't think of a better example than HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE for a film capturing an all-encompassing feeling of atmosphere and oddity that surrounded those side show carnivals that were equal parts curiosity, repulsion, and pathos for the things paraded on display. FREAKS has the revenge tale morality of its real life freaks covered, carrying with them a sense of uneasy understanding and likability. But HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE is more designed like one of those things in a jar that pits your stomach against your lunch like it used to when you saw a preserved human limb suspended in a laboratory vat, while also being inspired by Naschy's own unnerving personal experience with a miss-fortuned humpback. There is no denying the exploitative nature of the attractions.HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE invites the viewer from its opening polka like musical theme, to a seemingly sleepy little Austrian town in the fall or summer depending on what version you see, but it was shot in the summer. Paul Naschy plays the titular hunchback Gotho, who works at the local morgue 'cleaning' up and falls in love with Ilsa, a young women at the infirmary who eventually dies. He meets a deranged scientist who promises to help bring Gotho's love back if he'll supply his experiment - in Burke and Hare fashion - with fresh cadaver parts.Like director Javier Aguirre's other Naschy vehicle COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE, the star is painted as sympathetic and world weary from his lot in life, but who's prone to indefensible acts with corpses also, and like a malignancy his madness grows from his obsession to restore Ilsa. The film works off this to a delirious pitch shifting from sick dismemberment, heart felt romanticism, obligatory female nudity, and scaling stunt theatrics at the drop of a hat; with Naschy supplying one of his most physical performances. Cobble this with the authentic air of subterranean catacombs from The Crusades as a backdrop for the depravity that poses a genuine stench of decay and mystery, as science takes the place of religion blinded by its own power, and shot in an expressionistic style for optimum effect.The film never loses sight that it's an anomaly of the absurd though, embracing it to the very end when the thing in the jar breaks loose in a folly of gelatinous mass. Whatever it is hardly matters, its fitful existence doomed by the hands of its creator. A suitable hodge-podge of every mad doctor film that came before it, Hugo's Quasimodo, with characteristic elements of over the top dramatics and carnality that signified Naschy's unbridled charm. Just pull back the curtain...9/10

This was a great little flick. Paul Naschy (Spanish answer to Lon Chaney) puts in a very convincing role as a hunchbacked morgue attendant. The story was nice and strong with relatively believable acting, to a small degree.The violence also was'nt that bad either. All you gore mongers should take note of this small fact.The only real downer was that damn stock music! It just churned out, over, and over... I was just about ready to scream after hearing the same piece for the 50th time