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APRIL 17 VHS MOVIE REVIEW : THE HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE (1973)

Don't let the happy polka music that plays over the opening credits fool you, this is pretty grim stuff. Gotho the hunchback (Paul Naschy) works in the morgue of Fredericks Hospital where he dissects cadavers for interns' medical classes. Gotho also visits terminally-ill childhood friend Ilsa (Maria Elena Arpon) whom he loves deeply. Because of his malformation, Gotho is picked-on constantly, by the medical interns in the hospital (who make fun of his love for Ilsa) and the schoolkids who throw rocks at him when he walks down the street. When Ilsa dies, he kills two morgue attendants who try to steal Ilsa's crucifix necklace (he lops the head off one attendant with an axe and slits open the stomach of the other, spilling his guts on the floor). He steals Ilsa's corpse and brings it to his underground lair and then goes about killing those responsible for making his life miserable. While he is strangling an intern at the hospital a pack of rats is feasting on Ilsa's body. When he comes back to the lair and find the rats chowing down on his love, he sets the rats on fire (WARNING: Scenes of real rats on fire!) and moves Ilsa's rat-bitten body to a safer location, a hidden ancient torture chamber in a subterraneous cave. Gotho asks a scientist, Professor Orla (Alberto Dalbes), to help him "wake up" Ilsa and, when he sees Gotho's underground lair, facetiously agrees under the condition that Gotho allows him to use the underground lair for his illicit and illegal experiments involving human corpses. After getting the cave ready for the Professor (including the installation of a sulphuric acid pit to dissolve unused body parts), Ilsa's body is thrown into the acid pit by three callous workers. Gotho goes bonkers and kills them all but is calmed down by the Professor who promises Gotho he will build him a new female friend as long as Gotho supplies him with fresh bodies to experiment on, even if it involves murder. Poor Gotho does the Professor's bidding and the Professor creates a creature (which he calls a "Primordial") which eventually gets loose and spells doom for everyone involved. This bloody Spanish production has me divided. It's extremely bloody (one scene involving the removal of a head is rumored to have been performed on an actual corpse, but I sincerely doubt it) and well-made, but I fail to see the point of it all. The screenplay (co-scripted by Naschy using his real name, Jacinto Molina) wants you to feel sorry for Gotho, yet he murders numerous people for no other reason than because the Professor said to. While the Professor is made out to be the real villian, he actually kills no one. The sight of actual rats set on fire and running around squealing in pain is also a turn-off. Director Javier Aquirre (DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE - 1972), much to his credit, does pull off some of the graphic killings with a certain amount of panache, as this is one of Naschy's bloodiest Spanish films and that's saying a lot. The dubbing, though, is atrocious, as the voice actor who dubbed Naschy is about three pitches too high, making him sound more comical than frightening. Still, there's plenty of the red stuff and enough atmosphere to appease horror fans. The print I viewed, from Midnight Video, was ripped from a letterboxed English-language Japanese laserdisc and looks to be the complete unedited version. Also starring Maria Pershy, Rossana Yanni, Vic Winner, Manuel De Blas and Antonio Pica. Also known as THE RUE MORGUE MASSACRES. The theatrical release was an edited version that was Rated R when released in the States (in 1975). This version is Not Rated. { text from critcononline.com }