Le Bossu de la morgue

A poor unfortunate hunchback named Gotho (Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina ) whom the little boys hurl stones and in charge of the Morgue of a hospital Feldkirch falls in love with an ill girl who happens to be the only person who is kind to him and he cares her . Each day he brings her flowers until that the sickly young deceases. He never really believes her death , but one day she sadly dies as he thinks she is just sleeping. The girl eventually ends up at the morgue hospital Feldkirch where she is being ready for burial. Naschy's character flips out at the desecration of the girl's body and kills two autopsy's helpers , starting a murderous spree , being his first victim a student . The police begins to look for him and two Inspectors (Manuel De Blas , Antonio Pica )are investigating the deeds . This is when the Hunchback meets up with a mad scientist ( Albert Dalbes) who is helped by his assistant (Vic Winner) whose girlfriend (Maria Pershy) rules the girls reformatory . Gotho asks for help the doctor whose work isn't accepted by the general society to relive the body his lover . The megalomaniac scientist accepts in change of Gotho assists him on his experiments bringing to life a strange creature . The doctor Horla ( this name is homage to Guy De Maupassant's novel title El Horla) is a prestigious scientific , he promises the Hunchback that would re-animate the girl's body if the Hunchback brings him fresh body-parts from the graveyard and live victims. Gotho kidnaps and kills girls from a nearly reformatory . The doctor uses the parts to create a horrible creature and the experiments are realized in tunnels and caves from Inquisition time. The mad doctor pretends on feed his monster with human beings . But the hunchback will terminate with the sinister plans of the malicious doctor .

It's a delirious story about ¨amour fou¨ with multiples literary references , partially based on writings of known writers as Lovecraft , Mauspassant , Burne Jones , Edgar Allan Poe , among others ; all of them thrown in . It results to be a strong tale as well as sensible flick with melodramatic elements in which Gotho falls in love with a sickly young and a gorgeous Rosanna Yanni . Very good performance of Naschy as hunchback with below average intelligence who works at the morgue. Naschy deservedly won the prize George Melies the best performance in Fantastic Festival of Paris and other several prizes . Creepy and eerie images as when authentic rats attack Nashy and turned to be very difficult the filmmaking . The picture contains a crazy love story , but also lots of blood and gore as when Gotho stabs and decapitates the men in one of the several scenes of gore in the movie . It's a modern reprise of the stories of various writers as Necronomicon's H.P.Lovecraft , Robert Stevenson's Body snatchers , Mary Shelley's Frankestein and touches of Victor Hugo's Hunchback . Flawed but interesting screenplay by Jacinto Molina who blends diverse themes . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Raul Perez Cubero , furthermore atmospheric score by Carmelo Bernaola . Appropriate sets and production design by Cubero and Galicia who worked in many Spaghetti Western . The picture is professionally directed by Javier Aguirre . Rating : Good , it will appeal to mad-cults movies and Naschy fans ; it's one of the best films .

Paul Naschy is great in this gory and old-fashioned horror flick. He plays the soft-spoken and (initially) gentle morgue attendant who is in love with a terminally ill patient in the hospital. She is the only person in the hospital who is nice to him, and he brings her flowers every day until she inevitably dies, and ends up in the morgue. Naschy loses it, and takes her corpse into a hidden cave. Once a mad doctor discovers Naschy's secret, he blackmails him into supplying bodies for his ghoulish experiments. This film is imaginative and fun. In one scene, Naschy is attacked by lots of (real) rats. There's plenty of gore too, and the ending is outrageous.

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

Hunchback of the Morgue (1972)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A deformed hunchback (Paul Naschy) is picked on by everyone except for a beautiful woman. When that woman dies the hunchback goes to a scientist in hopes that he can bring her back to life. The doctor says he can but in return he wants the hunchback to do some killing for him.

Loosely based on Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue, the film also mixes in elements of Frankenstein and the end result is a rather entertaining movie that works on several levels but the biggest is the fact that the movie is just downright nasty at times and it takes pleasure in it. HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE offers Naschy a tasty role and he really delivers.

The film works best as long as you don't take it too serious or go into it expecting some sort of art film. I mean, the movie is pretty sleazy throughout but things get really crazy during the second half when we get all sorts of strange violence from body parts being cut off to guts pour out and there are even rats eating faces. All of the gore is handled quite well and the overall sleazy nature of it perfect fits the atmosphere of the movie as well as the beautiful set design.

As far as Naschy goes, he got to play just about every monster possible and this here was certainly his most sympathetic role, which is shocking when you consider that this character is a murderer. I thought the actor did a very good job in the role and the sympathetic nature was a major plus. The supporting cast are all fine as well but there's no question that the picture belongs to Naschy.

"The Hunchback of the Morgue" might just be Paul Naschy's – may he rest in peace – coolest movie! It's quite ironic that the Spanish horror icon became mostly notorious for his Wolf Man cycle, while actually his best movies have got absolutely nothing to do with lycanthropes or full moons. His werewolf flicks are fun enough, but personally I much more enjoyed "Inquisition", "Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll", "Rojo Sangre" and now especially this uniquely demented little exploitation treasure. "The Hunchback of the Morgue" has got it all: mad as hell scientists, deformed killers, gooey monsters, acid baths, corpse snatching, flesh munching, rancid decapitations and gigantic jars filled with entrails. Most remarkable, however, is that this gross and exploitative horror movie nevertheless manages to insert quite a lot of genuine drama and touching romance! Specifically during the first act the drama is harrowing. Gotho, employee in the local hospital's morgue and the laughing stock of the entire village because of the hideous lump on his back, is madly in love with the beautiful Ilse, basically just because she's the only person who treats him with dignity and kindness. But unfortunately Ilse has terminal tuberculosis and passes away whilst Gotho is being beaten up outside. Gotho goes to Dr. Orla for help, but he turns out to be a completely deranged amateur Baron Frankenstein. Orla commands our hunchbacked friend to steal bodies, dead and alive ones, and feeds them to his creation. This "thing" literally emerged from a jar of intestines on a desk, but quickly grows into an insatiable munching machine.

Okay, admittedly this may all sound a little confusing and incoherent. It is, actually! "The Hunchback of the Rue Morgue" unceasingly introduces new characters and add new plot lines until the finale and it's practically impossible to give an all-capturing summary of this film. The incoherence of the script isn't the least bit bothering, especially because the film is fast-paced and full of gory action the entire time. Gotho hacks off people's heads with axes, throws their bodies in acid and even locks them into medieval torture devices! And yet, even whilst he's committing the most vilest of murders, he manages to gain quite a bit of your sympathy and compassion. It's entirely Paul Naschy's own accomplishment to make his characters – even the most bonkers ones – come across as amiable and heroic. "The Hunchback of the Rue Morgue" is also a very effective horror film because the atmosphere is continuously morbid and practically all settings and scenery are sinister. Last but not least the film also "enjoys" a notorious reputation because one of the decapitation scenes was filmed using a real human corpse and because allegedly the rat-burnings were real as well.