El jorobado de la Morgue

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.

Paul Naschy plays Wolfgang Gotho,a hunchback who supplies corpses to a doctor in his hidden underground morgue.The Doctor then feeds the rotted flesh to his creation of a living head attached to a tank full of guts.Gotho supplies corpses to the doctor in exchange for the promise that the doctor will restore life to the cadaver of his dead lover.This is surely Paul Naschy's best character role which won him awards at the Paris fantastic cinema convention in 1973."The Hunchback of the Morgue" is an extremely gory and atmospheric horror film that should please fans of Eurohorror.The evisceration of the doctor in the morgue,the beheading of the other doctor and the dismembering of the student from the inn are only a few of its gory moments.The locations sets(the catacombs)provide plenty of Gothic atmosphere and the acting is great.Still the scene where Gotho burns the rats feasting on Ilsa's body is pretty disturbing,because apparently real animals were killed during it.Overall,"El Jorobado de la Morgue" is definitely not for everybody.The film is quite explicit in its gore,but if you like Spanish exploitation flicks give this one a look.8 out of 10.

Is "The Hunchback of the Morgue" the greatest film of Spanish Exploitation icon Paul Naschy? One of the greatest without a doubt, and probably my personal favorite, as this highly atmospheric, creepy and incredibly entertaining Gothic gem unites all qualities that we love about Naschy flicks. Personally, I've been a fan of the prolific Spanish Horror deity for years, and while most of his films don't usually qualify as 'good', they are usually immensely entertaining. Javier Aguirre's "El Jorobado De La Morgue" aka. "The Hunchback of the Morgue" of 1973 was a fantastic surprise to me, as this wonderful little film is both entertaining in the typical Naschy-manner, AND an actually very good film of its own right. One of the great aspects about Naschy flicks is that they usually unite the creepy mood and settings of atmospheric Gothic tales with typical exploitation qualities such as gore and sleaze, and, out of all his films I've seen, this one is the greatest example for that. My admiration for "The Hunchback of the Morgue" may seem exaggerated to some, for a film like this that is doubtlessly not flawless. It is, however, a rare film that is so successful in creating a rich and genuinely creepy atmosphere, the intriguing storyline of a classic Horror tale and typical exploitation qualities from an obviously low budget as this one does.

"The Hunchback of the Morgue" terrifically narrates a traditional Horror story in the delightful form of a Creepy and quite gory Naschyesque Gothic Exploitation flick. In classic Horror tradition, the eponymous hunchback Gotho (Naschy) is a murderous yet tragic, pitiable and almost likable character. A man of low intelligence and ugly appearance, Gotho, who works at the morgue, is despised by most people, except the beautiful Ilse (María Elena Arpón). Driven by his immortal love to this terminally ill beauty, Gotho responds to kindness with kindness, to humiliation with murderous violence. The obsessed scientist Dr. Orla (Alberto Dalbes) decides to use the hunchback for his sinister goals...

No role has ever suited Paul Naschy better than that of the eponymous hunchback Gotho. Naschy seems predestined to play morgue employees and gravediggers - in the runner-up on the list of my favorite Naschy-films, "La Orgia De Los Muertos" from the same year, he plays a deranged gravedigger. The role of Gotho here is, in my opinion, the greatest he ever played, since he is truly deranged, yet at the same time pitiable and even likable. Jess Franco flick regular Alberto Dalbés is great in the role of the unscrupulous scientist. The supporting performances are actually also very good for a film of the kind. The ravishing Rosanna Yanni is sexy and lovable in the role of Elke, a woman who, unlike others, treats the hunchback with kindness. The film is terrifically shot in the great setting of a small town in the mountains (in the film, the name is "Feldkirch", but I don't think it is meant to be the town of the same name in my home country Austria). Settings like old houses, dark alleys, castle ruins, subterranean crypts and secret passages give the film a great Gothic mood, which is increased by a very good cinematography and score. The gore is pretty intense, with some truly gruesome scenes. The film isn't actually very sleazy, nudity occurs only once, briefly, by Rosanna Yanni (***drool***). It is undeniable that the plot has holes and sometimes lacks logic - but that has to be expected in a Naschy flick. Overall, "The Hunchback of the Morgue" is, in my opinion, the Naschy film that has the greatest storyline AND the most intense atmosphere. The mood often resembles the style of other Gothic films, such as those by the British Hammer Studios, but, again, with a typically Spanish touch. All things considered, "The Hunchback of the Morgue" is my personal favorite Paul Naschy film, and also one of the most outrageously enjoyable Spanish Gothic Horror productions from the early 70s. No true lover of cult-cinema should miss it!

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.

A surprisingly jaunty theme tune introduces what proves to be one of Paul Naschy's more exploitative and downbeat movies, a gory Gothic tragedy in which the Spanish horror star plays Gotho, a hunchbacked morgue attendant in love with a terminally ill girl named Ilse (María Elena Arpón). When Ilse finally pops her clogs, a grief stricken Gotho steals her body (after brutally killing the doctors who try to half-inch her necklace), and takes her to a subterranean hideaway where he assists a trio of slightly mad scientists to construct a laboratory (in record time) with which they can create life, a process that requires a continuous supply of fresh body parts...

Taking its cues from the classic horror novels of Victor Hugo and Mary Shelley, The Hunchback of the Morgue is full of irresistibly silly horror clichés—a sympathetic 'monster', a dusty Spanish Inquisition torture chamber, grave-robbing by moonlight, a sulphuric acid pit—and also benefits from some delightfully tacky special effects: a gory decapitation, a gutsy evisceration, assorted dismemberment, Ilse's corpse being devoured by rats (which, in a shocking moment of genuine animal cruelty, are set on fire by Gotho), and a delightfully daft man-made creature that consumes everything from live frogs to human heads, and ends up looking like a giant walking turd.

It all adds up to a whole lot of demented fun, easily the most entertaining Naschy film I've seen so far.