Le Spectre du professeur Hichcock

This film perhaps holds up better than the first Dr. Hitchcock film and can be seen with or without that film. It stands on its own. A good film for people to be introduced to director Freda's work with. It gets better with repeated viewings and the music score is very good. This is not, just as none of his films are, a supernatural movie. So just know that going in. The film still has a good Gothic feel to it. Sadly there is no really good DVD release version of the film. There is a key and very graphic murder scene that is either cut down or cut completely out of several versions available. Without that being intact the impact of the later part of the film is really reduced. Think about Psycho if you basically cut out the shower scene. Not that this is in Psycho's league but this scene I'm talking about really makes this film work. It would be nice if Freda's films got a box set release of proper versions of his film. He started Mario Bava's career and Argento says Freda had more of an influence on him than Bava was. For now you have to really look hard and watch pretty lousy versions of his films to try to discover him as a director. It's worth the effort but would be nice for him to get some decent releases.

Barbara Steele is great as the conniving wife of Dr. Hitchcock in this, Freda's sequel to The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock. She conspires with Dr. Hitchcock's physician (who is also her lover) to do away with her old, sick and wealthy husband, which leads to the old revenge-from-beyond-the-grave storyline. While clichéd and (mostly) predictable, this film remains a must-see for fans of atmospheric horror and, in particular, Italian horror films of the 1960's. Riccardo Freda's excellent work combining lighting, sound and camera movement creates an eerie and foreboding atmosphere which overcomes the films weaknesses and gives healthy punctuation to the films shocks. This movie is well worth tracking down, and is certainly deserving of wider recognition than it has thus far received.

Riccardo Freda, an Italian director of skill who directed many Sword and Sandal films of the 60's as well as horror greats like I Vampiri, does a very serviceable job directing this thoughtful, mood-laden sequel of sorts to his earlier effort The Horrible Doctor Hitchcok. One does not need to have seen that earlier effort to follow what goes on here as they are really entities unto themselves with the same characters just going through different circumstances and having different motivations. In this film Dr. Hitchcock(living in Scotland - very implausible given the Mediterranean looks of most of the cast) is bound in a wheelchair and has nothing but sickly pity for himself as he wishes to die. Helping him remain alive is a local doctor giving him some sort of concoction to live and, of course, no love triangle would be complete without the love object of the other two sides - sultry, hypnotic breathless Barbara Steele - the 60's queen of the horror film - particularly the Gothic horror film. Steele is not a great actress by any stretch. She is lovely to look at and has the most impressive pair of - yes, I know where I could go here but really I intended to say eyes the entire time. Freda creates a slowly building tension between the central characters and the story is nothing exceptional in terms of creativity. You have seen this story before in various adaptations. Freda does; however, have a flair with the camera lens, and I was really surprised at how well he, the actors, and the story all combined to make an interesting film experience. The rest of the cast is all serviceable with Elio Jotta as Dr. Hitchcock being particularly effective and Harriet Medin(who was in the previous Hitchcock film also as a maid) doing a nice, creepy job as Catherine the housemaid. There are some very powerfully shot scenes: the tomb scene is genuinely eerie and the final denouement is quite good. Loads of atmosphere make this one of the best of its kind.

I remember getting my drivers' license. It allowed me to travel to towns a few miles from mine and see movies (only one was shown at a time in those days) at small local theaters. In the sixties we had Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Sebastian Cabot, and others entertaining us with lightweight, scary little films. Many were based loosely on the works of Poe. Though I never saw this until a few minutes ago, it fits in with that genre. It has wonderful atmosphere. The heroine is not blameless, but has a case for murdering the old meany. Of course, she's going to pay a price, as is her doctor lover, when the old guy comes back to haunt her. There's a little Rebecca and Gaslight here, but it all works nicely to a satisfying conclusion. He who laughs last, of course. The performances are good and the atmosphere of the castle and its bleak goings on is a lot of fun. There is an intensity at work here that build, till people become paranoid and suspicious. See this. It's not a bad ghost story.

I recently watched this film, which was part of a 10 pack horror collection that was put out by Brentwood. Unfortunately the source print for this dvd was a print that was in terrible condition, and barely watchable.

The first thing that struck me about this film was the music. Even during the opening credits I was watching the credits carefully to see who the composer was, half expecting it to be Ennio Morricone, (which it wasn't). If the music wasn't enough to hook me completely, seeing Barbara Steele on the screen, whom I immediately recalled from "Black Sabbath" definitely made me want to continue watching this film, bad print and all.

The setting of this film is a gloomy Scottish mansion, around the turn of the century. The young wife (Steele) of the creepy, crippled and rich Dr. Hitchcock, conspires with her handsome lover, to murder her husband. Her lover happens to be her husbands physician who is treating him by administering a lethal poison which is immediately followed with the antidote. Needless to say they decide not to administer the second part of the treatment one day and are able to fulfill their burning desire to be together, happy ,rich and rid of the husband. Unfortunately for them, things don't quite work out so well, and things begin to unravel during a succession of supernatural events that take place after the murder.

While this is a fairly predictable plot of greedy people being punished from beyond the grave, the director manages to create a suspenseful and atmospheric film, with some occasional well placed shockers. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and would love to see an uncut well preserved print of it.