Le Bossu de la morgue

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.

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.

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.

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

"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.