El jorobado de la Morgue

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.

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.

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 made a hell of a lot of Spanish horror films, many of them were not all that good; but there are a few gems among his vast body of work, and The Rue Morgue Massacre is certainly one of his better efforts. The film is something like a Spanish version of Hammer Horror; the style of it actually reminded me a lot of the final Hammer Frankenstein flick 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell', which was released a year later than this film. Most of The Rue Morgue Massacre takes place in underground catacombs, and director Javier Aguirre springs his atmosphere from there. The plot is a tale consisting of two main themes; social rejection and mad science, and we focus on 'Gotho' (Paul Naschy) - a hunchback with no friends other than a sick young girl. Gotho's life is miserable, and it gets more so when his only friend in the world dies. Gotho believes her to be sleeping, and this is capitalised on by a mad doctor who promises to wake her if Gotho helps him with experiments, which focus on creating new life...

The film doesn't feature a great deal of gore, but it is a very nasty flick. Most of the action centres around corpses and body parts, which helps to give it a nasty atmosphere and this is increased by the dreary set design, which almost gives the viewer the impression that the film is taking place in hell. The plot itself runs rather slowly, though the film never gets boring as there's always enough going on to keep the audience intrigued. Paul Naschy is a varied actor, though sometimes his performances aren't very good. He fits into the role of the hunchback well in this film, however, and actually manages to generate some sympathy in spite of the fact that his character is a murderer. The most interesting element of the plot is, of course, the whole thing surrounding the monster that the mad scientist is trying to create. This subplot is fairly well done; what we get to see looks interesting, though it has to be said that the plot turns out to be disappointing when we finally get to see the monster at the end. However, this is still a very interesting effort and I can certainly recommend it.