26 The Horrible Dr. Hichcock

[swo17]

The Horrible Dr. Hichcock



One day the necrophiliac tendencies of Dr Hichcock (Robert Flemyng, The Quiller Memorandum) go too far and his wife dies from an overdose. Bereft, the doctor leaves his house but returns years later with a new wife, Cynthia (Barbara Steele, Black Sunday). The house they return to is eerie and Cynthia hears strange things, meanwhile, she doesn't realise Dr Hichcock intends to use her body to re-animate his dead wife's corpse. Released at the height of the Italian horror boom that was produced in the wake of the influence of Hammer's era-defining horror productions, director Riccardo Freda (The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire) and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (The Whip and the Body) create a dark and wicked gothic horror that brings in sly allusions to the work of Alfred Hitchcock while the period detail of Victorian London provides a lush backdrop.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 2023 2K restoration of the film from the original negative presented in three versions across two Blu-rays: Disc 1: the 87-minute export version The Terror of Dr Hichcock with extras; Disc 2, exclusive to the limited edition: the re-ordered 76-minute North American version The Horror of Dr Hichcock; and the English dub of the complete 87-minute Italian cut Raptus: The Secret of Dr. Hichcock
• Audio commentary by critics Kat Ellinger and Annie Rose Malamet
• New interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (2023)
• Visual essay on Bluebeard in gothic film by Miranda Corcoran (2023)
• An interview with Madeleine Le Despencer on necrophilia and taboo gothic (2023)
• Trailers
• Gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critics and experts including Chris Fujiwara on the film; an archival piece by Alan Y. Upchurch, Tim Lucas and Luigi Boscaino on the making of the film featuring interviews with Freda, Steele, Flemyng and others; a comparison of the different versions by Tim Lucas; and a critical overview by Cullen Gallagher
• Limited edition of 5000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

[black&huge]

THANK YOU FOR THIS RADIANCE!

[Mr Sausage]

One of the better 60s gothic Italian horrors. It’s a perverse, candy coloured ride.

[knives]

I always get this and The Ghost mixed up. Always fun to see some Freda thrown around.

[What A Disgrace]

DiabolikDVD will not be carrying this release, due to the US rights holder. I don't know who that is now, since the last edition was released by Olive and they are now kaput.

[dwk]

DiabolikDVD will not be carrying this release, due to the US rights holder. I don't know who that is now, since the last edition was released by Olive and they are now kaput.

People are speculating that this will be the mystery 60s gothic title that Vinegar Syndrome are releasing on UHD in January.

[yoloswegmaster]

DiabolikDVD will not be carrying this release, due to the US rights holder. I don't know who that is now, since the last edition was released by Olive and they are now kaput.

People are speculating that this will be the mystery 60s gothic title that Vinegar Syndrome are releasing on UHD in January.

Not the first time that Diabolik won't stock a Region B release because the U.S. rightsholder (aka VinSyn and Synapse) asked them not to. I know they said VinSyn asked them not to stock the 88 Films release of Righting Wrongs and I'm fairly certain they did the same for the latter's release of Magic Crystal. I always found it weird that companies like VinSyn and Synapse would ask a third party company like Diabolik or Orbit to not stock a competitors' release solely because they are also releasing it. Something about it doesn't sit well with me for some reason.

[Finch]

Same with the Szulkin set. But Grindhouse are stocking Hichcock and Szulkin.

[therewillbeblus]

This was a great little slice of perverse horror. It’s not aspiring to be some grand, overly developed construction, but its rote engagement with Rebecca-emulated alienation is of a piece with the understated themes of necrophilia, and begets rich textures on those terms. The film admirably never directly addresses the condition that prompts the entire plot and all the emotions swarming around in it into being.. though it’s not hiding it either. We’re shown everything we need to know quite deliberately, and the film’s restraint in not overstating what’s happening and playing everything ‘straight’ leaves us unsettled right with Steele. One expects a film like this to feel compelled to overexplain itself and tap the sign throughout, but it withholds so we have no cues to determine what’s happening, the horrible doctor just remaining static, impenetrable, and unyielding. It’s an effective approach, and one that also manages to direct our attention to the condition and its power through the absence of simplified other’ing diagnostics. The elisions provide an invitation to lean into the many evocations embedded in the brooding, nebulous atmosphere

[Finch]

My attention wandered well before it was over which is a shame because it does have a lot to recommend. The score and the cinematography were wonderful - no one else quite nailed the theatrical moody lighting as well as the Italian genre filmmakers of the 1960s. I agree that the movie's refusal to hold you by the hand is a strength. And yet somewhere along the way it just lost me. I think it's down to the cast and the script for me. The story beats outside of the necrophilia aspect felt too familiar to me and the actors didn't help. This needed someone like Vincent Price, and I'm sorry, Barbara Steele fans of this forum, but I don't find her a compelling presence. I've read positive and negative takes on the film and find truth in both. I will say though that Radiance's restoration and the FiM encode really do this lovely looking film justice, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the booklet, especially the filmmaker interviews and retrospective.

[Orlac]

I always find my mind wandering during it. I recall preferring the second Freda/Steele collaboration, THE GHOST.

[black&huge]

it looks like both atomic and orbitdvd haven't gotten this in either. I'm wondering if they and diabolik are now all passing it up in favor of the US rightsholder?

[Finch]

Yes the only US indie store carrying it and the Szulkin set is Grindhouse. I just ordered from Radiance direct.

[zedz]

This is basically a middling Hammer gothic horror, but hopped up on perverse sexuality and absolutely gorgeous art direction and cinematography. Nothing world-shatteringly original, but this kind of thing is in your wheelhouse, you could do a lot, lot worse. Kat Ellinger and Annie Rose Malamet are having a blast in their commentary, and Tim Lucas's is a 'comparative versions' essay (see original specs above) that got so complicated it no longer fitted in the booklet, so it ended up as a lecture. A very impressive piece of scholarship in whatever form!