Before having read anything about Italian Gothic Horror films,my original through when hearing about this title a few years ago was that it must be some sort of comedy film about Alfred Hitchcock!.As time went on,and I eventually got round to finding out a few things about this particular Italian cinema sub-genre,this title seemed to be one of the main three which are connected to the sub-genre.Searching round on Youtube,I ended up finding a subtitled video of the film where all of the colour looked like it had been covered in oil.Getting very keen on seeing the film in its full "glory",I went on a frantic search until I found a beautiful bright dubbed print of the film,which at last gave me a chance to book an appointment with the good doctor..
The plot:
Wanting to make the relationship that he has with his wife (Margherita Hichcock) a bit more kinky,Doctor Bernard Hichcock decides to try a chemical that will cause his wife's heartbeat to drop to a level that will cause her to look like a corpse.Shortly after giving her the injection,Hichcock discovers that seeing the effect of the chemical on his wife,helps him to reach a level of "excitement" that Bernard has never imagined.Sadly,along with the excitement Hichcock discovers a little too late that the chemical has a terrible side-effect when his wife suddenly stops "pretending" and actually becomes a corpse.
Despite having a long struggle to get over the death of his wife,Hichcock meets a woman called Cynthia who he soon proposes to.After getting married to the woman,Hichcock takes her back to his mansion,where they will spend the rest of their lives happily together.How ever,although Hichcock is doing everything to help his new wife "settle in",Cynthia begins to suspect that he is trying to hide something about his past when she first notices that his mansion is covered with paintings of his deceased wife and that she is perhaps starting to see things,due to having looked out of a window,and seeing what looked to be "a ghostly,living corpse" outside the mansion.
View on the film:
Despite the films screenplay disappointingly not reaching my expectation levels director Ricardo Fredra gives the movie a terrific, almost twisted Brothers Grimm like appearance with his stylish directing,which brilliantly makes the film's locations look like actually interiors and not scenes that were shot in a studio thanks to Fredra making the characters long shadows a prominent feature to the look of the film.Also with the shadows Ricardo uses the Technicolor format in a fantastic eye- catching manner,as the characters faces and the castle location are brought to life in a stunningly lit up shiny style.Along with Fredra's solid directing the film also features a great performance from lead actress Barbara Steele (who interestingly,is an uncredited extra in the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps and also starred in the 1961 Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode titled Beta Delta Gamma shortly before making this film!) who along with looking beautifully striking also does brilliantly at showing the wide-eyed fear that Cynthia starts to develop as she begins to wonder if her husband (played by a wonderfully stern Robert Flemming)is attempting to hide something extremely disturbing from her,or if she is actually starting to lose a grip on her sanity.Sadly with the great work that Freda and Steele display in this film,the screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi (who also wrote the Sergio Martino Giallo All The Colours Of The Dark) deflates any feeling of terror for the first hour of what should be a very nerve- wrecking film,due to Gastaldi making the pace of the films plot move at a surprisingly slow pace,which despite the last half an hour of the movie feeling pretty energetic leaves the overall film feeling disappointing and tied. Final view on the film: Terrific stylish directing from Freda and a great performance from Steele are sadly let down by a disappointingly plodding screenplay.
The plot:
Wanting to make the relationship that he has with his wife (Margherita Hichcock) a bit more kinky,Doctor Bernard Hichcock decides to try a chemical that will cause his wife's heartbeat to drop to a level that will cause her to look like a corpse.Shortly after giving her the injection,Hichcock discovers that seeing the effect of the chemical on his wife,helps him to reach a level of "excitement" that Bernard has never imagined.Sadly,along with the excitement Hichcock discovers a little too late that the chemical has a terrible side-effect when his wife suddenly stops "pretending" and actually becomes a corpse.
Despite having a long struggle to get over the death of his wife,Hichcock meets a woman called Cynthia who he soon proposes to.After getting married to the woman,Hichcock takes her back to his mansion,where they will spend the rest of their lives happily together.How ever,although Hichcock is doing everything to help his new wife "settle in",Cynthia begins to suspect that he is trying to hide something about his past when she first notices that his mansion is covered with paintings of his deceased wife and that she is perhaps starting to see things,due to having looked out of a window,and seeing what looked to be "a ghostly,living corpse" outside the mansion.
View on the film:
Despite the films screenplay disappointingly not reaching my expectation levels director Ricardo Fredra gives the movie a terrific, almost twisted Brothers Grimm like appearance with his stylish directing,which brilliantly makes the film's locations look like actually interiors and not scenes that were shot in a studio thanks to Fredra making the characters long shadows a prominent feature to the look of the film.Also with the shadows Ricardo uses the Technicolor format in a fantastic eye- catching manner,as the characters faces and the castle location are brought to life in a stunningly lit up shiny style.Along with Fredra's solid directing the film also features a great performance from lead actress Barbara Steele (who interestingly,is an uncredited extra in the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps and also starred in the 1961 Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode titled Beta Delta Gamma shortly before making this film!) who along with looking beautifully striking also does brilliantly at showing the wide-eyed fear that Cynthia starts to develop as she begins to wonder if her husband (played by a wonderfully stern Robert Flemming)is attempting to hide something extremely disturbing from her,or if she is actually starting to lose a grip on her sanity.Sadly with the great work that Freda and Steele display in this film,the screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi (who also wrote the Sergio Martino Giallo All The Colours Of The Dark) deflates any feeling of terror for the first hour of what should be a very nerve- wrecking film,due to Gastaldi making the pace of the films plot move at a surprisingly slow pace,which despite the last half an hour of the movie feeling pretty energetic leaves the overall film feeling disappointing and tied. Final view on the film: Terrific stylish directing from Freda and a great performance from Steele are sadly let down by a disappointingly plodding screenplay.