The Hunchback of the Morgue (aka El jorobado de la morgue) (1973)

Post Reply
User avatar
LiamCasey
Posts: 331
Joined: October 22nd, 2022, 1:02 pm

The Hunchback of the Morgue (aka El jorobado de la morgue) (1973)

Post by LiamCasey »

The Hunchback of the Morgue (aka El jorobado de la morgue) (1973) - Blu-ray

w/ Paul Naschy, Rossana Yanni, Vic Winner, Alberto Dalbés, Maria Perschy, María Elena Arpón, Manuel de Blas and Antonio Pica. Written by Paul Naschy (as Jacinto Molina), Javier Aguirre and Alberto S. Insúa. Directed by Javier Aguirre.

A mash-up of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (No surprise there!), Beauty and the Beast (Because, no matter what, Paul Naschy must have at least one scene where someone loves him. Or, at least, someone makes love with him.), Frankenstein, et. al., in this movie we have Paul Naschy portraying a hunchback named Wolfgang Gotho who works in the morgue (Yes, the title for this movie is about as straightforward as one can get.) of a contemporary 1970s Bavarian hospital. And who is tormented by almost everyone in the village with the exception of a dying patient named Ilsa (María Elena Arpón) and a kindly doctor named Elke (Rossana Yanni) whom eventually becomes romantically involved with him (Because somebody has to!). And who, once Ilsa has died, saves her corpse from dissection by murdering a pair of morgue attendants who previously abused him. And murders a medical student who kept him from being with her before she died. And then takes her corpse to a Dr. Orla (Alberto Dalbés) in the hopes that Dr. Orla will restore Ilsa to him. And that doctor just happens to be the usual mad scientist who is already working on artificial life and who takes advantage of Gotho in order to get the necessary bodies (dead and living) to bring that life to, well, life. With said life eventually appearing as sewer slime in humanoid form. And it should be obvious as to whom has to finally fight that!

Needless to say, we are all over the place on this one. But it was a lot better than expected after the recently watched Count Dracula's Great Love (1973) from the same director, the same set of writers and the same star and two of the same costars.

Random comments:

1.) This is the first of five movies in The Paul Naschy Collection II Blu-Ray set.

2.) Of the Naschy movies that I've watched (or rewatched) during this go around, I would rank this one second as follows primarily due to Paul Naschy's performance:

a) Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll (1974)
b) The Hunchback of the Morgue
c) Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973)
d) Night of the Werewolf (1981)
e) Count Dracula's Great Love
f) Human Beasts (1980)
g) Vengeance of the Zombies (1973)

And, yes, I'm still surprised that a movie without a monster in it is still on the top of my list!

3.) The second billed Rossana Yanni's role in this one is pretty much the exact opposite of her role in the aforementioned Count Dracula's Great Love. And I assume there is some psychological term that explains why, although both movies were made in the same year and, therefore, she should look about the same in both, she looks prettier in this movie simply because her character is nicer in this one.

Her other collaborations with Paul Naschy are Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (1968) which contains the first appearance of his Waldemar Daninsky and Madrid al desnudo (1979).

She also appears in William Shatner's classic (typed with tongue firmly in cheek!) Western White Comanche (1968).

4.) And, with this one in the books, I have now seen all four collaborations between Paul Naschy and the third billed Vic Winner who, in this one, portrays a weak willed doctor who assists the mad scientist.

5.) This is the only collaboration between Paul Naschy and Alberto Dalbés. But IMDB list 13 collaborations between the latter and the one and only Jesús Franco including such monster titles like Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972), Daughter of Dracula (1972) and The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1973).

6.) This is the first of five collaborations between Paul Naschy and Maria Perschy (who portrays the doctor/fiance of Vic Winner's character here) with the others being the aforementioned Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll plus Exorcism (1975), Kilma, Queen of the Jungle (1975) and The People Who Own the Dark (1976) although neither of them are billed far from the top on those latter two.

The aforementioned Exorcism is part of The Paul Naschy Collection II Blu-Ray set.

7.) Manuel de Blas and Antonio Pica portray police officers inspecting but never solving the various crimes occurring in this movie. Which appears to be par for the course for the latter actor whenever he appears in a Paul Naschy movie.

8.) In another unexpected difference from Count Dracula's Great Love, this movie only contains one short scene with any nudity in it. And it was fairly obvious that that footage was pulled from a different (and poorer) source than what was used for all other scenes. It is such a jarring difference that, considering how unnecessary that scene was, it would have been best if they left it out of the movie itself and simply added it as a bonus feature to satisfy the completionists out there.

9.) And, to end this posting on a random note, the opening credits of this movie are displayed against bright autumnal hills while very upbeat polka-esque music plays. If I didn't recognize the names in the credits, I would have suspected that I was watching the wrong movie!

Originally posted July 7, 2019 on forums.tcm.com.
User avatar
jameselliot
Posts: 56
Joined: October 23rd, 2022, 9:36 am

Re: The Hunchback of the Morgue (aka El jorobado de la morgue) (1973)

Post by jameselliot »

I'd rank Horror Rises From The Tomb at #1. It has a better story, an atmospheric location and better music, Naschy plays two roles and he and Helga Line are extremely nasty villains. Christina Suriani walks around in a diaphanous nightgown in Gothic tradition and Emma Cohen is the ingenue heroine. Naschy must have watched Universal studio's The Thing That Wouldn't Die because there are some major plot devices lifted from that movie.
Post Reply