Riccardo Freda's L'ORRIBILE SEGRETO DELL DR. HICHCOCK aka. THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK(1962) was only the third Gothic Horror film starring the wonderful genre-goddess Barbara Steele, the first two being two masterpieces, Mario Bava's LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO (BLACK Sunday/THE MASK OF Satan) of 1960 and Roger Corman's PIT AND THE PENDULUM in which she starred alongside fellow Horror-deity Vincent Price. While this is not one of the most notable among the nine Italian Horror films starring the divine Miss Steele it is yet another creepy must-see for fans of Italian Gothic Horror and Barbara Steele in particular.
In 1885, Doctor Hichcock (Robert Flemyng) leaves London after accidentally killing his wife with an overdose of an anesthetic. He returns several years later with his new wife Cynthia (Barbara Steele). It soon becomes clear that the Doctor has necrophiliac tendencies and that his weakness for anesthetics has to do with his own perverted desires...
Director Riccardo Freda was one of the pioneers of Italian Horror cinema, having directed the first post-WW2 Italian Gothic Horror film I VAMPIRI (1956), which was, in fact, finished by the ultimate Italian Horror director Mario Bava (my personal choice for the greatest Horror director of all-time). While Freda's Gothic Horror films are very good they don't quite reach the quality of those by the incomparable Mario Bava and Antonio Margheriti, in my opinion.
The most convincing reason to watch the film is, of course, Barbara Steele, who simply is the greatest Horror actress of all time in the humble opinion of yours truly. It is regrettable, however, that her role is restricted to that of the damsel in distress here. She played double-roles in many of her Italian Horror films (LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO, I LUNGHI CAPPELLI DELLA MORTE, AMANTI D'OLTRETOMBA, UN ANGELO PER SATANA) in which she combined the innocent and pure evil, and was always brilliant in doing so. In some other Italian Horror films her characters always had something mysterious and eerie about them. Not so in L'ORRIBILE DR. HICHCOCK, in which she has the role of a pure scream-queen. Personally I would have rather seen her as the villainess. However, she is still great and stunningly beautiful and her performance alone makes the film worthwhile.
Another great aspect is the thick Gothic atmosphere which is created by the typically great use of camera-angles, darkness and shadows, the superbly creepy set pieces in an eerie old mansion and a nice, eerie score. Cinema does not get more elegant than Italian Gothic Horror from the 60s, and this film is yet another example for that. The film's theme of perversion and necrophilia is typical for early 60s Italian Gothic Horror, which wasn't yet quite as explicit as the Gialli and Horror films of the late 60s and 70s but was already thematically exploring the perverse and controversial.
For quite some time, DR. HICHCOCK was the last Italian Horror film with Barbara Steele that I had yet to see. Freda made a sort-of sequel to this film one year later with LO SPETTRO (1963), which easily surpasses this one as it is even more atmospheric and Barbara Steele's role is way more sinister and macabre. Overall L'ORRIBILE SEGRETO DEL DR. HICHCOCK is not one of the highlights of Italian Gothic Horror but it is definitely a must-see for my fellow fans of the Genre and the wonderful Barbara Steele. For absolutely essential Italian Gothic Horror masterpieces starring Barbara Steele, watch Bava's LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO and Antonio Margheriti's DANZA MACABRA (CASTLE OF BLOOD, 1964).
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