L'ORRIBILE SEGRETO DEL DR. HICHCOCK

A necrophiliac doctor, a dead first wife, a second wife haunted by strange visions. Freda pays tribute to Hitchcock (Rebecca, but also Suspicion and the distorted name of the protagonist) and, on a shoestring budget, re-elaborates the elements of goth: isolated villa, secret passageways, desecrated tombs, a sick and macabre atmosphere, and a heroine in danger who has the face and form of Barbara Steele, a true synthesis of love and death. The censors were upset with the necrophilia and insisted on some cuts in the screenplay.

riccardo freda
L’ORRIBILE SEGRETO DEL DR. HICHCOCK
Italia/Italy, 1962, 88’, col.

regia/director
Robert Hampton [Riccardo Freda]
soggetto, sceneggiatura/story, screenplay
Julyan Perry [Ernesto Gastaldi]
fotografia/cinematography
Donald Green [Raffaele Masciocchi]
montaggio/film editing
Donna Christie [Ornella Micheli]
scenografia/production design
Joseph Goodman
musica/music
Roman Vlad
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Robert Flemyng (Bernard Hichcock), Barbara Steele (Cynthia Hichcock), Teresa Fitzgerald [Maria Teresa Vianello] (Margaretha), Harriet White Medin (Martha)
produttore/producer
Louis Mann [Luigi Carpentieri, Ermanno Donati]
produzione/production
Panda