Italy 1962Language:ItalianSubtitles:GermanDirector:Riccardo FredaWriter:Ernesto GastaldiCinematographer:Raffaele MasciocchiEditor:Ornella MicheliSound:Jackson McGregorWith:Barbara Steele, Robert Flemyng, Silvano Tranquilli, Maria Teresa Vianello, Harriet Medin, Spencer Williams, Al Christianson, Evaristo Signorini, Giovanni Querrel, Neil Robinson, Howard Nelson RubienProducer:Luigi Carpentieri, Ermanno DonatiProduction Company:Panda Film87 min, Colour

“The candle of his lust burnt brightest in the shadow of the grave!” – London, 1885: Dr Bernard Hichcock is a researcher in the field of anaesthesia. When his wife accidentally dies, he disappears. Twelve years later, the doctor is back as a newlywed... Shot in the atmospheric setting of the Villa Perucchetti in Rome, Freda’s film borrows more than just the basic REBECCA structure from Alfred Hitchcock. “Dr Hichcock, certainly an allusion to the unprecedented box-office success of PSYCHO, is – at least indirectly – a forerunner of Jack the Ripper in the form of a gothic doctor. And furthermore, he is (that’s exploitation!) – a necrophiliac. If that isn’t bold... This was a completely new film subject at the time.” (Dr Rolf Giesen)

Director's Biography:Director's Biography:Riccardo Freda (1909-1999) is the founding father of Italian genre cinema. At times the best-paid director in Italy in the 1940s, today he is somewhat overshadowed by the genre greats Mario Bava and Dario Argento, who were influenced by his work. 

Director's Filmography:

1981 MURDER OBSESSION
1971 THE IGUANA WITH THE TONGUE OF FIRE
1957 CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER
1948 LES MISÉRABLES


Film images: © Park Circus, Walt Disney