The hour of the cruel corpses

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The hour of the cruel corpses
Original title El jorobado de la Morgue
Country of production Spain
original language Spanish
Publishing year 1973
length 79 minutes
Age rating FSK 16 (previously no release; classified as "criminally harmless" by the SPIO legal commission)
Rod
Director Javier Aguirre
script Paul Naschy
(as Jacinto Molina )
music Carmelo A. Bernaola
camera Raúl Pérez Cubero
cut Petra de Nieva
occupation

The hour of the cruel corpses (original title: El jorobado de la Morgue ) is a Spanish horror film from 1973. The film is about an unscrupulous scientist who manipulates and influences a naive cripple, even lets him become a murderer, with his help to create a monster. Directed by Javier Aguirre, the screenplay comes from lead actor Paul Naschy , who wrote it under his real name Jacinto Molina . The production is the second collaboration between director Aguirre and Naschy.

The production was released in different versions and, depending on the version, contains revealing sex scenes. In Spain, however, due to current censorship regulations - an overly revealing representation was prohibited here - these scenes were not allowed to be included, so the scenes were produced specifically for international distribution. For the Spanish production country, for example, a love scene was filmed in which Naschy and Yanni were fully clothed.

The film was shot entirely in Northern Catalonia , although the film claims to be set in the German-speaking city of Feldkirch .

action

The place of action is the tranquil Feldkirch. The malformed, hunchbacked Gotho works as a pathology assistant in the morgue of the local university hospital for Professor Dr. Orla. Humiliated by his fellow men and mocked as a "monkey" because of the hunched posture, the man secretly raves about the terminally ill Ilsa, whom he takes care of. The blond, bed-tied beauty has something like understanding for him, the cripple. He eventually falls in love with Ilsa. After their sudden death, the grieving Gotho kills and mutilates two orderlies who steal the corpse of his loved one. The desperate man then steals Ilsa's lifeless body and lays it in an underground cellar labyrinth that once served as the torture chamber of the Inquisition . Gotho is convinced that he can somehow bring Ilsa back to life.

Meanwhile, the police are investigating the murder of the two mutilated hospital employees. Gotho is considered suspect, but - like Ilsa's corpse - is nowhere to be found. Soon more mysterious deaths increase, all connected to the wanted person who begins to take revenge on his fellow human beings for suffered sufferings.

The unscrupulous Professor Dr. Orla loses his research assignment at the university after a delay. The ruthless scientist previously experimented with Dr. Tauchner on body parts to create artificial life. The researcher feels misunderstood and plans to continue his work on his own, despite the lack of financial support from the faculty. The scholar secures the services of his loyal and police-wanted subordinate Gotho. In return, the naive man hopes that Orla will provide the necessary help to bring Ilsa back to life. Initially, Orla's laboratory will be relocated to an underground and secure location before the experiments outside of legitimacy resume. In the following years, however, the professor used Gotho as a means to an end and was first provided with body parts by the hunchback and later with living people. Tauchner is skeptical, but initially assists Orla despite his impetuous methods.

When three ignorant henchmen of Orla push Ilsa’s decayed corpse into an acid bath and are later killed by the angry Gotho for it, the deformed person realizes the significance of that act. His only caregiver is inevitably lost and reincarnation is now impossible. Gotho is now becoming a tragic figure at the latest. The killer killer wants to face justice, but Orla persuades him to go ahead and kill for him, because he still needs a lot of "living material" for his research. Little by little, Dr. Tauchner and Dr. Marco of Orla's visions, although he actually creates a slimy primordial being. However, the two have no inkling of the kidnappings and killings initiated by Orla.

Meanwhile, the oppressed and exploited Gotho finds affection and security with the red-haired doctor Elke on one of his “forays”. The unsuspecting beauty seduces Gotho, of whose innocence she is utterly convinced. She sees him as a victim of Orla, but has no idea that the man is a murderer. One day Elke watches Gotho kidnapping. The medic follows him into the catacombs, where the situation soon escalates. When Orla von Gotho reported the death of Elke who was present and the murder of Dr. Tauchner and Dr. Marco demands, the hunchback finally terminates the collaboration and opposes his former mentor. Disputes arise, as a result of which Gotho is injured. To save his new girlfriend, he frees the other two scientists. In the process, however, the created primordial creature is accidentally released, which Orla and later Gotho kills. The hunchback falls into an acid bath with the monster. At the end of the film, only Dr. Tauchner, Dr. Marco and Elke, who in the last scene of the film calls for her now deceased companion Gotho.

Reviews

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was “a tasteless 'trash movie' in which, among other things, living rats were soaked in gasoline and set on fire” .

Frank Trebbin wrote in his horror film lexicon "Fear sits next to you" that the film is "despite the obviously speculative yield of the bloodthirsty story [...] good horror with little effort, but visual sensitivity."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The hour of cruel corpses in the lexicon of international filmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  2. ↑ cf. Frank Trebbin in The Fear Sitting Next to You , self-published 1998, ISBN 978-3929234039