El jorobado de la Morgue (1973)

Paul Naschy plays a hunchback with below average intelligence who works at the morgue. He is in love with a sickly girl who happens to be the only person who is kind to him. Each day he ... See full summary »

Director:

Javier Aguirre

Writers:

Javier Aguirre (screenplay), Alberto S. Insúa (screenplay) (as Alberto S. Insua)

Stars:

Paul Naschy, Rosanna Yanni, Víctor Barrera

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Naschy	...	Gotho
Rosanna Yanni	...	Elke (as Rossana Yanni)
Víctor Barrera	...	Tauchner (as Vic Winner)
María Elena Arpón	...	Ilse (as Maria Elena Arpon)
Manuel de Blas	...	Police inspector
Antonio Pica	...	Police inspector
Kino Pueyo	...	Hans (as Joaquin Rodriguez 'Kinito')
Adolfo Thous	...	3th Man killed by Gotho in the crypt
Ángel Menéndez	...	The Commisoner (as Angel Menendez)
Fernando Sotuela	...	Udo
Antonio Ramis
Alfonso de la Vega
Sofía Casares	...	Eva (as Sofia Casares)
Antonio Mayans	...	Hans' friend
Susan Taff	...	Nurse

Storyline

Paul Naschy plays a hunchback with below average intelligence who works at the morgue. He is in love with a sickly girl who happens to be the only person who is kind to him. Each day he brings her flowers until the day she dies. He never really accepts her death and believes she is just sleeping. The girl eventually ends up at the morgue where she is being prepared for burial. Naschy's character flips out at the desecration of the girls body and stabs and decapitates the men in the only scene of gore in the movie. The police begin to look for him. This is when the Hunchback meets up with a mad scientist who's work isn't accepted by the general society. The scientist promises the Hunchback that he would re-animate the girl's body if the Hunchback brings him fresh bodyparts from the graveyard and live victims. He uses the parts to create a monster.

---

Plot Keywords:

necrophilia | unintentional humor | psychotronic series | hunchback | morgue | 

---

Taglines:

Beware The Hunchback! A freak of nature whose crimes go beyond your wildest terrors!

---

Genres:

Horror

---

Details

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

13 July 1973 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Rue Morgue Massacres

Filming Locations:

Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, Austria

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eva Film, Janus Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Permission was given to use a real corpse for the head-severing scene. However, Paul Naschy) took two swigs of whiskey because he couldn't get past the first cut into the throat. A dummy head was used thereafter.

---

Alternate Versions

The German DVD from Anolis Entertainment has a commentary track with Paul Naschy. He says that the love scene between he and Elke was removed and burnt by the Spanish censor because they were fully nude. He claims that he had a hump with fake hair on top during this scene. The Anolis Entertainment DVD only shows a side view of a topless Elke. This is known as the 'alternate nude scene', and is included in the 'uncut international version'. The Anolis Entertainment DVD also includes the 'standard clothed version' of the love scene as an extra.

---

Connections

Featured in Eurotika!: Blood and Sand (1999)

User Reviews

Interesting Spanish horror effort

Paul Naschy made a hell of a lot of Spanish horror films, many of them were not all that good; but there are a few gems among his vast body of work, and The Rue Morgue Massacre is certainly one of his better efforts. The film is something like a Spanish version of Hammer Horror; the style of it actually reminded me a lot of the final Hammer Frankenstein flick 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell', which was released a year later than this film. Most of The Rue Morgue Massacre takes place in underground catacombs, and director Javier Aguirre springs his atmosphere from there. The plot is a tale consisting of two main themes; social rejection and mad science, and we focus on 'Gotho' (Paul Naschy) - a hunchback with no friends other than a sick young girl. Gotho's life is miserable, and it gets more so when his only friend in the world dies. Gotho believes her to be sleeping, and this is capitalised on by a mad doctor who promises to wake her if Gotho helps him with experiments, which focus on creating new life...

The film doesn't feature a great deal of gore, but it is a very nasty flick. Most of the action centres around corpses and body parts, which helps to give it a nasty atmosphere and this is increased by the dreary set design, which almost gives the viewer the impression that the film is taking place in hell. The plot itself runs rather slowly, though the film never gets boring as there's always enough going on to keep the audience intrigued. Paul Naschy is a varied actor, though sometimes his performances aren't very good. He fits into the role of the hunchback well in this film, however, and actually manages to generate some sympathy in spite of the fact that his character is a murderer. The most interesting element of the plot is, of course, the whole thing surrounding the monster that the mad scientist is trying to create. This subplot is fairly well done; what we get to see looks interesting, though it has to be said that the plot turns out to be disappointing when we finally get to see the monster at the end. However, this is still a very interesting effort and I can certainly recommend it.