The Horrible Dr. Hichcock

A respectable London surgeon has a private habit his second wife is much better off not learning about, and the polite Victorian surface of the film is holding down the single most taboo subject in horror. Riccardo Freda, hiding behind the name Robert Hampton, shot it fast and made it look expensive, all candlelit corridors and lush gothic dread. Barbara Steele plays the new wife who really should not have moved into this house, using those enormous eyes to carry scenes the script only dares to imply. It is one of the foundation stones of Italian gothic, and it gets away with far more than a 1962 release has any right to.