Oh that sultry but sometimes evil looking Barbara Steele....beautiful in a very untraditional way that sadly got her typecast as evil Gothic females out for revenge. In the series of Italian made horror films she appeared in during the 1960's, she didn't even get to dub her own voice in English in spite of being from England! So once you get past that sad fact (and how the voices don't always mesh up with the actors onscreen), you can enjoy this Gothic thriller that shows a versatile Steele playing the troubled wife of Dr. Hitchcock (Elio Jotta), perhaps a relative of "the Horrible Dr. Hitchcock" (a film of the previous year also featuring Ms. Steele), in love with her husband's doctor (Peter Baldwin), yet standing by her crippled husband until she can't take it anymore. Shown stopping him from committing suicide, it is soon apparent that Steele regrets that, and she seduces lover Baldwin into injecting Jotta with his own poison that made him a cripple, with Jotta having earlier revealed that too much of that serum would cause a painful death. The very Mrs. Danvers like housekeeper (Harriet Medin) keeps a close watch on both Steele and Baldwin, and local ministers warn Steele of the rumors going around concerning her and the good doctor. Mistrust develops between the two lovers which results in some violent twists and a shocking revelation towards the end that concludes with some delicious irony.
If you remain patient with the bad dubbing and slow moving action during the exposition scenes, you will soon be drawn in to the secrets going on in the haunted halls of another horrible Dr. Hitchcock. None of the characters are particularly noble, all having motivations that seem suspect, and when the lovers begin to seemingly turn against each other, it takes some interesting bloody turns. Steele isn't completely cold blooded. She is haunted by the sounds of her husband's music box, and this leads her guilt to slowly eat away at her, eventually sending her on the road to madness. Steele doesn't always need her voice to act; She can reveal so much with those "steely" eyes. Little bits and pieces of detail indicate that Steele once did love her husband, but his own obsession with his experiments became his undoing, leading her to look for comfort elsewhere. Baldwin is suave and cool, a master of quiet coolness that leads Steele to conclude that he is out to betray her. Medin is not only a Mrs. Danvers type character; In her cool manner and tightly cropped hair and outfits, she could also be compared to "Downton Abbey's" sinister O'Brien, even though her character isn't nearly as malevolent as either Danvers or O'Brien. The twists at the end keep coming at you as if the emotions were in 3-D, and this makes for a hysterical conclusion that may have you laughing at the irony in delight.
If you remain patient with the bad dubbing and slow moving action during the exposition scenes, you will soon be drawn in to the secrets going on in the haunted halls of another horrible Dr. Hitchcock. None of the characters are particularly noble, all having motivations that seem suspect, and when the lovers begin to seemingly turn against each other, it takes some interesting bloody turns. Steele isn't completely cold blooded. She is haunted by the sounds of her husband's music box, and this leads her guilt to slowly eat away at her, eventually sending her on the road to madness. Steele doesn't always need her voice to act; She can reveal so much with those "steely" eyes. Little bits and pieces of detail indicate that Steele once did love her husband, but his own obsession with his experiments became his undoing, leading her to look for comfort elsewhere. Baldwin is suave and cool, a master of quiet coolness that leads Steele to conclude that he is out to betray her. Medin is not only a Mrs. Danvers type character; In her cool manner and tightly cropped hair and outfits, she could also be compared to "Downton Abbey's" sinister O'Brien, even though her character isn't nearly as malevolent as either Danvers or O'Brien. The twists at the end keep coming at you as if the emotions were in 3-D, and this makes for a hysterical conclusion that may have you laughing at the irony in delight.