Writing Unlike director
Riccardo Freda's previous Gothic-styled film
I vampiri,
The Horrible Dr. Hichcock was made in a climate where there were more Gothic horror films being produced in Italy. The film began when
Luigi Carpentieri phoned screenwriter
Ernesto Gastaldi to write a
giallo story that he liked, titled
Spectral. Gastaldi wrote his own treatment under the title
Raptus. The original script did not contain the
necrophilia that is in the film, which Gastaldi commented that he did not remember why he added it, suggesting that "perhaps one of the associates asked for something harder, more macabre". Freda later claimed that the story was his idea, proclaiming that "It is entirely my idea. I nurtured it for a long time but it is Ernesto Gastaldi, a very good scenarist, who shaped it into form." Gastaldi commented on this, saying that when he met Freda, they did not discuss the film with him and that producer
Ermanno Donati gave Freda the script, saying "Let's see if you have the balls to shoot this stuff, it's about corpses!" Gastaldi stated that Freda did not even read the script and replied "As long as I get paid, I'm shooting even the phone book."
Casting The film's co-star
Barbara Steele took 10 days off the set of
Federico Fellini's
8½ to perform her role in the film. Co-star
Robert Flemyng, who was predominantly working in television at the time, took the script, as he wanted to go to Rome. After reading the script, titled
Raptus, he only later found the film involved necrophilia and attempted to get out of the film. His agent stated it was too late, as he had signed the contract, so he went forward with making the film. The actress
Harriet Medin had been working in Italy since the end of
World War II. She received a call from Flemyng before shooting, suggesting that they act so badly that the film would not be released. She is listed in the film credits under her maiden name, Harriet White. The Italian cast and crew hid their names under Anglophone-sounding names; this included Freda being credited as Robert Hampton, while set designer Franco Fumagalli became Frank Smokecocks, a literal translation of his last name. Each cast member spoke his or her own language when filming.
Filming The film was shot at Villa Perucchetti in Rome. There are different recollections as to how long the film took to make; the schedule was from April 9 to May 5, 1962, with a 96 million lire budget. Freda stated the film was finished in two weeks, while film historians Alan Upchurch and
Tim Lucas state that it was shot in 14 days. Marcello Avallone, who worked on the film with Gastaldi, stated that it took three weeks. Steele recalled that production had long 18-hour days "thanks to the massive doses of
Sambuca and coffee. If a dolly collapsed, Freda would just pull the camera on a carpet. Nothing would stop that man." To film everything, Freda sped up proceedings by having three small crews work on the film at once. One of the crews was entrusted to Avallone, who Freda had bonded over through their mutual love of horse racing. Avallone stated that he shot things like close-ups and cutaways to save time. Avallone mentioned that two versions of some sequences were shot: the original Italian, which was more suggestive and chaste, and another for foreign markets that was more risque, as Freda did not want to shoot the more explicit scenes. As of 2017, those versions have not been found. The assistant cameraman, Giuseppe Maccari, played down the second units, stating that multiple cameras were used only on some scenes, such as the climax with the fire in Hichock's villa. The film's make-up artist, Euclide Santoli, recalled the grotesque scenes where Hichcock's face swells and deforms right before the camera. To do the effect, Santoli used a double mask, with the first being thick and identical to the actor's face; it would be applied first, then a second mask that was thin was stuck to the other along the edges with tubes used to blow air through them. Freda later stated that the producers ruined the scenes with this special effect. Freda stated the producers had them split the nightmare scene into several pieces, instead of having it done as one long take. ==Release==