April 23, 2020
Classic Italian Horror Soundtracks Made Available by Disques Cinemusique
Following on their earlier April release of the digital soundtrack to Carlo Innocenzi’s score to the 1960 Italian shocker MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN (Il mulino delle donne di pietra; see Amazon), the Canadian soundtrack label Disques Cinemusique presents a digital soundtrack album of classic Italian horror film THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK (1962), directed by Riccardo Freda, starring Barbara Steele and Robert Flemyng, and composed & conducted by Roman Vlad.
The Romanian born composer (1919-2013) had an honorable career in the field of concert music in Italy in addition to his activity as a composer for cinema. He wrote about sixty scores for European movies, mostly B-class films but with fine orchestral support. In 1957 Vlad scored the very first Italian horror movie, also directed by Riccardo Freda, LES VAMPIRES (I Vampiri). It’s one of the composer’s few soundtracks to have been officially released on CD. His best known work remains the peplum URSUS (1961). The Gothic style suited the composer perfectly, as evidenced by THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK (L’orribile Segreto Del Dr. Hichcock). The title is a nod to the British master of suspense but the film itself doesn’t contain any hint of humor.
As with MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN, the music for the label’s release of THE HORRIBLE DOCTOR HICHCOCK comes from DVD/Blu-ray sources, the original masters having evidently been lost to time. “Both of these soundtracks recordings are in the Public Domain,” said label owner Clément Fontaine. “So it’s a good compromise here to use the DVD in order to showcase the score, until a European label like Beat or Quartet finds the isolated master recording in order to release a regular CD. Fortunately, the rather sparse dialogue leaves plenty of room for the score and the sound quality of the recording is quite good. Our selections include a small amount of sound effects and words [or a scream or two] which have the merit of reflecting even better the atmosphere of this thriller starring the fascinating.”
Tracklist:
1 The Horrible Dr. Bernard Hichcock – Opening title
2 Attack in the cemetery
3 Margaretha at the pianio
4 Funeral game with Margaritha
5 Fatal overdose
6 Margaretha’s coffin is placed in the vault
7 Hichcock is back home with his new wife
8 Cinzia befriends Dr. Kurt
9 Meeting the ghost
10 Hichcock‘s morbid addiction
11 Cinzia explores the house I
12 Kurt surprises Hichcock with a corpse
13 Cinzia explores the house II
14 Hichcock’s injects drug to Cinzia
15 Hichcock’s plan for murder
16 Seeing help from Kurt
17 Struggle for deliverance
18 Kurt rescues Cinzia / Final
For more details, see the label’s website: https://www.disquescinemusique.com/; digital purchases are made via applemusic. The album is also downloadable from Amazon as is MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN (see: here)
Watch the trailer for L’orribile Segreto Del Dr. Hichcock (in Italian):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DZXX5FP5Iw
