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Released by: AGFA/Something Weird Video
Released on: January 26th, 2021.
Director: Emilio Vieyra, Jerald Intrator
Cast: Ricardo Bauleo, Gloria Prat, Aldo Barbero
Year: 1971
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The Curious Dr. Humpp - Movie Review:
Originally released in its native Argentina as La Venganza Del Sexo, Emilio Vieyra's film was picked up for stateside distribution by Jerry Intrator, the same man who gave us Satan In High Heels, and released to the American market with a whole lot of newly shot sex footage added into the picture. The result was The Curious Dr. Humpp, a mind-numbing mix of sci-fi elements, horror movie cliches and gratuitous sex!
The story involves the titular Dr. Humpp (Alda Barbero) who is, of course, a scientist of the mad variety. He's working on a potion that keeps him young that can only be created using “blood forces of sex†generated during orgasm and so he needs people to keep on fucking. Eventually he hits a dry spell and asks a perpetually angry brain that he keeps in a jar on his desk for advice but when that doesn't yield what he needs to keep his work going, he uses a giant monster that he's created to kidnap victims to him to use. This monster has a big blinking light in the middle of its forehead and wears giant metal shoes, and yet he seems to be able to cruise around nightclubs without really alerting anyone for some reason. Also, he can play the guitar.
Unfortunately for the doctor, a nosy reporter named George (Ricardo Bauleo) is snooping around trying to figure out just what exactly Humpp is up to and why…
Chock full of bumping and grinding in both lesbian and straight sex varieties, The Curious Dr. Humpp might not make a whole lot of sense but it doesn't matter, it's seriously weird enough to work. Those who don't have an affection for trashy softcore sex films might feel the urge to hit the fast forward button during some of the longer sexual interludes here but those who don't have an affection for trashy softcore sex films probably wouldn't be reading about a movie called The Curious Dr. Humpp in the first place, so it's probably a moot point. Regardless, yeah, there's a lot of sex here, some good and some not so good, but a lot of it is actually quite interestingly shot. The movie itself, thanks to Vieyra's efforts rather than Intrator's, has got some nice atmosphere in spots, the black and white cinematography is pretty strong and captures the interiors of the doctor's lab nicely. A couple of nightclub sequences are also nicely lensed, the camera doing a great job of following a certain female's form as she gyrates to the music. It's a trash movie, sure, but not one without some craft behind it, which makes it all the more interesting to watch.
It's hard to fairly gauge the acting here since everyone is dubbed and said dubbing is both obvious and hokey, but that element just adds to the movie's otherworldly charms. The make up effects used to bring the monster to life make you question just what exactly Vieyra and company were trying to pull off here, as it looks like it was made out of papier-mí¢ché but the movie has a pretty killer score working in its favor and, all in all, provides plenty of cheap, sexy thrills for those who like their monster movies to come with a whole lot of skin.
The Curious Dr. Humpp - Blu-ray Review:
Presented on a region free 50GB disc in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer "newly scanned & restored in 2k from its 35mm internegative" and in its original 1.33.1 aspect ratio, The Curious Dr. Humpp looks really nice on Blu-ray. The black and white image shows nice contrast with deep blacks, clean whites and a nice grayscale covering everything in between. Detail is generally nice and strong throughout and there are no noticeable issues with compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction issues, the picture always looks nice and film-like.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD Mono track and it sounds pretty decent. The dubbed dialogue is always easy to understand and there isn't much at all in the way of hiss or distortion to complain about. The score sounds solid here as well and the levels are balanced properly. There are no alternate audio options provided here nor are there any subtitle options for this cut.
The main extra on the disc is the inclusion of a bonus movie in the form of La Vengaze Del Sex, the original cut of The Curious Dr. Humpp transferred here from a 2k restoration of a 35mm fine grain lab print and presented in its original Spanish language in DTS-HD Mono format with optional English subtitles. Just like the Humpp cut of the movie, this transfer looks very good, showing nice detail, depth and texture. Making its home video debut with English subtitles on this release, it's a very different version of the movie than what most fans are going to be used to, but it's still very much a wonky mix of horror and sexploitation. Intrator added the lesbian scenes, the scenes with the hippies and the scene with the perpetually horny blonde woman, which amounts to a fair bit of the movie's running time and obviously these are missing. We can also note that Intrator used some body doubles to extend and spice up some of the sex scenes from the original cut, so those scenes are shorter in this version. Additionally, the credits in this cut are in Spanish and are animated, making them much more interesting to see than the standard text credits used in the English version.
Also well worth your time is a commentary track with filmmaker Frank Henenlotter that covers roughly the first hour or so of the American cut of the film. Here, Henenlotter does a nice job of covering the movie's origins, explaining its distribution history and going over the differences between the two cuts and why they exist in the form that they do. He also covers Vieyra's career in a fair bit of detail as well as the careers of some of the different actors that appear in the film. It's interesting and also frequently pretty amusing. Henenlotter not only knows his stuff, he had a hand in bringing this movie to the masses when it was released way back when and had first hand interactions with its director, but he has a great sense of humor as well.
AGFA and Something Weird Video also provides an oddball short film in the form of 1950's Tomb It May Concern, an eleven-minute piece that explores what happens when an archeologist uncovers the secrets that lay inside an ancient Egyptian tomb and the sexy mummies that lay within!
Rounding out the extras on the disc is are trailers for The Curious Dr. Humpp, The Deadly Organ, Strange Compulsion, Mundos Depravados and last but most certainly not least, The Love Cult. The disc also includes menus and chapter selection and comes with some nice reversible cover sleeve artwork.
The Curious Dr. Humpp - The Final Word:
The Curious Dr. Humpp is an utterly bizarre mix of sex and horror but it's eminently watchable and, at times, rather well made. AGFA and Something Weird Video have done an excellent job bringing the film to Blu-ray, it looks and sounds great and bot the Henenlotter commentary and the inclusion of the original cut of the film make this disc a mandatory purchase for fans of vintage exploitation pictures.
Click on the images below for full sized The Curious Dr. Humpp Blu-ray screen caps!
