The Hyena of London

Did You Know?

• The film was promoted as a British production by San Francisco's Loonic Video in the late 1980s.
• The film grossed 44,000,000 Italian lire in Italy.

Plot

In 1883 London, serial killer Martin Bauer, called the Hyena, is hanged. After his body vanishes from its grave, fresh strangulations occur. Dr. Edward, whose daughter Muriel loves Henry Quinn, frames Quinn for the murders. The truth emerges: Dr. Edward stole Bauer's corpse and grafted part of the killer's brain into his own, inheriting the compulsion to kill. Police shoot Edward as he tries to strangle Quinn.

Production

Luigi Mangini, primarily a screenwriter who claimed over 100 scripts (a figure film historian Roberto Curti says must be drastically reduced), directed this film after co-directing a political documentary on Russia in 1963. The Hyena of London was shot at Villa Perucchetti in Rome's Monti Parioli district. Its score by Francesco De Masi was taken from Riccardo Freda's The Ghost and later reused in The Third Eye.

Reception

Tim Lucas in 1989 called the film a forgotten but fascinating picture from the Italian Golden Age. Roberto Curti described it as obscure in Italy and one of Italian gothic horror's most schizophrenic oddities, noting it is somewhat clichéd as a whodunit but has a few atmospheric shots. The Classic Horrors Club found it familiar yet effective. Audience reviews vary, with one viewer likening it to a soap opera and another calling it the best giallo set in Bradford.