snicewanger
I have to admit this is one of my all time favorite films. Edgar Ulmer created one of the most chilling horror/fantasy odysseys in film history.Karloff and Lugosi are brilliant in their portrayals of the antagonists Hjamar Poelzig and Vitis Werdegast. The setting is a modernistic and nightmarish Hell House designed by the Satanic architect Poelzig which is wonderfully realized by Ulmers direction and set design, John Mescal's camera work, and Heinz Roenhelds eerie musical score. Peter Ruric's screenplay contains some of the most quotable lines in horror movie history, including my all time favorite " You see Vitus, in this house even the phone is dead," The Black Cat was released in 1934 and outraged so many critics at the time that it it help inspire the Catholic League of Decency and it s moral code for motion pictures which became the industry standard for many years. With that and Ulmer "Stealing" the wife of Carl Laemmles nephew, Ulmer was banished to poverty row film making for the rest of his career.
begob
Innocent American honeymooners in eastern Europe accept the invitation of a grim, mysterious stranger, who introduces them to an even more grim and mysterious stranger. How will they survive?Utterly daft melodrama that has the merit of Karloff and Lugosi trying to strangle each other after their game of chess goes wrong! Credit to the film makers for including the title of this review in the cod-Latin of a ridiculous satanic ritual during the climax, and for a nice gag at the end.What interested me was the art deco design of the sets. But especially the music, which samples from 19th century romanticism and totally lifts a hair-raising bit of Beethoven. At that point I thought the story might take off, but no - it's just a crowd pleaser, with the theme of good hearted homelanders rescuing themselves from the clutches of nasty foreigners.Overall, complete hokum - but strange to see people at that time (1934) feeling bitter about the recent violence, without anticipation of the horror to come.
utgard14
Two honeymooners (David Manners, Julie Bishop) meet Dr. Vitus Verdegast (Bela Lugosi) on board a train. Afterwards, the three share a bus together. When a storm causes the bus to wreck, the woman is injured. Dr. Verdegast takes the young couple to the home of the man he was on his way to see, Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff). There's a history between these two men, as we soon find out, and it's a dark, tragic story.Lugosi shines in a rare good guy role. His character suffers from ailurophobia, a fear of cats. Whether this was added just to give the title some significance I don't know, but it plays into the movie well. It adds another layer of strange to the already bizarre goings-on. Karloff, as always, is magnificent. He looks Satanic and, as we'll discover, there's a reason for that! His distinct lisp seems to be even more exaggerated for this role, which adds an almost reptilian quality to his already repellent character. It's nice to see that by 1934 David Manners had adapted better to film style acting. He's much more relaxed and not as theatrical as he was in his earlier Universal horror films. Julie Bishop (appearing under her real name Jacqueline Wells) is fine as the pretty young girl Karloff turns his demonic attentions to. Edward G. Ulmer's direction is fantastic. This, perhaps more than any other film, is why the director enjoys the cult status he does. The sets for Poelzig's house are very impressive. The music, though not original to the film, is used to brilliant effect throughout.This is the second of the three Universal horror films Bela Lugosi did that were inspired by Edgar Allan Poe stories. They were all good but this is the best. It's one of the greatest horror films Universal ever made, though its reputation isn't as well known as the more famous monster movies. It's also the first teaming of Lugosi with Boris Karloff. Whenever they appear together on screen, it's electric. You always know you'll get your money's worth with these two horror legends. If you're a fan of Karloff and Lugosi, you've probably already seen this. Unless you're new to these films, in which case you're in for a treat. It's a remarkable work of art that stands with the giants in Universal's horror catalog.
