Runtime:
65 minutes
Directed
by: Edgar G. Ulmer
Starring:
Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Julie Bishop, Egon Brecher
From:
Universal
What a Pre-Code delight this was:
Recently, a few Letterboxd mutuals saw the film and gave it the
highest possible rating; because of that, the short runtime of barely
more than an hour, the nice cast, and other people I follow in general
saying it was good... it was not a big investment for me to give this a
shot.
The movie makes it clear this is loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story of the same way; the credits mention it was only “suggested by” Poe's classic. What we get in this movie barely more than an hour is a tale which at first seems normal, but as you dig deeper you realize it is pretty wild. Newlyweds are in Hungary on their honeymoon; they run into psychiatrist Bela Lugosi on the train. They are all in an automobile on the way to a destination when rainy weather causes a crash and the wife is injured. It happens to be right by architect Boris Karloff's Art-Deco residence so they end up there. How fitting then, as Lugosi and Karloff are longtime enemies... and Boris is a Satanist!
The movie is still in the Pre-Code era so the movie is rather bold and has shocking moments. I dare not spoil the surprises but I'll just say the movie is like a locomotive on the loose in the final act as that's when the truly outrageous bits happen. I can understand why some would find the first half to be “boring”; I was always riveted. The cast as a whole is fine but no one should be surprised when I say that Bela and Boris were the true highlights; this was their first of eight movies together and when they shared the screen, it was great. Karloff's character, a few times you realize just how magnificent his troll game is; he keeps around black cats in the hope that his enemy shows up, due to his knowledge that his rival has Ailurophobia and is deathly afraid of the animal.
The movie has plenty of macabre delights, great sets and nice musical moments, appropriate lighting/shadows and a chess game where lives are literally on the line depending on the outcome. I was not puffing this up when I mentioned The Black Cat was pretty wild.
The movie makes it clear this is loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story of the same way; the credits mention it was only “suggested by” Poe's classic. What we get in this movie barely more than an hour is a tale which at first seems normal, but as you dig deeper you realize it is pretty wild. Newlyweds are in Hungary on their honeymoon; they run into psychiatrist Bela Lugosi on the train. They are all in an automobile on the way to a destination when rainy weather causes a crash and the wife is injured. It happens to be right by architect Boris Karloff's Art-Deco residence so they end up there. How fitting then, as Lugosi and Karloff are longtime enemies... and Boris is a Satanist!
The movie is still in the Pre-Code era so the movie is rather bold and has shocking moments. I dare not spoil the surprises but I'll just say the movie is like a locomotive on the loose in the final act as that's when the truly outrageous bits happen. I can understand why some would find the first half to be “boring”; I was always riveted. The cast as a whole is fine but no one should be surprised when I say that Bela and Boris were the true highlights; this was their first of eight movies together and when they shared the screen, it was great. Karloff's character, a few times you realize just how magnificent his troll game is; he keeps around black cats in the hope that his enemy shows up, due to his knowledge that his rival has Ailurophobia and is deathly afraid of the animal.
The movie has plenty of macabre delights, great sets and nice musical moments, appropriate lighting/shadows and a chess game where lives are literally on the line depending on the outcome. I was not puffing this up when I mentioned The Black Cat was pretty wild.
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