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The Black Cat [1934]
![The Black Cat [1934]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ey%2BHfq1hL._SL160_.jpg)
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Terriffic horror, with a sympathetic Lugosi and Karloff as an architect with a talent for embalming. Plus great art deco
Review date: 2008-08-06 Rating: 8 out of 10
"I go to visit an old friend," says Dr. Vitus Werdegast to Peter and Joan Alison, the young newlyweds he meets on the train moving through a rain-swept night. Their destination is the small, picturesque village of Vizhegrad that had been the site of a horrendous battle during the Great War. They board a bus and the driver tells them, "All of this country was one of the greatest battlefields of the war. Tens of thousands of men died here. The ravine down there was piled twelve deep with dead and wounded men. The little river below was swollen red, a raging torrent of blood. And that high hill yonder where Engineer Poelzig now lives was the site of Fort Marmorus. He built his home on its very foundations. Marmorus, the greatest graveyard in the world." Then the bus swerves and crashes in the driving rain, leaving the driver dead and the young wife injured, Dr. Werdegast takes them to Hjalmar Poelzig's home...his "old friend." Just who are Dr. Vitus Werdegast and Hjalmar Poelzig?
Werdegast (Bela Lugosi), says Poelzig, "is one of Hungary's greatest psychiatrists," He was captured in the Great War and thrown into a dank prison to rot for 15 years. He lost his wife, his young daughter and, as we shall see, his sanity. Yet he will be deeply touched by the newlyweds.
Poelzig (Boris Karloff), says Werdegast, is "one of Austria's greatest architects." He designed the great monolith of a home that sits atop what was Fort Marmorus. Poelzig has a muscular body and a slab of a face, with cruel, mocking eyes and a widow's peak that would make Robert Taylor cry with envy. We also will learn that he is a traitor, a murderer, a seducer, a Satanist and a talented embalmer.
The Black Cat has nothing to do with Poe's story. It's about evil, madness, love and obsession. That this all takes place in a terrific art deco setting keeps us smiling...but down in the dungeon, where we meet the wives of Engineer Poelzig and watch how a keen scalpel can slowly flay the skin from a man's face...well, we don't turn away.
What makes this movie one of my favorites is the character of Dr. Werdegast and the performance of Bela Lugosi. Werdegast may go mad, but he's been driven mad by terrible injustice, by the loss of those he loved and by the final knowledge that their fate was worse than he ever believed. "Is she not beautiful?" says Poelzig to Werdegast, deep in the preserved caverns of Fort Marmorus. "I wanted to have her beauty, always. I loved her too, Vitus." Though Werdegast tips over the edge to exact a terrible revenge, he still responds to the love the two newlyweds have for each other. He realizes the evil in Poelzig, and he counters it to protect and finally save the young couple. A game of chess, if lost, may lead to death for Peter Alison and a much worse fate for Joan Alison. Lugosi is quite touching in those moments he shows tenderness to young Peter and Joan Alison and in his determination to save them from the equally mad Poelzig. And Boris Karloff? He was a fine actor, and studying his style is time well spent. All this in just 65 minutes, and with art deco, too.
If I had to choose a few of Hollywood's more-or-less classic old horror movies to take with me to a deserted island, this and The Body Snatchers would be among them. Both have a sympathetic protagonist caught up in horror partly of his own making, with just enough cheese to keep the stories entertaining and not so much "human condition" redemption as to make them tiresome.
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Reviews
LUGOSI SAVES THE DAY
Review date: 2008-04-14 Rating: 8 out of 10
The great Bela Lugosi has a score to settle. After a car crash,Lugosi
offers to take a stranded honeymoon couple to the house of his friend,
Herr Poelzig. Lugosi has a score to settle with poelzig, as he left him
for dead in a POW camp, and then married his wife.
Poelzig tells him she is dead, but in fact she is still being held prisoner by the sadistic Poelzig,
who also wants to keep the honeymoon couple to offer as a sacrifice in one of his frequent Black Mass ceremonies.
Can Bela save them and find out the truth about his wife before it is too late?
A fine Universal Horror Classic with Lugosi on top form sparring with the equally great Boris Karloff.
Look out for John Carradine in his debut role as the pianist.
A haunting, poetic movie with a solid cast and slowly revealing story. Don't miss.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Julie Bishop
Bela Lugosi
Boris Karloff
David Manners
Creators:
Bela Lugosi (Primary Contributor)
Julie Bishop (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Second Sight Films Ltd.
Manufacturer: Second Sight Films Ltd.
EAN: 5028836031291
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, PAL,
Release date: 2007-10-29
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 63 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1934
Language: English (Unknown)