The Black Cat
(1934), dir. Edgar G. Ulmar, Universal Pictures
After the runway success that Universal had with Dracula and Frankenstein, it just made sense to take the two stars of said
films and put them together. The script, ‘inspired’ by the works of Edgar Allan
Poe, would be one of the stranger films in the Universal cannon.
Newlyweds Peter and Joan Allison (David Manners, Jacqueline
Wells) are taking the Orient Express to Gombos in Hungary. Due to a ticket
slip-up they are forced to share their cabin with Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela
Lugosi), who was recently released from a Russian POW camp. He is traveling to
see his former commanding officer Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff), who has won
fame the world over for his architectural skills. Poelzig also betrayed his
command to the Russians and stole Werdegast’s wife and daughter. Weredegast
intends to kill Poelzig and he doesn’t care who knows about it. Werdegast also
notes that Joan has a striking resemblance to his missing wife.
Due to a crashed bus the trio is forced to seek help at a
large art-deco mansion which happens to be owned by Poelzig. Werdegast makes it
clear that he wants to kill Poelzig, but with the Allison between them Poelzig
intends to use them all his own plans. Poezlig, unknown to the travelers, is a
high priest of Satan and he needs a living sacrifice. Joan looks to fit the
part nicely. Werdegast also has another issue, his all-consuming fear of cats.
Poelzig, conveniently, keeps scores of black cats around his mansion, which he
also built on the foundation of his former command. Things build to a climax,
mostly thanks to the massive amount of dynamite that Poezlig built into the
foundation.
All things considered this film has a lot of stuff; in fact
one could argue too much stuff. Lugosi and Karloff play off each other
wonderfully even if the film takes too long to get anywhere
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