The Black Cat (1934)

American honeymooners in Hungary are trapped in the home of a Satan- worshiping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident.

Director:

Edgar G. Ulmer

Writers:

Edgar Allan Poe (suggested by a story by), Peter Ruric (screenplay),

Stars:

Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Boris Karloff	...	Hjalmar Poelzig (as Karloff)
Bela Lugosi	...	Dr. Vitus Werdegast
David Manners	...	Peter Alison
Julie Bishop	...	Joan Alison (as Jacqueline Wells)
Egon Brecher	...	The Majordomo
Harry Cording	...	Thamal
Lucille Lund	...	Karen
Henry Armetta	...	The Sergeant
Albert Conti	...	The Lieutenant

Storyline

Honeymooning in Hungary, Joan and Peter Allison share their train compartment with Dr. Vitus Verdegast, a courtly but tragic man who is returning to the remains of the town he defended before becoming a prisoner of war for fifteen years. When their hotel-bound bus crashes in a mountain storm and Joan is injured, the travellers seek refuge in the home, built fortress-like upon the site of a bloody battlefield, of famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig. There, cat-phobic Verdegast learns his wife's fate, grieves for his lost daughter, and must play a game of chess for Allison's life.

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Plot Keywords:

hungary | prisoner of war | bus | storm | chess | 

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Taglines:

Things you never said before or even dreamed of!

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Genres:

Horror | Crime | Adventure | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 May 1934 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Vanishing Body

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$95,745 (estimated)

Gross:

$236,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

65 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The only Universal picture until The Wolf Man to introduce the major characters during the opening credits, and the actors playing them, with brief clips from the movie.

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Goofs

One of the women in Poelzig's glass coffins visibly moves while he is admiring her.

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Quotes

[first lines]
The Lieutenant: [looking over Joan's passport] Mr. and Mrs. Alison, Car 96, Compartment F. Orient Express, Budapest, Visegrad.

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Connections

Referenced in Masters of Horror: John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Symphony no. 8 (Unfinished)"
(uncredited)
Music by Franz Schubert
Heard on radio in film

User Reviews

Slick, spooky fun

There's a lot of story to tell in about 65 minutes, so this movie could be considered perhaps a bit incoherent. But the larger themes -- revenge, lust and innocents caught in the grip of forces beyond their sheltered experience -- have been central themes in horror tales for centuries.

Karloff is a delight as usual, and there are many fine details to his performance -- including a brief but outrageously lustful stare at the half-dressed young wife of the innocent couple and the strangely gentle way his brutal character handles a cat. (Nice tall, dark and handsome kitty in the title role, for the cat people.)

And this movie also shows once again that Bela Lugosi was a better actor than he ever got credit for. He handles his overwrought dialogue with taste and good cheer, and he's a marvel. And he even gets to speak a few rare lines of Hungarian here.