Mad Love (1935)

Director:

Karl Freund

Writers:

Maurice Renard (from the novel: "Les Mains D'Orlac")
Florence Crewe-Jones (translation and adaptation: novel "The Hands of Orlac")
(more)

Release Date:

12 July 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

His love was pitiful...hopeless...madness...yet "The Thing" tired of pity - and demanded love!

Plot:

An insane surgeon's obsession with an actress leads him to replace her wounded pianist's hands with the hands of a knife murderer which still have the urge to throw knives.

Plot Keywords:

Hand | Actress | Pianist | Obsession | Surgeon

Cast

Peter Lorre	...	Doctor Gogol
Frances Drake	...	Yvonne Orlac
Colin Clive	...	Stephen Orlac
Ted Healy	...	Reagan
Sara Haden	...	Marie (as Sarah Haden)
Edward Brophy	...	Rollo
Henry Kolker	...	Prefect Rosset
Keye Luke	...	Dr. Wong
May Beatty	...	Françoise
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
George Davis	...	Chauffeur (scenes deleted)
Billy Dooley	...	Undetermined Role (scenes deleted)
Harold Huber	...	Thief (scenes deleted)
Isabel Jewell	...	Marianne (scenes deleted)
Leo White	...	Undetermined Role (scenes deleted)
Sam Ash	...	Detective Arresting Stephen (uncredited)
Hooper Atchley	...	Train Conductor (uncredited)
Agostino Borgato	...	Stage Doorman (uncredited)
Maurice Brierre	...	Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Mike Cantwell	...	Man (uncredited)
Julie Carter	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Harvey Clark	...	Station Master (uncredited)
Cora Sue Collins	...	Gogol's Lame Child Patient (uncredited)
Nell Craig	...	Suzanne, Nurse (uncredited)
Frank Darien	...	Lavin - Waxworks Proprietor (uncredited)
Kay English	...	Woman (uncredited)
Alphonse Ethier	...	Assistant Prefect (uncredited)
Christian J. Frank	...	Detective Escorting Rollo on Train (uncredited)
Billy Gilbert	...	Autograph Seeker on Train (uncredited)
Robert Graves	...	Detective Escorting Rollo on Train (uncredited)
Roger Gray	...	Detective Arresting Stephen (uncredited)
Ramsay Hill	...	Actor as 'Duke' (uncredited)
Otto Hoffman	...	Blind Man (uncredited)
Robert Emmett Keane	...	Raoul, the Drunk (uncredited)
Murray Kinnell	...	Charles, Theater Official (uncredited)
Edward Lippy	...	Pierre - Henry Orlac's Clerk (uncredited)
Rollo Lloyd	...	Varsac, Fingerprint Expert (uncredited)
Marc Loebell	...	Actor as 'Prince' (uncredited)
Theodore Lorch	...	Actor at Party (uncredited)
Michael Mark	...	Execution Official (uncredited)
Mary Jo Mathews	...	Woman Outside Theater of Horrors (uncredited)
Edward Norris	...	Man Outside Theater of Horrors (uncredited)
Sarah Padden	...	Mother of Lame Girl (uncredited)
Earl Pingree	...	Detective Interviewing Henry's Clerk (uncredited)
Russ Powell	...	Gendarme (uncredited)
Matty Roubert	...	Newsboy (uncredited)
Rolfe Sedan	...	Traffic Gendarme (uncredited)
Bernard Siegel	...	Man (uncredited)
Carl Stockdale	...	Actor as 'The Notary' (uncredited)
Charles Trowbridge	...	Dr. Marbeau (uncredited)
Jacques Vanaire	...	Police Broadcaster (uncredited)
Monte Vandergrift	...	Audience Member (uncredited)
Clarence Wilson	...	Piano Creditor (uncredited)
Ian Wolfe	...	Henry Orlac, Stephen's Stepfather (uncredited)

Directed by
Karl Freund

Writing credits
Maurice Renard		(from the novel: "Les Mains D'Orlac")
Florence Crewe-Jones		(translation and adaptation: novel "The Hands of Orlac")
Guy Endore		(adaptation)
P.J. Wolfson		(screen play) and
John L. Balderston		(screen play)
Leon Gordon		contributor to dialogue (uncredited)
Gladys Von Ettinghausen		contributor to dialogue (uncredited)
Leon Wolfson		contributing writer (uncredited)
Edgar Allan Woolf		contributing writer (uncredited)

Produced by
John W. Considine Jr.	....	producer

Original Music by
Dimitri Tiomkin

Cinematography by
Chester A. Lyons		(photographed by) (as Chester Lyons)
Gregg Toland		(photographed by)

Film Editing by
Hugh Wynn

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Dolph Zimmer	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
William A. Horning	....	associate art director
Edwin B. Willis	....	associate art director

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Dolly Tree	....	wardrobe

Music Department
Oscar Radin	....	musical director
R.H. Bassett	....	composer: title music (uncredited)
Paul Marquardt	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Charles Maxwell	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
David Snell	....	composer: organ music (uncredited)
Jack Virgil	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
John Langan	....	dialogue director (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (presents) (controlled by Loew's Incorporated)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1935) (USA) (theatrical)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1996) (USA) (laserdisc)
• Magnus Opus (2009) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD) (on "Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection")

Also Known As:

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) | USA:Approved (PCA #1034) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The last directorial effort of famed cinematographer Karl Freund.

Goofs:

Continuity: The wax statue of "Yvonne" is shown with arms straight down through the film, but toward the end, when there is a shot of the real Yvonne facing the wax statue, the statue has it's left arm bent, with hand on hip.

Quotes:

Rollo the Knife Thrower:[seeing the guillotine] Boy! Ain't that somethin'?

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Futurama: The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings (#5.16)" (2003)

Soundtrack:

Siegfried Idyll

Brilliant Gothic Horror

Apparently, Peter Lorre only agreed to do this film because he had been promised the lead in "Crime & Punishment" afterwards if he did it. I've seen both films, and though Lorre was magnificent in both, I prefer this one. I'm so glad he agreed to do it.

"Mad Love" is the story of Doctor Gogol, brilliant Parisian surgeon whose reputation for doing surgeries on desperate cases free of charge is well- renowned. But Doctor Gogol is a morbid man as well, gleefully attending public beheadings and taking orgasmic delight in the Grand Guignol Theatre de Horreur, which stages realistic horror plays. The star of the Theatre is Yvonne, and Doctor Gogol is madly in love with her, hence the title of our film. But Yvonne is already married to Stephen Orlac, a famous concert pianist. Doctor Gogol, with his bald head and buggy eyes, gives her the creeps and her distaste for him is clear. However, when her husbands train crashes and his million-dollar hands are destroyed, it is Doctor Gogol she turns to. Desperate to win the love of Yvonne, Gogol agrees to do the impossible. Stephen Orlac is saved...but only Gogol knows that his hands are no longer his own. They once belonged to a killer, and they want to kill again.

Lorre turns in yet another astonishing performance here; his Gogol is very convincing, quite capable of handling a few lines of cornball dialogue without seeming foolish in the least. And the sympathy he elicits is simply amazing; I found myself cheering for him the whole time instead of for Yvonne, who struck me as a cold, opportunistic gold digger, quite willing to use the Doctor if it served her purpose. I'm sure this was not the intent of the filmmakers, but Lorre emerges as the hero here, at least in my humble opinion. Toward the end of the film, he is completely unleashed, playing mad, wild music on the organ and donning a most hideous metal contraption which looks like something that H. R. Giger might have designed.

This beautiful black-and-white film by MGM rivals the classic monsters of Universal, and placed Peter Lorre alongside such horror movie icons as Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Vincent Price. Reportedly, Lorre detested these horror film roles that made him famous, but his resentment never shows through; he threw himself into this and every role with creativity and zeal. He is truly marvelous to watch. Mad Love should not be missed by fans of old, spooky Gothic tales. It is a masterpiece.