The Black Cat (1934)

American honeymooners in Hungary become 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

2 wins.

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:

black cat | psychiatrist | bus | train | chess | 

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Taglines:

Karloff and Lugosi together! Those stars of "Frankenstein" and "Dracula". (Newspaper ad cut).

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Genres:

Adventure | Crime | Horror | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Edgar G. Ulmer dubbed Boris Karloff's line at the end of the chess match: "You lose, Vitus."

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Goofs

Vitus identifies Kurgaal as being "near Omsk, by Lake Baikal." In reality Omsk and Lake Baikal are approximately 1000 miles apart and are nowhere near each other.

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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 Special Collector's Edition: La colina de las botas (2011)

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Soundtracks

Romeo and Juliet Overture
(uncredited)
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Played as background music mostly as a leitmotif for the honeymooners

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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Latin Hungarian

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)

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