The Black Cat (1934) | |
| Director(s) | Edgar G. Ulmer |
| Producer(s) | E.M. Asher (supervising uncredited), Carl Laemmle Jr. (uncredited) |
| Top Genres | Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Film Adaptation, Horror, Mystery |
| Top Topics | Book-Based |
Featured Cast:
The Black Cat Overview:
The Black Cat (1934) was a Horror - Crime Film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. and E.M. Asher.
SYNOPSIS
Karloff and Lugosi together for the first time in a visually stylish film about a deadly rivalry between a friendly doctor and a sinister architect. A hapless honeymooning couple are the pawns in their game, which involves devil-worship, necrophilia, and chess. A surprisingly dark outing in the early days of Production Code enforcement. One of many similarly named films, this one has nothing to do with the Edgar Allen Poe tale that inspired the title.
(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).
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BlogHub Articles:
The Black Cat (1934) (1)
By Kristen on Aug 15, 2012 From Journeys in Classic FilmFinally back on track with a film review, this time getting prepped for Halloween a few months early (although I have a pretty awesome theme of Halloween movies for the blog). ?Today’s film is the 1934 Edgar G. Ulmer film The Black Cat which made my TCM Top Twelve in June. ?The Black Cat was t... Read full article
The Black Cat (1934) (2)
By Lindsey on Jul 16, 2012 From The Motion Pictures(Image via johnsforbiddenplanet.blogspot.com) *This review contains mild spoilers. Joan (Julie Bishop) and Peter Alison (David Manners) are on a honeymoon train in Hungary when a ticket mix-up causes them to have to share their compartment with Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi), a psychiatrist who i... Read full article
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Quotes from
Hjalmar Poelzig: You say your soul was killed, that you have been dead all these years. And what of me? Did we not both die here in Marmorus 15 years ago? Are we any the less victims of the war than those whose bodies were torn asunder? Are we not both the living dead? And now you come to me, playing at being an avenging angel, childishly thirsting for my blood. We understand each other too well. We know too much of life.
Peter Allison: I don't know. It all sounds like a lot of supernatural baloney to me.
Dr. Vitus Verdegast: Supernatural, perhaps. Baloney, perhaps not. There are many things under the sun.
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Facts about
Director Edgar G. Ulmer, when writing this film, loosely based the villain Hjalmar Poelzig, played by Boris Karloff, on director Fritz Lang. Ulmer knew Lang from the German-Austrian film scene and, though he was a huge admirer of Lang's films, felt Lang to be a sadist as a director.
The satanic prayer Poelzig chants during the black mass scene consists of phrases in Latin, the most recognizable being "cum grano salis" (with a grain of salt).
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