The Black Cat

1934

Action / Adventure / Crime / Horror / Romance / Thriller

14
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 89% · 36 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 69% · 2.5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 14548 14.5K

edgar allan poe pre-unix chess prisoner of war hungary black and white

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Plot summary

After a road accident in Hungary, the American honeymooners Joan and Peter and the enigmatic Dr. Werdegast find refuge in the house of the famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig, who shares a dark past with the doctor.

Director

Edgar G. Ulmer Photo
Edgar G. Ulmer

Top cast

Paul Panzer Photo
Paul Panzer as Cultist Binding Joan
Lois January Photo
Lois January as Cultist
Andy Devine Photo
Andy Devine as Bit Part
Harry Cording Photo
Harry Cording as Thamal
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
533.38 MB
978*720
English 2.0
TV-14
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 5 min
Seeds 2
1.02 GB
1456*1072
English 2.0
TV-14
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 5 min
Seeds 16

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by John Chard 7 / 10

Weird and hypnotic creeper. The first, and arguably

Weird and hypnotic creeper. The first, and arguably in terms of their dual performances, best teaming of Horror legends Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is this almost bizarre Edgar G. Ulmer directed piece. Based around a story by Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat sees a young couple, Peter & Joan Allison (David Manners & Julie Bishop), who while on their honeymoon in Budapest meet the mysterious scientist Dr. Vitus Verdegast (Lugosi). When the bus taking them to the hotel crashes and Joan is injured, the trio wind up at the home of Verdegast's old acquaintance Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff). Where the troubled history between Verdegast and Poelzig comes to light and thus spells immense danger for the newly married Allison's. Excellently directed by Ulmer, The Black Cat still today has the ability to genuinely unnerve the viewer. Filled with an overwhelming sense of dread throughout, Ulmer and his on form leading men have crafted a superb study of character evil. Flanked by a magnificent set design and with a script that does Poe proud, the piece pot boils until its brutal and frenzied climax. Karloff and Lugosi are particularly impressive (check out the chess match sequences), lending the film its timeless quality, with Karloff's Poelzig apparently being based on real life occultist Aleister Crowley. While the music, featuring some of the biggest names of classical composition, is an extra haunting character all by itself. It's a far from flawless picture, but it remains a unique, literate and important film in the pantheon of classic horror. 7/10
Reviewed by CinemaSerf 7 / 10

This great pairing of Messrs. Karloff and Lugosi

This great pairing of Messrs. Karloff and Lugosi make for a fun, if not particularly scary, horror movie from Universal. An honeymoon couple are travelling through Hungary when their bus is involved in an accident near the castle of "Hjalmar Poelzig" (Karloff). Together with fellow traveller "Vitus Werdegast" (a slightly theatrical Lugosi) they seek refuge and find themselves caught up in a tale of retribution between the two men that results in a game of chess not seen since the "Seventh Seal". It doesn't hang about - only just over an hour of creepily shot, tautly directed drama that makes for a spookily engaging watch with quite a bit of jeopardy right to the end...
Reviewed by Doghouse-6

More Enjoyable Than It Has Any Business Being

Other commentaries will fill you in on the nearly-incomprehensible plot (if that's possible) but, as has been pointed out, you don't watch a film like this for plot.Despite the story inconsistencies and implausibilities, everything here just seems to "jell:" the fabulous sets, elegant photography, evocative music (drawing heavily from Schubert, among others) and the downright creepy atmosphere woven from the themes of jealousy, lust, revenge, murder, sadism.....all sounds delightfully sick, doesn't it? Truly, it's nowhere near as threatening as it sounds; indeed, if Astaire and Rogers had ever made a spooky thriller, it might have looked and felt something like this one. THE BLACK CAT possesses a lyrical, rhythmic quality, upon which we drift through a sleek, ultra-modern nightmare world.One of the reasons it all works is its ability to pull us into a sort of parallel universe which, though it looks more or less like reality as we know it, glides along on a barely-concealed undercurrent - an "atmosphere of death," as Lugosi's character puts it - where things happen that "could never actually happen" (an inside reference for those who know the film).There are some wonderful set-pieces, such as Karloff's tour through a most unusual basement mausoleum/museum memorializing all of his dearly departed earlier "wives." And of course, Boris and Bela deliver, with their restrained but full-bodied performances. Karloff conveys menace just entering a room, and Lugosi has an all-too-rare opportunity to display some tenderness; notice the single tear that rolls down his face as he learns - and sees - what became of the wife that Karloff stole from him years before. A very stylized - and stylish - film which grants us the unusual treat of seeing Lugosi play a (more or less) "good guy," and the unique one of hearing him pronounce the word "baloney," as only he could.
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