There are many dichotomies concerning movies. For example, you can be a fan of both Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, but everybody prefers one or the other. Similarly, you can like Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, but you can love only one of them. I am solidly in Camp Karloff, but one can’t deny the allure of seeing both in the same movie. Lucky for me, there are four such horror films on Shout Factory’s first volume of the Universal Horror series.
1934’s The Black Cat is interesting for many reasons, not the least of them is Lugosi plays a relatively good guy here. He and some fellow travelers in rural Europe find themselves stranded after their bus goes off the road on a rainy night. They seek refuge at a mansion belonging to Karloff.
The first surprise is anybody would expect Karloff’s refuge to be a medieval castle. Instead, the interior is an art deco masterpiece. Towards the end, he will have a black mass at an underground altar, and even that looks like something out of a German expressionist film.
It turns out Lugosi lost his wife and daughter years before. Karloff had always pined for her, and we will discover has her corpse pristinely preserved in a weird case in his basement. She is floating vertically in some sort of glass enclosure, with her hair drifting upwards. And yet, it isn’t like she’s suspended in water—it’s more like she is floating in the air. It is a memorable image.
Not sure why Karloff shows Lugosi this mummy of his wife, but the man doesn’t take it well. He believes Karloff killed his wife and also his daughter. Little does Lugosi know, but the latter is still alive and living with Karloff as his wife. So…that.
Mixed up in all of this are newlyweds played by Davis Manners and Julie Bishop. At the opening of the film, unfortunate circumstances put Lugosi in their train compartment. Nothing like a third wheel, let alone somebody you haven’t met before, to put the kibosh on one’s wedding night. Now they’re stuck in Karloff’s weird art-deco mansion and the master of the house decides he wants to trade out Lugosi’s daughter for a newer model, that being Bishop.
In a morally suspect scene, Lugosi challenges Karloff to a game of chess for possession of Bishop. Without her being aware of it, she will become Karloff’s if his opponent loses. Interesting how she isn’t aware of this and doesn’t have any say in the matter. That, and I wondered who put Lugosi in charge of her fate.
And there are some other odd touches to be found here. I was intrigued by a cylindrical oubliette Manners is deposited into. I couldn’t figure out if the room rotates around until it comes to the only exit, or if that doorway actually circles around. Either way, it is an intriguing design.
Despite the title, and the attribution to Poe, it is not based on that author’s short story. That is just as well, in my opinion, as I don’t need to see a feline get an eye removed and then murdered, even if it would only be suggested. Instead, the title is worked into the plot in a haphazard manner, giving Lugosi ailurophobia that is forgotten almost as soon as it is brought up.
The Black Cat is an odd, but intriguing film. Its two famous leads both get to stretch their acting chops a bit, and each holds their own in their scenes together. It is a curious and morbid affair, ending with one of those men flailing the skin off the other. It may not be Poe, but it gives him a run for the money when it comes to gruesome weirdness.
Dir: Edgar G. Ullmer
Starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Julie Bishop
Watched as part of Shout Factor’s Universal Horror Volume 1 blu-ray box set