“The Black Cat” Starring Karloff & Lugosi / Z-View

The Pitch: ”Hey, let’s take two of Universal’s biggest stars, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and stick them in a horror movie that will end up being the #1 money-maker for Universal the year it is released.  We can even name it “The Black Cat” after the Edgar Allan Poe story — even though the movie will have no real ties to it.  What do you say?”

“Let’s do it!”

The Tagline:  “Things you never said before or even dreamed of!”

The Overview:  A young, newly married couple find themselves seeking refuge in a creepy mansion after the bus that they were traveling on crashes during a dark, stormy night.  Along with the couple is Bela Lugosi playing a psychologist who was just released from a prisoner of war camp after 15 years.  Lugosi led the couple to the mansion. He was going there to confront Karloff who Lugosi knows was a traitor who caused the death of thousands including Lugosi’s wife.

Karloff welcomes them in.  On the surface he seems a genial host, but is actually a Satanist who plans to murder the young bride in a ritual.  The movie has all the hallmarks of a 1930’s horror movie: big name stars, a mad scientist, an old dark house full of secret passages/rooms, the dead coming back to life, a strange manservant, revenge and more.

*** Beware – minor spoilers are found below ***

The Good

  • Karloff and Lugosi in the first [and perhaps best] of their many on-screen team-ups.
  • The overriding atmosphere of things being slightly off-kilter created through creative set design, costume choices and the physical appearance of Karloff and others.
  • Playing chess for the lives of the newly weds.
  • The banter between Karloff and Lugosi where what is said it subtext for the true meaning.
  • Lugosi’s manservant is creepy, but loyal to the end.

The Bad:

  • What Karloff has in his secret rooms below the house.
  • Lugosi is the hero, but has there ever been a creepier one?  [Like when he is caught touching the hair of the sleeping bride.]
  • Being trapped in the house of a mad, Satanic murderer.

The Ugly:

  • Lugosi’s fear of cats.
  • What happens to people who are Satanic, traitors who steal the wives of their friends.  [I’d hate to have to live in his skin.]
  • What happens when it appears you are harming a man’s bride despite the fact that you’re saving her from a fate equal to, if not worse than death.

Rating: