The Black Cat (1934)
Edgar Ulmer was one of Universal Studio's hopes in 1934, when this movie was their biggest hit of the season (this is three years after the explosion of Dracula and Frankenstein). But he only made one other famous movie, the low budget Detour, which is pretty amazing stuff. The rest of the time he did fringe film, low budget grunt work. Which is a shame, because even here, at the start of his directing career, there is a wonderful flair for drama, set design, light, and effect.
It is this last that might ruin his long term vision--he puts effect over substance, and even over logic. So you have to watch this for all the great visual and narrative flourishes. Even the black cat of the title is more of a symbolic punctuation point than anything that matters. Women will be kidnapped, men tricked, old enemies battle with wits and electric shocks, and a cast of Satanic worshippers will gather by the end. This actually makes it sound wilder than it is, but that's the general idea. The hero and heroine are regular folk caught in the maelstrom of old Europe and its cryptic wickedness, not that far from the two earlier breakthrough films. This one has no hook, though, no monster or vampire, just some demented people.
At an hour, the movie is short, and even at that it moves fast. Watch for nice Art Deco touches. And most of all, see Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff square off head to head. It's not a masterpiece, but it's totally worth watching if you like the early Universal scary movies.
Edgar Ulmer was one of Universal Studio's hopes in 1934, when this movie was their biggest hit of the season (this is three years after the explosion of Dracula and Frankenstein). But he only made one other famous movie, the low budget Detour, which is pretty amazing stuff. The rest of the time he did fringe film, low budget grunt work. Which is a shame, because even here, at the start of his directing career, there is a wonderful flair for drama, set design, light, and effect.
It is this last that might ruin his long term vision--he puts effect over substance, and even over logic. So you have to watch this for all the great visual and narrative flourishes. Even the black cat of the title is more of a symbolic punctuation point than anything that matters. Women will be kidnapped, men tricked, old enemies battle with wits and electric shocks, and a cast of Satanic worshippers will gather by the end. This actually makes it sound wilder than it is, but that's the general idea. The hero and heroine are regular folk caught in the maelstrom of old Europe and its cryptic wickedness, not that far from the two earlier breakthrough films. This one has no hook, though, no monster or vampire, just some demented people.
At an hour, the movie is short, and even at that it moves fast. Watch for nice Art Deco touches. And most of all, see Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff square off head to head. It's not a masterpiece, but it's totally worth watching if you like the early Universal scary movies.