The Black Cat (1934)

Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. With Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Julie Bishop. American honeymooners in Hungary become trapped in the home of a Satan-worshiping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident.

The Black Cat is a 1934 American Pre-Code horror film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The picture was the first of eight movies (six of which were produced by Universal) to pair the two iconic actors. It became Universal Pictures' biggest bo

The Black Cat (1934) is a classic, enigmatically disturbing horror film from Universal Studios in the 1930s. It became Universal's top-grossing film of the year. The visually intriguing, austere, landmark horror film - a tale of European post-war anguish and death, was expressio

A Satanist faces off with the vengeful man whose wife and daughter he has stolen.

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.

Every great era of horror is marked by at least one film that is so unlike its contemporaries that it is often not given its due importance. This is especially true of Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black Cat, and it's a shame, too, as it is one of the finest genre films made by Universal

The Black Cat (1934) is an American horror film starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, the first of six movies to pair them together. It was written and …

Every film fan has their top pick for lost footage they would like to see. For many it is the original, uncut version of Eric Von Stroh...

The first cinematic teaming of horror greats Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is a bizarre, haunting, and relentlessly eerie film that was surprisingly morbid and perverse for its time. Peter (David Manners) and Joan Allison (Julie Bishop) are honeymooning in Budapest when they meet mysterious scientist Dr. Vitus Verdegast (Lugosi) aboard a train. When the trio's bus from the train station gets into an accident, the young couple accompanies Verdegast to the castle of the spectral Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff), an architect and the leader of a Satanic cult. Poelzig's treachery in World War I caused the deaths of thousands of his and Verdegast's countrymen, as well as Verdegast's own internment as a prisoner of war. While Verdegast was detained, Poelzig married first his wife, who later died, then his daughter. Now Verdegast has come back for retribution, and the honeymooners are trapped in the two men's horrifying battle of wits. Corpses preserved in glass cases, frightening Satanic rituals, and a climactic confrontation in which one of the characters is skinned alive add to the film's pervasive sense of evil and doom, along with the stark black-and-white photography by John Mescall that makes Poelzig's futuristic mountaintop mansion even more disturbing. Karloff and Lugosi are both excellent, with Lugosi doing a rare turn as a good guy, albeit one who has gone off the rails. Having little to do with the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, The Black Cat has grown in stature over the years and is now widely regarded as the masterpiece of director Edgar G. Ulmer and one of the finest horror films ever made. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

No 92: The Black Cat