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The Black Cat (1934)

Director(s) Edgar G. Ulmer
Producer(s) Carl Laemmle Jr. (uncredited), E.M. Asher (uncredited)
Top Genres Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Film Adaptation, Horror, Mystery
Top Topics Book-Based
More Films Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer More Films Produced by E.M. Asher More Films from 1934 More Films from the 1930s Top Classic Movies of the 1930s Top Book-Based Films

The Black Cat Overview:

The Black Cat (1934) was a Horror - Crime Film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. and E.M. Asher.

SYNOPSIS

Karloff and Lugosi together for the first time in a visually stylish film about a deadly rivalry between a friendly doctor and a sinister architect. A hapless honeymooning couple are the pawns in their game, which involves devil-worship, necrophilia, and chess. A surprisingly dark outing in the early days of Production Code enforcement. One of many similarly named films, this one has nothing to do with the Edgar Allen Poe tale that inspired the title.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

The Black Cat BlogHub Articles:

The Black Cat (1934) (1)

By Kristen on Aug 15, 2012 From Journeys in Classic Film

Finally back on track with a film review, this time getting prepped for Halloween a few months early (although I have a pretty awesome theme of Halloween movies for the blog).  Today’s film is the 1934 Edgar G. Ulmer film The Black Cat which made my TCM Top Twelve in June.  The Black Cat was... Read full article

The Black Cat (1934) (2)

By Lindsey on Jul 16, 2012 From The Motion Pictures

(Image via johnsforbiddenplanet.blogspot.com) *This review contains mild spoilers. Joan (Julie Bishop) and Peter Alison (David Manners) are on a honeymoon train in Hungary when a ticket mix-up causes them to have to share their compartment with Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi), a psychiatrist who i... Read full article

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The Black Cat Quotes:

Hjalmar Poelzig: Vitus! Your are mad.
Hjalmar Poelzig: The phone is dead. Do you hear that, Vitus? Even the phone is dead.
Peter Allison: I don't know. It all sounds like a lot of supernatural baloney to me.
Dr. Vitus Verdegast: Supernatural, perhaps. Baloney, perhaps not. There are many things under the sun.
Hjalmar Poelzig: You say your soul was killed, that you have been dead all these years. And what of me? Did we not both die here in Marmorus 15 years ago? Are we any the less victims of the war than those whose bodies were torn asunder? Are we not both the living dead? And now you come to me, playing at being an avenging angel, childishly thirsting for my blood. We understand each other too well. We know too much of life.
Hjalmar Poelzig: Come, Vitus, are we men or are we children?
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The Black Cat Facts
The set of the main room in Poelzig's house were built for $1,500.
The door bell in Poelzig's house plays the first four notes from a recurring theme from Richard Wagner's opera "Die Meistersinger".
Among the unconventional elements of this film was the soundtrack. At a time (early 1930s) when movie music was usually limited to the titles and credits, Edgar G. Ulmer had an almost continuous background score throughout the entire film.
Boris Karloff's character is named after Austrian architect and art director Hans Poelzig. Poelzig worked on Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam, on which director Edgar G. Ulmer was set designer.
Edgar G. Ulmer admitted in an interview that Edgar Allan Poe's story was credited to draw public attention, despite the fact it had nothing to do with the story in the movie.
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