After seeing THE RAVEN from 1935 I quickly turned my attention to the previous year's film THE BLACK CAT that lined up Karloff and Lugosi for the very first time . I enjoyed THE RAVEN even though I had to forgive some obvious flaws and had vaguely good memories of this film as a child . Just before watching I learned this was Universal Studios most successful film from 1934 so it had all the makings of being a classic .After seeing it after a long gap spanning at least a couple of decades I'm in two minds about it
What does work is the design and the casting . Being set in Hungary and seen through the eyes of American newly weds Peter and Joan Allison we see Europe as an alien land that could almost be set on another planet . The set interiors of Poelzig's home are obviously Bauhaus inspired which wouldn't be common to an American audience and Poelzig's initial appearance is genuinely unsettling even watching it in 2013 . I'm not being flippant but it might even be more terrifying in 2013 since Karloff seems to resemble a more grotesque version of Gary Glitter , but even so there's a presence to Poelzig that is unearthly . The Great War would have been fresh in everyone's mind and an American / Anglo-Saxon audience wouldn't need reminding as to how untrustworthy or dangerous or even demonic Central Europeans could be . In that regard there's a subtext to the screenplay
That's about the only thing the screenplay does get it right . In terms of plotting and character motive it's very clumsy and under developed . Dr Werdegast arrives at Poelzig's home on a mission of revenge to find out his wife and daughter are dead but after finding this out there's nothing to stop him pulling out a gun and executing Peolzig but for some reason doesn't do so because as Werdegast confesses to Joan " He has me in his power " whatever that might mean and is never built upon . As it transpires Werdegast's daughter Karen isn't dead and is in fact now the wife of Poelzig but this seems added to the story as an afterthought and sadly leads nowhere
THE BLACK CAT is a film with a relatively well regarded reputation and one can understand where it's reputation comes from - one of grotesque imagery and a reputation that in some ways is deserved , but don't let anyone tell you it's a classic because it's let down greatly by its confused and ill thought out storytelling
What does work is the design and the casting . Being set in Hungary and seen through the eyes of American newly weds Peter and Joan Allison we see Europe as an alien land that could almost be set on another planet . The set interiors of Poelzig's home are obviously Bauhaus inspired which wouldn't be common to an American audience and Poelzig's initial appearance is genuinely unsettling even watching it in 2013 . I'm not being flippant but it might even be more terrifying in 2013 since Karloff seems to resemble a more grotesque version of Gary Glitter , but even so there's a presence to Poelzig that is unearthly . The Great War would have been fresh in everyone's mind and an American / Anglo-Saxon audience wouldn't need reminding as to how untrustworthy or dangerous or even demonic Central Europeans could be . In that regard there's a subtext to the screenplay
That's about the only thing the screenplay does get it right . In terms of plotting and character motive it's very clumsy and under developed . Dr Werdegast arrives at Poelzig's home on a mission of revenge to find out his wife and daughter are dead but after finding this out there's nothing to stop him pulling out a gun and executing Peolzig but for some reason doesn't do so because as Werdegast confesses to Joan " He has me in his power " whatever that might mean and is never built upon . As it transpires Werdegast's daughter Karen isn't dead and is in fact now the wife of Poelzig but this seems added to the story as an afterthought and sadly leads nowhere
THE BLACK CAT is a film with a relatively well regarded reputation and one can understand where it's reputation comes from - one of grotesque imagery and a reputation that in some ways is deserved , but don't let anyone tell you it's a classic because it's let down greatly by its confused and ill thought out storytelling