...from Universal Pictures and director Lew Landers. Lugosi gets the bigger role as the brilliant surgeon Dr. Richard Vollin who is now in retirement to "conduct research" and indulge in his Edgar Allan Poe memorabilia hobby. He's brought back into the operating room to perform a delicate surgery on the beautiful Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) who suffered neck injuries in a car crash. The surgery is successful, but the already unbalanced Vollin develops an unhealthy obsession with Jean, who is engaged to marry another. Vollin sees a chance at solving that problem when criminal Edmond Bateman (Boris Karloff) begs the doctor to perform plastic surgery on him so that he can start a new life. Instead, Vollin disfigures Bateman in an effort to blackmail him into killing Vollin's love rival. In fact, Vollin seems to hate everybody associated with Irene.
The plot is goofy and convoluted, and neither Lugosi nor Karloff's characters make much sense. Lugosi has a basement full of torture devices that he's built because of his Poe obsession, including a pendulum blade. Bela gets to express a lot of emotion in this one, but he's not quite as convincing as he was in the previous The Black Cat. Karloff gets to be sympathetic again, although his makeup is silly rather than horrifying. I still enjoyed this one, but while it's played with a straight face, it's best not to take it too seriously.
The plot is goofy and convoluted, and neither Lugosi nor Karloff's characters make much sense. Lugosi has a basement full of torture devices that he's built because of his Poe obsession, including a pendulum blade. Bela gets to express a lot of emotion in this one, but he's not quite as convincing as he was in the previous The Black Cat. Karloff gets to be sympathetic again, although his makeup is silly rather than horrifying. I still enjoyed this one, but while it's played with a straight face, it's best not to take it too seriously.