New, Dark, Classic
Welcome to the first post in a new series that I’ve decided to take a stab at: Classic Horror. Along with Throwback Thursday, Tunes, and Focus On, this new series will be sporadically laced throughout my normal blog posts. It will focus on classic horror films released prior to the year 2000. What makes the film a classic? For this blog, a “classic” horror film will be whatever films I see as worthy of such a label. In other words, some folks may not see The Evil Dead (1981) as a classic film, but I do. I’ll be visiting that particular film later on in this series, as well as films such as An American Werewolf In London, Alien, and many of the classic Universal Monsters films that I haven’t already covered.
I can see no film more worthy of being the first in my series than The Black Cat (1934). It is the first film to feature two titans of horror, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, facing off against each other. They would share the screen seven more times for a total of eight films.
The film runs just a tad over sixty minutes, but it’s an amazing film nonetheless. While the film is supposedly based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name, it bears no resemblance to Poe’s work.
A young newlywed couple, Peter and Joan Allison (David Manners, Julie Bishop), meet up with Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Lugosi), on a train while traveling on their honeymoon. After a terrible accident, all three of them end up in the home of Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff). Dr. Werdegast treats Joan’s injuries and Karloff offers them a room for the evening. As the night crawls on, we learn that Poelzig and Werdegast have a score to settle with one another. They play a literal and psychological game of chess to see who will come out on top.
Meanwhile, Peter realizes that something strange is going on and attempts to find a way out of Poelzig’s massive home along with Joan, who is still under the influence of a powerful sedative that Dr. Werdegast gave her after treating her wounds. Along the way we get to see a room full of dead women, a Satanic ritual, a young woman unknowingly married to her stepfather, multiple failed escape attempts, a massive explosion, and even a human flaying (off screen, but we see a shadow of the act).
The story is one of revenge and psychological horror. Unlike other Universal Monster films, The Black Cat‘s monster is one man with a twisted mind and another with his heart set on revenge. It shows the audience how quickly a relatively good person can turn into a vengeful monster.
The film is considered to be one of the earliest psychological horror films. It is also one of the first films to feature a complete musical score. Many critics and fans believe that this film is the best of all of the Lugosi/Karloff pairings as well. It was a massive hit for Universal and continued the company’s successful run with horror films. The movie is also a fun watch for fans of film editing and production, as director Edgar G. Ulmer uses a number of interesting wipes, shadow work, and transition scenes in the film. It was as if Ulmer was excited to play with some new toys and he had a lot of fun using them in this film.
Despite being a big hit for Universal, The Black Cat doesn’t get as much love and respect as all of the big monster films in Universal’s catalogue. It’s an interesting film that pushed boundaries in storytelling and cinema and should be respected for that if nothing else. The cast, music, and cinematography are all superb and the film moves at a very quick pace. The film is available for free viewing on websites like archive.org and is also available for purchase on DVD, Blu-ray, and on a number of streaming services.
I hope that you enjoyed this first edition of Classic Horror. I plan on doing more posts like this one in the near future. Thank you for reading my post and stay safe during this time of quarantine.
Ken's Alternate Universe! 