Stranger than Fiction
The Black Cat (1934)
directed by Edgar G. Ullmer
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Young newlyweds endangered by history's first Karloff-Lugosi team-up on the surface, psychopathic satanic revenge nightmare just beneath! Two Americans take a train through the Carpathians on their honeymoon, meet prison camp survivor Lugosi on his way to confront Karloff about a missing wife, and wind up as ceremonial sacrifices intended to placate the lonely dark believers (gargoyle-like precursors to The 7th Victim) who unwittingly provide the climactic physical distraction Peter Ruric's one-hour plot requires. But the individual perversities committed in the movie (that is, the dark corners Ullmer finds to film) are much greater than the meanness people speak; more psychological subtext gets buried in Karloff's rebuilt-then-demolished WWI bunker than the most astute crime-crushing criminologists could ever explain away. If Lugosi skinning Karloff with a straight razor doesn't make you squeamish, Karloff waking up in bed beside Lugosi's drugged daughter before proceeding to a hall where Karloff (looking like Karl Lagerfeld) keeps his female victims preserved in glass coffins should at least raise concerns about backlot conditions in the Universal ward for writers.
directed by Edgar G. Ullmer
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Young newlyweds endangered by history's first Karloff-Lugosi team-up on the surface, psychopathic satanic revenge nightmare just beneath! Two Americans take a train through the Carpathians on their honeymoon, meet prison camp survivor Lugosi on his way to confront Karloff about a missing wife, and wind up as ceremonial sacrifices intended to placate the lonely dark believers (gargoyle-like precursors to The 7th Victim) who unwittingly provide the climactic physical distraction Peter Ruric's one-hour plot requires. But the individual perversities committed in the movie (that is, the dark corners Ullmer finds to film) are much greater than the meanness people speak; more psychological subtext gets buried in Karloff's rebuilt-then-demolished WWI bunker than the most astute crime-crushing criminologists could ever explain away. If Lugosi skinning Karloff with a straight razor doesn't make you squeamish, Karloff waking up in bed beside Lugosi's drugged daughter before proceeding to a hall where Karloff (looking like Karl Lagerfeld) keeps his female victims preserved in glass coffins should at least raise concerns about backlot conditions in the Universal ward for writers.
posted by NPK at 7:45 AM
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