Night 10: ‘The Black Cat’ (1934)

This is part of the ’31 Nights of Horror Classics’ series, which I’ll be doing for Halloween 2017. Every night of this month, I’ll be watching a horror film made before the 90s and I’ll be posting a short review here.

If you’re looking for an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s homonymous story, you won’t find it here. But a macabre tale still throbs in this very odd film.

In The Black Cat, a pair of lovers ends up sharing a cabin with the mysterious Dr. Vitus (Bela Lugosi) as they travel across Hungary. After an accident, they must stay at a nearby house owned by one of his old friends, the architect Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff). But what they don’t know is that there’s a long, dark history between Vitus and Poelzig. And their arrival serves a sinister plot that they might not be able to escape from.

As a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, I realized very early on that this was not a faithful adaptation of the original short story. In its place, The Black Cat presents elements of several of Poe’s stories, combined to create a fully original tale.

For those acquainted with Poe’s work, components like a tragic romance, melancholic characters, and eerie buildings will definitely sound familiar. So although the movie doesn’t follow the events of the original, it will still feel very reminiscent of Poe’s bizarre worlds.

Unfortunately, it ends up being quite a muddled story. In fact, the name makes absolutely no sense, since the black cat is only in a couple of scenes and plays an almost unimportant role. The only redeeming grace is the incredible chemistry between Lugosi and Karloff. And while they’re absolutely riveting in their roles, the rest of the cast, particularly the main couple, are utterly uninteresting. Not to mention that some of the performances are quite weak.

The movie has some great set pieces, shots, and there are hints at darker implications regarding life, death, ambition and building over the ruins of the past. Yet the story is ultimately lacking.

Although I’m not a fan of remakes, I must confess that I feel as if a contemporary revision would do it a lot of good. There seems to be something worth exploring in the story that just doesn’t quite work. Perhaps with the right cast and more time to develop the tale, it could be a more enjoyable film.

All in all, if only for Lugosi and Karloff, it’s a worthy watch.

Grade: 6/10. Lugosi and Karloff make it worth your time.

Scare Factor: None.

Gore/Violence: mostly happens off-camera.

Nudity/Sexual Situations: none.

Previous Night: ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ (56)

Next up: ‘The Mummy’ (59)