The Black Cat 1934 Based on The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, screenplay by Peter Ruric, directed by Edgar G Ulmer. A movie I've seen several times. It remains entertaining after several views.
The Black Cat is the first film in the first Universal Horror Collection. Each set holds 4 films, all 4 films star Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. They appeared together in 8 films total, two more for Universal. You can also get all four of the films in this Blu-ray set in a 4 film DVD set at a much lower price. All are worth having for the classic horror film fan.
The Black Cat is a stylish horror film about a Satan worshiping architect who sacrifices young women to his god. He hangs their embalmed dead bodies in glass cases in his basement. Bela's wife is one of the poor victims. Bela is going to see Boris when the bus he's on crashes, a young woman on her honeymoon is knocked out, Bela, the husband and Boris's servant bring her to Boris's house.
That poor young woman wakes up to find herself in the middle of a nightmare of depravity and death. She would become the newest sacrifice to Satan but for Bela's help. The newlyweds are about the only ones who get out alive. It's dark, bleak and highly entertaining. The public thought so too, the film was the biggest hit for the studio that year, returning $236K on a $96K budget.
The movie looks and sounds good at 1080p and the disc is packed with some nice extras. Gregory William Mank and Steve Haberman each have their own commentaries, both were entertaining with info about the production, the stars and the people behind the scenes. I was interested in their comments on the film and the changes that happened after the film was screened for the studio. There were several days of reshoots to make Lugosi's character more sympathetic to the audience and reduce the violence. Still the film was banned in places.
Their comments on Edgar G Ulmer make me dislike the guy. The Trivia page has the incidents mentioned by Mank and Haberman in a more condensed form.
While working on this film, director Edgar G. Ulmer began an affair with Shirley Castle, who would eventually become his wife, known as Shirley Ulmer. At the time, however, Castle was married to Max Alexander, a producer at Universal Pictures and a nephew of powerful Universal chief Carl Laemmle, who did not look kindly on "outsiders" upsetting his family. Castle left her husband for Ulmer, and the ensuing scandal resulted in Ulmer being blackballed from all of the major Hollywood studios for the rest of his career. After a short period of directing micro-budgeted independent films, Ulmer went to work for the low-budget studio Producers Releasing Corp. (PRC), where he stayed for most of the rest of his career.
Harry Cording saved the life of Lucille Lund when he got her off the slab table, after he found her bleeding from the mouth. According to Lund, Edgar G. Ulmer was a sadist, who retaliated against her when she turned him down when he asked her to be his girlfriend. He also left her hanging in the glass case by her special canvas panties equipped with wires, when they all went to lunch. She estimated she had been left there for an hour. It is unclear why no one else in the cast or crew helped her, or even noticed her absence.
Nothing surprising here, old Hollywood is filled with plenty of woe behind the scenes. Ulmer made a few good films despite the small budgets, his 1949 film Detour is an entertaining and important noir film. Too bad the man behind it is such a creep.
Other extras:
Dreams Within A Dream: The Classic Cinema Of Edgar Allan Poe – Narrated By Doug Bradley. A decent look at Poe in cinema.
A Good Game: Karloff And Lugosi At Universal Part One: The Black Cat. More entertaining and informative interviews and commentary about the film.
Vintage Footage – The Black Cat Contest. There was a contest to find the best black cat, over 200 turned up at a park to have their cat picked. It's kind of interesting but too short and without any sound.
Still Gallery. Typical jumble of pictures set to auto play. I don't need these sort of extras.
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