This marks the first of eight films that paired Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Both big names in Hollywood coming off of their huge successes of DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN. But while Karloff would continue his success in the years that followed, Lugosi’s career struggled. DRACULA would be his first major Hollywood role, and his biggest. Lugosi didn’t seem the right fit for many roles that better suited Karloff.
Despite standout performances in films like SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, Lugosi took an 8 picture contract in 1940 with Monogram, a poverty row studio. Perhaps poor timing, or the limitations of his thick accent stereotype, or his morphine addiction in his last 2 decades, or just bad luck; Lugosi never duplicated the success of his DRACULA role. But of the eight films in which the two co-starred, Edgar G Ulmer’s THE BLACK CAT is considered the best.
The release date for THE BLACK CAT was May 7th, 1934, just barely squeezing past the censors and into the Pre-Code era, as the industry-wide mandatory censoring hammered in on July 1st, 1934. No doubt, you will note many moments and scenes from this film which are shocking enough to be thoroughly Pre-Code. If you look at many films released from 1933 and up until July of 1934, the shock value was often escalated. As though they knew the party was ending very soon, and they felt compelled to push the envelope as much as they possibly could. THE BLACK CAT seems to be a vivid example of this.
We’ve explored monsters at early Universal days through similar themes such as the supernatural to mad scientists. As we examined in our last film, THE INVISIBLE MAN, Claude Rains took us deeper into the mad scientist theme that dove into the human behavior. Now, we’ll go off the rails into the madness of human behavior via religious extremism. Satanic cults, obsession, superstition, phobias, and inhumane cruelty. The emergence of a terrifying psychological thriller. And yes, we are talking about a film from 1934.
In the opening credits, we notice that it states this film is based upon Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat.” The short story was published on August 19, 1843 in The Saturday Evening Post, later as part of a collection of his tales in 1845. Other than a couple of scenes where a black cat is visible, triggering Bela Lugosi as Dr. Vitus Werdegast’s feline phobia, only the title bears any similarities between the Poe tale and the film.
In Poe’s eery tale, a drunken man who was otherwise known for his kindness to his pets, grows increasingly irritable then violent as he maims (cuts out one eye) then hangs their beloved cat, Pluto. After a house fire, he grows more haunted by his sins, when he stumbles upon another black cat. As proceeds to axe down another nearly identical cat, his wife stops him, only to become his next victim. He buries her behind a brick-and-mortered wall. His bravado becomes his undoing, as police search the home and the man confidently brags on the merits of his well-constructed home, tapping his cane on the wall; then muffled cries are heard. His wife’s tomb is revealed as they open the wall, to discover his second intended victim watching guard over her body. Very gruesome stuff. But an entirely different tale than the film. Ironically, the famous writer, in addition to being a heavy alcoholic, it has been suggested that he died from rabies, and likely acquired it from cats.
THE BLACK CAT is a sinister tale with disturbing themes of vice and corruptions of the human soul. We’ll discuss the many macabre themes witnessed throughout, including: murder, revenge, torture, voyeurism, Satan worship, necrophilia, insanity, ailurophobia (fear of cats), sadism, incest… all worked into a tight, 69 minute film.
Screenplay was written by Peter Ruric aka Paul Cain – he was known more for his hard-boiled pulp fiction novels and short stories. The story was co-written with director Edgar G Ulmer. Applauded for his quality work on mostly B movies, “the king of PRC,” Ulmer directed a variety of films, including beloved film noirs DETOUR (1945) and THE STRANGE WOMAN (1946). He had worked with architect Hans Poelzig, as an uncredited set designer for Paul Wegener’s silent film, THE GOLEM (1920). Berlin-born Poelzig was known for his Expressionist/New Objectivity style of architecture, which Ulmer was equally a fan of this modernist style. As a tribute to him, Poelzig’s style is reflected via the very modern sets in the house for THE BLACK CAT.
But the “Hjalmar Poelzig” character (portrayed by Boris Karloff) was inspired by a famed occultist, Aleister Crowley. If you google Crowley, you’ll find yourself going down a rabbit hole because he led a fascinating and mysterious life. In a nutshell, he traveled a lot, explored many religions and philosophies which led to him creating one of his own, Thelema; somewhat based in ancient Egyptian beliefs, and which is said to have been the inspiration for many occult/esoteric organizations to this day including Wicca, and certain sub-orgs for satanism and paganism.
After co-starring with Bela Lugosi in THE BLACK CAT, which credited Boris Karloff as simply, “Karloff,” he returned a year later in what many describe as the best of the Karloff Frankenstein monster features, BRIDE of FRANKENSTEIN (1935). He continued to work in the 1930s and 40s, but not always as successful financially as his Universal monster big hits. He enjoyed working in Val Lewton produced horror films- such as his highly praised performance in THE BODY SNATCHER (1945)- during this time, although often stereotyped as the mad scientist. In the 1950s and 1960s he was a frequent actor in radio and television, even hosting his own series, “Starring Boris Karloff.” He guest starred on several programs like “I Spy,” “Route 66,” and “The Donald O’Connor Show.”
In the 1960s, he found film work in Roger Corman’s American International Pictures. He also made international films- in England, Italy and Spain. His final American film was of an aging horror film star, Peter Bogdanovich’s TARGETS (1968). Karloff was always a highly respected and beloved professional. Grateful for a very long, prolific acting career, working nearly right up to the end of his life. He died of pneumonia on February 2nd, 1969, at the age of 81 years old. He left a net worth of about $20 million at the time of his death.
Sadly, Lugosi struggled to achieve the same successes in either his career or in his personal life. By April of 1955, 72 year old Bela Lugosi was broke and recently divorced from his fourth wife. He checked himself into the psych ward of the LA county hospital. At the hearing a few days later, he asked the judge to commit him to the state hospital. From the United Press* article, dated April 23, 1955:
“Although weighing only 125 pounds and only a shadow of his former self, Lugosi’s voice was clear and resonant as he told the court how shooting pains in his legs led him to start taking morphine injections in 1935. Without morphine, he couldn’t work, Lugosi said.
“I started using it under a doctor’s care,” he said. “I knew after a time it was getting out of control.”
“Seventeen years ago, on a trip to England, I heard of Methodone, a new drug. I brought a big box of it back home. I guess I brought a pound,” Lugosi said.
“Ever since I’ve used that, or demerol. I just took the drugs. I didn’t eat. I got sicker and sicker.”
From his state hospital bed, Lugosi plotted his comeback. From “The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi”, author Arthur Lennig writes:
“While at the hospital, Lugosi had been given the script of his next Ed Wood picture, THE GHOUL GOES WEST, a strange concoction in which a mad doctor goes out west to carry out his scheme to make super-creatures out of cowboys and rule the world. The actor looked forward to this forthcoming production, which he believed would begin about ten days after leaving the hospital, and he brandished the script as proof that he would start work. “It’s very cute,” he said to the reporters. It probably wasn’t, but Lugosi no doubt believed that all the frontpage publicity, however notorious, would aid in his comeback, a comeback that would eventually raise him above the lowly ranks of Ed Wood’s shoestring productions. Bela posed for a photograph with the script in one hand while his other hand was dramatically raised in an assertive fist.”
Only a couple weeks after his release from the state hospital, Lugosi married his fifth wife, a stalking fan who wrote him daily while he was committed. While THE GHOUL GOES WEST was never filmed, he did partner with Ed Wood on a few projects including the notorious PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (infamous as the worst film in history, by many cinephiles). As any hopes for a major comeback vanished, Lugosi began drinking heavily. He died approximately a year after his release from the state hospital, on August 16, 1956, of a heart attack. His family chose to bury him in his Dracula cape. He’s buried at the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, Culver City, CA.
As we screen THE BLACK CAT, we’ll look for examples of the dark themes as noted above, in addition to chess as a metaphor for the game of life, some cat-and-mouse symbolism, too. But we will also listen to the musical soundtrack by Heinz Eric Roemheld. A classical score with compilations from Liszt, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky. How is this musical score vastly different from our prior films? (…how about 80% different than DRACULA.)
CAST:
Boris Karloff – Hjalmar Poelzig
Bela Lugosi – Dr. Vitus Werdegast
David Manners – Peter Alison
Julie Bishop – (billed Jacqueline Wells) as Joan Alison
Egon Brecher – the Majordomo
Harry Cording – Thamal
Lucille Lund – Karen Werdegast
Henry Armetta – Police Sergeant
Albert Conti – Police Lieutenant
John Carradine – cult organist, uncredited
CREW:
Director – Edgar G Ulmer
Produced by – Carl Laemmle, Jr., EM Asher
Story by – Peter Ruric (screenplay), Edgar G Ulmer
Cinematography – John J Mescall
Music by – Heinz Eric Roemheld
Art Direction – Charles D Hall
Costume design – Edgar G Ulmer
Makeup Dept. – Jack Pierce
Art Dept. – Edgar G Ulmer
Sound Dept. – Gilbert Kurland
Visual Effects by – Jack Cosgrove, John P Fulton, David S Horsley, Russell Lawson
Camera and Electrical – Roman Freulich, King D Gray, John J Martin
Costume and Wardrobe – Ed Ware, Vera West
Editorial Dept. – Greg Rodin
Music Dept. – Heinz Roemheld, Larry Aicholtz, Hermann Krome, Gilbert Kurland, Abe Meyer, William Scheller, Edgar G Ulmer
Script and Continuity – Moree Herring
SOURCES:
*( United Press article: https://beladraculalugosi.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/st-joseph-news-press-april-24-1955.png )
IMDB
(The above piece was part of my Universal Horrors course which I taught in the Fall of 2022. Enjoy!)