THE BLACK CAT 1934
EDGAR G.ULMER’S: THE BLACK CAT (1934) “ARE WE BOTH NOT"¦ THE LIVING DEAD?”
Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat (1934) is a psychological horror film that marked the first on-screen pairing of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Despite its title, the film bears little resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe’s story, instead focusing on the aftermath of World War I and its psychological impact on survivors.
The plot revolves around American newlyweds Peter and Joan Alison (David Manners and Julie Bishop ), who become entangled in a sinister feud between Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Lugosi) and Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff) while honeymooning in Hungary Werdegast, a psychiatrist recently freed from a Siberian prison camp, seeks revenge against Poelzig, an Austrian architect who betrayed their fort during the war, leading to thousands of deaths.
The film’s atmosphere is heavy with themes of revenge, psychological trauma, and the lingering effects of war set in an ultra-modernist interior set that lends to the psychological constrictive and repressive interior landscape.
Poelzig’s modernist house, built on the ruins of the betrayed fort, serves as a metaphor for the attempt to cover past atrocities with a veneer of progress, yet it feels like an avant-garde prison.
Ulmer employs expressionistic techniques, including stark sets and unconventional camera angles, to create a pervasive sense of unease. The titular black cat, while not central to the plot, symbolizes death and evil to Karloff (misconceptions that have led to the persecution of cats, particularly black cats), which menacingly affects the ailurophobic Werdegast. The film culminates in a tense game of chess between the two antagonists, deciding the fate of the American couple, and a climactic confrontation involving Satanic rituals and gruesome revenge. The Black Cat stands out among Universal’s horror offerings of the time for its psychological depth and its unflinching look at the dark aftermath of war. Edgar G. Ulmer’s film pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in cinema at the time, featuring several controversial and disturbing elements that are shocking even by today’s standards.
The film strongly hints at necrophilic themes through Poelzig’s collection of preserved dead women. These bodies are displayed behind glass, lovingly maintained, and dressed in sheer, clingy material. Poelzig’s apparent fascination with these corpses, particularly his wife Karen’s preserved body, suggests a disturbing obsession with the sexualization of the dead.
The climax of the film features an incredibly gruesome scene where Werdegast binds Poelzig to an embalming rack and proceeds to flay him alive. While the actual skinning is not shown directly, Ulmer uses shadow play to depict the horrific act, accompanied by Poelzig’s agonized screams. This scene was so shocking and remarkable that it made it past the censors of the time.
The film culminates in a Black Mass ceremony, where Poelzig prepares to sacrifice Joan to Satan. This depiction of devil worship was highly controversial for its time and added to the film’s overall sense of moral decay and corruption
The Black Cat also touches on other taboo subjects, such as Incest: Poelzig marries his stepdaughter, who shares the same name as his deceased wife.
There’s also the psychological trauma: exploring the lasting effects of war on the human psyche. The film’s ability to pack so many disturbing elements into its brief 65-minute runtime while mostly relying on suggestion rather than explicit depiction is a testament to Ulmer’s skill as a filmmaker. The Black Cat remains a landmark in horror cinema, pushing the boundaries of what could be explored on screen in the pre-code horror of the 1930s
THE RAVEN 1935
The Raven (1935) is a psychological horror film directed by Lew Landers, one of the few rich collaborations starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in their second on-screen pairing. Despite its title, the film is only loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s works, focusing instead on a brilliant but unhinged surgeon’s obsession with torture and a young woman.
Dr. Richard Vollin (Lugosi) is a gifted neurosurgeon with a morbid fascination for Poe and torture devices. After saving the life of Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware), a young socialite, he becomes dangerously obsessed with her.
When Jean’s father, Judge Thatcher, forbids Vollin from seeing her, the doctor plots revenge. He recruits Edmond Bateman (Karloff), an escaped convict seeking facial reconstruction, by promising to fix his appearance. Instead, Vollin disfigures half of Bateman’s face to ensure his cooperation.
The facial disfiguration inflicted upon Edmond Bateman (Boris Karloff) by Dr. Vollin (Bela Lugosi) in “The Raven” (1935) is a gruesome and shocking act of cruelty. Vollin deliberately mutilates one side of Bateman’s face during what was supposed to be reconstructive surgery. The disfiguration is described as severely damaging the seventh cranial nerve, resulting in a grotesque asymmetry. The right side of Bateman’s face is left hideously scarred, with one eye rendered useless and the surrounding tissue distorted The damage is so severe that when Bateman sees his reflection, he reacts with horror, desperately asking, “Do I look… different?”The audience is treated to a disturbing close-up of Karloff’s face, revealing the extent of the disfiguration – a mass of twisted flesh, a sightless eye, and nerve damage that likely causes partial facial paralysis.
This alarmingly graphic disfiguration serves as a visual representation of Vollin’s sadistic nature and becomes a central element in manipulating Bateman into becoming an unwilling accomplice in his twisted schemes.
Vollin’s basement houses recreations of Poe’s torture devices, including the pendulum from The Pit and the Pendulum. Vollin’s cruel manipulation of Bateman’s appearance is a central plot point.
The film culminates in a tense sequence where Vollin attempts to torture and kill Jean, her fiancé Jerry, and Judge Thatcher using his Poe-inspired devices, which consist of putting them in a small space with the walls closing in on them that will eventually crush them. Bateman, having developed sympathy for Jean, turns against Vollin. In the ensuing struggle, both Bateman and Vollin meet gruesome ends.
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