The Black Cat
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Year Released: 1934
Rating: 2.0
Lackluster non-adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story only shares one similarity with the Poe piece: there is, in fact, a cat in this ... and that cat is black. Otherwise, it's all Ulmer and his screenwriters' fault: an unfortunate couple ends up in a Hungarian mansion where there's tension between the oddly named Hjalmar (Boris Karloff) and Dr. Vitus (Bela Lugosi) - Lugosi's stare and broken English go well with Karloff's stare and cakey makeup. Some still think there's a lot of ominous excellence to be found in this, but to me it's rather indifferently shot and lacks the genuine creepiness of the Weine and Murnau pictures from the silent era.
