Forget "The Silence Of The Lambs," and the "SAW" movies, darlings. When Bela Lugosi speaks these lines to Boris Karloff in the 1934 "The Black Cat," they are delivered, and enacted by, two such seasoned horror pros, it was as though these generic words had been written by Shakespeare!
And when Lugosi strips Karloff bare chested, and ties him to an S and M cross--on camera, in 1934!--and the deed is done is shadows, it is more haunting than those aforementioned recent films.
As I said earlier, this film is both subliminal and understated, making this more a horror film than anything more graphic.
It still amazes me how this got past the censors.
Darlings, I am telling you, what a gem! So seldom shown, but one of Universal's underrated masterworks.
And it paved the way for the studio's true masterwork, the following year, "The Bride Of Frankenstein."
How come Thirties women never wanted to copy Elsa Lanchester's electric hairstyle???????????????????
2 comments:
Exactly! Understated and under appreciated!!!
Victoria,
It is disturbing to me
how many times that merit
more attention are overlooked!
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