Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG
Duration: 65 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono 2.0
Video: Full Frame (1.33:1)
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Jacqueline Wells
American newlyweds Peter (David Manners) and Joan Alison (Julie Bishop) are honeymooning
in Budapest when they meet-up with psychiatrist Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi, Dracula) on a train, only to later become stranded in the Hungarian countryside after a bus crash, injuring Joan. Werdegast says that a friend of his, an Austrian architect, by name of Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff, Black Sunday) lives nearby and takes the couple to his mountaintop castle, built upon the ruins of a, military fortress once commanded by the architect during the war. There Werdegast treats the injured woman. Soon the couple find themselves in a strange situation with Werdegast accusing Poelzig of war crimes and of stealing his wife while he was in prison. A strange and macabre tale of revenge that is set in a very cool-looking castle with oodles of macabre atmosphere throughout.
Adding to the weirdness is the fact that Karloff's Poelzig turns out to be the leader of a satanic cult and he keeps a collection of dead women down in his basement lair that he displays in glass tubes - including Werdegast's former wife! The menacing host then announces to Werdegast that he plans to sacrifice newlywed Joan at the next devils-club meeting, inspiring a game of chess with the newlywed's life hanging in the balance. Werdegast is no hero though, he's just as nuts as Karloff's character, the film culminating in him skinning his enemy alive, partially seen happening in silhouette, which is a scene that frightened me something
fierce as a kid watching it on TV!
The Black Cat is a very strange film with only a very loose connection to the Edgar Allen Poe source novel, that of the black cat that gives Lugosi's character a fright, but it works as a demented mad-architect revenge film, with morbid themes that are more than hinted at throughout, including incest.
Black Cat (1933) arrives on DVD from Umbrella Entertainment framed in the original 1.33:1 fullframe presentation, licensed from Universal. The black & white imagery looks solid with decent blacks and contrast throughout. Not the crispest presentation by any means, and grain is a bit rough-looking, but not bad for a standard-definition release sourced from an existing master. Audio comes by way of English Dolby Digital mono 2.0, no subtitles options are offered, and there are no extras whatsoever, not even a start-up menu. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard DVD keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated movie poster. Lack of a new HD scan or any extras makes this a bit of a let down, but still an attractive no-frills release of a shocking pre-code Universal classic.
