From the great, ingenously resourceful director Edgar G. Ulmer (Detour, Bluebeard, Strange Illusion) comes the classic, The Black Cat!  This first cinematic teaming of horror greats Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is a bizarre, haunting, and relentlessly eerie film that was surprisingly morbid and perverse for its time. Peter (David Manners) and Joan Allison (Julie Bishop) are honeymooning in Budapest when they meet mysterious scientist Dr. Vitus Verdegast (Lugosi) aboard a train. When the trio’s bus from the train station gets into an accident, the young couple accompanies Verdegast to the castle of the spectral Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff), an architect and the leader of a Satanic cult. Poelzig’s treachery in World War I caused the deaths of thousands of his and Verdegast’s countrymen, as well as Verdegast’s own internment as a prisoner of war. While Verdegast was detained, Poelzig married first his wife, who later died, then his daughter. Now Verdegast has come back for retribution, and the honeymooners are trapped in the two men’s horrifying battle of wits. Corpses preserved in glass cases, frightening Satanic rituals, and a climactic confrontation in which one of the characters is skinned alive add to the film’s pervasive sense of evil and doom, along with the stark black-and-white photography by John Mescall that makes Poelzig’s futuristic mountaintop mansion even more disturbing. Karloff and Lugosi are both excellent, with Lugosi doing a rare turn as a good guy, albeit one who has gone off the rails!

“The interplay between Karloff and Lugosi is mesmerizing.” – Matt Brunson, Film Frenzy

“This bizarre, utterly irrational masterpiece, lasting little more than an hour, has images that bury themselves in the mind.” – Philip French, Observer (UK)

“This timeless classic is a testimony to the craft of director Edgar G Ulmer before his career lurched into the quickie arena.” – Alan Jones, Radio Times

“Edgar G. Ulmer’s grandest danse macabre, a magnificently sustained trance.” – Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

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“An impressive horror yarn that borrows a Poe title but then heads off in its own direction.” – Matt Brunson, Film Frenzy

“Vintage ‘delicious torture'” – Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

“An enduring entertainment, especially for Lugosi fans.” – Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastiquee

“Creepy, atmospheric doings headlined by Karloff and Lugosi.” – Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com

“Lugosi is resplendent in his crisp formal attire as he spouts melodramatic dialogue, while Karloff skulks around trying to terrify with his crumpled countenance.” – Staci Layne Wilson, Horror.com

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