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Favorite Films: The Black Cat (1934)

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The Best Film Co-Starring Karloff and Lugosi

Everyone thinks they know the classical Universal horror titles of the 1930s, but for some reason they don’t usually include The Black Cat (1934), directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. I think it is not only the best of the Universal horror genre, but one of the greatest American films of the 1930s.

Although Edgar Allan Poe is credited with the story, the only thing of Poe’s that carries into the Ulmer film is Bela Lugosi’s fear of black cats. It’s a 99.9% original story about a young American couple who accidentally horn in on Witus Werdegast’s (Bela Lugosi’s) revenge on Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff) for:

  • Betraying the fortress of Marmorus to the Russians in World War One
  • Getting Werdegast to a Russian prison camp in Siberia for fifteen years
  • Making off with Werdegast’s wife Karen and daughter, also called Karen
  • Being a devil-worshiping SOB who is the quintessence of evil

The Revenge: Werdegast Proposes to Skin Pjoelzig

The film is set in Pjoelzig’s art deco mansion built on top of the ruins and cemetery of Marmorus, where the evil architect holds black mass soirées for devil worshipers, and where he plans to initiate the young American woman into his strange display of zombies in glass cases.

Check out this film clip from YouTube. Be sure to turn off the subtitles, as they are laughably wrong. The film is in English, anyway:

Edgar G. Ulmer was responsible for two great films. One was The Black Cat. The other was the film noir classic Detour, made in 1945 for the poverty row Producers Releasing Corporation. There are usually some interesting scenes in even his worst films, such as Club Havana, Babes in Bagdad, and Strange Illusion.

William of Lugos

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BelaLugosiHeadstone

Headstone of Bela Lugosi at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City

His real name was Béla Ferenc Dezsö Blaskó, but that didn’t sound cool enough for the title role in Universal Pictures’ new film Dracula (1931). Béla, or William as it’s translated into English, was born in Lugos in then Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now it is known as Lugoj and is located in Rumania. And, just so you know, in Transylvania, near Timisoara, known by the Hungarians as Temesvár. So Béla Lugosi is none other than William of Lugos.

By the way, his name is really pronounced BAY-lah LOO-gauche-ee, with the accent on the first syllable of first and last name.

Martine has always loved Lugosi’s acting. In fact, on her favorite sweater, she wears a metal pin of a 32¢ stamp issued in his honor, as shown below:

1997 USPS Stamp Commemorating Famous Monsters of Hollywood

1997 USPS Stamp Commemorating Famous Film Monsters of Hollywood

Martine has a set of DVDs for Lugosi’s films; and when we visit Holy Cross Cemetery, we always check out his grave on a hillside near a grotto.

It always surprises me how many famous people don’t have any flowers or other marks of family or fan affection by their graves. Note, however, that there is a little votive candle by the bottom right of Béla’s headstone.