Jacqueline Wells and Boris Karloff, The Black Cat, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934.
It's useful to go back to the well every now and then, rediscover what got you entranced by film in the first place. For me it was stuff like this. I caught it on a bigger-than-normal screen on Friday night with Bride of Frankenstein and It Came From Outer Space at Film Forum; all screened for the house's invaluable Universal 100 series. This shot in particular says an awful lot to me. Its existence also compensates for much else. Good to be reminded of it.
I need to watch this again. This is Karloff’s best performance pre-Lewton, as far as I’m concerned.
Ditto. And I bet my kids would dig the hell out of it.
Love it. I got to see it on the big screen, too, a few years ago at the Alex Theater in Glendale, CA. Leonard Maltin hosted the screening and interviewed Ulmer’s widow and daughter.
My Halloween gathering triple feature last year was this, Mad Love, and Black Sunday. I love introducing this film to casual movie fans- they’ve almost never so much as heard of it and they always enjoy it. I REALLY hope we get a blu at some point in the wake of this fall’s Universal Monster box.
The interior tracking montage to Beethoven’s 7th is Ulmer magic.
@haice – Yes. That’s the moment when I knew it was a great film.
The Black Cat on the big screen is what movies are all about. I particularly love the deeply weird opening Bela conversation scene on the train, which is exponentially stranger when the faces are looming over you in the dark.