Contrary to the title, this is less a film about black cats and more so a movie about a mental power struggle between a kindly doctor (who happens to fear black cats) and the eccentric recluse who he blames for the death of his wife and daughter. There is also something about the eccentric man wanting to use a female acquaintance of the doctor's in some Satanatic ritual, but the juice of the film is the dynamics and mind games between the main characters with so much animosity felt in the air if seldom voiced aloud. Indeed, the one thing worth watching for here is the chemistry between leads Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. That said, Karloff does not enter the picture until around twelve minutes in and even then, an excess of non-horror style background music prevents tension from building up. Much of the film additionally pivots around a chess game which is never quite as suspenseful or intense as it could have been had more close-ups, reaction shots and dramatic music been used. Bits and pieces of 'The Black Cat' are certainly interesting enough with some sadistic measures described, a spooky location and so on. There is, however, room to wonder if the film would have enjoyed the cult status it has nowadays if it were not for the fact that it was the first lead role pairing of Karloff and Lugosi; certainly, they had much more interesting collaborations later on.

Innocent American honeymooners in eastern Europe accept the invitation of a grim, mysterious stranger, who introduces them to an even more grim and mysterious stranger. How will they survive?Utterly daft melodrama that has the merit of Karloff and Lugosi trying to strangle each other after their game of chess goes wrong! Credit to the film makers for including the title of this review in the cod-Latin of a ridiculous satanic ritual during the climax, and for a nice gag at the end.What interested me was the art deco design of the sets. But especially the music, which samples from 19th century romanticism and totally lifts a hair-raising bit of Beethoven. At that point I thought the story might take off, but no - it's just a crowd pleaser, with the theme of good hearted homelanders rescuing themselves from the clutches of nasty foreigners.Overall, complete hokum - but strange to see people at that time (1934) feeling bitter about the recent violence, without anticipation of the horror to come.

I am going to be honest but a movie that has two major horror icons like Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the main roles I expected a lot more. They are the main attraction of the movie in the scenes they have together. However the plot is really messy and sounds like it was sewn together in a few minutes. Yes more often than not I was bored despite the short length of the movie. I found it a wasted opportunity. I don't really understand why they used the title "The Black Cat" when the black cat itself is only in a few scenes and has no importance at all to the plot, except for Lugosi's character fear for them. That scenes where he throws a knife at the cat must be one of the silliest I have ever seen.

Edgar G. Ulmer directed this (very) loose adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe short story. Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Vitas, who is on his way back to his homeland in Hungary by train, when he meets honeymooning American couple Peter & Joan Alison, whom he tells his tragic life story. Later on a bus headed for their hotel, it is overturned in a bad storm, and Vitas and Peter take an injured Joan to the fortress home of Dr. Poelzig(played by Boris Karloff) who turns out to have a sinister(and personal) connection to Vitas. He is also an evil Satan worshiper, and plans to sacrifice Joan at their high mass. Can he be stopped? Bizarre yet strikingly designed film has fine performances and atmosphere, and a violent confrontation scene with Vitas and Peolzig at the end that is still potent today.