Product Details

• Actors: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Julie Bishop, Egon Brecher
• Directors: Edgar G. Ulmer
• Writers: Edgar G. Ulmer, Edgar Allan Poe, Peter Ruric, Tom Kilpatrick
• Producers: Carl Laemmle Jr., E.M. Asher
• Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: September 16, 1997
• Run Time: 65 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302526191
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #140,906 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Edgar Ulmer's baroque masterpiece is the pinnacle of expressionism of Hollywood, a beautiful melding of gothic antiquity and modernity in the shadow of World War I. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff square off in their finest film together as decades-old nemeses who meet for a fateful showdown on the very battlefield where Karloff's devilish dark priest sacrificed his own army and framed Lugosi's good doctor for the crime. Karloff plays the most evil character of his career, a mesmerizingly demonic architect (inspired by the notorious real-life Satanist Aleister Crowley) who stole Lugosi's wife and daughter and built his shrinelike home, a stunning piece of Bauhaus-inspired glass and steel architecture, on the graves of his victims. His intensity and hypnotic understatement is a revelation, a genuine monster in human guise far more insidious and evil than the creatures of Universal's more famous horror classics. Lugosi delivers his finest performance ever as a Van Helsing-like hero whose simmering hatred and rage finally boils over into madness and sadistic revenge. A pair of silly American honeymooners become but two more pawns in their game of vengeance. John Mescall, who shot the gorgeous Bride of Frankenstein, beautifully delivers eerie unease and sinister imagery, from the Caligari-like black church of slanting beams and slashing shadows to the tomb of glass-lined caskets displaying victims held in suspended animation. One of the finest horror films to emerge from Universal's golden age of horror. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A TRULY CREEPY THRILLER., August 27, 2002

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Cat [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This bizarre, ingeniously fascinating little film offers the first and by far the most effective pairing of Karloff and Lugosi. Young newlyweds en route to Budapest for their honeymoon. They meet Lugosi on a train in Austria. When the trio transfer for a bus ride, the coach crashes and the young couple are invited to spend the night in Karloff's modernistic art-deco mansion...Though the plotting at times and the motivations of the characters get somewhat confused, the film has an overwhelming sense of uneasiness, eroticism, and horror to it which infuses most every shot. The magnificent sets, brilliantly fluid camera work and stunning performances by both Karloff and Lugosi give the film an almost timeless quality. Karloff's character was reportedly based on the infamously hedonistic Aleister Crowley. The musical score is also extremely effective: the score is derived from classical pieces written by Tschaikovsky, List and Schumann which give the film an added sense of mystery and suspence. Director Ulmer had worked with the classic German expressionist filmmakers in the 1920's and the influence is very evident: it's a classic horror masterpiece well worth seeing.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Psychological Thriller, October 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Cat [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Bella Lugosi and Boris Karloff team up into the psychological thriller "The Black Cat." Bela lugos plays a mysterious character named Dr. Vitus Verdegast, who has an interesting past. David Manners and Julie Bishop play a young couple on their way to a nice vacation. When these three passengers on a bus get into a accident. The three are led to the friend of Dr. Verdegast, Hjalmar Poelzig who is played by Boris Karloff. A bitter hatred is discovered between these to once friends. Hjalmar is discovered to be a priest in a satanic cult who has evil plans for his new guests. The atmosphere of the movie is a mix of classic horror and Art Deco. It's held to this atmosphere with terrific lighting and great sets. The mansion was filled with sharp edges and rounded circular objects. Also a spiral-staircase to the dungeon like rooms below was installed to give it homage to classic horror. Costumes were also very well done giving Mr. Poelzig a very intriguing look of mystery. This dialog was most important and well done to incite fear and suspense in to the film. Lugosi does a great job showing the unusual psyche of his characters fear of cats and his scheming mind. Karloff's character was well portrayed as an evil satanic priest who kills without a thought of even ones he loves. Overall the movie is a great psychological thriller that is very intriguing and pokes at your thoughts.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece of the Macabre, April 14, 2004

By 

Steven S Silvers (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Cat [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A story that finds a recently-released WW I prisoner of war, Dr. Vitus Werdegast, travelling by train to the eerie mountain-top home of his former commanding officer, Hjalmar Poelzig, who betrayed Werdegast and his comrades to the enemy army, subsequently marrying Werdegast's wife (whom he told died during the war) and, after killing her and preserving her body, marries Werdegast's daughter as well. Sworn on revenge, Werdegast brings fellow travellers Mr. and Mrs. Alison to Poelzig's home, a Caligariesque fortress which Poelzig designed, as he happens to be an architect when he's not too busy running his Satanic Cult from the depths of his house. The house, it seems, was built upon the ruins of the WW I fort Poelzig had commanded during the last years of the war, the very spot where tens of thousands of Poelzig's own men were murdered or taken prisoner of war thanks to his betrayal of them...

It is against this background that the two men, Poelzig and Werdegast, play out a living chess game against one another, using the young Mr. & Mrs. Alison as the stakes for a macabre ritual played out between the betrayer and the betrayed.

One of the very best of the Universal horror films,even though it can properly be regarded as *not* being what one would think of as a "horror film," this one is a must for any deep-thinking person who desires to understand the potential for extreme darkness the human soul can be capable of.