The Black Cat

UK 15 Certificate
In cinemas
March 10, 1939
Buy it from
July 20, 2020
Director
Runtime
1 Hour 3 Minutes
Language
English
From Eureka Entertainment
Buy Digital
Amazon Prime

Peter and Joan Allison are honeymooning in Budapest when they meet mysterious scientist Dr. Vitus Verdegast 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, 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.

Last updated
May 17, 2020

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