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The Black Cat

Where to watch.

Rent The Black Cat on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Making the most of its Karloff-Lugosi star pairing and loads of creepy atmosphere, The Black Cat is an early classic in the Universal monster movie library.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Edgar G. Ulmer

Boris Karloff

Hjalmar Poelzig

Bela Lugosi

Dr. Vitus Werdegast

David Manners

Peter Alison

Julie Bishop

Joan Alison

Lucille Lund

Karen Werdegast Poelzig

Horror News | HNN Official Site | Horror Movies,Trailers, Reviews

Film review: the black cat (1934).

Nigel Honeybone 06/06/2019 Film Reviews

REVIEW: In 1928, Carl Laemmle Senior made his son, Carl Laemmle Junior , head of Universal Pictures as a 21st birthday present. Woo hoo! Universal already had a reputation for nepotism – at one point, seventy of Carl Senior’s relatives were supposedly on the payroll. Many of them were nephews, resulting in Carl Senior being known around the studios as Uncle Carl. If you’re wondering how to pronounce the surname, Ogden Nash once rhymed, “Uncle Carl Laemmle, has a very large faemmle.” To his credit, Carl Junior persuaded his father to bring Universal up-to-date, buying theatres, building cinemas, converting to sound films, and making several forays into high-quality production. Carl Junior also created a successful niche for the studio by initiating a long-running franchise of monster movies, among them Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932) starring Boris Karloff , and Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi .

The Black Cat is now available on bluray per Shout Factory

Tags 1934 Bela Lugosi Black Cat Boris Karloff Carl Laemmle David Manners Edgar Allan Poe Edgar G. Ulmer Harry Cording Julie Bishop Lucille Lund Peter Ruric Universal

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The Black Cat (1934) ~ Retro Movie Review

FIVE GOBLIN HEARTS ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

DOUBLE HELPING OF TWO OF MY FAVE CREEP-MASTERS

The Black Cat offers up classic Karloff and Lugosi. I was spellbound by the over the top dramatic performances by each that made me both gasp and giggle.

The film is supposedly based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story , The Black Cat (1843), but I would have to say very loosely, at best.

Especially disturbing to me, Poe’s story involves the mishandling of animals, but no spoiler here . . . 😉

This film is more about humans mishandling humans. You can be the judge.

The lovely early tune, “Our Love is Like a Melody” flows and teases us throughout, then the wonderfully creepy old pipe organ chills our spine at the appropriate times. Oh, yeah!

The thing I found quite amusing is with the Black Cat title, all the scary billings and hoop-la, the cat itself, didn’t have a frighteningly big roll. I think I counted only three scanty and friendly-looking ‘walk-ons’ with but a few “Meow” lines. (I think I might have heard some purring.) =;-}

I loved the interactions between Karloff and Lugosi!

I loved this movie, albeit its perceived stereotype image of BLACK CATS, which is a bit of an oxymoron, as I am the proud mom and admirer of Three Black Kitties. They couldn’t be SWEETER. (Even though we gots the spooky thing goin’ on here!)

Ooooooooooooooooo big bad kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitty. I’m so scared.

Stsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

And the evil Black Cat persona prevails with no need for translation!

Another must see The Black Cat classic , Directed by Albert S. Rogell, hit again the big screen in 1941, this time donning only Lugosi, as the peculiar leering caretaker luring in the widows.

We have yet another adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s story, and again little smacks of his, and very different than the 1939 version. But this one has its own fun take, with lines like, “Everything around here is going to the cats, that’s why the place is going to the dogs!”

The film sports a great cast with wonderful deliveries, such as Basil Rathbone, Huge Herbert , Brod Crawford and a small part by a fave of mine, Alan Lad.

Including the marvelous Gladys Cooper, of Old Hollywood fame. With a long and lustrous career she was in her first film in 1913.

In The Black Cat, she played the elderly, wealthy woman living in her isolated mansion with her beloved cats.

Anne Gwynne, our heroine, is known as one of the first scream queens for the plethora of 40’s horror films she appeared in, such as her first, Black Friday (1940) and House of Frankenstein (1944) – her last for Universal, in which she played Boris Karloff ‘s daughter.

So popular, was also in translation around the world.

The The Black Cat 1941 version is definitely worth a watch! I gotta check it out again one of these next windy days. It is available on DVD .

Another The Black Cat written and directed by Lucio Fulci came to life in 1981 claiming to also be based on Poe. A psychic has the ability to control the mind of his black cat, which he uses to execute revenge.

This version sounds to use Kitty in a much bloodier roll. I think I like the original, but you may want to check it out. Rated R.

It’s even on blu-ray .

DELICIOUSLY MOODY

All in all I mostly adore the original 1934 THE BLACK CAT classic . The beautiful black & white cinematography is visually stimulating. It fits the dark and broody mood perfectly.

ALSO enjoy the FABULOUS Modern decor in the castle. Not what I was expecting and was simply melting over!

In my opinion, it isn’t for younger kids – to be watched at parent’s discretion. Not at all bloody, but the subject matter and Lagosi’s description of what he plans to do to someone is on the yucky side. 🙂

You can buy it for your retro scary collection! And you can rent it on amazon for $3.99 .

I watched it on the TCM channel Turner Classic Movies . It is also FREE on Xfinity On Demand .

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Please let me know your thoughts in the COMMENTS below or your own experience with The Black Cat . MEEEEEEOW!

Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE ! Thanks much. ♥ ~ Deborah

Movies ~Pass the Popcorn!

Nice review! Thanks!

Thank you, Jimmy, I’m so glad you enjoyed. Thanks much for commenting! 🙂

If a black cat crosses your path.. Pet it <3

ha ha Yep, you got it, Errassic! Love it. Thanks much for commenting! 😀

Love the Karloff/Lugosi version! Some very adult plot themes for the times, pre-censorship!

Very astute observation. It is quite amazing, is it not? I’m so glad you commented, Maria!

Loved your review. The 1934 version is indeed a classic!

Thank you, Tristan. That makes me very happy. And thanks so much for commenting! 🙂

If you liked this you should see “The Raven.” It brings back Karloff and Lugosi again.

Ooooooooo, for sure Ryan! Saw a long time ago and time to see it again, then I’ll do a review! Thanks so much for the suggestion and for commenting. 🙂

Thanks for the review. As a lover of cats and horror movies, I will have to look one of those up.

Great, Mike! I see we have a lot in common and I’m happy I inspired. Thanks much for commenting! 😀

The Black Cat: Universal Horror’s First (and Unexpected) Bomb

Edgar Ulmer’s addition to the growing Universal Monsters pantheon, The Black Cat, may have been a bit too horrifying.

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In 1934, after the mind-bending quadruple-whammy of Dracula , Frankenstein , The Mummy , and The Invisible Man , Universal Pictures knew they were on to something with this “horror movies” business. Not only had horror movies proven to be terrifyingly profitable, the studio now had four new franchise operations up and running, which only meant more money down the line. The question was where to go next now that they’d already tapped Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells?

The answer seemed obvious: No author was more singularly identified with creepy tales of mystery and the macabre than Edgar Allan Poe. It was a natural fit, wasn’t it? In fact, just two years earlier, they’d had a minor hit with Lugosi in Murders in the Rue Morgue , so why not try it on a bigger scale? Hence, the studio execs grabbed one particularly creepy story with a simple but effective title—“The Black Cat”—and handed it to director Edgar G. Ulmer.

Now, from the outset, Ulmer seemed like an odd choice. But James Whale also seemed an odd choice for Frankenstein too, and look what happened there.

Up to that point, Ulmer had only made four films in Hollywood, including a Western, a musical comedy, and Damaged Lives , a cautionary shocker about syphilis. He’d also had a moderate success with the drama People on Sunday . But back in Germany in the 1920s, Ulmer had worked with some of the greats of the German Expressionist movement, which may help explain things in terms of his allure. German Expressionism was the overarching aesthetic they were going for in those things, so why not sign someone who knows what he’s doing?

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This Poe film was the chance of a lifetime for Ulmer. Not only was he getting a big push from a major studio, a great story to work with, and a ready-made audience anxious to see what would come next from the Universal Horror stables—he had an unbelievable coup on his hands. The Black Cat would be the first film in which the two reigning icons of horror, Karloff and Lugosi, would be paired onscreen. The film was a guaranteed blockbuster before the first frame had been shot. It was up to Ulmer to blow it.

The only problem, and perhaps the geniuses in the board room hadn’t considered this, was that “The Black Cat,” while an undeniably great story with chills and atmospherics up the yin-yang was, like most of Poe’s stories, a tale of psychological horror, and utterly unfilmable. Well, maybe that wasn’t a problem. Neither Frankenstein nor Dracula really stuck that close to the original source material either. They had the rights to Poe’s title and name, and that’s what mattered. Ulmer could run with the rest.

read more: How The Wolf Man Created The First Cinematic Universe

Undaunted by the seemingly impossible material, Ulmer and screenwriter Peter Rurig (who only had two films under his belt at this point) sat down and, leaving the Poe story in another room somewhere, concocted a surefire crowd-pleaser about, um… genocide.

Of course, there was some betrayal, revenge, and Satanism in there too, but it was mostly about genocide. Over a decade before the world became aware of Auschwitz and Dachau, Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Vitus Werdegast, sole survivor of a WWI Hungarian prison camp where some 10,000 men had been slaughtered. Seeking vengeance 15 years later, he returns to the scene of the crime where Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff), the architect who ran the camp, has built a mansion atop the mass graves. There’s also a honeymooning American couple who get stranded at Poelzig’s place on the proverbial dark and stormy night, but they’re little more than a distraction. Two black cats also make brief appearances for no real reason beyond justifying the use of the phrase “Suggested by Edgar Allan Poe’s story” on the title card.

We get the standard “the bridge is out, you’ll have to spend the night” ploy, some hijinks with the honeymooners, a subplot concerning the unexpected fates of Werdegast’s wife and daughter, a Black Mass, and a planned human sacrifice. But no, again it’s mostly about genocide.

The back story remains murky, but very sinister (and decidedly human). It was certainly much darker than anything that had appeared in any of the Universal horror films up to that point. It’s a strange, off-kilter movie that ends on a particularly unexpected and savage note with Lugosi flaying the flesh from Karloff’s bones.

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Even before that, it’s an extremely unnerving film for its time. Karloff’s mansion—the film’s primary set—is a masterpiece, a haunted house of sorts, but brightly lit. Part art deco, part Frank Lloyd Wright, and certainly not what audiences had come to expect. This wasn’t Dracula’s castle or Frankenstein’s windmill, and the fact that it was so Modernist and so bright added an even more disturbing quality to all the talk of genocide. It was a contemporary story about contemporary events. There are no vampires, no witches, no mad scientists, and no ghosts. All the monsters here are most definitely human.

Watch The Black Cat on Amazon

Very little about the film, in fact, is quite what audiences had come to expect. Nor studio executives. When they asked for a Poe film, they were expecting, I dunno’, some gothic haunted house stuff maybe, with cobwebs and rattling chains, and period costumes, not a postwar meditation on memory and death with a bummer ending. They didn’t ask for a damned Swedish film, for godsakes!

Not only were neither of the stars in monster makeup—both of them are killed off at the end! How the hell were they supposed to build a franchise out of any of this crap?

The acting (especially from Karloff, whose first appearance in the film still haunts me to this day) was superlative. Poelzig is smooth and charming, and even a little fey, as Karloff plays up his natural lisp even more. He’s so damn cool and reserved when challenging Werdegast to a game of chess for very high stakes; he’s far more terrifying than any of his more traditional monster roles. Along with several other familiar faces in small supporting roles (though no Dwight Frye for some reason), careful viewers might also spot a young John Carradine playing the organ at a Satanic ritual.

read more: Universal Monsters Cinematic Horror Universe Explained

In the end, Ulmer’s film was too smart, too subtle, and far too real and discomforting for audiences in search of simple escapism. Ticket-buyers were horrified all right, but not in the good way, and they weren’t nearly as mortified as the Universal brass.

From an artistic perspective, The Black Cat is certainly the most interesting film to come out under the banner of Universal Horror. But it was such a critical and financial disaster that after its initial run, the studio kept it locked in the vaults for decades, and Ulmer’s career was ruined. Well, that plus the whole “having an affair with an executive’s wife right around the same time” thing didn’t help his standing much either.

When he was asked to make Dracula , Tod Browning agreed only reluctantly, but at least he had the common sense to push most of his obsessions and dark impulses to the background. He gave them the film they wanted, and Dracula ’s outrageous success gave him the carte blanche to go on ahead and make the film he really wanted to make. Only then did he turn around and shoot himself in the foot commercially with Freaks (another film that would vanish into the Universal vaults for several decades).

Ulmer took his big break as a chance to go right ahead and make the film he wanted to make, and thank God he did. Not only did we end up with a horror film quite unlike anything else, but landing on Poverty Row immediately afterward allowed him, with no budget and an insane shooting schedule, to make Detour 11 years later—a film widely held to be one of the greatest film noirs ever made. Neither movie could have been made to the same effect any other way.

A year after The Black Cat , Lugosi and Karloff re-teamed for another Poe-inspired picture, The Raven . It hung about as close to the original source material as The Black Cat did, but was directed by Louis Friedlander, a man with absolutely no aesthetic pretensions. Better still, this time Karloff wore heavy makeup. It was a much more successful film. Then in 1941, Lugosi co-starred in yet another adaptation of “The Black Cat,” this one with Basil Rathbone and Broderick Crawford. If possible, the ’41 version had even less to do with Poe’s original story, but was still a much more successful film. For better and worse.

Jim Knipfel

Jim Knipfel is the author of Slackjaw, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, These Children Who Come at You With Knives, The Blow-Off and some other books. His latest book, A Purposeful Grimace: In…

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The black cat.

Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

Things you never said before nor even dreamed of!

After a road accident in Hungary, the American honeymooners Joan and Peter and the enigmatic Dr. Werdegast find refuge in the house of the famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig, who shares a dark past with the doctor.

Boris Karloff Bela Lugosi David Manners Julie Bishop Egon Brecher Harry Cording Lucille Lund Henry Armetta Albert Conti John Carradine John George Albert Pollet

Director Director

Edgar G. Ulmer

Producer Producer

Carl Laemmle Jr.

Writers Writers

Edgar G. Ulmer Tom Kilpatrick Peter Ruric

Original Writer Original Writer

Edgar Allan Poe

Editor Editor

Ray Curtiss

Cinematography Cinematography

John J. Mescall

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

William J. Reiter Sam Weisenthal

Art Direction Art Direction

Charles D. Hall

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Composer composer.

Heinz Roemheld

Sound Sound

Gilbert Kurland

Costume Design Costume Design

Makeup makeup.

Jack Pierce

Universal Pictures

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

French Latin Hungarian English

Releases by Date

03 may 1934, 07 may 1934, 13 oct 1934, releases by country.

63 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Ian West ★★★★★ 15

Necrophilia, Satanism, drugs, a chess game of doom, torture, a black mass with a human sacrifice, and a man being skinned the fuck alive. 1934’s pre-code The Black Cat is like a giant terror scenario onion that gets peeled back... sending us into a nightmare carnival of shadows with two mortal enemies locked in a game of death... and it’s marvelous.

Boris Karloff plays a satanic architect cult leader who lives in a insane Art Deco death mansion built over a mass grave, keeping dead bodies frozen in glass coffins for “observation”. He also keeps the daughter of his mortal enemy locked in his bedroom because that’s apparently what evil sickos did on 1934.

Bela Lugosi plays a PTSD non…

Review by Mike Thorn ★★★★★ 5

It's really not about the hapless leading couple at all. It's about the sleek but sinister edifice of modernity, literally built on the remains of recent atrocities. This modernity is physicalized by the great Karloff and his nouveau-Expressionist mansion, constant reminders of Lugosi's not-so-latent trauma. If these characters imagine their pre-WWI worlds as idyllic, even Edenic, then it only makes sense that The Black Cat veers finally into the Satanic. Look elsewhere for subtlety.

Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★½

One of the scariest aspects of Ulmer's THE BLACK CAT is the architecture. A mansion of the future built by a madman who made his entire life into war and torture. A monument to evil, made clean and perfect, and modern. It isn't a castle. It's the world that will be.

Review by matt lynch ★★★½

we are dead, this is hell. the cat is calling from inside the house. wife under glass single most fucked up image ever.

Review by laird ★★★★½

A total creative coup to take the traditionally gothic setting of horror from this era and replace it with sleek, ubermodern architecture and decor. You can modernize your exterior and build over your atrocities, but evil is evil, evil persists. Supernatural? Possibly. Baloney? Possibly not. Nestled between WWI and WWII, this seems at once prophetic and reflective in its depiction of human souls ravaged by war, decades old grudges bubbling to the surface and causing collateral damage. When Ulmer lets the camera wander through the building as Beethoven plays on the soundtrack and Karloff orates, he's showing his filmmaking is just as modern as the architecture.

Review by SilentDawn ★★★★ 1

Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black Cat functions similarly as his Detour : a no-frills atmospheric mood-piece constructed of conventions dug up from the graves of the past, abstracted via disembodied, occult energy. The sleekness in its cold dark house does little to hide the buried secrets. Gnarly for 1934 and still shocking today.

Review by Dyrnott ★★★★ 4

I’ve wanted to see this for awhile. A feature with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff which doesn’t disappoint. An early satanic horror movie which Boris Karloff is the satanist. Though I wish it had developed the satanism theme even more than it did. Boris Karloff being the satanist is not really a spoiler which I try to avoid. If you read any description of this movie they always reveal this very early in the description. It has some very striking scenes and the tale starts on the Orient Express which I always thank is a nice touch. If you enjoy classic black and white horror movies you will enjoy this one. You can check it out on Shudder!

Review by Peter Labuza ★★★★ 2

A perfect description of the movie in this dialogue exchange: Karloff: "I am the greatest architect who ever lived." Lugosi: "I am the greatest psychologist who ever lived." American guy: "Oh I just write cheap novels...mysteries." Which is kind of a metaphor for how this movie operates, where space and psychology take total precedence over narrative logic.

Review by Joe ★★★★★

Most Universal horror movies are bizarre, this one surpasses bizarre and ends up closer to inexplicable, a mixed-up witch's brew of gothic revenge psychodrama, violent torture porn, old dark house thriller, and subtle undertones of a screwball comedy about two kids having their honeymoon continually thwarted by the most sinister collection of weird-haired dudes ever assembled in one ultra-modern haunted house. Nominally "suggested by" a Poe story but really drawing from some insane source that we'll probably never be privy to, a treat and possibly also a trick!

Review by sydney ★★★★★ 1

ulmer tried to tell us that disregarding nature and our humanity in favor of relentless innovation is the devil's work but we didn't listen

Review by Liz ★★★★★

There's almost too much to talk about packed in these 63 minutes, but I will say -- there's something very funny and kind of adorable to me about the Karloff character keeping a "Rituals of Lucifer" book on his bedside table for some light nighttime reading.

Review by Will Menaker ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Karloff?!? KARLOFF??!!!?? THAT LIMEY COCKSUCKER ISN'T FIT TO SMELL MY SHIT!!!!

Swarthy foreigners, Bela and Boris face off for the right to touch the hair of an American woman. Probably my favorite of the Universal horror movies, really feel the Art Deco Goth vibes in this one.

Thrills/Chills: Movies weren't scary until at least the Carter administration, but there is still some pretty evil shit here. Karloff is a high priest of Satan who sold out Lugosi and thousands of other Austro-Hungarian troops to a Siberian prison camp in World War I. He then built his mod art deco mansion on their graves and took Lugosi's wife and daughter as his own. When the wife dies, he puts her perfectly…

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The Black Cat

Time Out says

Release details.

Duration: 65 mins

Cast and crew

Director: Edgar G Ulmer
Screenwriter: Peter Ruric
Julie Bishop
David Manners
Egon Brecher
Boris Karloff
Lucille Lund
Bela Lugosi

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Movie Review

The black cat, home > movie reviews > the black cat, review by tom foster.

Edgar Allen Poe was undoubtedly the best thing to ever happen to the world of horror. But like H.P. Lovecraft, his work in its purest form has rarely translated well to film. The average Poe story on film would last a total of fifteen minutes at the very most. The terrifying set-pieces that the stories and poems were built around are effective but often too abstract to build an entire film around.

Nevertheless, filmmakers from all eras and nationalities have done their best to bring both Poe and Lovecraft to the big screen. This has often involved the controversial technique of taking the basic story as an inspiration for a far more ambitious, although not necessarily more effective tale. For the record, I am a big fan of many on-screen Poe adaptations, but the approach has been to use the story as a premise for a larger work.

I've always thought it strange that the Poe story that gets adapted with increasing frequency seems to be "The Black Cat" (a cursory look shows that "Fall of the House of Usher," "Pit and the Pendulum," and "Murders in the Rue Morgue" are the other popular adaptations). A minor if memorable turn in the Poe canon, the story has been adapted by Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Roger Corman, among others. Even Luigi Cozzi turned one of his films into a "Black Cat" adaptation, although not by choice. Edgar G. Ulmer's THE BLACK CAT was not even the first time the story was filmed. But although it is not THE first, it is A first for any other number of reasons.

Peter and Joan (David Manners and Jacqueline Wells), a saccharine and frankly annoying young couple, are traveling by train when they meet the mysterious and exotic Dr. Verdeghast (Bela Lugosi). He tells the couple that he is returning home, after spending fifteen years in prison. His homeland was sacked and demolished, as he was taken as a prisoner of war. Joan, he says, reminds him of the lost love he left behind. He's charming if a little odd and offers them the chance to accompany him to his destination when the train derails.

Verdeghast takes them to the castle of Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff). The old theme of "appearances can be deceiving" goes into overdrive here, as the huge estate looks ancient from the outside but very modern on the inside. The angles and exquisite designs are an explosive meeting between the past and future. As Poelzig, Karloff is given a decidedly sinister entrance as he slowly rises from his bedchamber, shrouded in shadow.

Peter and Joan feel the need to leave the estate as soon as possible, feeling they haven't been told everything. And indeed they haven't. For one, Verdeghast seeks revenge against Poelzig for stealing his love and leaving him to die in a prison camp. Also, Poelzig is a Satanist who plans to make Joan the sacrifice in his Dark of the Moon ritual.

So, Verdeghast and Poelzig begin their game of death with Peter and Joan unknowing pawns. Poelzig is an amazingly evil man, who illustrates many shocking attributes for such an early film. He treats life and death as a game and is willing to sacrifice anyone to the Reaper. He proudly proclaims his love for Satan. Most shocking of all, he keeps a secret mistress in his bedroom, his very own daughter spawned by Verdeghast's lost love. I can't imagine this incestuous relationship went before the censors without notice.

Even most film historians have neglected to include Edgar G. Ulmer amongst the forgotten geniuses of their time. Before he faded into obscurity in the 1960s, this man infused ordinary films with pure adrenaline. As a result, we have a number of filmmaking milestones to look back on - the birth of the B-movie noir with DETOUR for instance. Ulmer did have many forgettable films to his credit but he always seemed to bring something extra to the table.

THE BLACK CAT could have easily been a standard horror shocker and it does have some time-worn elements. The soundtrack is on almost continuous play, a relic of when the industry was still tickled with the idea of "talking pictures." Manners and Wells are inherently dull people. Wells screams relentlessly in the film's final minutes and Manners is a poor example of the masculine hero, as evidenced by his bone-headed actions towards the end.

But the ambiance of Poe must have been an inspiration to Ulmer, even if the film is an extremely loose adaptation. His take on the story (with only a few fleeting appearances by the title animal) is an amazingly eerie film, which pulls out every trick in the book. THE BLACK CAT is Ulmer's first foray into the genre and it's a unique looking film from the era. Everything is given an air of menace and mystery. Ulmer takes a formalist approach, mapping the landscape as one laced with terror.

Poelzig, an architect in the film, is also named after a famous occultist architect. Likewise, his house is a combination Fortress of the Future and Chamber of Horrors. The layout, with its use of shadow, angles and exaggerated structures, owes as much to German expressionist films as it does to art deco architecture. All of this culminates in the intensely stylish Dark of the Moon ritual that looks like some of the best silent work of Fritz Lang and Robert Wiene brought into the era of sound.

Of course, the major selling point of the film is the opportunity to see the legends of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi face off on the big screen together. To my knowledge, this is the first time they ever collaborated in a feature film and what a showcase it is. We haven't had any stars in the genre making films for the big studios for a long time, and the work here reminds us of what we're missing. This was a time when these thespians were treated like artists, before Universal and their ilk threw them to the wolves. It's Karloff and Lugosi in their prime and each is given their chance to shine.

It could be argued that Karloff is given the bigger part. Sporting the most overstated widow's peak in cinema history, his Poelzig is astoundingly cruel and menacing. No misunderstood monster here, his character is pure evil and Karloff fills it with gleeful menace. Despite his lofty prophesying, he shows the depravity of a sexual predator. As he looks on Joan with lust, he grips the arm of a nearby fertility statue, tighter and tighter. To add to his perversity is the aforementioned affair with his daughter, an affair he throws in Lugosi's face when the time is right. Truly an amazing performance and one of the more memorable screen villains of the era.

As Verdeghast, Bela Lugosi is also fantastic. In a time before Lugosi sank into depression and drug abuse, he shows incredible class. The scene in which he confronts Karloff, bringing over a decade of hatred and vengeance out in the open, is truly a sight to behold.

For people who had such a legendary feud, they compliment each other very well. As well they should, since each character is haunted by his own past and the spectre of death. As Poelzig says to Lugosi, "Are we not both the living dead?"

These people were not just Halloween masks or pop icons. They were artists. Films like that prove this and thus should be seen and appreciated. One of the best Universal horror films, THE BLACK CAT is a lost classic from an era of elegance.

Reviewed by Scott W. Davis

The Black Cat (1934) Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

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Rudolf the black cat, common sense media reviewers.

Tender animated cat friendship tale has sad, scary parts.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Meant to entertain rather than educate.

Never surrender your dreams, which take courage to

Friends take care of each other, protect each othe

Cats, including a small and defenseless kitten, fa

Buchi is easily enamored with attractive cats and

"Devil." "Hell."

Japanese cities, lifestyle, and food dishes.

Educational Value

Positive messages.

Never surrender your dreams, which take courage to pursue. Being educated and making organized plans are positive qualities. Don't judge people by their looks or first impressions. True friends make life more enjoyable, love you for who you really are, can be like family.

Positive Role Models

Friends take care of each other, protect each other, respect each other's boundaries. Humans take care of animals, even stray cats. Humans also chase off stray cats and abandon or replace their own pets.

Violence & Scariness

Cats, including a small and defenseless kitten, face the dangers of a city, including cars, bikes, people, bigger cats, mean dogs, and heights they can fall from. A scary dog attacks two different cats, leaving one almost fatally injured. One cat-dog fight has some close-ups of the dog's drooling mouth and sharp fangs as he pounces and chases. The kitten gets locked into a freezer truck and turns into a block of ice, nearly freezing to death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Buchi is easily enamored with attractive cats and eventually starts dating one. They share an accidental kiss after eating from opposite ends of a steak, Lady and the Tramp style.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

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Parents need to know.

Parents need to know that Rudolf the Black Cat is a tender animated tale about friendship and belonging. The central storyline of a kitten lost from home in a faraway city could be emotionally upsetting to some, as could the ending, where that same cat finally makes his way home only to find his beloved owner has replaced him with a new, nearly identical kitten. There are some mild scares as cats and kittens are chased by humans and dogs, nearly run over by cars and bikes, and come close to death in a dog fight and a freezer truck. Particularly scary is a scene where a small kitten is chased and attacked by a large dog with fangs known as "Devil" (his fenced yard is referred to as "Hell" by the neighborhood cats). The dog winds up befriending the cats when he admits he's envious of their friendship, and all of the lost, abandoned, and lonely pets forge their own new family together. Buchi is easily enamored with attractive cats and eventually starts dating one. They share an accidental kiss. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

RUDOLF THE BLACK CAT has always been curious about what lies beyond his beloved owner's front gate. When he finally works up the courage to venture out, despite the warnings of a wiser and older neighbor cat, Rudolf (voiced in the Japanese original by Mao Inoue) accidentally boards a truck bound for faraway capital city Tokyo. Once in Tokyo, he befriends a large stray cat (Ryohei Suzuki), whom he calls "Gottalot" because he's got a lot of names -- every human they encounter calls him by a different name. Rudolf also meets scrappy neighborhood gossip Buchi (Norito Yashima) and local bully "Devil" the dog (Arata Furuta). Gottalot takes Rudolf under his care, protecting him from city dangers, teaching him how to find the best food as well as how to read and write, mentoring him as he grows from kitten to cat, and eventually helping him hatch a plan to travel back to his hometown of Gifu to reunite with his owner, Rie (Rio Sasaki). The reunion doesn't go as planned, and Rudolf decides to travel back to Tokyo and live with his adopted family of pets.

Is It Any Good?

This is a charming film with big-hearted animal characters, gorgeous Japanese scenery, and a sweet story about true friendship. The lead characters are cats, each a different type, and there's plenty of feline fun in their adventures, from snatching fresh fish to outsmarting the dogs. Humans are portrayed as largely loving toward the animals, putting food out for strays and caring deeply for pets.

But it's the relationship between the lost kitten Rudolf and gruff street cat Gottalot that makes Rudolf the Black Cat such a tender tale. Gottalot starts as annoyed caretaker, morphs into mentor and teacher, and then transforms into dear friend, a lasting role that ultimately makes him as vulnerable as Rudolf. The computer animation and soundtrack perfectly complement the touching storyline, bringing both the setting and the characters to life. You can't help but root for these pets as if they were people.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the bonds between pets and their human owners seen in Rudolf the Black Cat . Have you ever had a pet, and what did he or she mean to you?

Does the story of a lost pet remind you of other movies you've seen or books you've read? How do the tales compare?

Which parts of the movie were scary and why? How much scary stuff can young kids handle?

Rudolf is taught to read and write by another cat. Besides the novelty of literate cats, there's a message here about the importance of being educated. What's your opinion about that? How can a good education help you in life?

Movie Details

In theaters : June 23, 2016
On DVD or streaming : October 24, 2017
Cast : Mao Inoue , Ryôhei Suzuki , Akio Otsuka
Directors : Motonori Sakakibara , Kunihiko Yuyama
Inclusion Information : Asian actors
Studio : Toho Company
Genre : Family and Kids
Topics : Adventures , Cats, Dogs, and Mice , Friendship
Run time : 89 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : February 27, 2022

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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CANNES 2024

Cannes 2024: gints zilbalodis' animated film 'flow' follows a kitty.

by Alex Billington May 23, 2024

The story of a cat and his friends. Flow is an animated film made by the Latvian filmmaker named Gints Zilbalodis , his second feature after making Away (in 2019) which was a fable about loneliness. He's also known for many other animated short films that debuted online before he started moving into making these features. Whereas Away is about loneliness, Flow is about friendship, companionship, and loyalty. The title is once again a literal title because the story is about how we meet and befriend different people as life flows along, taking us to unknown destinations and through many trials & tribulations. Much like Away , the story is a metaphor for life as a human being, this time told through an adventure featuring different animals in a strange world. It's entirely dialogue free and features Zilbalodis' distinct cel-shading animation style, more rudimentary than Pixar or DreamWorks or Sony but still animated with heaps of emotion and compassion.

Flow is about a super cute, but stubborn, lonely, solitary black cat . The film is set in a sprawling imagined world, beginning in a beautiful green forest with a river and lots of trees & grass. Cat lives in a nice house, which it returns to every night, living a simple life. The film's intro explains what happens next: "The world seems to be coming to an end, teeming with the vestiges of a human presence... as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species." One day the world begins to flood, and the cat finds its life threatened. It eventually ends up on a wooden boat drifting in the water, which is at first occupied by a wonderfully lazy capybara. Eventually a narcissistic lemur shows up, as do other animals - a dumb, goofy golden retriever dog and a large white-feathered bird reminiscent of a crane. All these animals are references to various friends you'll encounter in life - the lazy one, the dumb one, the self-obsessed one. Even if they may be nothing like you , they are still important to have in your life and will help you through tough times – overcoming great challenges and surviving great floods. That's what friends are for, of course.

The screenplay for Flow is by Matiss Kaza and Gints Zilbalodis; and it's directed by Zilbalodis, who made this film in partnership with French and Belgian production companies. Even though his visual style isn't as intensely detailed as most modern animated movies (e.g. strands of fur are not visible in the animation) that doesn't mean they're any less realistic. Not only does it all look gorgeous, with vivid colors and spectacular sunsets and realistic water animation, the real artistry is in the character animation. The main cat character in Flow is as realistic as can be - from the way it reacts and responds to threats in the world, to the way his ears and tail move, in addition to other tiny details like his pupils changing with his emotions. The sound design is also amazing – since there is no dialogue, the various animal noises (meowing, woofing, chirping) are an important part of defining each character in this story. The animation and sound together make every second of this film emotionally engaging, it's so entrancing even if there isn't a single word spoken in its 85 minute runtime (much like The Red Turtle ). This is the real power of animation when it is this marevlous.

As gorgeous as Flow is to watch, the plot is fairly simplistic and it does get strangely confounding at the end (where are they even going, what is this place, why this architectural style, why does this happening in this scene, why is it flooded anyway?). That said, it's not the kind of film where over-analysis is beneficial – it's a beautifully-made, deeply cinematic film meant to give audiences an emotional experience and also remind them of the immeasurable importance of friendship . I prefer Flow much more than Away , which felt like a video game, whereas this is an actual adventure. The main black cat is absolutely wonderful and delightful to follow as it navigates the waters and makes new freinds. I've already had debates over whether the cat is actually a boy or a girl – while the official description refers to it as a "he", the way it moves and interacts leaves that up for debate. What isn't up for debate is this film's grandeur. A must watch for all animal lovers.

Alex's Cannes 2024 Rating: 8 out of 10 Follow Alex on Twitter - @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd - @firstshowing

Find more posts: Animation , Cannes 24 , Review

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, back to black.

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Director Sam Taylor-Johnson ’s “Back to Black” invokes a single question, one fans of Amy Winehouse are sure to recognize: What kind of f*ckery is this? The Camden-bred superstar, played by Marisa Abela , was famously “just one of the girls.” Down to earth, charming, witty, and, when she opened her mouth, a dazzling performer with an unbelievably soulful voice. Infamously, those who remember Amy will also recall a brutal struggle with addiction and leeching media frenzies that followed her to her death at age 27 from alcohol poisoning in the summer of 2011.

“Back to Black” chronicles the years between the success of 2003's breakthrough Frank and the blowup of the film's titular album in 2006. But if you expect to learn about Amy the person or even Amy the musician, temper your expectations. Taylor-Johnson’s film, penned by Matt Greenhalgh , is concerned with Amy the addict , making “Back to Black” a dreadful, dastardly attempt at a biopic.

If there’s one assumption to be made about any musician’s biographical drama film, it’s that it will be music-centric. While “Back to Black” has plenty of performances highlighting some of Amy’s most famous songs, they are almost exclusively used for simple soundtrack and pity fodder rather than essential structure. They almost feel like flippant reminders to portray Amy as a performer rather than solely the emotional wreck they characterize her as. The film allots next to none of its runtime to the actual making of either album. We are given fractional context to her artistry, only minor bullet points, like a single guitar-in-the-bed songwriting sesh and a cheeky Mark Ronson namedrop.

"Back to Black" misunderstands Amy’s legacy. The film doesn’t permit unfamiliar audiences to be privy to her iconicity. It doesn’t showcase the ravenous support from her hometown and country, the way they rallied behind her, or the transition of her fame to the States. It neglects to acknowledge any of the reasons why Amy and her music were so beloved. Very little of her actual career is touched on in the film. Instead, it plays more like a montage of toxic romance, drug use, and impromptu tattoos.

Many of the onstage moments serve to show issues with sobriety or the mournful longing she feels for her on-and-off boyfriend and eventual husband, Blake (Jack O’Connell). The singular clip we’re given of the making of Back to Black is a moment of her tearfully recording the titular track, declaring, “he’s killed me,” and hard cutting to a leap in time where Amy is in the deepest throes of substance abuse. Not even her addiction, the film’s misguided though central focus is given thoughtful narrative—it’s just something that happens off-screen. It’s treated with cut-to-the-chase rapidity because, as the film sees it, we know it happens anyway.

Abela gives a valiant effort in her performance, loosely capturing Amy’s onstage mannerisms and idiosyncratic dancing. But gesture is not essence, and there’s always a distracting artifice to her depiction. Amy Winehouse's charisma and charm were almost as famous as her voice, and Abela’s hollow copy and exaggerated accent put her out of her depth in attempting to replicate them.

If the film’s navel-gazing take on defining Amy by drug use wasn’t criminal enough, the script treats these struggles and her eventual death as matters of fate: an end bound to her from the beginning. Every reach for a beer or glass of wine is dramatized like a smug nod to what we know is coming. From the top of the film, Amy is portrayed as a philandering, snarky silver tongue, a criminal to the love lives of others and a fated victim to her own heart. Blake is treated like a casualty to the irrepressible storm of her out-of-control nature, and her father, a powerless, wishful supporter, even though simple biography dictates otherwise. Neither of these men is fully to blame, but omitting their enabling and exacerbation of Amy’s vulnerabilities is irresponsible to the dignity of history. Amy is portrayed as a naive and directionless mess, and all the while, the music is never the cornerstone of the story. It begs the question: Why was this film made?

When we reflect on pop culture’s past with 2024 eyes, looking back on how the media and public treated Amy, we recall the exploitation with disgust. We compare it to Britney and vow to do better next time. The hopeful implication here would be that we could honor Winehouse’s story better in death than in her life, yet this expectation sets the viewer up for failure. While Taylor-Johnson directs scenes that seem to shake their head at the oppressive paps that tail Amy’s every move, her film fails to do anything different. There’s a gross level of romanticization and infantilization that hemorrhages any hint of life force from this story. The same sensationalist treatment she attempts to scoff at is integral to the story she’s chosen to tell. Taylor-Johnson’s predatory, voyeuristic eye never fails to capitalize on the strife of Amy’s addiction without providing empathy or care. It renders the music purely as a consequence of a proposed penchant for pain and poor choices, depicting its hero as pathetic.

“Back to Black” makes a martyr of its subject, flattening Amy Winehouse's life and music to a series of binges and failure to overcome heartbreak. It viciously strips her of any agency or humanity, positing her to be nothing more than a tragedy with an iconic album. While there’s no way to separate Amy’s biography from her addiction, to conflate it with her entire existence, sidelining personhood and omitting the pillars of her legacy is an offensive approach to storytelling.

For fans who love her, this film is a heart-wrenching watch for all the wrong reasons, and for any of the true loved ones she’s left behind, the impact feels as if it can only be devastating. “Back to Black” spotlights the same dialogue in its introduction as in its final act, Amy laments, “I want to be remembered as a singer. I want to be remembered for my voice." Yet, the film hardly remembers her for more than her darkest moments, a posthumous “too bad” that will leave many leaving the theater disturbed.

Peyton Robinson

Peyton Robinson is a freelance film writer based in Chicago, IL.

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Back to Black (2024)

122 minutes

Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse

Jack O'Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil

Eddie Marsan as Mitch Winehouse

Lesley Manville as Cynthia Winehouse

Juliet Cowan as Janis Winehouse-Collins

Bronson Webb as Joey

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Back to Black

The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

Sam Taylor-Johnson
Matt Greenhalgh
Marisa Abela
Eddie Marsan
Jack O'Connell
96 User reviews
120 Critic reviews
44 Metascore

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How Marisa Abela Channeled Amy Winehouse

Did you know

Trivia Marisa Abela had done most of the singing in this film herself. She trained extensively to mimic Amy Winehouse 's vocals.
Goofs Blake Fielder-Civil met for the first time Amy Winehouse in 2003. The movie shows that they met at a bar. On the wall, you can see a mural with multiple people and you can see Rihanna with short hair that was her look in 2009. Rihanna's first album came out in 2007.

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