Review: The Black Cat (1934)
It's hard to believe that 1934's The Black Cat --with elements of satanism, incest, necrophilia, and let's not forget a character being skinned alive just off screen, which we witness by way of gruesome shadow--made it past the Hays Code. Granted, this film was released in May of that year, and it was in July that the Code Crackdown officially went into full swing, irreversibly altering the course of Hollywood during its Golden Age. But it feels like a wild, carnal ball of fire, shocking and beautiful, always alluring. Considering how much the censors hated horror, The Black Cat is a macabre miracle. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were approaching the movie from two very different paths. Lugosi was in the midst of financial troubles, while Karloff was being given a major push and billed simply as "KARLOFF." One might expect "The Magnificent" to follow the moniker. Whether it was ever admitted publicly or not, there was a sense of competition between the ...
