The Black Cat
      
Director: Albert Rogell
Year: 1941
Rating: 5.0
Damn, Universal actually had the nerve to say that this was "Suggested by the story by Edgar Allen Poe". Poe's name should not be within hundred miles of this film. Especially considering that Universal produced the brilliant 1934 film with the same title starring Karloff and Lugosi. Lugosi is in this one as well and high up in the credits but it is only slightly more than a bit part. This has nothing to do with Poe's wonderful short story unless I missed all the comedy in it. This is a chaotic nutty comedy clearly more influenced by the 1939 Cat and The Canary than by Poe. Not that this is unusual for poor Poe moldering in his grave. There have been many films that claim to be based on Poe that have no more resemblance to it than they do to Gone with the Wind. Poe's name was sure box office. And he was long past having to pay royalties to. This is 80% comedy with a dash of mystery and a pinch of horror. Now that doesn't mean it is a bad film - just don't go in expecting a Universal horror. On the other hand, the comedy that is quite amusing for the first third of the film overstays its welcome long before the end.



I am a fan of Hugh Herbert in his many character roles in the Warner films of the 1930s. He is kept to a side man comic relief with his dithering eccentric forgetful confused persona. It was his schtick that he rode on for many years successfully. He signed up with Universal at the end of the decade and they give him full reign here to do what he wants. Same schtick but it runs through the film like a leaky roof. By the 30-minute mark, I wanted someone to please shoot him. His comic sidekick here is none other than Broderick Crawford. The one from Highway Patrol, All the King's Men and Born Yesterday. He is a great actor but not known for his comedy licks. For good reason after seeing this. He hits his comic marks with a sledgehammer. Again, fun at first but Bob Hope he is not.



There is a terrific cast in this. The three I have mentioned plus Basil Rathbone, Anne Gwynne, Gale Sondergaard, Claire Dodd and Alan Ladd. Yes, Alan Ladd. Listed tenth in the credits. Within a year he would be a huge star but in this one they don't even try and hide his shortness. After he was a star, they re-released the film. Alan Ladd fans must have been pissed. He is hardly in it. Best is probably the always unforgettable Sondergaard who Herbert describes as having a "puss like a lemon rinse".  She later said she was embarrassed to be in this. But the looks she gives is most of the horror in the film. She could scare Freddie and Jason with one of her looks. Rathbone plays a bounder married to a woman but having an affair with another and pompous throughout. Crawford says to him "Who do you think you are? Sherlock Holmes?"  After two films as Holmes for Fox, Universal had just taken over the franchise. They should have squeezed Nigel Bruce in this somehow.



The family has gathered around the matriarch of the family praying for her . . .  to die soon. She tells them "You came to bury me and now you have to praise me". They want her inheritance and when she gets better, someone decides to hurry things along first with poison and then a needle to the stomach. Rathbone, Gwynn, Ladd, Dodd, John Eldredge and Gladys Cooper are family. Lugosi gets stuck with the scary gardener role and at one point asks the murderer "How could you do this to me?". Good question. He is fucking Dracula that helped save Universal.



Sondergaard is the creepy housekeeper and the will stipulates that none of the family will inherit anything as long as Sondergaard is alive to take care of the cats. Lots of cats. An unmarried cat lady. Crawford is a real estate agent wanting to sell the house and furniture to Herbert who spends most of the film breaking everything he touches. With this family, the will may just as well have put a target on Sondergaard. Funny at times but the comedy is stretched to the breaking point.