The Black Cat (1934)
Horror doesn't get much better than The Black Cat. This landmark achievement was the first to double bill Karloff and Lugosi and it's debatable whether either have ever bettered themselves. Lugosi is so sympathetic, never resorting to the hammy style that would blight his later work. Boris Karloff on the other hand has never portrayed evil so magnificently. His performance as the satanist Poelzig is perhaps more Crowley than Poe but it's a performance of pure menace.
From an aesthetic point of view the film is a triumph. From the superb direction of Edgar G Ulmer, to the stunning classical score to the extraordinary Art Deco set design and all topped off by some of the most notorious censor baiting potency of the 30's - torture, drugs, necrophilia, and the final, almost poetic, skinning sequence.
The Black Cat is an eerie, nightmarish masterpiece.
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