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Joan and Peter Allison are an newly wed American couple honeymooning in Hungary. On the train journey they take to their destination they are all loved up in their own private cosy cabin. The privacy doesn't last long when the conductors interrupts with an other passenger who they double booked in the cabin who they eventually and reluctantly allow him to join them. The intrusive quest is Dr Vitus Verdagast a war veteran who as just survived a 15 year prison sentence in an extreme prison not known for its high survival rate.Dr Verdagast is returning to the city he defended in search of the man that landed him in prison and to hopefully reveal the truth to his wife who thinks he died in the war. When the train reaches the station they must make the final leg of their journey in a carriage that Verdagast insists on sharing as his 'friends' house is along the way. The trip is not a pleasant one when the carriage runs off the road and Dr Verdagast takes the injured Joan and her husband to the house of famous architect Hjalmar Poelzig to threat the injured.
Hjalmar Poelzig built his mysterious looking house upon a battlefield that hosted a very brutal battle in the war so needless to say its not the most inviting house. Once inside Dr Verdagast attends to Joans injuries immediately even without his arrive been announced. The Dr has become besotted with Joan but apart from the little fact of her husband getting in his way Hjalmar Poelzig arrives and instantly takes an interest in the lady himself suddenly Joan unknown to herself has become stuck in the middle of a very strange love triangle with her husband a bitter and emotionally shattered Dr Verdagast and the sinister Satanist Hjalmar Poelzig.
The Black Cat is a superb film with two of the heavyweights of the classic horror era. I know there is a massive divide when it comes to both actors and everyone has a favorite but when they are together on screen they work so well bouncing off each others different styles of acting they just complement each other so well. There are so many different layers to this film romance heartbreak Satanism and some really twisted revalations that I avoided just in case there are people who have yet to experience this wonderful film. Aside from the story the character and the acting there is a tremendous use of light and the house where the majority of the film takes place it becomes a character of it own not to mention the few guest appearances from the Black Cat himself.
As regards Bela Lugosis performance its these roles that I love him playing the broken tormented tortured soul a man battling so many demons and trying to hold himself from going over the edge. In the final scenes his lust for revenge although he is driven to insanity by his emotions you can not help but feel sorry for him and feel his pain. Its all those lost years of his life in prison the horrors of war and the lies told to his wife that have all weighted the man down .
8/10
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