The Black Cat

There seem to have been a million of these films made in the late 30s/early 40s, and this one does nothing to make it stand out. The comedy is unfunny and childish, but is also not terribly annoying and painful; just makes you cringe a little. The cinematography is nice, but the comedy aspect detracts from the mystery too much and the visuals go to waste.

I know it's a victim of it's era, but I can't stand the yuk-yuk humor in these who-dun-it thrillers.

My fault: mistaking this for the highly praised, similarly titled film starring Lugosi AND Karloff. Universal's fault: packaging this thing as if it were a horror film. It's not - not even by their early monster movie standards. While the director certainly knows how to manipulate shadows to wonderful effect & the film looks great, if this is anything, it's a precursor to the Abbot & Costello monster movies. If that's your cup of tea, enjoy, but for me the poorly-aged vaudeville act ruined this.

Not The Black Cat I was trying to watch, I was looking for the movie called The Black Cat released about 5 years earlier also featuring Bela Lugosi. This was alright though, Bela plays a Mexican gardener.

i did laugh a few times, and it wasn't painfully obvious who the culprit was right up to the moment of the reveal. gave it a couple extra points just because i enjoy rathbone so much.

Sometimes the comedic part goes a bit far, but most of the time its a very charming and fun mix of mystery and comedy.

"He thinks he's Sherlock Holmes.", referring to Montague Hartley, the character played by Basil Rathbone! Good one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6lD4c0DUQ8 [360p]

I thought this was a lot of fun except for the painfully bad comedy bits by the bumbling Mr. Penny.