kapelusznik18
****SPOILERS****Broderick Crawford is the unlikely hero in this haunted house like movie as the klutzy real estate agent Herbert A. Gilmore "Gil" Smith who can't seem to put one foot in front the other without tripping over on it. It's when Henrietta Winslow, Cecilia Loftus, is mysteriously murdered that Gil goes into action trying to uncover her killer among those gathered to hear her will read and who gets all the goodies that she's to leave over to them: It turns out that Mrs. Winslow's cats get the lion shear of her money! This leads to a number of those gathered getting killed by someone who wants to eliminate them in order to get their share of Mrs. Winslow's money as well as her entire mansion.It turns out that the house gardener Eduardo Vigos, Bela Lugosi,knows the person involved in all the murders going on among the invited guests but he's soon eliminated when he's about to expose who did them by the killer. Through the entire movie Gil ends up putting his foot in his mouth at every turn and apologizing to everyone, even the killer, until the final minutes of the movie when he finally sees the light, in the crematory oven, in who's behind them. By then the killer made his or her appearance known and planned to have Gil's girlfriend Elaine, Anna Gwynne, who figured out who the killer was cremated together with the late Mrs. Winslow's cats in order to keep the truth of his actions from seeing the light of day!***SPOILERS*** It was in fact the sinister looking back cat who seems to have supernatural powers who both saves the day as well as Gil & Eline's lives by coming out of the shadows and putting an end to the killers plans. That by it tripping over a lighted candle and setting the killer on fire before he can do any more damage. There's also in the cast Gale Sondergaad as the house maid Abigail Doone who later was to make it big in the in the film "Weird Woman" in which in being the weirdo that she is was the part she was born to star in. We also had Basil Rathborn as Montague Hartley in between his Sherlock Holmes movies roles which was an in joke in the film's dialogue. And finally the future contract killer and cat lover in his break out film "This Gun for Hire" David Ladd who despite playing tough guy and big hero parts in his future movie roles was the smallest or shortest person in the film's entire cast.
lugonian
THE BLACK CAT (Universal,1941), directed by Albert S. Rogell, became the studio's latest contribution to the Edgar Allan Poe based stories, which earlier served Universal the previous decade with its strong retelling of MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932), THE BLACK CAT (1934) and THE RAVEN (1935), all featuring Universal's horror man, Bela Lugosi. Rather than lifting a new title for another very loose adaptation to one of Poe's stories, using the last name of Usher for one of its characters, hence forming THE HOUSE OF USHER, Universal adapted THE BLACK CAT again, this time recalling Lugosi for a minor secondary role where he bears grizzled whiskers and drab working clothes for his troubles. Though not a remake nor the stylish and visually stunning class of Edgar G. Ulmer's directed pre-code chiller from 1934 that initially paired Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi for the first time, this seldom revived edition, regardless of its familiar stock music lifted from SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939), THE BLACK CAT is basically a comedy-mystery with no bearing with Ulmer's BLACK CAT any more than Ulmer's edition having little or no connection to Poe.Taken from an original screenplay by Robert Lees, Fred Rinaldo, Eric Taylor and Robert Neville (were four writers necessary?), it's the old dark house story where various relatives gather in a gloomy estate awaiting for a wealthy aunt, Henrietta Winslow (Cecilia Loftus) to die so that they can collect their inheritance. The relatives consist of Myrna Hartley (Gladys Cooper), Henrietta's niece; Montague Hartley (Basil Rathbone), Mona's husband; Richard Hartley (Alan Ladd), Myrna's piano playing stepson who conducts chemical research in his spare time; Margaret Gordon (Claire Dodd), Henrietta's granddaughter; Eduardo (Bela Lugosi), estate caretaker and gardener; and Elaine Winslow (Anne Gwynne), another granddaughter. Also among the individuals besides Henrietta's cats is Abigail Doone (Gale Sondergaard), a creepy housekeeper who has her moments of mental anguish. Entering the scene during the reading of the will are Hubert "Gil" Smith (Broderick Crawford), a real estate agent and friend of the family, accompanied by his partner, Mr. Penny (Hugh Herbert). Unknown to those in attendance is the final clause of the will claiming that nobody inherits the money until both aunt and her house load of cats are dead. After Aunt Henrietta is found dead, supposedly murdered, a series of mysterious occurrences take place, having Smith, who's highly allergic to cats, along with Mr. Penny, going through secret panels, braving dark passages, and finding a dead body or two along the way.As much as Rathbone's name heads the cast, the film very much belongs to Hugh Herbert, who dominates much of the proceedings with his "woo woos" with Broderick Crawford coming a close second. Herbert's scene where he is offered a cup of boiling tea prepared by Sondergaard ("You'll sleep") does have its sinister moments of humor, Universal style. Though not in the same league as some of the earlier or future made comedy chillers of the like, THE BLACK CAT does contain enough puns and in-jokes to pass for a Bob Hope comedy. One notable in-joke comes where Broderick Crawford quips about Basil Rathbone's character, "He thinks he's Sherlock Holmes," Rathbone's most famous on-screen portrayal that originated in two 1939 20th-Fox mysteries that eventually lead to a newly formed series for Universal shortly afterwards. On the gloomy side with fine photography by Stanley Cortez to his credit, the Winslow estate, with its secret panels and passageways, also contains mortuaries and cemeteries for Henrietta Winslow's cats. There's even a furnace for cremation for both her and the little furry friends upon their deaths. It's no wonder why Henrietta's relatives thought she was insane.Overlooking the fact of Universal reusing the title to the now classic 1934 thriller, and wasting the time and talent of Lugosi for a rather small role with limited dialog creeping through the estate and peeping through windows, THE BLACK CAT can be just as amusing as any other comedy thriller. One would wonder had the latest comedy teams of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello or Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson in the Crawford and Herbert roles might have made a better difference or not. Then again, Abbott and Costello's HOLD THAT GHOST, released that very same year might pass with critics as carbon copies with slight alterations - cats, cats, and more black cats. THE BLACK CAT is worthy viewing mainly for the presence of Universal's stock players rising above an ordinary script, but , especially that of Alan Ladd, billed at the bottom of the cast credits, shortly before achieving overnight stardom in Paramount's THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942).In one of the rare television broadcasts that circulated in the 1970s, the print obtained in the 1973-74 showing from New York City's WOR-TV Channel 9, was one with a slightly altered title of THE BLACK CAT MURDERS, possibly to avoid confusion to the earlier 1934 film of the same name. Distributed to home video in 1998 as part of the Universal Horror Classic series, THE BLACK CAT is also available in the DVD format as well. Not exactly a dog of a movie, it's certainly a cat's meow-mixture for 70 fun-filled minutes. (**1/2 litter boxes)
bkoganbing
Any time you can get as many familiar movie faces in one film viewing should never be passed up. But The Black Cat and there is a dark feline that is always around when something bad happens is a wonderful film that is right on the edge of mystery and comedy and succeeds at both.Partly that's because so many of these people have played sinister roles in other movies you will have a hard time guessing who the real perpetrator is. Even Alan Ladd whose stardom was yet to come had as his debut contract killer Raven in This Gun For Hire.Even Broderick Crawford who appears as the nominal hero of the piece played a lot of villainous thug types. He also played many a dim bulb before his Oscar in All The King's Men and it's in dim bulb mode that Crawford stays in the movie.Crawford is a real estate salesman and he's accompanied by Hugh Herbert who is an antique dealer and the only one you're reasonably sure is the murderer. They've come to make Cecilia Loftus an offer for her creepy old mansion and Herbert wants the furnishings. They arrive just in time to hear what her intentions are via a will to her grasping relatives. But she doesn't get to reveal all before she's murdered and now the hunt for the killer is on. Some more folks also get eliminated before all is revealed.Any film that has folks like those already mentioned plus Gale Sondergaard, Claire Dodd, Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, Gladys Cooper, Anne Gwynne and John Eldredge should not be missed.Wouldn't have been something if Hugh Herbert was the murderer?
utgard14
Old lady gathers her greedy relatives in her gloomy isolated mansion for a reading of her will. Not long after, she winds up dead. Welcome to an old dark house thriller, friends. Yes, it's fairly repetitive of many other such thrillers or comedies but it's pretty entertaining at times. It has an excellent cast, most of which unfortunately have little to do. Broderick Crawford stars in an early role. He's equal parts leading man and buffoon. The kind of part Wayne Morris would have been playing over at WB. Bela Lugosi has a small, thankless part. He spends most of the movie ominously lurking in the shadows and peering in windows. Hugh Herbert provides the movie's comic relief. For the uninitiated that means he fidgets and talks to himself, punctuating every other sentence with "woo hoo." It's not very funny but I found it harmless enough. Maybe I'm just used to Herbert by now. Others may find him irritating so be warned. The rest of the cast includes Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard, Anne Gwynne, Gladys Cooper, and Alan Ladd before he made it big. I agree with another reviewer that this probably would have worked better as an Abbott & Costello movie. Despite the relatively short runtime, it begins to feel overlong as it nears the hour mark. It's enjoyable enough but flawed. Still, anything Universal was putting out in the horror/thriller field in the 1940s was worth watching.
