The Black Cat (1941) – Review

The 1930s and 1940s were a Golden Age of “Old Dark House” stories with such offerings as The Cat and the Canary and Horror Island populating theatres, but when you blend that “Old Dark House” setting with one of the works by the greatest Gothic writers of all time, Edgar Allan Poe, you are pretty much guaranteed a great flick, which is what we got with Universal’s The Black Cat. Will it be a faithful adaptation of said work? Probably not, but it will most likely be very entertaining.

During the opening credits, we get a title card stating, “Suggested by the story by Edgar Allan Poe” and that should give one a clue as to just how close this will be as an adaptation of the original story. For context, Poe’s story dealt with a man and his problem with black cats, leading to him murdering his wife and walling up her body with the cat, while in this film, we have a rich old cat lady whose greedy relatives are all waiting around to inherit her money and estate, with at least one of them ready to rush things along if need be. So one can safely say that the screenwriters of this movie took a few liberties with the source material because other than an ominous black cat there is not much here to compare it to the Poe short story.

We do get a crematorium/mausoleum with a cool statue of a black cat.

The plot of this movie deals with all the relatives of “Cat Lady” Henrietta Winslow (Cecilia Loftus) gathering at her spooky mansion in the hope that she will kick the bucket sooner than later so that they can each get a piece of the inheritance. Director Albert S. Rogell provides us with quite the array of suspects in The Black Cat, with the most prominent being Montague Hartley (Basil Rathbone) who is married to Henrietta’s niece Myrna (Gladys Cooper) but who clearly has an eye for the much younger granddaughter Margaret Gordon (Claire Dodd) and also has some debts hanging over his head. Then there is Richard Hartley (Alan Ladd), Myrna’s son from a previous marriage, whose knowledge of chemistry makes him a suspect when an attempt to poison Henrietta fails.  And finally, there is her granddaughter Elaine Winslow (Anne Gwynne) who is to inherit the house. All of these greedy bastards would love to get their inheritance as soon as possible but when Henrietta is found dead in her crematorium – built to cremate and house the ashes of her beloved cats – they learn that the will has an addendum which states that no one gets a thing while housekeeper Abigail Doone (Gale Sondergaard) is still “alive and well” and taking care of the cats at Winslow Manor.

I wonder who is going to end up dead next.

To spice things up we have an old friend of the family, Hubert Smith (Broderick Crawford), arriving with the hopes of brokering a real estate deal with whichever family member lands the house, and along for the ride is his friend Mr. Penny (Hugh Hubert) a rather clumsy and larcenous antique dealer who spends the bulk of the film bumbling around and breaking things, claiming “That is how antiques are made.” It is important to note that one’s enjoyment of this film will greatly stem from how much of Hugh Hubert’s brand of comedy you can stand because even I, who has a high threshold of silly comedy, found his character to be very trying. We must now mention the final suspect in this murder mystery, who is Henrietta’s gardener Eduardo Vigos (Bela Lugosi) who is also a blatant Red Herring.

“Don’t mind me, lurking is just a hobby of mine.”

Stray Observations:

• Broderick Crawford comments that Montague Hartley “He thinks he’s Sherlock Holmes” which was a nice nod to the fact that Basil Rathbone had already played in two Holmes films, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
• Bela Lugosi had earlier starred in 1934’s The Black Cat, alongside Boris Karloff, which like this was an adaptation, albeit a darker and more violent adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s story than this outing.
• Universal horror fans may recognize the interiors and exteriors of the Winslow Mansion as having appeared in Night Monster, The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Ghost, and Son of Dracula.
• The only real connection to the Edgar Allan Poe story is when a black cat is trapped inside a crematorium with the damsel in distress and its yowling alerts the hero.
• Gale Sondergaard is pretty much playing the same character from her turn in The Cat and the Canary. If you need a creepy housekeeper look no further than Mz. Sondergaard.

Who could ever suspect her?

One of the most striking aspects of The Black Cat is its atmospheric cinematography and set design. The film masterfully creates a sense of dread and unease, eerie compositions, and oppressive architecture to heighten the tension, which works as a nice counterpoint to the film’s somewhat comedic moments. Without a doubt, cinematographer Stanley Cortez was a master of light and shadow thus the Winslow mansion itself, with its strange and intricate design, becomes a character of its own, adding an extra layer of mystery and horror to the narrative. However, it’s important to note that the film does deviate significantly from Edgar Allan Poe’s original story, only borrowing the title and a “few” thematic elements.

Who will be the next victim?

As an “Old Dark House” movie The Black Cat has all the prerequisite tropes; a dark and stormy night, secret passageways, a washed-out bridge, cut phone lines and even a grasping hand from out of the shadows, sadly, it also has some very tiresome comedic schtick surrounding the bumbling and inept Mr. Penny who is far more annoying than he is funny, that said, Broderick Crawford is quite amusing as the wannabee hero and him futilely trying to solve the mystery is the glue that holds this movie together as is any time he has to face off against Basil Rathbone.

“I’m telling you, the game is definitely afoot.”

In conclusion, The Black Cat is a classic horror film that showcases the talents of its ensemble cast, with notable performances by Basil Rathbone, Broderick Crawford, and Gale Sondergaard. It effectively combines elements of mystery, horror, and comedy creating a chilling cinematic experience. Fans of Edgar Allan Poe’s work may not appreciate its use liberal use of the short story but those who appreciate atmospheric horror will find themselves engrossed in this captivating tale of greed and murder in an old dark house.