"The Black Cat" is not to be confused with the far superior1934 film of the same name. It's a bit of a mess really given the cast.
The story revolves around a group of greedy relatives waiting around for rich aunt Henrietta Winslow (Cecelia Loftus) to die. Fodder for a mystery you say. Maybe, but for some unknown reason the studio decided to turn it into a Bob Hope type scary movie. They cast Broderick Crawford who was about as funny as top billed Basil Rathbone, as a bumbling real estate buyer and the annoying Hugh (woo woo) Herbert as an antiques expert. And who was responsible for that unreal cat's meow.
Henrietta defying reports of her impending death, reads her will to the waiting relatives. Montague Hartley (Rathbone, his wife Myrna (Gladys Cooper) and her son Richard (Alan Ladd) as well as Elaine Winslow (Anne Gwynne) and others have mixed reactions to their coming inheritances, To expedite matters, the old lady is murdered in the crematoriam where she had gone to cremate one of her cats that had taken poison meant for her.
We are then ex[posed to the usual secret passages and sliding panels as Hubert Smith (Crawford) and Mr. Penny fumble about. Bela Lugosi as Eduardo and Gale Sondergaard try their best to add some sinister element to the story. Finally, the murderer is discovered and that's it.
Rathbone is totally wasted in his role. A reference to "Sherlock Holmes" is made in passing. Lugosi, who had been in the 1934 version with Boris Karloff and Sondergaard, the future Spider Lady to Rathbone's Holmes are both wasted here as well. Alan Ladd was just about to emerge as a major star which Universal played up here.
Could have been a reasonable thriller if they had eliminated the comedic aspects.
The story revolves around a group of greedy relatives waiting around for rich aunt Henrietta Winslow (Cecelia Loftus) to die. Fodder for a mystery you say. Maybe, but for some unknown reason the studio decided to turn it into a Bob Hope type scary movie. They cast Broderick Crawford who was about as funny as top billed Basil Rathbone, as a bumbling real estate buyer and the annoying Hugh (woo woo) Herbert as an antiques expert. And who was responsible for that unreal cat's meow.
Henrietta defying reports of her impending death, reads her will to the waiting relatives. Montague Hartley (Rathbone, his wife Myrna (Gladys Cooper) and her son Richard (Alan Ladd) as well as Elaine Winslow (Anne Gwynne) and others have mixed reactions to their coming inheritances, To expedite matters, the old lady is murdered in the crematoriam where she had gone to cremate one of her cats that had taken poison meant for her.
We are then ex[posed to the usual secret passages and sliding panels as Hubert Smith (Crawford) and Mr. Penny fumble about. Bela Lugosi as Eduardo and Gale Sondergaard try their best to add some sinister element to the story. Finally, the murderer is discovered and that's it.
Rathbone is totally wasted in his role. A reference to "Sherlock Holmes" is made in passing. Lugosi, who had been in the 1934 version with Boris Karloff and Sondergaard, the future Spider Lady to Rathbone's Holmes are both wasted here as well. Alan Ladd was just about to emerge as a major star which Universal played up here.
Could have been a reasonable thriller if they had eliminated the comedic aspects.