THE BLACK CAT (1934)

With special guests Hope Cartelli & Jeff Lewonczyk

Intro, Math Club, and Debate Society (spoiler-free) 00:00-28:41
Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy) 28:42-1:04:12
Superlatives (so. many. spoilers.) 1:04:13-1:27:07

Director Edgar G. Ulmer
Screenplay Peter Ruric, based on a screen story by Ruric and Ulmer, suggested by an 1845 story by Edgar Allan Poe
Featuring Egon Brecher, Harry Cording, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lucille Lund, David Manners, Jacqueline Wells

Released May 7, 1934
Budget  $96,000
Box office $236,000

SPOILER-FREE SYNOPSIS

An American couple, Peter and Joan Allison, are traveling by train through Hungary when they’re told their cabin has been double booked.  Dr. Vitus Werdegast, a psychiatrist just released from eighteen years in a prison camp, soon joins them for the short ride to their destination – the same place Werdegast is going, he claims, to visit an old friend, along with his manservant, Thamal.  On their way into town, the bus that the four are in runs off the road, killing the driver and injuring Joan. They hike to the home of Werdegast’s former military comrade, one Hjalmar Poelzig (PERL-tzig), a renowned architect.  Poelzig’s home may be a modern masterpiece of construction, but it’s also built on the site of a World War I battlefield where thousands of Hungarians lost their lives, and where Werdegast was captured.  Now, having returned, Werdegast is ready to take revenge on the man he claims stole his life, and perhaps, his wife.  But Poelzig has his own surprises in store.  And by the time the Allisons realize what terrors await in Poelzig’s home, it may truly be too late for all of them.

SPOILER-FREE GUEST BIOS

Hope Cartelli and Jeff Lewonczyk are creative polymaths who’ve been deeply involved with New York’s independent theater scene for 15 years now, having worked as associate directors of Williamsburg's Brick Theater for nearly a decade, producing hundreds of shows and festivals.  They’ve created dozens of shows through their own theater company, Piper McKenzie, including horror-adjacent outings, especially through their "Bizarre Science Fantasy" series of silent, dance-theater works.  More recently, the two have been acting, directing, presenting, and entrepreneuring.  Hope is appearing in the ongoing stage soap opera It's Getting Tired Mildred (now in its eighth year), currently running monthly at the Kraine Theater in NYC’s East Village. She has also acted (alongside Jeff) in America Unanswered, a special video episode of the hit horror podcast Tell Me a Story: The True Life of Jakob Stanley.  Jeff is a writer and illustrator who’s published two short books: the art zine Better Bones, and the first installment of an ongoing serial, The Congress of the Monsters, with Book 2 coming out later this year.  Jeff also directed (and Hope acted in) a musical comedy written by William Peter Blatty, based on his screenplay for the 1965 film John Goldfarb, Please Come Home. Favorite recess snack: Combos (Hope).

EPISODE NOTES

Music from “The Black Cat” by Heinz Roemheld.

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CLIP

SUPERLATIVES

The Gaspar Noe Award for Most Disturbing Scene
Hope: Karloff walking through basement looking at his embalmed beauties
Jeff: The flaying of Poelzig
Eric: Poelzig reveals what became of Werdegast’s wife
Bradford: Werdegast touches a sleeping Joan’s hair in train compartment

The Ellen Ripley Award for Character Who Most Deserves to Live
Hope: The guests at the satanic ritual and the servants
Jeff: Werdegast
Eric: Werdegast
Bradford: Werdegast

The Michael Myers Award for Character Who Most Deserves to Die
Hope: The bus driver
Jeff: Poelzig
Eric: The critic who pans Alison’s book
Bradford: Poelzig

The Ken Russell Award for Most Baroque Screen Moment
Hope: The black mass
Jeff: Werdegast sees dead wife and falls back into the glass chart
Eric: Poelzig’s initial entrance
Bradford: The flaying of Poelzig

The Brad Dourif Award for Character Who Could (or Should) Have Been Played by Brad Dourif
Hope: Majordomo
Jeff: The weird servants, Thamal and Majordomo
Eric: Peter Alison
Bradford: Majordomo

FINAL LETTER GRADE

Hope: B+
Jeff: B+
Eric: B+
Bradford: B+