Blog Essay: The Black Cat [1934]

Written October 30, 2006.
Because this is blog post, it's written in a very personal voice, I hope you enjoy.
[full entry with photos in link at bottom:].

Thanks to the impending holiday, everyone on LJ and in my Blog-friends list, is talking about gay subtext in classic horror films. One of my friends is a die hard Hammer-Horror ‘shipper, and he can go on for hours about the relationship he just knows exists on screen, and off, between Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee.

I’m not the sort to find two men sexy, and then slash them just for kicks, but there are films out there that do indeed drip with unintentional male/male charisma. No one ever talks about the obvious ones, films fueled solely on subtext, where the sexual chemistry is so obvious, it’s just fucking *gay*.


Case in point…1934’s The Black Cat.

It was written by Peter Ruric *cough* and directed by Edgar Ulmer. Despite the presence of a few half-naked women tossed around this post-Hayes Code masterpiece, the real dynamic in this morbid film revolves solely around the relationship between Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi) and Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff).

"You say your soul was killed and that you have been dead all these years. And what of me? Did we not both die here in Marmorus fifteen years ago? Are we any the less victims of the war than those whose bodies were torn asunder? Are we not both the living dead?"
–Poelzig to Werdgast

Uh…ok. These are two men having a conversation with each other here, oh and according to what contrived plot there is, both men are straight...but you know what, straight men don’t talk to each other this way, and if they do, they’re naked in a hotel room somewhere, sharing an after-fuck smoke, with their wives in clueless absentia.

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Much love to Tim Dirks of the FilmSite, for posting key bits of dialogue!
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It’s about 18 years after WW1, and we have the typical unsuspecting “Pure upper-class-American-White-Couple” on their honeymoon in the romantic ALPS. Peter and Joan catch the Orient Express in Hungary, there they share a car with the handsome Dr. Vitus Werdegast [Lugosi is so hot here!:]. Vitus is quiet and amicable, but his obvious PTSD personality comes out in conversation, this makes others consider him...creepy. He explains his creepiness though, when he sees he’s freaking our mild-mannered couple out--he tries to smooth things over:

"I beg your indulgence my friend. Eighteen years ago, I left a girl so like your lovely wife to go to war…She was my wife. Have you ever heard of Kurgaal? It is a prison below Amsk…Many men have gone there. Few have returned. I have returned. After fifteen years, I have returned."

Vitus was recently released from a 15 year stint at a Russian prison. He was taken prisoner during the war; before that, he’d been yanked from his career as a young psychologist, and thrown into the battlefield. Now during the war, he and his regimen were betrayed to the Russians [ergo his capture:] by a friend; he was their commanding officer, Hjalmar Poelzig. While in prison, he's made aware that his wife remarried, and with their daughter, moved on with her life. On the train, Joan and Peter discover that Vitus is going back home to reclaim his wife and daughter.

From the train, they board a bus into the countryside. There’s a storm, because storms are great for horror atmosphere! The bus has an accident on the road, and Joan is so dazed and confused, with a scratch on the shoulder [!?:], they must seek shelter at the nearest residence: the cliff-top fortress of famous Austrian architect Hjalmar Poelzig! It’s ominous, of course, and so very ‘Universal-Horror’. Our host, Poelzig, is just as architecturally aesthetic as the house. Thin, dressed in tight black rob-ish style turtleneck...seriously...I wish I was making this up. No wonder chicks loved Karloff in the 30’s; he's the ultimate gothy flesh and blood biseinen.

Hjalmar is an architect and a wealthy engineer, but during the war he betrayed his troops to the Russians; no one knows this because those thousands of men he betrayed are dead, and their tombstone is his own House! Vitus knows, and it makes him sick, so when they’re alone he lashes out at Hjalmar, reminding him of what a bastard he is.

"You sold Marmorus [the battle fort:] to the Russians. You scurried away in the night and left us to die. Is it to be wondered that you should choose this place to build your house? A masterpiece of construction built upon the ruins of the masterpiece of destruction - a masterpiece of murder. [Legosi’s laughter is so creepy!:] The murderer of ten thousand men returns to the place of his crime. Those who died were fortunate. I was taken prisoner at Kurgaal. Kurgaal, where the soul is killed, slowly. Fifteen years I’ve rotted in the darkness. But not to kill you, but to kill your soul - slowly. Where is my wife, Karen, and my daughter?"

Dude, if I could write angst like that, I’d be published everywhere...I’d be the Koike of Menslove!

So where be subtext? It is a two-way street, right?

Despite the fact that the script clearly indicates that it’s Joan that [Hjalmar:] focuses on, the only intense close ups and character shots on Hjalmar are when he hears Vitus’s voice or even looks in Vitus’s direction. Even the scene where Hjalmar watches the couple kiss, and he grabs onto one of his naked figurines, just shows his sexual frustration...not any real attraction toward the couple, or Joan. [/slasher-reaching moment:]

The name of the film makes sense in the next scene: a black cat appears and freaks Vitus out. Vitus is petrified of black cats; and hurls a knife at it, killing it. Joan reacts as if she’s been stabbed, but of course, that’s part of the plot...but Hjalmar is amused by Vitus’s emotional and violent reaction. [Karloff is so cute when he focuses on Bela.:]

"You must be indulgent with Dr. Werdegast’s weakness. He is the unfortunate victim of one of the commoner phobias, but in an extreme form. He has an intense and all-consuming horror of cats."

Wow, these guys really know each other well, eh?

After everyone goes to bed, Hjalmar goes down some creepy stairs, into the basement. [All castles have basements, cha.:] where he has another black cat waiting for him...[awww!:]...and about six glass cases, each carrying a well preserved dead woman. 0_0.
*[I just want to note here that today, after years of study, we know what is the normal behavior of a necrophiliac. The preservation of the body, the keeping of the object in a condition for admiration, and later use. Back then it could be explained away as a freaky dude keeping dead chicks in glass cases; however, today it is clearly obvious that Hjalmar is a practicing necrophiliac.:]* We cut to the upstairs again, where Hjalmar has gone into Vitus’s dark bedroom. But Peter is in there, not Vitus [they switched rooms!:]

Poelzig: Now Vitus. We have something to settle, we two!
(Peter sits up in bed. From the adjoining room, Vitus appears.)
Vitus: You were seeking me, Hjalmar?

Oh yeah...just kidding...why are you in his bedroom again?

Vitus wants to know where is his wife and kid are, and so Hjalmar offers to show him. He takes him on a tour of the house, but as they enter the second sublevel, Vitus realizes that Hjalmar has used part of the old fortification as décor. It’s a quiet moment between them, with Hjalmar almost trying to get some sort of reaction from Vitus, that isn’t pure hatred. But when he shows off his final piece, in the map room, we gets more than just a fond reaction. It’s Vitus’s dead wife, in a glass case. Hjalmar is fond of embalming, and hoped to preserve her...for Vitus, of course.

Poelzig: Now you see, Vitus, I have cared for her tenderly and well. You will find her almost as beautiful as when you last saw her. She died two years after the war.

Werdegast: How?

Poelzig: Of pneumonia. She was never very strong, you know.

Werdegast: And, and the child, our daughter?

Poelzig: Dead.

Werdegast (tremulously fighting back emotional tears, with his mouth gaping open in horror): And why is she…Why is she like this?

Poelzig: Is she not beautiful? I wanted to have her beauty - always. I loved her too, Vitus.

Werdegast: Lies. All lies Hjalmar. You killed her. You killed her as I’m about to kill you!

ZOMG! He pulls a gun and is seriously going to shoot Hjalmar, but a damn black cat shows up...freaks Vitus out and causes him to fuck up. He falls back, crushes the coffin, the hanging map.

Back upstairs, we discover that Hjalmar has married the daughter. 0_0. He tells her to stay in her room for the rest of tomorrow, there’s no need for her to be out and about with strangers in the house.

Elsewhere, back upstairs, Vitus also has a secret...he’s in cahoots with Hjalmar’s creepy houseman Thamal. In his conversation with Thamal, we learn that Vitus knows about Hjalmar setting dynamite around key portions of the house. What a wack-job. Vitus plans to use those in order to bring down the house...

Later, back in Hjalmar’s room, we discover that he’s a practicing Satanist. [Yeah, the movie jumps the plot shark here...sadly:] As he reads from the Rites of Lucifer [lolz:]: In the night, in the dark of the new moon, the High Priest assembles his disciples for the sacrifice. The chosen maiden.

The next day is all sunshine and happy trees.

Vitus sees Hjalmar watching every move Joan makes, and knows damn well what his old enemy wants her for. He waits till they’re all away from them before sniping at Hjalmar about it. Hjalmar in turn invites Vitus to the Black Mass he’s scheduled for that night. These two are amazing, obviously Vitus has no real issue with Hjalmar's religious preference, he just hates him for fucking over his life and destroying his family.

Poelzig: You’re interested?

Werdegast: Maybe.

Poelzig: I thought so. Well I’m not. Only spiritually.

Werdegast: Spiritually?

Poelzig: Tonight, it is the dark of the moon. We shall gather and…You had better come Vitus. The ceremony will interest you.

Werdegast: Don’t pretend Hjalmar. There was nothing spiritual in your eyes when you looked at that girl. You plan to keep her here.

Poelzig: Perhaps.

Werdegast: I intend to make sure she goes.

Poelzig: Is that a challenge Vitus?

Werdegast: Yes, if you dare to fight it out alone.

Poelzig: Do you dare play chess with me for her?

Werdegast: Yes. I will even play you chess for her - provided if I win, they are free to go.

Poelzig: You won’t win, Vitus.


As they play, the couple decides it’s time to go. Thamal comes and informs them that the car is out of commission…ok, Peter decides to call into Vienna so Joan can get in touch with her family; but the phones out of commission.

Poelzig: Did you hear that, Vitus? The phone is dead. Even the phone is dead.

You can just see the mental-middle-finger aimed at Hjalmar, shining in Vitus’s eyes. [The chemistry between these men is amazing.:] Luckily, being the smart white-boy-roy that he is, Peter senses somethings amiss. [Finally fuckwhit!:] Like the creepy art-deco castle and the dead cat weren’t enough to send your ass back out in the rain the night before!? All hell breaks loose, Thamal knocks out Peter, Joan faints [she’s a woman in a 30’s horror film--go figure:]. Joan ends up locked in a nice room...where she crosses paths with the daughter, who let’s herself in.

Joan: Karen! Not Karen Werdegast?

Karen: Yes, yes, how did you know my name?

Joan: Well I, I know your father.

Karen: Oh no, you are mistaken. My father died in prison. Herr Poelzig married my mother. She died when I was very young.

Joan: And he married you? You’re his wife?

Karen: Yes.

Yeah yeah yeah, do we really care about the female plotlet? No.

Hjalmar comes into the room, finds Karen there, he glares at her, and she goes back in to her room. Hjalmar follows…and kills her ass for disobeying him. [Now there’s a man that loves women.:]

That night, the black mass begins. All the otherwise normal citizens come out in the dark and attend. 0_0. What cult doesn’t have members? They arrive in evening gowns and tuxedos, even Vitus is dressed nice. Hjalmar enters in true fashion, high priest black robe, white collar...the works. Hjalmar performs a black mass ceremony, and for a 1934 film, it’s eerily accurate and displayed without cuts; obviously, despite the Hayes Code, offending Christians was not an issue back then. One of the female cultists is so overcome with emotion [orgasmic:] that she screams out, disrupting everything. I cannot believe they got away this in 1934! LOL! And Vitus, with Thamal, decides to spring into action. They free Joan, and head below to free Peter. Thamal gets shot trying to free Peter, and Joan tells Vitus about his daughter.

Vitus goes looking for her, and finds her lying dead on a slab in Hjalmar’s embalming room. He’s so angry at this point, his mind snaps. He goes looking for Hjalmar. Hjalmar is looking for Joan, but finds Vitus first and they fight! Thamal makes one last effort to help Vitus before bleeding to death, giving Vitus the upper hand in the fight.

The final scene, which is so incredibly creepy and horrid IMHO, not because of what you see, but because of what you don’t see, is made more chilling by Vitus, who has simply lost it all at this point. His moral faculties have just been unplugged. Lugosi is brilliant here as a man who’s gone off his rocker, Karloff is sexy, hanging from his own rack, naked...listening without a hint of fear, almost as if he’s looking forward to what’s going to happen to him:

"Do you know what I am going to do to you now? No? Did you ever see an animal skinned, Hjalmar? That’s what I’m going to do to you now – flay the skin from your body…slowly…bit by bit!"

Joan is witness to it, she starts screaming her ass off. Of course, in trying to save his woman from evil, Peter [retard:] shoots Vitus; and as he and Joan scurry away, Vitus and Hjalmar are both alone, bleeding to death and in pain. Vitus crawls over to the switch on the wall, that will set off all the dynamite he’s planted around the house[Yeah, this dynamite just appeared suddenly:]. Vitus’s final words: "It has been a good game."

The film ends on a truly sarcastic note. Peter and Joan are back in safety land, and Peter’s newest novel, based heavily on their ordeal, is panned by critics as ludicrous. Ha Ha.

I’m so fantarded about this movie and all the subtextual nonsense it’s filled my head with...yes, there's no hope for me.

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