The Black Cat
(1941), 70 min. b&w

Horror subject has been poorly written by no less than four scenarists and loosely produced by Burt Kelly, a pretty old hand in the B-making ranks. A large and capable cast tries to pull a wagon with traces made of string thus they can't be blamed for getting nowhere.

A short story by Edgar Allan Poe caused the picture to be made. Poe may not be so much at fault, however, as those who took his yarn in hand, moulded it into a 70-minute bore and are now out seeking an indulgent market for the finished work. Although four writers were required, the combined talent of all has produced little. Among other things the dialog is trite. Result at comedy is even less than that a typical crack being: "Everything around here is for the cats, that's why the place is going to the dogs."

Referred to is the bleak and gloomy old house owned by an erratic woman who is bugs about felines. She even maintains a crematorium for those that kick off. A flock of relatives, near and fairly distant, are waiting for her to die so that they may share in her will. Knowing in advance what she is going to leave them one relative murders her whereupon they all learn that they don't get their bequests until all the cats have gone. Meantime, a faithful housekeeper continues in charge. A succession of murders figure, but none in reality or on the screen, were ever so uninteresting.

Brod Crawford (billed that way instead of Broderick) and Hugh Herbert are outsiders in the action, all of which takes place at and around the musty old house. Crawford is there trying to buy it for a client, Herbert having come along to get in the way. He's an antique hound, but only meagrely funny.

Bela Lugosi plays a caretaker who is constantly leering in windows while Basil Rathbone is one of the scheming heirs. His wife, played by Gladys Cooper, is another. Gale Sondergaard manages to be appropriately menacing and dubious while Ann Gwynne, as the heroine who's fond of Crawford, adds sweetness to the sour scenes. Char.

—Variety, April 30, 1941, p. 16

With only one climactic situation suggested by the original Poe tale, the film opens with the grasping relatives of eccentric old Cecilia Loftus waiting for news of her death. The cat-loving spinster recovers, however, and reads them her will containing generous bequests which cannot be filled while her housekeeper (Gale Sondergaard) is still living. That night Miss Loftus is poisoned, later the sinister Miss Sondergaard is found hanged and all the rest become suspects. The feeble-minded gardener (Bela Lugosi) is also killed and the youngest niece (Anne Gwynne) is rescued from a horrible death in the cat crematory before the identity of the killer is disclosed.

In its proper place, Hugh Herbert's woo-woo comedy is amusing but, in this instance, Director Albert S. Rogell has frequently permitted it to shatter the eerie mood. Broderick Crawford gets a few laughs with his dim-witted antics, but he is scarcely the type to handle the romantic interest. Outstanding in the cast are Gale Sondergaard, as the menacing housekeeper, Cecilia Loftus, as the querulous old spinster, and Gladys Cooper, who contributes several splendid dramatic moments. Two of Hollywood's ace horror men, the suave Basil Rathbone and the accented Bela Lugosi are wasted in unimportant parts with the latter having only a few close-ups and a half-dozen lines.

Leyendecker

—Film Bulletin, May 3, 1941, p. 7

Rathbone is properly sinister and heartless, Hebert is amusing as an antique buyer, Crawford does well with his part, Bela Lugosi adds a note of horror to the cast, and Gale Sondergaard, Anne Gwynne, Glady Cooper, Cecilia Loftus, Claire Dodd, John Eldredge and Alan Ladd round out the cast. Albert S. Rogell directed from an original screenplay by Robert Lees, Fred Rinaldo, Eric Taylor and Robert Neville. Direction and screenplay are both good.

Crawford, a real estate agent, takes Herbert, an antique dealer, out to the estate of Miss Loftus, said to be dying by Rathbone, an in-law who is in need of money. She recovers, but is murdered, and things happen fast and furiously with plenty of chills and lots of laughs before the killer is caught, and it turns out to be a person audiences will not suspect.

—The Film Daily, April 28, 1941, p. 6

Under Albert S. Rogell's direction, the mystery is baffling until the very end, when the identity of the killer is divulged. In the events leading up to the climax, he has intermingled suspense with comedy and the combination works out very well.

The first murder is that of an old woman, cremated, which leaves the will to be disputed by the members of her family and the housekeeper, Gale Sondergaard. Secret passages, a spooky crematory, figures in the dark and a couple of more murders, one the housekeeper and the other a caretaker, Bela Lugosi, subsequently have their inning.

Hugh Herbert handles the comedy and repeatedly deflates the tension in a manner which drew many chuckles from the patrons at the Rialto on Broadway. Broderick Crawford is the hero who wanders about in quandary, until he finally discovers the murderess and saves the girl, Anne Gwynne, from the crematory. Basil Rathbone is the husband of the murderess, who is the daughter of the old woman. The daughter commits the crimes in a desperate effort to provide Rathbone with funds and thus hold him.

—Motion Picture Daily, April 28, 1941, p. 5

Edgar Allen Poe Up-to-Date

Derived by four writers from the original work by the late Edgar Allen Poe, this tale of murder and suspicion of murder, in a house full of cats, secret passages and heirs to a fortune, stand head and shoulders above most of the season's contribution to the thrill-chill-kill school of production. It treats its original and its function with respect, offends the plausibilities no more than is minimum for this type of story, and it supplies comedy that serves it purpose as relief without diluting the sense of menace on which it depends for satisfaction of its audiences.

The plot contains ingredients which have been used by many a producer for many a purpose—the last will and testament of the wealthy eccentric, in this case a woman fond of cats, the several heirs covetous of the inheritance, the servant who looks capable of any variety of crime, the storm, the banging shutters, all the trimmings—but they are employed as befits a commonsense job of scaring the customers into ecstasy before explaining how it all happens. The story stays on the beam and the tension is unbroken from start to finish.

Although all the members of the cast satisfy the demands of the occasion, Hugh Herbert is a standout as the member in charge of comedy and Broderick Crawford impresses as the young man who carries the ball, so to speak, as to narrative. Basil Rathbone and Gale Sondergaard are the runners-up.

Production by Burt Kelly is a solid job, as is direction by Albert S. Rogell, and the art direction of Jack Otterson gives to the investiture the Poe atmosphere with distortion neither to the right nor to the left of realism.

Previewed at studio. —W.R.W.

—Motion Picture Herald, May 3, 1941, p. 38

It's all been done before—the murders, the eerie old manse, the heirs who all become suspects, the blundering young man (this time it's a real-estate salesman) who eventually solves the mystery—but for some reason it still remains good entertainment.

It is even better entertainment than usual with such actors as Basil Rathbone, Hugh Herbert, Broderick Crawford and Bela Lugosi to raise goose pimples on the customers. Herbert, of course, tickles the funny bone when the others aren't "spooking," and even when they are, for that matter.

Gale Sondergaard, as the housekeeper, is the scariest dame you can imagine.

Your Reviewer Says: Boo! It's a scary-cat.

—Photoplay, August 1941, p. 102

AUDIENCE SLANT: (Adult) Average mystery "shocker" will please fairly well in average communities.

BOX OFFICE SLANT: Billed in the "horror show" manner, it should draw satisfactorily in most situations.

Plot: Grandma Cecilia Loftus' relatives await her death so they can get their share of her estate. But after one of them murders her to rush matters, they find all bequests are withheld until the housekeeper, Gale Sondergaard, also dies. It isn't long until she, too, is put out of the way. Eventually the murderer is caught.

Comment: With all the regulation mystery trappings, this is a fairly satisfying picture, although much padding in the form of comedy relief (a necessary evil in mystery films) hampers the story's progress considerably. Not until near the end does suspense begin to grip the spectator. Since four scripters worked on the screenplay, it is logical to assume that one had charge of the drama, another the moving walls and sliding panels, another the inevitable thunder storm that always takes place when eerie things are going on in an isolated mansion. Hugh Herbert's comedy is good in spots; at other times it becomes monotonous, slows up the proceedings. Nevertheless, as mysteries go, this one is liable to draw well for the showman who exploits it in the "horror show" manner. The four principal characters, besides doing good work, are also well known to most moviegoers. The "black cat" motif should dominate all your displays.

Catchline: "The trail of the cat leads to your weirdest, wildest chills and thrills!"

—Showmen's Trade Review, April 26, 1941, p. 9