Bela Lugosiwas one of horror cinema’s biggest stars in the Golden Age of Hollywood, and during the first two decades of talkie movies, he starred in the same film twice. Most people know Lugosifrom his Universal Horror output, where he played Dracula in the first Universal Horror Monsters movie the company released. He also went on to play Ygor inSon of Frankensteinand as themonster himself inFrankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.However, he also took on other horror roles.
Most notably, he starred in films likeWhite ZombieandBlack Friday, as well as threeEdgar Allan Poe adaptationswithMurders in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat, andThe Raven. Those movies all remain beloved by classic horror fans to this day, withthe two best beingWhite ZombieandThe Black Cat.What is most interesting about the latter movie is that seven years after Lugosi took on a role in the Poe adaptation, he appeared in a second version of the film, but to lesser success.
Bela Lugosi Starred In The Black Cat In Both 1934 & 1941
The Horror Icon Starred In Very Different Versions Of The Edgar Allan Poe Story
The Black Catisan Edgar Allan Poe short story from 1843about a man who suffers from alcoholism and begins abusing his pets. When one of his pet cats bites him, he cuts its eye out and then hangs it from a tree. Soon, his house burns down, and later, he finds another black cat resembling the former one. When his wife stops him from killing it, he kills her and then buries her in the wall of his basement. It is the cat who leads the police to find her body and dooms the man to his downfall.
While this was the short story, neither of the Universal Studios adaptations had anything to do with the story other than it being an influence. In 1934, the studio made the first version ofThe Black Cat,starring both Lugosi andBoris Karloff, who played the original Frankenstein’s Monster. It was a rare chance for Lugosi to play the story’s hero, even though he committed one of the most gruesome moments at the end. Lugosi stars as a soldier released from a World War I POW camp seeking revenge against the man responsible for putting him there (Karloff).
Lugosi agreed to remake the same story seven years later.
When Lugosi’s Dr. Vitus Werdegast is involved in a bus accident with two young American honeymooners, they all end up forced to take shelter in Karloff’s Poelzig’s mansion. He soon learns that Poelzig has been responsible for some reprehensible things andexacts horrific revenge against the man in this pre-Hays Code horror filmwhere the hero does gruesomely horrible things to his enemy. While it was a horror masterpiece, Lugosi agreed to remake the same story seven years later.
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However, unlike the 1934 version, the 1941 film was an actual horror comedy that bore no similarity to the first film. This time around, Lugosi starred alongside Basil Rathbone. This version has no similarity to the Poe story or the 1934 film. In this story, a wealthy woman is murdered, and her family shows up for the reading of the will. One of them is the killer. Lugosi had a much smaller role here, playing a mysterious servant, a considerable downgrade from the first movie.
Why Bela Lugosi’s Original Version Of The Black Cat Is The Best
The First Version Has Bela Lugosi At His Best
It makes little sense why Universal Studios made a secondThe Black Catmovie after a successful first film. The second movie’s biggest downfall is thatit completely wastes the appearances of Bela Lugosi and Basil Rathbone. While they were the biggest horror names in the cast, they did very little and appeared even less. Instead, the comedy actors Hugh Herbert, Broderick Crawford, and Anne Gwynne spend the entire movie either screaming in panic, looking confused, or sharing sinister glances.
Comparatively, the firstBlack Catfrom 1934 was a brilliant horror movie, matching well with most of the non-Universal Monster horror movies of the 1930s. Karloff showed charisma as the mad scientist, leading a cult of Satanists, a nice changefrom his more somber Frankenstein’s Monster. It was nice to see Lugosi as a hero, but when he gained his revenge at the end, he didn’t look like one, thanks to the Hays Code not being in effect yet. No one remembers the comedy movie, but the firstBela Lugosiversion ofTheBlack Catis a minor masterpiece.
