The Black Cat (1934)

A young American (David Manners) and his bride (Julie Bishop, THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY) are on a Hungarian honeymoon when they encounter a doctor (Bela Lugosi in a rare sympathetic role), a political prisoner recently released from a notorious prison. A bus accident on a rainy night causes them to seek shelter at the mountain top home of an architect (Boris Karloff), the leader of a Satanic cult. "Inspired" by the famous Edgar Allan Poe short story, in reality the film has very little except its title in common with the Poe work. Plot wise, it's rather ludicrous but the inventive director Edgar G. Ulmer imbues the film with a queasy ambience and Karloff and Lugosi face off like two veteran prizefighters (it's a draw). The Art Deco art direction of Charles D. Hall is a sight to behold and as much a star of the film as Karloff and Lugosi. Manners and Bishop (acting under the name Jacqueline Wells) are rather irritating as the young lovers but the film has some great lines including the oft quoted, "Superstition, perhaps. Baloney, perhaps not". With Lucille Lund and Egon Brecher.