MAD LOVE
US, 1935, 68 minutes, Black and white.
Peter Lorre, Colin Clive.
Directed by Karl Freund.
Mad Love has a reputation as an effective horror atmospheric film of the 30s. It is based on a popular novel, The Hands of Orlac. (Other films with strange and murderous hands, include The Beast with Five Fingers, and Oliver Stone's The Hand).
The film is another tour de force for Peter Lorre as a bald, bug-eyed and intense mad surgeon. Colin Clive (Frankenstein) is the pianist whose hands are crushed and who receives the hands of a knife-throwing killer. There are suggestions of horror, especially in the presentation of the Grand Guignol theatre. However, the film is not particularly explicit in its presentation of violence, more by suggestion and atmosphere. Direction is by photographer Karl Freund.
1. Popular horror drama of the 30s? In retrospect? Suggestion?
2. Black and white photography, studio sets for French atmosphere? The musical score? Stars?
3. The title, the focus on Dr. Gogol? And his intensity, his love for Yvonne, for her statue as Galatea and his seeing himself as Pygmalion?
4. The focus on the horror theatre, the performance and the touches of sadism, the museum and the statues, the attendants and the atmosphere of ugliness and horror? Dr Gogol and his regularly going to the theatre?
5. The character of Dr. Gogol, Peter Lorre and his appearance, speaking manner, going to the theatre, working with the Chinese doctor, the infatuation with Yvonne, his shock of hearing of her marriage? Going to the party and kissing her? His wanting to possess her? The obsession? The execution of the criminal, the operation, Yvonne's, plea to him, his plan for the hands? His controlling the corpse, the head and the body? His vengeance on Orlac? The killings? His going to the museum, the statue of Galatea, the real Yvonne, his thinking he was bringing her alive? The madness and the theme of: each man kills the thing he loves, the attempted murder, his death?
6. Yvonne, her place in the theatre, marriage to Orlac, listening to him on the radio, her love for him, the plan to retire? Her friendship with the maid? Her fascination with Dr Gogol, horror at his advances? The train crash, her grief, her plea to Gogol, the hands? Her love for her husband, as the statue, the threat to her life?
7. Orlac and his plan, compositions, on the train, meeting the killer, the train crash, the loss of his hands, the new hands, their acting without his control, with the knives, the danger, discussions with the police and the reporter? Taking the knife, killing Gogol?
8. The reporter, listening to Gogol, the puzzle about the executed man's body, discussions With the police commissioner, with Orlac?
9. The killer, his eccentricity, the discussion on the train, the man wanting his autograph? His seeming charm and pleasantness, his youth, going away to the circus? Yet deadly? The execution, his final words? His body and his head? His hands going on Orlac?
10. The police, the investigations?
11. The atmosphere of horror films of the 30s? Black and white, suggestion? This film in that tradition?
