Lugosi and Karloff are perfect together. There are three movies that these two have important roles, but this is the only one where their roles are of equal importance. (In The Invisible Ray Karloff dominates; in The Raven it is Lugosi.)
The script seems to be storyboarded to take advantage of their accents. One time, when the rather ingenuous romantic lead, David Manners (UH!), dismisses a morbid theory as "superstitious baloney" to which Lugosi- breaking up an ordinary line into an orchestration of musical syllables- replies, "Superstitious, perhaps. Baloney, perhaps not." - each of the five words underlined by a little shift in facial expression.
In the same sequence, Karloff, explaining the fear that has caused Lugosi to throw a knife at (and kill) a cat, delivers a beautifully spoken monologue about the "extreme form" of the phobia, ended it by saying that Lugosi suffers from "...an all-consuming horror---of cats." His perfect diction adds to the effectiveness of the lines; the word "horror" is emphasized, given a menacing intonation, while a pause, and a lift of the eyes upwards in a mock-religious expression, a slight hissing in the final sound, gives the ordinary phrase "of cats" a genuinely frightening connotation.
This is one of the best horror movies of the early thirties. Karloff is evil, yet magnetic, and Lugosi's hero is sympathetic and well-intentioned, but also callous and overtaken by some far less admirable traits. 10/10
The script seems to be storyboarded to take advantage of their accents. One time, when the rather ingenuous romantic lead, David Manners (UH!), dismisses a morbid theory as "superstitious baloney" to which Lugosi- breaking up an ordinary line into an orchestration of musical syllables- replies, "Superstitious, perhaps. Baloney, perhaps not." - each of the five words underlined by a little shift in facial expression.
In the same sequence, Karloff, explaining the fear that has caused Lugosi to throw a knife at (and kill) a cat, delivers a beautifully spoken monologue about the "extreme form" of the phobia, ended it by saying that Lugosi suffers from "...an all-consuming horror---of cats." His perfect diction adds to the effectiveness of the lines; the word "horror" is emphasized, given a menacing intonation, while a pause, and a lift of the eyes upwards in a mock-religious expression, a slight hissing in the final sound, gives the ordinary phrase "of cats" a genuinely frightening connotation.
This is one of the best horror movies of the early thirties. Karloff is evil, yet magnetic, and Lugosi's hero is sympathetic and well-intentioned, but also callous and overtaken by some far less admirable traits. 10/10