Mad Love (1935) - Episode 81 - Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

“I have conquered science! Why can't I conquer love?” That’s the age-old question, isn’t it? Join this episode’s Grue-Crew - Whitney Collazo, Chad Hunt, Joseph Perry, and Jeff Mohr - as they show some mad love for Peter Lorre’s performance in Mad Love (1935).

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era
Episode 81 – Mad Love (1935)

Paris, France: a demented surgeon's obsession with a British actress leads him to secretly replace her concert pianist husband's train-wreck-mangled hands with those of a guillotined murderer. . . with a gift for knife-throwing.

IMDb

 

• Director: Karl Freund
• Writers: 
  • Maurice Renard (from the novel: "Les Mains D'Orlac"), 
  • Florence Crewe-Jones (translation and adaptation: novel "The Hands of Orlac")
  • Guy Endore (adaptation)
  • P.J. Wolfson (screenplay)
  • John L. Balderston (screenplay)
• Photographed by: Chester A. Lyons, Gregg Toland
• Cast
  • Peter Lorre as Dr. Gogol. 
  • Frances Drake as Yvonne Orlac. 
  • Colin Clive as Stephen Orlac. 
  • Ted Healy as Reagan, an American reporter
  • Sara Haden as Marie, Yvonne's maid
  • Edward Brophy as Rollo the Knife-Thrower
  • Henry Kolker as Prefect Rosset
  • Keye Luke as Dr. Wong
  • May Beatty as Françoise, Gogol's drunken housekeeper
  • Billy Gilbert as autograph seeker on the train

Your Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Grue-Crew finally got around to Mad Love, the 1935 gem directed by Karl Freund and featuring a stellar performance from Peter Lorre. Whitney is impressed by how Yvonne Orlac handles the excessive creepiness of Dr. Gogol. Ted Healy and May Beatty, as an American reporter and Dr. Gogol’s maid, provide needed comic relief from the rest of the film’s heavy tone and tickle Chad’s and Joseph’s funnybones. Jeff points out Oscar-winner Gregg Toland’s involvement as the cinematographer of Mad Love.

It’s unfortunate that Mad Love has limited streaming or Blu-ray availability at this writing. Lorre’s performance alone is worth a quality, in-depth treatment, and Mad Love has much to offer beyond that.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era puts out a new episode every two weeks. The next episode in their very flexible schedule will be Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told (1967), chosen by Whitney.

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