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Mad Love (1935)
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302509984
Format: Black & White, NTSC
ISBN: 630250998X
Label: MGM (Warner)
Languages: English (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Release Date: September 01, 1998
Running Time: 68 minutes
Studio: MGM (Warner)
Theatrical Release Date: July 12, 1935
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Editorial Review:
Beautiful Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake) is the star of a Grand Guignol theatrical production; creepy Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) is infatuated with her, going into a swoon during her onstage torture scenes and sending mash notes to her dressing room. The doctor is devastated when she plans to leave the stage and go on tour with her husband, Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive), a concert pianist. Gogol buys Yvonne's wax figure and keeps it in his house, feeding his preoccupation with her as he slips further into madness. Disaster strikes, however, when Orlac's hands are ruined in a train accident; seeing his chance, Gogol locates Rollo, a knife-throwing murderer who has an upcoming appointment with the guillotine. The murderer's hands are affixed to the pianist's stumps, and soon Orlac discovers a newfound penchant for flinging knives with deadly accuracy. He quarrels with his father over money for his medical bills, and when the father turns up dead, Orlac is arrested for his murder. After rigging himself up with steel gloves and a grotesque neck brace, Gogol convinces the rather credulous Orlac that he is Rollo, complete with reattached head and metallic hands, and that Orlac is responsible for his father's murder.
Director Karl Freund's name will be familiar to fans of I Love Lucy; he became the chief cinematographer for Desilu Studios in the '50s, after an illustrious career that included Murnau's The Last Laugh and Lang's Metropolis. Teaming up with cameraman Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives), Freund made Mad Love into one of the most European-flavored Hollywood horror pictures of the '30s. The shot compositions are dominated by cathedral and arch shapes that recall the most inventive expressionist shadowplay of the time. Lorre's performance is a perfect descent into obsession and madness, his bulging, heavy-lidded eyes making him both sinister and pathetic as the crazed Gogol. Lorre's character is actually far more disturbing than the rather hoary tale of the murderer's hands. Drake and Clive, on the other hand, turn in some delightfully overheated performances (as does Three Stooges foil Ted Healy for comic relief). --Jerry Renshaw
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Fun, if groanworthy in parts.
Mad Love (Karl Freund, 1935)
While Karl Freund is one of classic cinema's greatest cinematographers (he's best known today, probably, for being the guy placing the cameras for I Love Lucy), he did get behind the camera and direct every now and again. Ten times, to be exact, of which only one remains well-known today-- the Boris Karloff hit The Mummy. Mad Love, Freund's final film as a director, is to be blunt nowhere near the level of The Mummy, but it certainly has its moments.
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Rating: - Mad About The Girl
Brilliant surgeon Dr Gogol is in `mad love' with actress Yvonne Orlac. Night after night he watches her performance in a Grand Guignol production where he almost passes out with ecstasy during her torture scenes. Clearly insane, Gogol's final decent into madness is exacerbated by the news that Yvonne is retiring from acting to tour with her genius pianist husband Stephen.
Gogol's evenings are spent lamenting his loss with a waxwork replica of the actress; regaling it with declarations ... Read More
Rating:  - It's all in the hands
Fine horror gem starring Peter Lorre doing what he does best: scaring the daylights out of viewers by going over the deep end into madness. He plays a doctor who is in love with Frances Drake, who in turn is married to concert pianist Colin Clive. When Clive loses his hands in a train accident, Lorre gives him new ones - that once belonged to a murderer who specialized in knife-throwing (an idea copied later most memorably in BLACK FRIDAY). Lorre schemes to get rid of Clive by killing Clive's stepfather ... Read More
Rating: - "EACH MAN KILLS THE THING HE LOVES BEST!"
Peter Lorre stars as the evil Dr. Gogol, A man obsessed with the beautiful Yvonne Orlac{Frances Drake}. But his love turns deadly when he discovers she is to be married to pianist Stephan Orlac{Colin Clive}. To stop the marriage, When Stephan's hands are ripped off in a train accident, The mad doctor grafts on knife thrower's hands! After murdering his father, Stephan is charged with murder. To get help, Yvonne goes to Dr. Gogol's house, Only to discover his wax replica of her in his study. Finding her in ... Read More
Rating: - From A Lorre Fan!
This movie is a strange one. Some of the acting is bad, the premise of the story is pretty far out in left field, and Ted Healy's attempt at comedy is irritating. But this is quibbling. The whole movie is no more or no less than a stellar performance by Peter Lorre. His mad Dr. Gogol is one of the most over the top performances ever seen.
Yes, this movie is a strange one, but for a Lorre fan, a must-see! Recommended!
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