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The Black Cat (1994) Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat may be the most often-filmed short story of all, inspiring movies (many deviate greatly from the brief text) from Richard Oswald (who made the first version, in 1919's Uncanny Tales, which he remade in 1932), Edgar G. Ulmer (a 1934 classic with Karloff and Lugosi and very little Poe), Dwain Esper (the amazing grindhouse hit Maniac), Albert S. Rogell, Roger Corman (scrambling in A Cask of Amontilladofor an episode of Tales of Terror with Vincent Price and Peter Lorre), Harold Hoffmann, Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, Luigi Cozzi and Dario Argento (half of Two Evil Eyes with Harvey Keitel). Rob Green and Clive Perrott deliver the most faithful filming yet: Perrott is made up to resemble Poe and recites almost all of the original prose, as brief flashbacks illustrate rather than dramatise the events that have brought the protagonist to his wretched state. This is a rare reading of the story that grasps Poe's dry humour (the murderer reminisces that as a child he was the laughing stock of his friends because of his tender-heartedness towards animals) as well as his sense of impending insanity and gathering doom. The soundtrack, augmented by a superb music score and a wonderful symphony
of clanks and creaks, could almost function as a 'talking book' of the
story, but Green effectively visualises the text, emphasising the physical
shackles that bind the mad protagonist and symbolise his mental chains.
When we see the murderer in the flash-backs, he trails the chains that
he wears in the present, and is even tripped up by them rather than
the cat in the build-up to his murder. An odd side-effect of this is
that the eponymous animal is not seen until a flash of animation at
the finale, making this the only version of the story not to be full
of close-ups of hissing and snarling pussycats straining after the significance
the author weighs them down with. As a pure distillation of Poe, this
is worthy of comparison with Edward Abrams and Jan Svankmajer's stabs
at The Pit and the Pendulumand the UPI cartoon of The Tell-Tale
Heart. First Published In: Sight and Sound vol.4 no.12 (December 1994) p.57 (UK) Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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