Mad Love (1935)

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Mad Love (1935); Karl Freund
Topic Started: Oct 18 2009, 03:49 PM (30 Views)
Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer	Oct 18 2009, 03:49 PM Post #1
Balconeer Creeper Posts: 14,178 Group: Members Member #244 Joined: July 6, 2007	Peter Lorre is Dr. Gogol, a brilliant surgeon who is smitten with actress Yvonne Orlac (the beautiful Francis Drake). The good doctor has seen all fortysomething of Yvonne's performances in a play about torture, and the doc really seems to dig the scene where she is branded with a hot iron. He constantly sends her flowers, and after the last performance, he shows up in her dressing room, and professes his desire for her. Yvonne tells the doc that she is married to the famous concert pianist Stephen Orlac, and you can tell that if she wasn't married to Stephen, she would not be interested in Gogol, because he gives her the heebie jeebies (as well as giving the HJs to the viewers). Stephen Orlac is in a train wreck and his hands are mutilated, and his wife turns to Dr. Gogol to help save his hands. The deranged doctor agrees, but he transplants the hands of a knife-throwin' killer onto the pianist. I'll just say, this causes some problems! I watched this last night on TCM On Demand, and it was about 71 minutes... just perfect. Lorre is creepy as hell as the lovestruck doctor, and there are some scenes where he does "looking deranged" perfectly. Colin Clive runs around screaming, "My hands, they're alive, they're alive!" Okey, I made that up. Stony's Favorite Scene: I'm not gonna mention my fave scene because I think it would give away one of the surprises in the film (I'm probably the only Balconeer who hasn't seen this as of last night), so I'll mention the scene right after the one mentioned above. After Lorre and Drake meet for the first time, and she is shaken by the doctor, she leaves the doc in her dressing room to attend a party in her honor for the last performance. The cast and crew are all standing around a cake, and one of them yells, "Cake and a kiss for everyone." Drake gives a few of the crew one of those right cheek to right cheek, then left cheek to left cheek sorta kisses. One of the crew sees Lorre off to the side and they spout, "It's Dr. Gogol, give him some cake and a kiss." Lorre walks up to Drake in front of everyone and grabs her by both sides of her head and plants a kiss right on her mouth. Lorre looks manical, Drake looks scared to death, and the cast and crew applaud and scream approvingly. Stony's Ranking: 4 Bong Hits Outta 5.
	"She's got style, she's got grace She's got long, long legs, she's got... Savoir Faire"


CliffClaven	Oct 18 2009, 09:09 PM Post #2
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 231 Group: Members Member #712 Joined: March 30, 2009	Cool note on the DVD commentary: The film was originally to end with an added scene of the hero in concert, free of the presumed curse of the killer's hands. But it was released with the more dramatic and ambiguous rescue of the heroine. How often does Hollywood trade a bland happy ending for a darker one?


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