The Black Cat + Introduction by Kim Luperi
- Sat, Mar 21
The Frida Cinema's seating is first-come, first-serve. For our Midnight Screenings, please plan on arriving by 11:30pm to ensure ample time for parking, picking up concessions, and securing optimal seats. Screening will begin promptly at midnight.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer Run Time: 65 min. Release Year: 1934
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, David Manners, Egon Brecher, Julie Bishop
Join us for the final film of our Pre-Code Day celebration as we present a brand new 4K restoration of Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat! Joining us for a special pre-screening introduction for the film will be Kim Luperi, the co-author of the TCM/Running Press book Pre-Code Essentials: Must-See Cinema from Hollywood’s Untamed Era, 1930-1934!
Unlike the gothic fantasy tone of many early Universal horrors, The Black Cat leans into a modern, post-World War I despair. The story is steeped in trauma and betrayal, with Boris Karloff playing one of the era’s coldest villains and Bela Lugosi giving a truly haunted performance.
For a 1934 studio horror, it’s shockingly dark and less of a monster movie as it is a morbid meditation on war and human corruption.