Black Cat, The (1934)

The Black Cat is an American feature film of the thriller and horror genres. It is loosely based on the short story, "The Black Cat", by Edgar Allan Poe. The movie was written and directed by Edgar G. Ulmer with additional writing by Peter Ruric and Tom Kilpatrick. It was produced by Universal Pictures and released theatrically in the United States on May 7th, 1934. The film stars David Manners as the protagonist Peter Alison, Julie Bishop as his wife, Joan Alison, Bela Lugosi as the revenge-driven doctor, Vitus Werdegast and Boris Karloff as the villainous cult leader Hjalmar Poelzig.

Notes & Trivia

 * Copyright holder: Universal Pictures Corp.; May 4th, 1934; LP4664


 * The tagline for this film is, "Things you never saw before or even dreamed of!".


 * Production on The Black Cat began on February 28th, 1934. Principal filming concluded on March 17th, 1934. Reshoots were conducted from March 25th-March 27th, 1934.


 * Actress Julie Bishop is credited as Jacqueline Wells in this film.


 * Tom Kilpatrick was a contributing writer on this film, but was uncredited for his participation.


 * In addition to being writer and director on this film, Edgar G. Ulmer is also the costume designer, though he is uncredited in this capacity.


 * Actors Bela Lugosi and David Manners played opposite one another in Universal's 1931 classic, Dracula. Bela played the role of the vampire count, Dracula, while Manners played the role of Jonathan Harker.