the first and and arguably in term of their dual performance and best teaming of horror legend boris karloff and bela lugosi be this almost bizarre edgar g. ulmer direct piece . base around a story by edgar allan poe and the black cat see a young couple and peter and joan allison { david manner and julie bishop } and who while on their honeymoon in budapest meet the mysterious scientist dr. vitus verdegast { lugosi } . when the bus take them to the hotel crash and joan be injure and the trio wind up at the home of verdegast old acquaintance hjalmar poelzig { karloff } . where the troubled history between verdegast and poelzig come to light and thus spell immense danger for the newly marry allison . excellently direct by ulmer and the black cat still today have the ability to genuinely unnerve the viewer . fill with an overwhelming sense of dread throughout and ulmer and his on form lead men have craft a superb study of character evil . flank by a magnificent set design and with a script that do poe proud and the piece pot boil until it brutal and frenzied climax . karloff and lugosi be particularly impressive { check out the chess match sequence } and lend the film it timeless quality and with karloff poelzig apparently be base on real life occultist aleister crowley . while the music and feature some of the big name of classical composition and be an extra haunting character all by itself . it a far from flawless picture and but it remain a unique and literate and important film in the pantheon of classic horror . positive .