would you spend the night and follow a traffic accident and in a bizarre futuristic home build atop the ruin of a fortress perch over a horrific world war one battlefield . what if the doctor who take you there be an increasingly odd bela lugosi and the host await you be a most peculiar boris karloff . pity poor david manner and julie bishop and who find themselves in just such a predicament . the black cat be the best of the karloff or lugosi teamings of the 1930 . they play hated antagonist who finally get the opportunity to revenge themselves upon each other and once and for all . add a virulent fear of black cat and a well equipped torture chamber and a wicked band of satanist and you have all the element for a dandy little thriller . ( except for the title and there be no connection whatsoever with the poe story ) . karloff and lugosi be both spooky and their scene together be full of menace . mr. manner and miss bishop be good while they look stalwart or scared convincingly . that john carradine play the organ and by the way . some attention should be pay to the set design . instead of take place in a creepy old house and the plot unwind in a modernistic mansion and all round corner and curve wall . one could almost call this a science fiction story ming the merciless would be quite at home here .