Mad Love (1935)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Karl Freund

Writers:

Maurice Renard (novel)
Florence Crewe-Jones (translation and adaptation: novel "The Hands of Orlac")
(more)

Release Date:

12 July 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Horror

Tagline:

His love was pitiful...hopeless...madness...yet "The Thing" tired of pity - and demanded love!

Plot:

An insane surgeon's obsession with an actress leads him to replace her wounded pianist's hands with the hands of a knife murderer which still have the urge to throw knives.

Plot Keywords:

Hand | Pianist | Actress | Paris | Obsession

Cast

Peter Lorre	...	Doctor Gogol
Frances Drake	...	Yvonne Orlac
Colin Clive	...	Stephen Orlac
Ted Healy	...	Reagan, the American Reporter
Sara Haden	...	Marie, Yvonne's Maid
Edward Brophy	...	Rollo the Knife Thrower
Henry Kolker	...	Prefect Rosset
Keye Luke	...	Dr. Wong, Gogol's Assistant
May Beatty	...	Françoise, Gogol's Housekeeper
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
George Davis	...	Chauffeur (scenes deleted)
Billy Dooley	...	Undetermined Role (scenes deleted)
Harold Huber	...	Thief (scenes deleted)
Isabel Jewell	...	Marianne (scenes deleted)
Leo White	...	Undetermined Role (scenes deleted)
Sam Ash	...	Detective Arresting Stephen (uncredited)
Hooper Atchley	...	Train Conductor (uncredited)
Agostino Borgato	...	Stage Doorman (uncredited)
Maurice Brierre	...	Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Mike Cantwell	...	Man (uncredited)
Julie Carter	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Harvey Clark	...	Station Master (uncredited)
Cora Sue Collins	...	Gogol's Lame Child Patient (uncredited)
Nell Craig	...	Suzanne, Nurse (uncredited)
Frank Darien	...	Lavin, Man Carting Statues (uncredited)
Kay English	...	Woman (uncredited)
Alphonse Ethier	...	Assistant Prefect (uncredited)
Christian J. Frank	...	Detective Escorting Rollo on Train (uncredited)
Billy Gilbert	...	Man on Train with Dog (uncredited)
Robert Graves	...	Detective Escorting Rollo on Train (uncredited)
Roger Gray	...	Detective Arresting Stephen (uncredited)
Ramsay Hill	...	Actor as 'Duke' (uncredited)
Otto Hoffman	...	Blind Man (uncredited)
Robert Emmett Keane	...	Raoul, the Drunk (uncredited)
Murray Kinnell	...	Charles, Theater Official (uncredited)
Edward Lippy	...	Henry Orlac's Clerk (uncredited)
Rollo Lloyd	...	Varsac, Fingerprint Expert (uncredited)
Marc Loebell	...	Actor as 'Prince' (uncredited)
Theodore Lorch	...	Actor at Party (uncredited)
Michael Mark	...	Execution Official (uncredited)
Mary Jo Mathews	...	Woman outside Theater of Horrors (uncredited)
Edward Norris	...	Man outside Theater of Horrors (uncredited)
Sarah Padden	...	Mother of Lame Girl (uncredited)
Earl Pingree	...	Detective Interviewing Henry's Clerk (uncredited)
Russ Powell	...	Gendarme (uncredited)
Matty Roubert	...	Newsboy (uncredited)
Rolfe Sedan	...	Traffic Gendarme (uncredited)
Bernard Siegel	...	Man (uncredited)
Carl Stockdale	...	Actor as 'The Notary' (uncredited)
Charles Trowbridge	...	Dr. Marbeau (uncredited)
Jacques Vanaire	...	Police Broadcaster (uncredited)
Monte Vandergrift	...	Audience Member (uncredited)
Clarence Wilson	...	Piano Creditor (uncredited)
Ian Wolfe	...	Henry Orlac, Stephen's Stepfather (uncredited)

Directed by
Karl Freund

Writing credits
Maurice Renard		(novel "Les Mains d'Orlac")
Florence Crewe-Jones		(translation and adaptation: novel "The Hands of Orlac")
Guy Endore		(adaptation)
P.J. Wolfson		(screenplay) and
John L. Balderston		(screenplay)
Leon Wolfson		(contributing writer) uncredited and
Edgar Allan Woolf		(contributing writer) uncredited
Gladys Von Ettinghausen		(contributor to dialogue) uncredited and
Leon Gordon		(contributor to dialogue) uncredited

Produced by
John W. Considine Jr.	....	producer

Original Music by
Dimitri Tiomkin

Cinematography by
Chester A. Lyons		(as Chester Lyons)
Gregg Toland

Film Editing by
Hugh Wynn

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Dolph Zimmer	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
William A. Horning	....	associate art director
Edwin B. Willis	....	associate art director

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Dolly Tree	....	wardrober

Music Department
Oscar Radin	....	musical director
R.H. Bassett	....	composer: title music (uncredited)
Paul Marquardt	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Charles Maxwell	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
David Snell	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Jack Virgil	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
John Langan	....	dialogue director (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (controlled by Loew's Inc.)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1935) (USA) (theatrical)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1996) (USA) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD) (on "Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection")

Also Known As:

The Hands of Orlac (UK)

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) | USA:Approved (PCA #1034)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Peter Lorre was under contract to Columbia Pictures. He agreed to be loaned out to MGM for this film if Columbia would do a film version of Crime and Punishment (1935/I) with him in the role of Raskolnikov.

Quotes:

Doctor Gogol: Impossible?
Dr. Wong, Gogol's Assistant: Impossible!
Doctor Gogol: Napoleon said that word is not French.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Monster Mania (1997) (TV)

Brilliant Gothic Horror

Apparently, Peter Lorre only agreed to do this film because he had been promised the lead in "Crime & Punishment" afterwards if he did it. I've seen both films, and though Lorre was magnificent in both, I prefer this one. I'm so glad he agreed to do it.

"Mad Love" is the story of Doctor Gogol, brilliant Parisian surgeon whose reputation for doing surgeries on desperate cases free of charge is well- renowned. But Doctor Gogol is a morbid man as well, gleefully attending public beheadings and taking orgasmic delight in the Grand Guignol Theatre de Horreur, which stages realistic horror plays. The star of the Theatre is Yvonne, and Doctor Gogol is madly in love with her, hence the title of our film. But Yvonne is already married to Stephen Orlac, a famous concert pianist. Doctor Gogol, with his bald head and buggy eyes, gives her the creeps and her distaste for him is clear. However, when her husbands train crashes and his million-dollar hands are destroyed, it is Doctor Gogol she turns to. Desperate to win the love of Yvonne, Gogol agrees to do the impossible. Stephen Orlac is saved...but only Gogol knows that his hands are no longer his own. They once belonged to a killer, and they want to kill again.

Lorre turns in yet another astonishing performance here; his Gogol is very convincing, quite capable of handling a few lines of cornball dialogue without seeming foolish in the least. And the sympathy he elicits is simply amazing; I found myself cheering for him the whole time instead of for Yvonne, who struck me as a cold, opportunistic gold digger, quite willing to use the Doctor if it served her purpose. I'm sure this was not the intent of the filmmakers, but Lorre emerges as the hero here, at least in my humble opinion. Toward the end of the film, he is completely unleashed, playing mad, wild music on the organ and donning a most hideous metal contraption which looks like something that H. R. Giger might have designed.

This beautiful black-and-white film by MGM rivals the classic monsters of Universal, and placed Peter Lorre alongside such horror movie icons as Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Vincent Price. Reportedly, Lorre detested these horror film roles that made him famous, but his resentment never shows through; he threw himself into this and every role with creativity and zeal. He is truly marvelous to watch. Mad Love should not be missed by fans of old, spooky Gothic tales. It is a masterpiece.