Mad Love

"A new, a strange, a gifted personality comes to the screen!"

1935 1h 8m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 126

HorrorThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

An insane surgeon's obsession with an actress leads him to replace her wounded pianist husband's hands with those of a knife-throwing murderer.

“A new, a strange, a gifted personality comes to the screen!”

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Where to watch · US

Cast

Peter Lorre
Doctor Gogol
Frances Drake
Yvonne Orlac
Colin Clive
Stephen Orlac
Ted Healy
Reagan
Isabel Jewell
Marianne (scenes deleted)
Sara Haden
Marie
Edward Brophy
Rollo
Henry Kolker
Prefect Rosset

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Karl Freund
Writers: P.J. Wolfson, John L. Balderston
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 68-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

91 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Karl Freund, shot by Chester A. Lyons. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by David Snell. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Hugh Wynn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Peter Lorre and Frances Drake and Colin Clive carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A new, a strange, a gifted personality comes to the screen!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0026663 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Karl Freund directs. Chester A. Lyons behind the camera. David Snell scores. Hugh Wynn cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 68-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
291 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by Karl Freund, shot by Chester A. Lyons. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by David Snell. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Hugh Wynn shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Peter Lorre and Frances Drake and Colin Clive carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "A new, a strange, a gifted personality comes to the screen!".
8IMDB entry: tt0026663 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 12 themes, including "based on novel or book", "obsession", "surgeon", "guillotine".

The technical file

Cinematography: Chester A. Lyons
Original score: David Snell
Editing: Hugh Wynn
Costume design: Dolly Tree
Makeup / hair: Norbert A. Myles
Runtime: 68 min · 1h 8m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: Mad Love (1935)

Also by

Karl Freund

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-03-17
★ 9/10
Chilling. Brilliant surgeon Dr. Gogol is infatuated with Horror Theatre star Yvonne Orlac. After meeting her in person and realising that she only has eyes for her husband, the renowned pianist Stephen Orlac, he buys a life size mannequin of her and dreams of doing what Pygmalion did with Galatea. When Stephen is involved in an horrific train crash and has both his hands crushed beyond healing, Yvonne pleads with Gogol to help save his well being, he does, by amputating the crushed hands and grafting on the hands of a recently executed murderer, a murderer whose speciality was knives! Mad Love is one of those amazingly old classics that is a hybrid of genre staples. At times it's surrealist and at others it's operating via a Grand Guginol pulse, whilst knowingly it laces the story with an uneasy comedic bent. Boasting camera work from Gregg Toland and Chester Lyons and directed by the impressive Karl Freund, this adaptation of Maurice Renard's novel is a chillingly memorable piece of work. Working off a plot that sees the bad Doctor driven by lustations rather than out and out insanity, Freund revels in slowly winding the coil until the spring that is Peter Lorre (Gogol) explodes (implodes), cloaking various scenes in telling shadows that themselves become integral to the plot. Peter Lorre is of course in his element, demented yet sympathetic, it's real hard to take your eyes away from his magnetic weirdness. Colin Clive as Stephen Orlac also puts in a performance of note, all twitchy nervousness and believable emotional torment, whilst Frances Drake more than adequately brings vulnerability to the centrifugal importance of Yvonne's emotional turmoil. Weird and gorgeous, and incredibly well written, Mad Love holds up very well today as a horror/romance film of vast influential worth. So see it in the dark and marvel at its various moments of cinematic excellence. 8.5/10

Production companies