Mad Love

German actor Peter Lorre made his American film debut in "Mad Love," which I believe was an MGM release and proved to be competition for some of the popular Universal Horror films of the time. Peter Lorre had made his epic debut with 1930's "M," in which Peter amazingly played a child-killer under director Fritz Lang. Peter is a demonic performer if their ever was one, and every memorable scene in this film has Peter's lonely mad doctor character at the helm. Peter is very much in love with a stage actress who is preparing to marry a popular pianist, and all of this gets in the way of Peter's fantasy to have the woman all for himself. A train accident occurs, which leaves the pianist with little hope, but it is Peter the doctor who goes about replacing the pianist's hands with those of a dead criminal, whom Peter himself had watched the beheading of a few days before the train accident. Things take a very silly turn, when the hands somehow take over the very personality of the pianist, and Peter's mad doctor plays the innocent with the pianist, while at the time, telling his actress girlfriend that he is simply mad and that she should stay far and away from him. I would rather not mention how the story unfolds, because that would ruin the good fun for those who have yet to watch this feature, but I must admit that the ending is very funny in a sad way, and there's so much going on with Peter's sanity throughout the film. Worth seeing for a variety of different reasons, so watch it.

I really enjoyed "Mad Love," it moves well and is a lot of fun to watch. It's certainly the most substantial role I've seen Colin Clive in other than his immortal portrayals of Dr. Frankenstein. Peter Lorre was such a great actor, he does scene after scene as the creepy Dr. Gogol with such natural ease, it doesn't seem like he's acting at all. Yet Dr. Gogol comes across as more pathetic than evil, which is crucial to this film, which has a very simple plot and a predictable ending.

Peter Lorre is great to watch! Even the most simple, corny line spoken by him rings with meaning and truthfulness, Lorre really knew how to play for/to the camera. This movie is only a little over an hour, highly recommended if you're going to do a double feature, and you're looking for a short feature as an appetizer.

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

This adaptation of Renard's The Hands of Orlac is quite good, yet a bit on the stagy side. It is one of Peter Lorre's early films and his first for Hollywood. Lorre is quite good, and almost sympathetic in a way, as a surgeon who has hopelessly fallen in love with the wife of a great pianist. Colin Clive of Frankenstein fame plays the musician, and Frances Drake plays his rather annoying, overacting wife. The visuals of the film are first-rate, as it was directed by great cameraman Karl Freund. Ted Healy adds some unnecessary comic relief. What I liked best about the film was the staging of the story against some beautiful expressionistic sets and Freunds expressive camerawork.

When acclaimed concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive) is in a terrible accident, his hands are crushed and must be amputated. His wife Yvonne (Frances Drake) appeals to the brilliant Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) to use his surgical genius to save Stephen's hands. Gogol accepts as he's madly in love with Yvonne, but instead of saving Stephen's hands, he replaces them with those from an executed murderer.

This was Lorre's first American film, and one of his very best performances ever. He's at once menacingly creepy and pathetically sympathetic, a brilliant mind trapped in an ugly body, deeply in love with someone he can never have. I also really like Drake as the object of affection, beautiful, classy and empathetic. Lorre's costume late in the film is a visual highlight of 1930's film, and the moody cinematography is excellent. Recommended.