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Mad Love (1935 film)
Encyclopedia
Mad Love is a 1935
American horror film
adaptation of Maurice Renard
's story The Hands of Orlac. Directed by German
-émigré film maker Karl Freund
, the film stars Peter Lorre
as Dr. Gogol, Frances Drake
as Yvonne Orlac and Colin Clive
as Stephen Orlac. The plot revolves around Doctor Gogol's obsession over actress Yvonne Orlac. When Stephen Orlac's hands are destroyed in a train accident, Yvonne brings him to Gogol who is able repair them, or so he says. As Gogol's obsession over Yvonne leads him into doing anything to have her, Stephen Orlac finds that his new hands have made him into an expert knife thrower.
Mad Love was Karl Freund
's final directorial assignment, and the American film debut of actor Peter Lorre
. Critics on its release praised Lorre for his acting, but the film was unsuccessful at the box office. Though she found this film unsatisfactory, Pauline Kael
later drew parallels between Mad Love and Citizen Kane
, claiming much of the latter film's visual style was borrowed from Mad Love; cinematographer Gregg Toland
was involved in the production of both films. Mad Love reputation has grown over the years and is now viewed in a more positive light by modern film critics.
, France
at the 'Théâtre des Horreurs', after listening to her husband Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive
) play the piano on the radio, actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake
) rests after her final performance at the theater and is greeted by Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre
). Dr. Gogol is upset as he has seen every show featuring Yvonne; his warped obsession with her is shown in his responses to a scene in the play where Yvonne's character is tortured. Yvonne kindly turns down his offer, as she is moving to England with her husband; Gogol was unaware of her marriage, and is aghast. Leaving the theater heartbroken, Gogol buys the wax figure of Yvonne's character, Galatea, which was otherwise going to be melted down, and arranges for it to be delivered to his home the following day.
While finding his escaped small dog on a train journey from Fontainebleau
to Paris, Stephen Orlac sees the murderer Rollo the Knife thrower (Edward Brophy
) held in custody on the train being taken to his execution by guillotine
. This procedure is witnessed by Gogol, who never misses these events, and the American reporter Reagan (Ted Healy
). Orlac's train continues later into the night crashes where Yvonne finds her husband Stephen whose hands have been mutilated in the crash. Yvonne takes Stephen to Gogol in an attempt to reconstruct his hands as new, which Gogol eventually agrees to do. The operation is a success, with Gogol then using the hands of Rollo as a transplant, after the surgery Gogol goes to his bedroom and serenades his wax mannequin of Yvonne.
The financial cost of the surgery takes its toll on the Orlac couple and they are forced to sell many of their possessions to pay for it, while Stephen finds he is unable to play the piano with his new hands. When a repo-man comes in to claim the Orlac's piano Stephen get angry and throws a fountain pen at him that just barely misses his head. Seeking financial aid, Stephen goes to his stepfather Henry Orlac (Ian Wolfe
) who doesn't give him any money as he is upset that he did not follow his line of business as jeweler. In anger, Stephen grabs a knife and throws at Henry missing him but breaking the stop front's window. Meanwhile at Stephen's home, Yvonne is visited by Gogol who asks for her love which she says she cannot return. Gogol returns home to find Reagan looking at Gogol's waxwork, which he thinks is Yvonne herself, having tricked Gogol's landlady with alcohol, but Gogol orders him out. Stephen then arrives at Gogol's home and demands to know about his hands and how they strive to throw knives. Gogol calms him down suggesting his problem comes from childhood trauma. As Stephen leaves, Gogol speaks to his assistant Dr. Wong (Keye Luke
) revealing his hands are indeed the hands of Rollo.
This thought strikes a new idea of possibility with Gogol, who sits with Yvonne suggesting for her to get away from Stephen as the shock has affected his mind and that she may be in danger. Yvonne angrily rejects Gogol this time. Gogol leaves to another room, where reflections in a mirror of himself drive him into further more crazed obsession of pursuing Yvonne. That night, Henry Orlac is murdered. The day after Stephen receives a note saying that if he comes to a specific address tonight he will learn the truth about his hands.
Stephen goes to the address and finds a man with metallic hands and dark glasses claiming to be Rollo brought back to life by Gogol. Rollo explains that Stephen's hands were his and Stephen used them to murder Henry last night in madness. Disgusted, Stephen leaves quickly returning to Yvonne explaining that his hands, are those of the Rollo and that he must turn himself into the police who have arrived to arrest him. Panic-stricken, Yvonne goes to Gogol's home and accidentally breaks the wax statue of herself. She stands in the statues place as Gogol, in his Rollo disguise, gleeful in his trickery, enters taking off his clothing, now completely mad. Finding Yvonne there, he assumes his statue has come to life and first embraces her, then in madness starts strangling her. Suddenly Reagan, Stephen and the police come in, but only able to open the observation window, Stephen pulls out a knife and throws it stabbing Gogol in the back. After Stephen manages to enter, he embraces Yvonne. Gogol sees this and quietly dies on the floor.
with an original translation/adaptation of Les Mains D'Orlac. The original writer for Mad Love was Guy Endore
, who worked with director Karl Freund
on early drafts. After receiving producer John W. Considine Jr received this draft, Considine assigned the continuity and dialogue to P.J. Wolfson. On April 24, 1935, John L. Balderston
began writing a "polish-up" of the previous draft. Balderstone went over the dialogue with star Peter Lorre
in mind, at points in the scripting calling the actor to deploy his "M
look". Balderston's re-write continued for even after filming had started and was still being re-written three weeks into filming.
Filming started on Mad Love on May 6, 1935. Chester Lyons was assigned as the cinematographer for the film. Freund insisted on Gregg Toland
, who he did get for a reported "8 days of additional photography". Actress Frances Drake
recalled difficulty between Freund and his cinematographer Toland and producer John W. Considine. Drake spoke of them saying "Freund wanted to be the cinematographer at the same time" and that "You never knew who was directing. The producer was dying to, to tell you the truth, and of course he had no idea of directing." Several titles for the film were announced, including an announcement from MGM on May 22, 1935 that the title was going to be The Hands of Orlac. Another suggested title was The Mad Doctor of Paris, but the studio eventually settled with the original title of Mad Love. Mad Love finished shooting on June 8, 1935, one week over schedule. After its initial release MGM decided to cut about fifteen minutes of scenes from the film. Cut scenes included the surgery scene on Rollo to get his hands, a pre-credit warning scene similar to the one in Frankenstein
, and Isabel Jewell
's entire portrayal of the character Marianne.
with The Hollywood Reporter saying that "Lorre triumphs in a characterization that is sheer horror" and Time magazine
calling him "perfectly cast". Charlie Chaplin
also praised Lorre after seeing the film, claiming him to be "the greatest living actor". Reviews for the rest of the cast weren't as positive with The New York Times
noting that "Ted Healy
, a highly amusing comedian, has gotten into the wrong picture". and The Hollywood Reporter noting that Colin Clive
"jitters his way through". As a whole, The Hollywood Reporter referred to the film itself as "neither important or particularly compelling ... falls right in the middle between Art and Box Office". Time magazine referred to it as "completely horrible". The New York Times wrote "Mad Love is not much more than a super-Karloff
melodrama, an interesting but pretty trivial adventure in Grand Guignol
horror." Mad Love was not a hit at the box office, with a small domestic gross of $170,000. Mad Loves foreign gross was larger, taking in $194,000.
In the late 1960s, critic Pauline Kael
published her essay "Raising Kane" in The New Yorker
which accused director Orson Welles
of copying the visual style of Mad Love for Citizen Kane
. Kael's charges included that both Gogol and Kane are bald, Gogol's house and Kane's "Xanadu" are similar, and that both Gogol and Kane have a pet cockatoo
. Kael also noted that cinematographer Gregg Toland
had "passed Freund's
technique onto Welles". Peter Bogdanovich
wrote a rebuttal for Kael's statements in Esquire
in 1972. Both writers had negative views on Mad Love with Kael referring to as a "dismal static horror movie" and Bogdanovich claiming that it was "one of the worst movies I've ever seen."
More recent reviews of Mad Love have been much more positive. At the online film review database, Rotten Tomatoes
the film has 100% approval rating with a 7.5 critical average.
Mad Love was released by MGM/UA in late 1992 on VHS
. On October 10, 2006 Mad Love was released on DVD
by Warner Home Video
on a three-disc compilation titled Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection that included Doctor X
, The Devil-Doll
, Mark of the Vampire
, The Mask of Fu Manchu
and The Return of Doctor X
. Bonus material for Mad Love included film commentary by Steve Haberman and the film's theatrical trailer.
once and the film itself is a remake of a silent
1924 Austria
n film The Hands of Orlac directed by Robert Wiene
and starring Conrad Veidt
. Mad Love was remade in 1960 as a French
-British
co-production directed by Edmond T. Gréville
and starring Mel Ferrer
as Stephen Orlac and a new magician character named Nero played by Christopher Lee
.
Other related films include Hands of a Stranger (1962) and The Crawling Hand (1963). A variant of the theme, The Blind Man, was one of Alfred Hitchcock's unproduced projects. Here, a blind pianist receives the eyes of a murder victim, but their retinas retain the image of the murder.
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...
American horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
adaptation of Maurice Renard
Maurice Renard
-Overview:Maurice Renard was born in Châlons-en-Champagne.He was the author of the archetypal mad scientist novel Le Docteur Lerne - Sous-Dieu [Dr. Lerne - Undergod] , which he dedicated to H. G. Wells...
's story The Hands of Orlac. Directed by German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-émigré film maker Karl Freund
Karl Freund
Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. was a cinematographer and film director most noted for photographing Metropolis , Dracula , and television's I Love Lucy .-Early life:...
, the film stars Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
as Dr. Gogol, Frances Drake
Frances Drake (actor)
Frances Drake was an American actress, is best known for playing Eponine in Les Misérables .-Life and career:Born in New York City, her parents moved to Canada when she was four...
as Yvonne Orlac and Colin Clive
Colin Clive
Colin Clive was an English stage and screen actor best remembered for his portrayal of Dr...
as Stephen Orlac. The plot revolves around Doctor Gogol's obsession over actress Yvonne Orlac. When Stephen Orlac's hands are destroyed in a train accident, Yvonne brings him to Gogol who is able repair them, or so he says. As Gogol's obsession over Yvonne leads him into doing anything to have her, Stephen Orlac finds that his new hands have made him into an expert knife thrower.
Mad Love was Karl Freund
Karl Freund
Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. was a cinematographer and film director most noted for photographing Metropolis , Dracula , and television's I Love Lucy .-Early life:...
's final directorial assignment, and the American film debut of actor Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
. Critics on its release praised Lorre for his acting, but the film was unsuccessful at the box office. Though she found this film unsatisfactory, Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
later drew parallels between Mad Love and Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
, claiming much of the latter film's visual style was borrowed from Mad Love; cinematographer Gregg Toland
Gregg Toland
Gregg Toland, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer noted for his innovative use of lighting and techniques such as deep focus, an example of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.-Career:...
was involved in the production of both films. Mad Love reputation has grown over the years and is now viewed in a more positive light by modern film critics.
Plot
In ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
at the 'Théâtre des Horreurs', after listening to her husband Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive
Colin Clive
Colin Clive was an English stage and screen actor best remembered for his portrayal of Dr...
) play the piano on the radio, actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake
Frances Drake (actor)
Frances Drake was an American actress, is best known for playing Eponine in Les Misérables .-Life and career:Born in New York City, her parents moved to Canada when she was four...
) rests after her final performance at the theater and is greeted by Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
). Dr. Gogol is upset as he has seen every show featuring Yvonne; his warped obsession with her is shown in his responses to a scene in the play where Yvonne's character is tortured. Yvonne kindly turns down his offer, as she is moving to England with her husband; Gogol was unaware of her marriage, and is aghast. Leaving the theater heartbroken, Gogol buys the wax figure of Yvonne's character, Galatea, which was otherwise going to be melted down, and arranges for it to be delivered to his home the following day.
While finding his escaped small dog on a train journey from Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...
to Paris, Stephen Orlac sees the murderer Rollo the Knife thrower (Edward Brophy
Edward Brophy
Edward S. Brophy was an American character actor, voice artist, and comedian. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he was known for portraying gangsters, both serious and comic.-Career:...
) held in custody on the train being taken to his execution by guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
. This procedure is witnessed by Gogol, who never misses these events, and the American reporter Reagan (Ted Healy
Ted Healy
Ted Healy was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. He is chiefly remembered today as the original creator of the Three Stooges, but had a successful stage and film career of his own.- Early life :...
). Orlac's train continues later into the night crashes where Yvonne finds her husband Stephen whose hands have been mutilated in the crash. Yvonne takes Stephen to Gogol in an attempt to reconstruct his hands as new, which Gogol eventually agrees to do. The operation is a success, with Gogol then using the hands of Rollo as a transplant, after the surgery Gogol goes to his bedroom and serenades his wax mannequin of Yvonne.
The financial cost of the surgery takes its toll on the Orlac couple and they are forced to sell many of their possessions to pay for it, while Stephen finds he is unable to play the piano with his new hands. When a repo-man comes in to claim the Orlac's piano Stephen get angry and throws a fountain pen at him that just barely misses his head. Seeking financial aid, Stephen goes to his stepfather Henry Orlac (Ian Wolfe
Ian Wolfe
Ian Wolfe was an American actor whose films date from 1934 to 1990. Until 1934, he worked as a theatre actor. Wolfe mostly found work as a character actor, appearing in over 270 films...
) who doesn't give him any money as he is upset that he did not follow his line of business as jeweler. In anger, Stephen grabs a knife and throws at Henry missing him but breaking the stop front's window. Meanwhile at Stephen's home, Yvonne is visited by Gogol who asks for her love which she says she cannot return. Gogol returns home to find Reagan looking at Gogol's waxwork, which he thinks is Yvonne herself, having tricked Gogol's landlady with alcohol, but Gogol orders him out. Stephen then arrives at Gogol's home and demands to know about his hands and how they strive to throw knives. Gogol calms him down suggesting his problem comes from childhood trauma. As Stephen leaves, Gogol speaks to his assistant Dr. Wong (Keye Luke
Keye Luke
Keye Luke was a Chinese-born American actor. He was the first Chinese-American contract player signed with RKO, Universal and, later, MGM and is generally acknowledged as the leading Asian-American actor of this era of American cinema.-Background:...
) revealing his hands are indeed the hands of Rollo.
This thought strikes a new idea of possibility with Gogol, who sits with Yvonne suggesting for her to get away from Stephen as the shock has affected his mind and that she may be in danger. Yvonne angrily rejects Gogol this time. Gogol leaves to another room, where reflections in a mirror of himself drive him into further more crazed obsession of pursuing Yvonne. That night, Henry Orlac is murdered. The day after Stephen receives a note saying that if he comes to a specific address tonight he will learn the truth about his hands.
Stephen goes to the address and finds a man with metallic hands and dark glasses claiming to be Rollo brought back to life by Gogol. Rollo explains that Stephen's hands were his and Stephen used them to murder Henry last night in madness. Disgusted, Stephen leaves quickly returning to Yvonne explaining that his hands, are those of the Rollo and that he must turn himself into the police who have arrived to arrest him. Panic-stricken, Yvonne goes to Gogol's home and accidentally breaks the wax statue of herself. She stands in the statues place as Gogol, in his Rollo disguise, gleeful in his trickery, enters taking off his clothing, now completely mad. Finding Yvonne there, he assumes his statue has come to life and first embraces her, then in madness starts strangling her. Suddenly Reagan, Stephen and the police come in, but only able to open the observation window, Stephen pulls out a knife and throws it stabbing Gogol in the back. After Stephen manages to enter, he embraces Yvonne. Gogol sees this and quietly dies on the floor.
Production
Florence Crewe-Jones provided MGMMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
with an original translation/adaptation of Les Mains D'Orlac. The original writer for Mad Love was Guy Endore
Guy Endore
Samuel Guy Endore , born Samuel Goldstein and also known as Harry Relis, was a novelist and screenwriter. During his career he produced a wide array of novels, screenplays, and pamphlets, both published and unpublished...
, who worked with director Karl Freund
Karl Freund
Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. was a cinematographer and film director most noted for photographing Metropolis , Dracula , and television's I Love Lucy .-Early life:...
on early drafts. After receiving producer John W. Considine Jr received this draft, Considine assigned the continuity and dialogue to P.J. Wolfson. On April 24, 1935, John L. Balderston
John L. Balderston
John L. Balderston was an American playwright and screenwriter best known for his horror and fantasy scripts....
began writing a "polish-up" of the previous draft. Balderstone went over the dialogue with star Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
in mind, at points in the scripting calling the actor to deploy his "M
M (1931 film)
M is a 1931 German drama-thriller directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. It was Lang's first sound film, although he had directed more than a dozen films previously....
look". Balderston's re-write continued for even after filming had started and was still being re-written three weeks into filming.
Filming started on Mad Love on May 6, 1935. Chester Lyons was assigned as the cinematographer for the film. Freund insisted on Gregg Toland
Gregg Toland
Gregg Toland, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer noted for his innovative use of lighting and techniques such as deep focus, an example of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.-Career:...
, who he did get for a reported "8 days of additional photography". Actress Frances Drake
Frances Drake (actor)
Frances Drake was an American actress, is best known for playing Eponine in Les Misérables .-Life and career:Born in New York City, her parents moved to Canada when she was four...
recalled difficulty between Freund and his cinematographer Toland and producer John W. Considine. Drake spoke of them saying "Freund wanted to be the cinematographer at the same time" and that "You never knew who was directing. The producer was dying to, to tell you the truth, and of course he had no idea of directing." Several titles for the film were announced, including an announcement from MGM on May 22, 1935 that the title was going to be The Hands of Orlac. Another suggested title was The Mad Doctor of Paris, but the studio eventually settled with the original title of Mad Love. Mad Love finished shooting on June 8, 1935, one week over schedule. After its initial release MGM decided to cut about fifteen minutes of scenes from the film. Cut scenes included the surgery scene on Rollo to get his hands, a pre-credit warning scene similar to the one in Frankenstein
Frankenstein (1931 film)
Frankenstein is a 1931 Pre-Code Horror Monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features...
, and Isabel Jewell
Isabel Jewell
Isabel Jewell was an American actress most active in the 1930s and early 1940s.-Early life and career:...
's entire portrayal of the character Marianne.
Cast
- Peter LorrePeter LorrePeter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
as Dr. Gogol. Lorre originally came to Hollywood to star in Crime and Punishment. Crime and Punishment was delayed, and on April 23, 1935, MGMMetro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
announced that the lead role would be for Lorre in Mad Love, which became his AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film debut. - Frances Drake as Yvonne Orlac. The role was originally intended for Virginia BruceVirginia BruceVirginia Bruce was an American actress and singer.-Career:Born Helen Virginia Briggs in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she went with her family to Los Angeles intending to enroll in the University of California when a friendly wager sent her seeking film work. She got it as an extra in Why Bring That...
. Drake also played Yvonne's wax figure on closeup shots. - Colin CliveColin CliveColin Clive was an English stage and screen actor best remembered for his portrayal of Dr...
as Stephen Orlac. Clive was on loan from Warner Bros.Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
at the time. - Ted HealyTed HealyTed Healy was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. He is chiefly remembered today as the original creator of the Three Stooges, but had a successful stage and film career of his own.- Early life :...
as Reagan, an American reporter - Sara HadenSara HadenSara Haden was a character actress in Hollywood films of the 1930s through the 1950s.She was born Sarah Haden on November 17, 1899 in Galveston, Texas. Haden was the daughter of another character actress, Charlotte Walker, who was active in silent films and early talkies...
as Marie, Yvonne's maid - Edward BrophyEdward BrophyEdward S. Brophy was an American character actor, voice artist, and comedian. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he was known for portraying gangsters, both serious and comic.-Career:...
as Rollo the Knife Thrower - Henry KolkerHenry KolkerHenry Kolker was an American stage and film actor and director...
as Prefect Rosset - Keye LukeKeye LukeKeye Luke was a Chinese-born American actor. He was the first Chinese-American contract player signed with RKO, Universal and, later, MGM and is generally acknowledged as the leading Asian-American actor of this era of American cinema.-Background:...
as Dr. Wong - May Beatty as Françoise, Gogol's drunken housekeeper
Release and reception
Mad Love was released in the United States on July 12, 1935. The film's title was changed to Hands of Orlac in the United Kingdom and was released on August 2, 1935 Initial critical reception was focused on praising Peter Lorre's character. Much of the praise of the film went to the star Peter LorrePeter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
with The Hollywood Reporter saying that "Lorre triumphs in a characterization that is sheer horror" and Time magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
calling him "perfectly cast". Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
also praised Lorre after seeing the film, claiming him to be "the greatest living actor". Reviews for the rest of the cast weren't as positive with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noting that "Ted Healy
Ted Healy
Ted Healy was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. He is chiefly remembered today as the original creator of the Three Stooges, but had a successful stage and film career of his own.- Early life :...
, a highly amusing comedian, has gotten into the wrong picture". and The Hollywood Reporter noting that Colin Clive
Colin Clive
Colin Clive was an English stage and screen actor best remembered for his portrayal of Dr...
"jitters his way through". As a whole, The Hollywood Reporter referred to the film itself as "neither important or particularly compelling ... falls right in the middle between Art and Box Office". Time magazine referred to it as "completely horrible". The New York Times wrote "Mad Love is not much more than a super-Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
melodrama, an interesting but pretty trivial adventure in Grand Guignol
Grand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
horror." Mad Love was not a hit at the box office, with a small domestic gross of $170,000. Mad Loves foreign gross was larger, taking in $194,000.
In the late 1960s, critic Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
published her essay "Raising Kane" in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
which accused director Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
of copying the visual style of Mad Love for Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
. Kael's charges included that both Gogol and Kane are bald, Gogol's house and Kane's "Xanadu" are similar, and that both Gogol and Kane have a pet cockatoo
Cockatoo
A cockatoo is any of the 21 species belonging to the bird family Cacatuidae. Along with the Psittacidae and the Strigopidae , they make up the parrot order Psittaciformes . Placement of the cockatoos as a separate family is fairly undisputed, although many aspects of the other living lineages of...
. Kael also noted that cinematographer Gregg Toland
Gregg Toland
Gregg Toland, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer noted for his innovative use of lighting and techniques such as deep focus, an example of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.-Career:...
had "passed Freund's
Karl Freund
Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. was a cinematographer and film director most noted for photographing Metropolis , Dracula , and television's I Love Lucy .-Early life:...
technique onto Welles". Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
wrote a rebuttal for Kael's statements in Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
in 1972. Both writers had negative views on Mad Love with Kael referring to as a "dismal static horror movie" and Bogdanovich claiming that it was "one of the worst movies I've ever seen."
More recent reviews of Mad Love have been much more positive. At the online film review database, Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
the film has 100% approval rating with a 7.5 critical average.
Home video
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Mad Love was released by MGM/UA in late 1992 on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
. On October 10, 2006 Mad Love was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
by Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
on a three-disc compilation titled Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection that included Doctor X
Doctor X (film)
Doctor X is a First National/Warner Bros. horror and mystery film based on the play of the same name. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Lee Tracy, Fay Wray, and Lionel Atwill....
, The Devil-Doll
The Devil-Doll
The Devil-Doll is a horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring a cross-dressing Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan as his daughter, Lorraine Levond...
, Mark of the Vampire
Mark of the Vampire
Mark of the Vampire is a 1935 horror film, starring Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt and directed by Tod Browning...
, The Mask of Fu Manchu
The Mask of Fu Manchu
The Mask of Fu Manchu is a Pre-Code adventure film released in 1932, featuring Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu and Myrna Loy as his daughter. The movie revolves around Fu Manchu's quest for the sword and mask of Genghis Khan. Lewis Stone plays his nemesis...
and The Return of Doctor X
The Return of Doctor X
The Return of Doctor X is a 1939 American science fiction-horror film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Wayne Morris, Rosemary Lane, and Humphrey Bogart as the title character. It was based on the short story "The Doctor's Secret" by William J. Makin...
. Bonus material for Mad Love included film commentary by Steve Haberman and the film's theatrical trailer.
Remakes
Mad Love has been remadeRemake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
once and the film itself is a remake of a silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
1924 Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n film The Hands of Orlac directed by Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene was an important film director of the German silent cinema.Robert Wiene was born in Breslau, as the elder son of the successful theatre actor Carl Wiene. His younger brother Conrad also became an actor, but Robert Wiene at first studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1908 he also...
and starring Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
. Mad Love was remade in 1960 as a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
-British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
co-production directed by Edmond T. Gréville
Edmond T. Gréville
Edmond T. Gréville was a French film director and screenwriter....
and starring Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer was an American actor, film director and film producer.-Early life:Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Catalan and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer , was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St....
as Stephen Orlac and a new magician character named Nero played by Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
.
Other related films include Hands of a Stranger (1962) and The Crawling Hand (1963). A variant of the theme, The Blind Man, was one of Alfred Hitchcock's unproduced projects. Here, a blind pianist receives the eyes of a murder victim, but their retinas retain the image of the murder.
See also
- The Beast with Five FingersThe Beast with Five FingersThe Beast with Five Fingers is a horror film directed by Robert Florey and with a screenplay by Curt Siodmak, based on a short story by W. F. Harvey first published in the New Decameron. The original music score was composed by Max Steiner...
(1946) - a variant on the theme, also starring Peter Lorre. - The HandThe Hand (film)The Hand is a 1981 psychological horror film written and directed by Oliver Stone, based on the novel The Lizard's Tail by Marc Brandell and a remake of the 1946 film The Beast with Five Fingers. The film stars Michael Caine and Andrea Marcovicci. Caine plays Jon Lansdale, a comic book artist who...
(1981) - remake of the 1946 film.