24.10.09

mad love (1935)

aka The Hands of Orlac.
"Fortunately our case against Stephen Orlac doesn't depend on fingerprints."

A famous surgeon Dr Gogol (Peter Lorrie) is obsessed by actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake). Then he finds out that she has married a concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive). When Orlac's hands are subsequently crushed in a train wreck, Yvonne pleads with Gogol for help. So he decides to graft the hands of an executed murderer, adept with knives, onto her husband. The surgery turns out a success, but Orlac is soon disturbed to find that he has become proficient in throwing knives. Gogol then tries to convince him that he is involved in some murders. Is Stephen now a murderer, or is it a way of Gogol getting to Yvonne?

A wonderfully realised performance by Lorrie centres this film, and provided source material for at least two other adaptions of the story. The film itself is rather expressionistic in style, which only adds to the enjoyment of watching Lorrie slowly notch up the madness.

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