Mad Love (1935)

Directed by

Karl Freund

Genre

horror film, science fiction film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 05m

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 124 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A surgeon becomes dangerously obsessed with a married actress. When her pianist husband's hands are crushed in an accident the surgeon replaces them with those of a murderer.

macabreobsessivemelancholicdarkly theatricaleerievisually stylizedunsettlingbizarre

What happens

Mad Love (also released as The Hands of Orlac) is a 1935 American body horror film, an adaptation of Maurice Renard's novel The Hands of Orlac. It was directed by German-émigré film maker Karl Freund, and 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 with actress Yvonne Orlac. When Stephen Orlac's hands are destroyed in a train accident, Yvonne brings them to Gogol, who claims to be able to repair them. As Gogol becomes obsessed to the point that he will do anything to have Yvonne, Stephen finds that his new hands have made him into an expert knife-thrower. Mad Love was Freund's final directorial assignment and Lorre's American film debut. Critics praised Lorre's acting, but the film was unsuccessful at the box office. Film critic Pauline Kael found the film unsatisfactory, but argued that it had influenced Citizen Kane. Cinematographer Gregg Toland was involved in the production of both films. Mad Love's reputation has grown over the years, and it is viewed in a more positive light by modern film critics, gaining the status of a cult classic. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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