Mad Love (1935)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
A brilliant and highly respected surgeon, Gogol (Peter Lorre) would give up everything he has in life for the love of Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake), star of the Parisian Horror Theatre. But Yvonne is deeply in love with her husband, concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive). When Orlac loses his hands in a train accident, Yvonne pleads with Gogol to save her husband. Perversely, he does so by grafting the hands of a recently executed murderer onto Orlac. Not only is Orlac unable to resume his musical career, but he has suddenly developed a peculiar talent for throwing knives; he also has a bad habit of attempting to win arguments by throttling his opponents. Gleefully exploiting his patient's torment, Gogol disguises himself as the executed killer and tries to convince Orlac that he, Orlac, was responsible for a recent murder. In a effort to prove her husband's innocence, Yvonne goes to Gogol's home and switches places with a life size replica of herself that the obsessive Gogol keeps in his living room. Only the last-minute intervention of Orlac saves Yvonne from being strangled by the crazed Gogol... - Actors:
- Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive, Ted Healy, Sara Haden, Edward Brophy, Henry Kolker, Keye Luke, May Beatty, George Davis, Billy Dooley, Harold Huber, Isabel Jewell, Leo White, Sam Ash, Hooper Atchley, Agostino Borgato, Maurice Brierre, Mike Cantwell, Julie Carter
- Directors:
- Karl Freund
- Writers:
- Maurice Renard, Florence Crewe-Jones
- Aka:
- The Mad Doctor of Paris / The Hands of Orlac
- Genres:
- Classics, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Collections:
- Top 10 European Remakes
More like Mad Love
Reviews (1) of Mad Love
Horror Remake (spoilers). - Mad Love review by Steve
A loose remake of the German silent horror classic The Hands of Orlac (1924) directed by the star photographer of German expressionism, Karl Freund. So it is a visually artistic film. Cinematographer Gregg Toland paints with light most eloquently and there are evocative sets of the back alleys of the Parisian Grand Guignol.
The plot is one of the most brilliantly lurid in all horror. A concert pianist (Colin Clive as Orlac) is badly injured in a train crash and his hands crushed. His beautiful wife, Yvonne, (Frances Drake), goes to a celebrated surgeon, the sinister Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) who has been stalking her, and begs him to save her husband's precious hands. Gogol transplants the hands of a recently guillotined, knife-throwing murderer, Rollo! Orlac finds he can no longer play the piano but can't stop chucking blades...
Gogol is sent (more) insane by Yvonne's continued rejection of him so he frames the distraught pianist for murder. Posing as Rollo, in a head brace, with metal gauntlets he claims that when Gogol removed his hands he stitched back his head! This vision of the bald, baby faced, big eyed Lorre in his fetishistic leather neck support and robot hands is one of the great grotesque horror images.
Mad Love is an excellent mad doctor film and an early example of the dark hospital theme, which finds within its gleaming white sterility, suffering, transgressive behaviour and unbridled egotism. Lorre is memorably repellant. Horror was about to go into remission for a few years under the influence of the the Hays Office. Many films were shelved for decades. Mad Love is the last classic of Hollywood horror's early thirties golden age.