Mad Love (1935)

Directed by Karl Freund. Starring Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive, Ted Healy, Sara Haden, Henry Kolker, May Beatty, Keye Luke, Edward Brophy.

A doctor (Lorre) obsessed with stage actress Drake is called upon to save her husband (Clive), gravely injured in a train crash; he does so by amputating the patient’s shattered hands and replacing them with the hands of an executed killer (Brophy). Chiller in the tradition of the Grand Guignol is, of course, forced into the sort of production code restraint that spoils the fun of that vivid style, but at least it looks great (some scenes were shot by legendary director of photography, Gregg Toland, and director Freund already knew a thing or two about capturing atmospheric shots from photographing movies like Dracula and Metropolis). Lorre is terrific as always—it’s surprising he never gets around to singing “1979” considering how much he looks like Billy Corgan here—though most of the remaining cast flounders, especially the cloying reporter (Healy, creator of the Three Stooges). Based on the novel “The Hands of Orlac”; different versions of the same story filmed before and after this adaptation share that title.

63/100