Mad Love (1935) – or, The Prime of Ed Brophy’s Hands

Mad Love (aka The Hands of Orlac in Britain) was the American debut for Peter Lorre in this oft filmed version of Maurice Renard's novel, The Hands of Orlac. It was directed by German-émigré film maker Karl Freund who had already made his mark on horror in America as the cinematographer for Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931) and directing Boris Karloff in The Mummy (1932).


Mad Love was one of MGM’s few dips into the Horror well. With Freund directing and co-starring Dr. Frankenstein himself - the ever twitchy Colin Clive (below) - one can almost be forgiven for mistaking it for an actual Universal horror film. 

Indeed, if it was a Universal film, Lorre’s (sorry – spoiler!) insane Dr. Gogol would probably be included with the ranks of that companies Famous Monsters. Disguised as the executed murderer, Rollo, and wearing dark goggles and brandishing a pair of glistening metal hands from under a dark cloak that would have made Dr. Doom proud, I would certainly have bought and assembled an Aurora model kit of the character back in 1960’s.

The plot is a familiar one to any fan of the genre. Pianist Stephen Orlac (Clive) has his hands crushed in an accident. His desperate actress wife, Yvonne (Frances Drake) turns to her dangerously obsessed admirer, Dr. Gogol, for help. Gogol is a brilliant surgeon, but even he can’t save Stephen’s hands. Instead, he grafts the hands of a recently executed murderer, Rollo the Knife Thrower (Edward Brophy) onto Orlac’s wrists. When Orlac starts to display Rollo’s facility with knives, Gogol decides to use the specter of a resurrected Rollo to drive Orlac insane and thereby win Yvonne’s love (huh?). 

Of note, Universal’s The Raven released the same year also had a mad surgeon (Lugosi) whose medical skills play into his plan to drive his beautiful young patient into his arms.

Even without Gogol’s interference, one has to question Orlac’s sanity; as he practices following his surgery, Orlac keeps a pair of plaster (I hope) hands labeled ‘The Hands of Orlac’ on top of his piano. 

The Grand Guignol story plays out as you would expect, except for noting that the film slyly winks at itself by having Yvonne playing an actress performing in an actual Grand Guignol. The plot even manages to shoehorn in the Pygmalion myth which leads to an almost comic finale of Yvonne standing in for her own wax statue that Gogol has fixated on in lieu of having her.

Freund gives the film a lush texture of deep blacks and rich whites that includes a lot of expressionist touches. It fails, however, to really display Gogol’s brilliantly designed disguise to full effect. What’s the point of creating an outstanding ‘monster’ and then never showcasing it? Gogol’s disguise is only seen in a brief close up and then again mostly in medium and long shots when he arrives back at home. Here the film displays the same ‘keep the audience at a distance’ feel that Freund used in Dracula to mimic the theatrical sensibility of that film script’s origin. Maybe all this was dictated by the censors?

As much as I admire Lorrie’s over-the-top performance, my favourite parts of the film come from utility supporting actor, Edward Brophy, as ex-circus performer, Rollo the Knife Thrower (below). As a convicted murderer being escorted to his execution, he has a contagiously upbeat attitude even while walking up to the guillotine, quipping with his guards and the American reporter interested in his story. The screenwriters (John Balderston & Guy Endore) must have known that Brophy had played a Rollo Brothers Circus proprietor in Freaks (1932) three years earlier and made his name and profession a nod to that earlier film.

With a body like a stubbed-out cigar butt and a broad, rubbery face, Edward Brophy was born to play criminals and heavies (often good-natured) or the comic relief, e.g., his dim-witted Goldie Locke sidekick to Tom Conway’s suave Falcon in RKO’s long running B series. You’ve seen him in dozens of films from the 30’s and 40’s, and for me, it’s always a pleasure to watch him do his usual bumbling stuff. Even when his Joe Morelli forces his way into Nick and Nora’s bedroom brandishing a gun in The Thin Man (1934), you can’t really be scared of him. He later turns up again playing Nick’s friend, Brogan, in The Thin Man Goes Home (1944).

Edward Brophy started performing in small parts in 1919, and first gained notice as Buster Keaton’s foil in a classic scene in The Cameraman (1928) in which the two men share a too-small wardrobe. Brophy had steady work in films and died while filming John Ford's western, Two Rode Together (1961). His biggest and best role may have been as The Champ’s manager in the 1931 film. Movie watchers of a certain age will recognize his voice performing Timothy Mouse in Walt Disney's classic, Dumbo (1941).

Internet sources claim that Brophy was the model for Doiby Dickles, the Golden Age Green Lantern’s comedic sidekick. Whether this is true or not is debatable, but the rotund character does fill a similar role to Goldie Locke in The Falcon movies.

Keye Luke Alert: Atomic Surgery favorite and Charlie Chan’s No. 1 son, Keye Luke (below, with Lorre), turns up as Dr. Gogol’s assistant, Dr. Wong, and performs at least one operation with the same skill as Gogol supposedly has.

Is Mad Love Worth watching? Definitely! A minor classic, it deserves to be mentioned in the same discussion that would include Universal’s Dracula’s Daughter (1936) (at least).

Availability:  Easy to find in Horror multi-DVD packs from the usual on-line sources.

Jack Davis "You Die Laughing" Topps Trading Cards (1959) - Part 2

Part 2 of the "You'll Die Laughing" Topps trading cards(1959) over at the Atomic Surgery FB page.

EC Comics Art Auction From A Distinguished Collector

An amazing amount of EC Comics artwork (some full stories!) and other cool items - including the iconic Frankenstein cover piece by Bernie Wrightson. Download the PDF catalogue: Profiles In History

Night Life of The Gods (1935)

Directed by Lowell Sherman and starring Alan Mowbray, Peggy Shannon, and Florine McKinney, Night Life of The Gods represents a trimmed branch on the cinematic tree that gave rise to screwball comedies. It is based on the 1931 novel by Thorne Smith, a well-read comedic novelist of the 30’s, who passed away in 1934. Movie watchers will know him for much better films like Topper (1937) and I Married a Witch (1942) that were also produced from his novels.

In this part-fantasy/part- comedy, Mowbray plays an eccentric inventor, Hunter Hawk, who comes up with a device that can turn people into statues and vice versa. Hooking up with a cute 900-year old leprechaun (!) (McKinney), he turns the statues of various Greek gods and goddesses into humans to prove that, although they are gods, they cannot adapt to modern 1930’s society. Pursued by the police, and aided by his unflappable butler (Gilbert Emery) and his niece, Daphne (Peggy Shannon), Hunter leads all concerned on a merry lark through New York, turning anyone who gets in his way of having fun into a statue.

Despite having all of the ingredients for a classic screwball comedy, the film come up short, perhaps because it was made a couple of years too late to avoid the censor’s knife that must have excised the more ribald and satiric sections of Smith’s original novel. The antics that the resurrected gods get up to are feeble at best, and miss every opportunity to poke holes in modern morels. When Neptune starts a fish fight in a market, I was reminded of the much funnier, classic fish-slapping dance performed by John Cleese and Michael Palin in Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

The film is buoyed by the performances of Mowbray and Shannon who have excellent chemistry as the oddball uncle and his witty, supportive niece. Unfortunately, this much more interesting relationship is nipped in the bud when McKinney’s Meg sets her eyes on Hunter. Meg is right to be jealous of Daphne – Mowbray and Shannon generate more sparks in their scenes together than the rest of the film produces. One can only imagine what the film could have risen to with these roles filled by Cary Grant and Constance Bennett, who made such an excellent comic team in Topper.

Peggy Shannon and Alan Mowbray

Night Life of the Gods is a rare starring role for Mowbray who usually played droll supporting characters (e.g., the butler in Topper; a lawyer in My Man Godfrey (1936)). Here he mostly hits the right, over-the-top comedic tone as the slightly cracked ringmaster for the proceedings.

Troubled red-headed Shannon is a delight, with too little screen time. Once heralded as ‘the new Clara Bow’, during her brief career she also starred in Hotel Continental (1932) and the until recently lost Deluge (1933), but by the late 30’s her career was largely over. She died from complications of alcoholism in 1941 at age 34.

Other ‘notables’ in the cast include ‘Crash’ Corrigan as Apollo, taking a break from wearing apes suits and a number of years before starring as the titular character in It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958); Irene Ware as Diana, a Universal horror starlet also ran (she starred in the The Raven (1935) with Karloff and Lugosi); and Pat DiCicco as Perseus, best known for his short marriage to Thelma Todd.

Is Night Life of The Gods worth my time? A qualified yes. Although it would have to be considered a failed film, like Barbara Stanwyck’s screwball misfire, The Mad Miss Manton (1938), it has enough interesting bits to it to keep one thinking about it well after the screen has faded to black. Mowbray and Shannon are fun together, and Gilbert as the butler, Betts, steals all the brief scenes that he is in.

Availability: Night Life of the Gods was a lost film until a 35mm print was donated to the UCLA Film Archives in the 80’s. I watched a really terrible copy on YouTube. I’d happily rewatch a better version (Warner Archives, I’m talking to you).

Jack Davis's "You'll Die Laughing" Topps trading cards (1959) - Part 1

See the rest at the Atomic Surgery Facebook Page

The Black Doll (1938) - A Universal Crime Club Mystery!

The Black Doll (1938) is the first of Universal’s series based on the Crime Club Mysteries. Directed by Otis Garrett, it stars Donald Woods, Nan Grey, and Edgar Kennedy. It’s a typical dark and stormy night murder mystery that starts off strong with Nicholas Rood (the always fun to watch C. Henry Gordon) finding a black voodoo-like doll that he believes will lead to his death due to him murdering a former partner in a mining deal (and stealing his wife and daughter!). Summoning his other two former partners to his estate, he is quickly dispatched by a knife, after which the body count in the house quickly adds up. 

Nan Grey plays Rood’s daughter, Marian, whose boyfriend/private detective, Nick Halstead (Donald Woods), just happens to have his camper trailer parked on the estate (to which Marian seems to have beaten a well-trodden path). Gray and Woods display some playful chemistry together in their early scenes, but the momentum of the film grinds to a halt with the arrival of the dim-witted sheriff (Edgar Kennedy) and his even more incompetent assistants. From here on, the film becomes a flatly written showcase for Kennedy’s mugging brand of humor, although it took 40 minutes (I timed it) for him to do his trademarked exasperated ‘slow burn’ wrapping of his hand across his head. The brisk running time for this B filler saves it from overstaying its welcome too long as we watch Nick runs circles around the sheriff in solving the case.

I first encountered Edgar Kennedy in the Marx Bros film, Duck Soup (1933), where he played the lemonade dealer getting the losing end of an absurd battle with Harpo. Kennedy had a long film carrier starting with the Sennett Studios in the Silent era and he worked with Laurel and Hardy for Max Roach. He starred in a long-running series of shorts for RKO in the 30’s and 40’s, while playing small character parts in a number of films – I particularly liked his sparring with Myrna Loy in Double Wedding (1937). Supporting roles are the best way to take this actor.

The pretty Nan Grey is rarely mentioned in discussions of Universal’s Horror Queens from the 40’s (Evelyn Ankers and Ilona Massey typically get the nod), but she starred in a number of their horror and related films, notably as Vincent Price’s fiancé in The Invisible Man Returns (1940) and Lady Alice Barton in Tower of London (1939). But her real claim to horror fame was appearing in perhaps the most notorious scene in any Universal horror movie. In Dracula’s Daughter (1936) she had a brief, but powerful, scene playing Lili who is lured into an erotic seduction by Gloria Holden (Dracula’s Daughter) and then disposed of in a quick cut.

Is The Black Doll Worth My Time? Don’t go out of your way to find it, but as a late night wind down with a G&T it will be painless.

Availability: I watched a not-too-bad print on YouTube and there is what appears to be a cheap grey market copy on Amazon.

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