“Lugosi! Karloff!!” screamed the ads for Ulmer's dazzlingly expressionistic horror film that united these two stars (“each an A-1 terrifier in his own right”) for the first time. Lugosi plays a dour scientist seeking vengeance on an insane architect (Karloff) who doomed Lugosi to years in prison and married first Lugosi's wife and then his daughter (displaying the dead wife's corpse under glass, as is his wont). A clueless honeymooning American couple find themselves pawns in these two rivals' diabolical game, played out in a setting more Bauhaus Black Mass nightmare than Hollywood soundstage, its steel, marble, and glass Art Deco designs interpreted with typical flair by Ulmer. Making Karloff's character a war criminal, his castle built on a mass grave, Ulmer gives a realistic twist to the tale's palpable sense of decay. Crammed with devil worshippers, necrophilia, and incest, The Black Cat is one of Hollywood's finest pre-Code moments, and a masterpiece of the horror genre.