Just watched: The Black Cat, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, and starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. (I learned about it from Thomas Pynchon, who uses a line from the movie as the epigraph of his recent novel Shadow Ticket). Released in 1934. A visually stunning film, which to me screams “German expressionism,” though I don’t know enough about either expressionism or cinematic history to know if that’s true. The Boris Karloff character, Dr. Poehlig, is the epitome of creepiness. My wife commented that “it says something when Bela Lugosi is the relatively good guy.” Pre-code, so crosses sexual and other lines that would have been impossible just a year later.