Les Mains d'Orlac

When acclaimed concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive) is in a terrible accident, his hands are crushed and must be amputated. His wife Yvonne (Frances Drake) appeals to the brilliant Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) to use his surgical genius to save Stephen's hands. Gogol accepts as he's madly in love with Yvonne, but instead of saving Stephen's hands, he replaces them with those from an executed murderer.

This was Lorre's first American film, and one of his very best performances ever. He's at once menacingly creepy and pathetically sympathetic, a brilliant mind trapped in an ugly body, deeply in love with someone he can never have. I also really like Drake as the object of affection, beautiful, classy and empathetic. Lorre's costume late in the film is a visual highlight of 1930's film, and the moody cinematography is excellent. Recommended.

In Paris, creepy bald-headed Peter Lorre (as Doctor Gogol) visits the incredibly realistic wax museum figure of beautiful scream queen Frances Drake (as Yvonne). Later, Mr. Lorre is consumed with orgasmic desire as he watches the real Ms. Drake perform on stage as a tortured victim. Backstage, the actress is flattered by the renown surgeon's admiration. But, Lorre is devastated to learn Drake will be leaving for England with pianist husband Colin Clive (as Stephen Orlac).

En route, Mr. Clive's hands are wounded in a train wreck. Called in to operate, Lorre decides to amputate Clive's hands and sew on the hands of a recently decapitated murderer. Poor Clive loses his piano-playing ability, but gains other talents… The whole "hand transplant" machinations never grabbed me or aided in my suspension of disbelief; but "Mad Love" is stylish, has Karl Freund directing, and Lorre is an amazing sight for sore eyes. Also watch for the Yvonne's maid Sara Haden (as Marie), who can really hold her own.

******* Mad Love (7/12/35) Karl Freund ~ Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive, Ted Healy

Apparently, Peter Lorre only agreed to do this film because he had been promised the lead in "Crime & Punishment" afterwards if he did it. I've seen both films, and though Lorre was magnificent in both, I prefer this one. I'm so glad he agreed to do it.

"Mad Love" is the story of Doctor Gogol, brilliant Parisian surgeon whose reputation for doing surgeries on desperate cases free of charge is well- renowned. But Doctor Gogol is a morbid man as well, gleefully attending public beheadings and taking orgasmic delight in the Grand Guignol Theatre de Horreur, which stages realistic horror plays. The star of the Theatre is Yvonne, and Doctor Gogol is madly in love with her, hence the title of our film. But Yvonne is already married to Stephen Orlac, a famous concert pianist. Doctor Gogol, with his bald head and buggy eyes, gives her the creeps and her distaste for him is clear. However, when her husbands train crashes and his million-dollar hands are destroyed, it is Doctor Gogol she turns to. Desperate to win the love of Yvonne, Gogol agrees to do the impossible. Stephen Orlac is saved...but only Gogol knows that his hands are no longer his own. They once belonged to a killer, and they want to kill again.

Lorre turns in yet another astonishing performance here; his Gogol is very convincing, quite capable of handling a few lines of cornball dialogue without seeming foolish in the least. And the sympathy he elicits is simply amazing; I found myself cheering for him the whole time instead of for Yvonne, who struck me as a cold, opportunistic gold digger, quite willing to use the Doctor if it served her purpose. I'm sure this was not the intent of the filmmakers, but Lorre emerges as the hero here, at least in my humble opinion. Toward the end of the film, he is completely unleashed, playing mad, wild music on the organ and donning a most hideous metal contraption which looks like something that H. R. Giger might have designed.

This beautiful black-and-white film by MGM rivals the classic monsters of Universal, and placed Peter Lorre alongside such horror movie icons as Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Vincent Price. Reportedly, Lorre detested these horror film roles that made him famous, but his resentment never shows through; he threw himself into this and every role with creativity and zeal. He is truly marvelous to watch. Mad Love should not be missed by fans of old, spooky Gothic tales. It is a masterpiece.

Excellent, morbid story of a brilliant sureon's (Lorre) obsessive, fetishistic love for a Grand Guignol style actress. The early scenes are perhaps the best film evocative of actual Grand Guignol sadefests. Lorre manages to procure a perfect waxen statue of his love object, thus introducing doppleganger horror, a relatively rare treat in American horror. The main plot focuses on Lorre's attempt to implicate Drake's husband in a series of murders by convincing him that the hands he grafted for him are acting of their own will (as in "Hands of Orlac"). Many subtle moments (which critics have not credited the film for), some garishly out-of-place slapstick humor is the only negative aspect. Fantastic photography.

This is Lorre's entry into classic horror stardom: Karloff has his Frankenstein monster, Lugosi has Dracula (forever, folks), Chaney Jr. has the wolfman, and Lorre's got this lesser-known but equally classic film to recommend him as one of the major horror stars of the classic era. This film represents MGM's entry into the early 30s horror film sweepstakes as well, and they did well to associate themselves with solid hands like Freund's and Lorre's. Hands..... hmmmmm unintended pun. Anyway, if anyone out there is a fan of classic horror films and has not yet seen this one, put it at the top of your list.

German actor Peter Lorre made his American film debut in "Mad Love," which I believe was an MGM release and proved to be competition for some of the popular Universal Horror films of the time. Peter Lorre had made his epic debut with 1930's "M," in which Peter amazingly played a child-killer under director Fritz Lang. Peter is a demonic performer if their ever was one, and every memorable scene in this film has Peter's lonely mad doctor character at the helm. Peter is very much in love with a stage actress who is preparing to marry a popular pianist, and all of this gets in the way of Peter's fantasy to have the woman all for himself. A train accident occurs, which leaves the pianist with little hope, but it is Peter the doctor who goes about replacing the pianist's hands with those of a dead criminal, whom Peter himself had watched the beheading of a few days before the train accident. Things take a very silly turn, when the hands somehow take over the very personality of the pianist, and Peter's mad doctor plays the innocent with the pianist, while at the time, telling his actress girlfriend that he is simply mad and that she should stay far and away from him. I would rather not mention how the story unfolds, because that would ruin the good fun for those who have yet to watch this feature, but I must admit that the ending is very funny in a sad way, and there's so much going on with Peter's sanity throughout the film. Worth seeing for a variety of different reasons, so watch it.