Touches You

People are voting emotionally.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

One thing about MGM even their B pictures looked like A products. No wonder it was called the Tiffany of studios. A modest programmer like Mad Love has a bit of elegance to it.Peter Lorre all bug eyed when he's around Frances Drake stars in Mad Love. Basically he's as obsessed with her as the fans who killed Barbara Colby and Rebecca Schaefer. When actress Drake's concert pianist husband Colin Clive is injured necessitating amputation of his hands, the skill of Lorre with techniques way into the future attaches the hands of murderer Edward Brophy who had a nice skill of his own with throwing knives.Is it the hands making Clive want to take up knife throwing? Lots of debate about that in the film and in the story, the Hands Of Orlac on which the film is based.Lorre was always great at playing disturbed people starting right at the beginning of his career with Fritz Lang's M. Ted Healy is in this film as a rather bumptious American newspaperman. But this one is really Lorre's film as a cosmic joke of immense proportion is played on him.

Mad Love is an absolute superb horror film from 1935 starring Peter Lorre as Dr Gogol. In this movie Dr Gogol has an object of affection called Yvonne. However there is a difficulty for him as she is married and does not care much for Gogol at all of his affections for her. As Dr Gogol says during the movie he can conquer science but he cannot conquer love. The frustration for the latter certainly is one that shared by many people around the world. Dr Gogol's frustration in not able to conquer love served as pivotal plot piece and which drives his madness in wanting Yvonne. This all served the movie superbly right up to its denouement and this all thanks in excellent form by Peter Lorre.

Brilliant surgeon Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) is in love with actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake). Yvonne is married to pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive). When Stephen's hands are crushed in a train accident, Yvonne turns to Dr. Gogol to save them. Gogol performs a hand transplant, giving Stephen the hands of recently executed knife-thrower Rollo (Edward Brophy). Over time it becomes apparent Stephen's ability to play the piano is gone but now, whenever he's angry, he finds he has a knife-throwing ability he never had before.I believe this is the first sound adaptation of the Hands of Orlac story. It's certainly the best version of that story I've seen on film. It's an often copied story, usually without credit. Every movie you've seen that features a transplanted body part that belonged to a murderer is derivative of The Hands of Orlac. Variations of it are still being made today. But none has surpassed this one. This is one of the best horror movies of the 1930s and, surprisingly, it wasn't made by Universal. Peter Lorre is superb as the obsessive insane Gogol. Colin Clive and Frances Drake are both good, though more typical performances of the genre than the extraordinary performance of Lorre. Edward Brophy is great fun in his brief screen time as Rollo. Much is made of Ted Healey's unwanted comic relief as a nosy reporter but I don't feel he intrudes on the story much so it didn't bother me. Director Karl Freund does an amazing job, just as he did when he directed The Mummy. Freund was better known as a cinematographer. He shot such legendary films as Metropolis, Dracula, and The Good Earth. He had a wonderful eye and all of the films he worked on looked great.. This would be the last film Freund directed before returning full-time to cinematography. Check this one out if you haven't already. Mad Love is a must-see for classic horror fans.

Lorre is wacko and goes over the top in this one- but he is never less than brilliant. He obviously prepared and planned for this role and his craftsmanship is apparent.The subject matter about the hands is pretty creepy, but there is one scene in particular when Gogol appears as a "reconstructed" dead man that is as creepy as it gets and it still holds up today.Gogol's progression from sadist to flat out lunatic is the basis of the film and it displays some weird psychology along the way.A strong performance is delivered by the lead actress and it contrasts well with Lorre's strong character.This is one crazy 1930's horror film and is not to be missed. There is even a sadistic cockatoo that makes the proceedings crazier.