Mad Love

A classic slab of Grand Guignol, with Lorre in great form - bald, bulging-eyed and blessed with a magnificent leer - as the insane surgeon who lusts after the gorgeous Ms Drake, and in order to win her, operates on her concert pianist husband (Clive) after his hands are mutilated in an accident, deliberately grafting on the hands of a guillotined, knife-throwing murderer. The usual Gothic motifs, in fact - dismemberment, murder, madness, and the threat of rape - all played out in semi-serious fashion with some delirious set pieces, atmospherically shot by Gregg Toland and performed (with the exception of the wooden Clive) with gleeful abandon. Great fun.