A young couple find themselves stuck in the path of a vengeful psychiatrist who wants to get back at a demonic architect for taking everything away for him.
Even though Lugosi and Karloff portray their characters very well, the real star is the house. With it's art deco and expressionist touches, mixed with the old war battlements, the house sets give a very surrealist and almost evil feeling to it where "even the phones are dead". Director Edgar Ulmer also plays a grand part. He directed this movie as well as written it very well. The conversations between Lugosi and Karloff are almost like knife fights.
The only fault with this movie is that it's too short. I'm pretty sure things could have been fleshed out a bit more. Maybe more conversations during the chess match or a monologue about how the war has affected them. I think that Karloff's satanic intentions could have been worked upon as well. Almost anything about the characters of Hjalmar and Vitus would have been great.
This is a "have" in your collection. Not only for Lugosi and Karloff, but also for Ulmer, who later on, becomes the forefather of Giallo.
4 stars.
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