Not to be confused with the 1995 film of the same name. Yvonne (Frances Drake) is a Grand Guignol-type actress; her adoring husband Stephen (Colin Clive) is a famous pianist. She is also admired by Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre), a surgeon famous for performing difficult transplants, who is desperate to have her to himself. She finds herself needing his help when Stephen is in a train accident that crushes his hands. Gogol performs a transplant, but unfortunately the new hands came from recently executed murderer Rollo (Edward Brophy). Soon Stephen finds that he can’t play piano anymore, but he can inadvertently throw knives whenever he gets angry. Gogol, still planning to capture Yvonne, comes up with a plan to frame Stephen for murder.
I like Mad Love more than I tend to like other classic movies. I adore Peter Lorre and Colin Clive. It’s also not too melodramatic (it gets there at times, but that’s the ’30s). Speaking of the ’30s, there’s actually an Asian guy (Keye Luke) whose portrayal is surprisingly racially sensitive for the time period—he’s Dr. Wong, one of Gogol’s colleagues. Look at him, all actually a person of color and not a white dude! His race has no bearing on the plot, he’s just a non-white guy doing his job, just like real life! Look, I say! It’s very exciting.
The characters who aren’t Dr. Wong are pretty interesting, too. Yvonne is sassy for a ‘30s heroine. Gogol is at times a sympathetic character. He is shown treating a young girl, and when her family tries to scrape up money to pay him, he says, “I do not operate for money.” He also could have killed Stephen rather than fix his hands (though he was probably scheming all the while).
I have few gripes about the movie. I don’t like Gogol’s crazy eyebrows or his drunken housekeeper; she’s meant to give comic relief, but is decidedly unfunny. I also wonder why everyone in France is English. Overall, the film is nostalgic for me (I first watched it with my sister Leslie as teenagers–we particularly enjoyed Stephen’s habit of losing his pen, finding it, and saying, “That’s my pen, you know”–ya had to be there), but I still like it on its own merit. Give it a look if you’re in the something old-timey and solidly written.
GhoulieJoe 