The Black Room (1935 film)

The Black Room is a 1935 film about a man who seeks to maintain his feudal power on his Tyrolean estate by murdering and impersonating his benevolent younger twin.
 * Directed by Roy William Neill. Written by Henry Myers and Arthur Strawn.

Dead or Alive... He could kill! (taglines)

Baron Gregor de Bergmann

 * This house began with murder. It will end the same way. [Reading from the coat-of-arms] "Principio Et Finem Similia." I end as I began!

Dialogue

 * Mashka: Don't you want to kiss me?
 * Baron Gregor de Bergmann: [Cutting a juicy pear with his knife and eating it as he talks] A pear is the best fruit!
 * Mashka: Every time you see her, you want to be rid of me.
 * Baron Gregor de Bergmann: [Seemingly ignoring her] Lots of juice in a pear!
 * Mashka: Well, you'll find out I'll not be got rid of so easily! Do you hear what I say?
 * Baron Gregor de Bergmann: Adam should've chosen a pear.
 * Mashka: You've got it all planned, haven't you? You're gonna marry her. You're gonna make her your wife, your baroness!
 * Baron Gregor de Bergmann: I like the feel of a pear! And when you're through with it...
 * [He carelessly tosses it across the room]


 * Col. Paul Hassel: [Playing chess] Your attack is weak as your brother Gregor's was brilliant. Chess, by the way, was the only virtue I ever discovered in him.
 * Baron Gregor de Bergmann: I received a letter today from him from Warsaw. Most of it was devoted to begging me to send his love to you, Colonel.
 * Col. Paul Hassel: His love to me? Well, if I have to accept it, I'd rather have it by post than any way I can think of.


 * Baron Gregor de Bergmann: [as Anton lies dying in the well of the Black Room] Goodbye, brother. There's nothing to fear now. The prophecy can't be fulfilled.
 * Anton de Bergmann: [With certitude] It will be fulfilled!
 * Baron Gregor de Bergmann: Perhaps you will come back from the dead to kill me?
 * Anton de Bergmann: [Dying words] Even from the dead!

Taglines

 * Embraced by the Devil! Monster . . . his kiss the password to oblivion!
 * HE WAS A DEMON OF DEATH -- ...WHOSE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBERS HELD GRUESOME SECRETS!
 * Karloff Reveals... What the Grave Conceals!
 * Master of the House of Horror!
 * Dead or Alive... He could kill!

Cast

 * Boris Karloff — Baron Gregor de Berghmann / Anton de Berghmann
 * Marian Marsh — Thea Hassel
 * Robert Allen — Lt. Albert Lussan
 * Thurston Hall — Col. Paul Hassel
 * John Buckler — Buran
 * Torben Meyer — Peter
 * Katherine DeMille — Mashka
 * Henry Kolker — Baron de Berghman
 * Colin Tapley — Paul Hassel as a young lieutenant
 * Edward Van Sloan — Doctor
 * Egon Brecher — Lead Villager
 * Helena Grant — Anna, the housekeeper
 * Marion Lessing — Maria, the chambermaid
 * Robert Middlemass — The Prosecutor