Mad Love (DVD)

(A review of just the film. It's available as part of the Legends of Horror US DVD boxset which is easy enough to acquire through amazon.) This is a horror movie from 1935, which was the last year of Hollywood's first major horror boom. It was made by M-G-M, not usually a horror studio, and was Peter Lorre's first American film. Based on a novel, it's a Parisian hand-transplant story. Lovely actress Yvonne is married to a successful pianist, Stephen Orlac. She's lusted after by creepy Dr Gogol. A train crash leaves hubby's hands smashed, but Gogol, desperate to impress Yvonne, gives Orlac the hands of a dead man. Unfortunately the only dead man ...