MAD LOVE
(1935; d. Karl Freund, w. John L Balderston + PJ Wolfson, adapted KF+ Guy Endore)

Fist smashes credit matte, painted mask turns real + THÉATRE DES HORREURS star Yvonne Orlac’s portrait dissolves into real-YO being made up: illusion giving way to real, as archetypes animated by dream-unconscious (as by filmmaking process); echoed later in character’s adopting facsimile of another’s hands (as another char his real hands) + housekeeper’s pet cockatoo (or parrot): dream’s mimicry/mimesis of waking life + archetypes in fashioning own true lies.

Yvonne (variation of Yahweh: God/dess) exalted star of Grand Guignol THÉATRE (beauty in the horrible, which she fails to see in pathetic suitor Dr Gogol) + fetish-object of proto-Fester doc (bald eunuch-child, "Gogol" à la ogle + "goggle" – "to stare w/ wide or protuberant eyes" [ideally cast Peter Lorre] from ME "gogolen" – "to squint" [all WEBSTER’S], he later said to "represent the public," i.e., similarly wide-eyed audience) who wishes 2B her Pygmalion (who, according to WOMEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHS + SECRETS, received "right to rule thru a sacred marriage w/ the Goddess img, who was called Galatea," the "Milk-giving G’ss" [aka Mom; variant also of Earth-mother Gaia]): he Agape healer à la Mummy’s Imhotep (similarly w/d by JLB/KF + referred to in housekeeper’s "It went for a little walk" when Gala statue "comes to life"), elevating lowly feminine (own anima for war-weary world, Gogol famous for rehabilitating soldiers + lame girlchild) by acknowledging her tortured-goddess aspect (idol from Gk eidolon, or ideal, + eide, the "Goddess w/i," Y’s sensational "rack" act dream hyperrealizing dayworld's hidden subtext) on eve of Yvonne’s quitting stage to hausfrau for pianist husband Stephen, both performers taking stage same time + simultaneously arriving at Gogol’s clinic later (she in statue form: alienated Dr’s fetishism substitute for real communion w/t divine), as complementary parts of same whole.

Married 1 yr, reunion à la honeymoon (marriage symbolically unconsummated, film to follow exploration of why), disrupted when train crash (derailed destiny + erectile dysfunction) crushes Stephen’s hands (castration/impotence); also on board (united in phallus, as genes in sperm cell) was knife-throwing (phallic proficiency) Rollo, who killed father in rivalry over woman (Oedipus: Orlac [à la oral stage of development – he still attached to "milk-giving" Goddess – or oracl(e), "person thru whom deity believed to speak," à la artist]’s own projected complex, pen he using to "compose" [himself: repression + self-creation] used as dagger sublimating animalistic [vulgar American Rollo] sex-drive into civilized art, refining the "crude" [similar Yank comic-relief reporter Reagan], as Gogol desires to do w/ Yvonne).

Distraught Yvonne calls on Dr for help (he intermediary btwn illness + health: similar visualization/projection of complex, voyeur whose childlike exhibition of own issues will move couple twd reunion/reintegration), who that morning witnessed Rollo (name similar to Gogol, placement of O’s in names positing Orlac on one end, Rollo on other, Gogol in middle, spiritual pianist opposite earthy killer mediated by brainiac surgeon)’s beheading (dream-separation of mind + body: Orlac similarly alienated from physical, as later own hands); simultaneous arrival of O + Gala model reunion of archetypal mind + body (she womb from which O archaically separated), G/Y in-spiration ("breathing in a spirit") for dr’s unprecedented performance grafting Rollo’s hands onto Orlac’s wrists (connecting hero to embodied complex: bringing issue to consciousness, in process making Frankenstein/Orlac Colin Clive his own creation - entering fiction, à la opening montage).

Hurting financially (complex draining ego) from inactivity/impotence, instead of Yvonne going back to work couple sell off possessions (dreamer’s further detachment from world, as ironic result of em-bodi-ment), Stephen visits resentful jeweler (extractor of valuables from the dark earth-unconscious) step-(not-the-)father (imaginative re-creation of archetypal figure in order to resolve age-old issue forbidden by social taboo: oedipal intruder [fr 2-yrs-older-than-Clive Ian Wolfe] on child’s privileged relationship w/t mother) for loan, throwing dagger at him (replaying Rollo: becoming not-self in order to act out complex to its conclusion) when refused (real fr/adult self-img unavailable to aid in rehabilitation/maturation).

Seeing an "in" to Yvonne’s affections/availability, Gogol, who tells Stephen "your case is one of arrested wish-fulfillment," fulfills his wishes (he dream-agent + surgical "instrument" in violating taboo) + kills senior Orlac then frames son for it (guilt for aboriginal parricide + fairytale explanation for death of cruel God); after mtg in bad part of town (lower depths o/t unconscious, where self mts Self) w/ Gogol-Rollo (former dressed as latter, w/ metal hands + reattached head: vision of own reunified self [harbinger of mvmt back to consciousness] at same time visualization of horror of own mind-body separation), arrested + jailed, suppressing ego in order for complex – once revealed – to play out.

Yvonne investigates Gogol’s clinic (anima engaged to explore dark, shadowy, expansive place of healing) + takes place of accidentally shattered Gala statue (becoming not-self like Orlac + Gogol, replacing not-the-mother img now transcended) visible in mirror (as in back of mind) over dr’s "pipe organ," (earlier playing alone while regarding her – vs O’s public performance – masturbation); revealed as living by cut on cheek (loss of virginity, exalted ideal made flesh via sexualization) after Gogol sheds disguise (anima witnessing Self discarding false impediments, for benefit of ego).

When Orlac exonerated (psychic result of Yvonne’s revelation), arrives in time to stop doc from strangling wife (renegade, ascendant complex endangering real-ized ideal; cf similarities to ’33 Mystery o/t Wax Museum) + hurls knife thru portal à la opening shattering of mediating frame/hymen, sexual img indicating transcendence of dysfunction by integrating mind + body (O accepting hands/sexuality), enabling closing reunion-embrace.

Seeing this fluid, cohesive MGM film – based on Maurice Renard novel – reminds viewer what a butcher shop was contemporary Universal.