Mad Love

In Paris, a celebrated concert pianist, Stephen Orlac, is badly hurt in a train crash, leaving his hands mangled beyond repair. His wife Yvonne, a stage actress, turns in desperation to Doctor Gogol, a brilliant surgeon whose feelings for her have already grown into an obsession. Gogol operates, but he does not tell the couple whose hands he has given Stephen: those of an executed killer and knife thrower.

The operation appears to succeed, yet Stephen begins to feel drawn toward violence, while Gogol's fixation on Yvonne becomes more consuming and more dangerous. Peter Lorre plays Gogol, with Frances Drake as Yvonne, Colin Clive as Stephen, Ted Healy and Sara Haden in support. The screenplay is by John L. Balderston and P.J. Wolfson, and John W. Considine Jr. produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Mad Love runs 68 minutes and followed two earlier horror films by director Karl Freund, Dracula and The Mummy. On IMDb it holds 7.2/10 from 6,400 votes, and on TMDB 7/10 from 126 votes; a critics' rating of 7.6/10 from 12 reviews is roughly in line with that audience response.