HALLOWEEN POE-A-THON: Karloff and Lugosi face off in The Black Cat (1934) w/ The Tell-Tale Heart (1941)
October 31 : 3:15 pm – 4:45 pm
This Halloween, we doff our cap to the granddaddy of horror, Edgar Allan Poe, with our all-day POE-A-THON!
Featuring nearly 12 hours of Poe adaptations, we’ve got everything from avant-garde silents to stone-cold classics to a mystery WTF disasterpiece you won’t want to miss. Plus THREE movies starring St. Louis’ beloved hometown horror hero, Vincent Price, and two FREE events.
Each screening is ticketed separately, so come for a movie or two, or stay all day … if your nerves can handle it.
“This bizarre, utterly irrational masterpiece has images that bury themselves in the mind” – The Guardian
Horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi teamed up—and faced off—for the first time in director Edgar G. Ulmer’s macabre Pre-code chiller The Black Cat, which borrows its title (and admittedly not a whole lot else) from Edgar Allan Poe’s tale of terror. Anticipating Rocky Horror by four decades, the film spins a tale of American honeymooners, Joan and Peter Allison, held captive in a creepy mansion against their will. But instead of a transsexual Transylvanian, here it’s Black Mass high priest Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff), who has chosen Joan to be the Devil’s bride. Lugosi co-stars as Poelzig’s frenemy, psychiatrist Dr. Vitus Werdegast, in this singular Universal chiller that features necrophilia, ailurophobia (Lugosi collapses at the sight of a cat), drugs, a deadly game of chess, torture, flaying, and a human sacrifice.
This program also includes the 1941 short, The Tell-Tale Heart. The directorial debut of legendary auteur Jules Dassin (Night and the City, Rififi), this 20-minute scorcher is “positively a-swill in Orson Wellesian tropes: the crouching camera, the chiaroscuro lighting, the mood-deepening use of silences and sound effects” (Richard Corliss).
The full program runs approximately runs approximately 86 minutes.
Arkadin does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. However, we encourage researching titles to determine if a screening may contain content that could be upsetting to you. Please feel free to contact us for guidance on specific films. Information about content can also be found on Common Sense Media, IMDB and DoesTheDogDie.com, as well as through general internet searches.
Theater Policies
- All seats are first-come, first-served.
- The theater opens 30 minutes prior to showtime, except for “Happy Hour” events and pre-shows when the theater opens at the listed start time.
- When a screening is sold out, we open a waitlist 30 minutes before showtime. You must physically come to the lobby to get your name on the waitlist. Seats are released as they become available. All remaining seats are released at showtime.
- All ages are welcome at Arkadin except for Drinkolas Cage events, which are restricted to 21+. We follow the MPAA rating guidelines for all other films.
- Tickets can be purchased using the BUY TICKETS link above. Upon ordering, you will receive a confirmation email from Square. Tickets may also be purchased on the day of the show at the concession counter.
- If you’ve purchased advance tickets, when you arrive, please give your name at the concession counter to check in.
- Tickets are returnable by sending a request through the contact form located on our About Us page prior to showtime.
- When an event is sold out, we reserve the right to release open seats to customers on the waitlist. If you have a pre-purchased ticket and arrive late and there is no seat for you, your ticket will be refunded.
- All screenings are held in our indoor theater unless indicated otherwise in the event description above.
- Please respect your fellow movie-goers by remaining quiet and refraining from using your cell phone throughout the screening.