Bela Lugosi, so often underrated as a performer (even though he played none other than Jesus Christ on stage to some acclaim), manages, here, to convey a sense of loss that is almost palpable. No doubt about it but that this is one of his finest performances. Karloff is VERY creepy as the devil-worshipping madman whose cold, concrete Bauhaus sits atop the site of a bloody battle (it even overlooks a field of crude grave markers); his almost effeminate makeup and mannerisms further his creepiness (his black gown hangs like a dress on him and he often gestures with wrist limp). The tour de force is, of course, the "pheasants under glass" tour he gives the long-suffering Lugosi. It's a scene that still packs a wallop and, in its own way, lends Lugosi's later flaying alive of Karloff a sense of wrongs being righted. Absolutely must-see movie-making, from a director who rarely had the means to reach such ends.