THE OLD DARK HOUSE

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		Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.
THE OLD DARK HOUSE - 1932 USA Release: October 20, 1932 Universal Pictures Rating: USA: N/A

A car is having a real tough time of it driving through a storm at night. It appears to be driving through a flooded gulley of a road and the water is nearly up to the windows. That the old jalopy can drive at all is a wonder.

Inside the car, which is leaking thanks to it being a ragtop convertable and the cloth "roof" of the 1930s was in no way water proof, there are three people.

The driver, Philip Waverton (Raymond Massey: THINGS TO COME) is bellyaching about their predicament. Why are they even on this trip? This is a fool's errand! It's cold! It's wet! It's wah! Wah! Wah!

His wife, Margaret (Gloria Stuart: THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR, SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM, THE INVISIBLE MAN) is in the same predicament, and so going through the same thing, and wishes her husband would stop whining about what he can't control and just deal with it.

Their friend, Penderel (Melvyn Douglas: THE VAMPIRE BAT [1933], DANGEROUS CORNER, COMPANIONS IN NIGHTMARE, THE TENANT, TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING, THE CHANGELING [1980], GHOST STORY) is riding in back and takes it all in black humor and a jaunty attitude. After all, his friend Philip is griping enough for both of them and what does that get them?

Soon a landslide nearly buries them and the mud and water that pushed the slide nearly drowns them. Barely making high ground to avoid death, they see a house in the distance and the lights are on.

Any port in a storm will do and they hope that the occupants are willing to help strangers on a horrible night like this.

*TRIVIA

Boris Karloff not only made a lot of movies, but he made a lot of movies that went on to become great classics. Here is just a small sample -

GREEN GHOST, BEHIND THE MASK, THE MASK OF FU MANCHU, FRANKENSTEIN [1931],
THE MUMMY [1932], THE GHOUL [1933], THE BLACK CAT [1934], THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE RAVEN [1935], THE BLACK ROOM, THE INVISIBLE RAY, THE WALKING DEAD [1936], JUGGERNAUT [1936], THE MAN WHO LIVED AGAIN, CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA, NIGHT KEY, THE INVISIBLE MENACE, MR. WONG: DETECTIVE, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, BLACK FRIDAY [1940], THE MAN WITH 9 LIVES, BEFORE I HANG, THE APE [1940], THE DEVIL COMMANDS, THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE BODY SNATCHER, ISLE OF THE DEAD, BEDLAM, THE STRANGE DOOR, THE BLACK CASTLE, THE ISLAND MONSTER, VOODOO ISLAND, THE HAUNTED STRANGLER, FRANKENSTEIN 1970, THRILLER [TV], CORRIDORS OF BLOOD, THE RAVEN [1963], THE TERROR, BLACK SABBATH, THE COMEDY OF TERRORS, DIE, MONSTER, DIE!, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, MAD MONSTER PARTY, CAULDRON OF BLOOD, TARGETS, THE CRIMSON CULT, FEAR CHAMBER

Huddle together by the door, a knock brings the scarred and forboding face of the house butler we will come to know as Morgan (Boris Karloff*). Grunting, he motions them to come inside. Soon they meet the timid lord of the house, Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger: THE GHOUL, THE MURDER PARTY, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE GHOSTS OF BERKELEY SQUARE, MEET MR. LUCIFER), who explains that their butler Morgan is dumb and cannot speak, only grunt. Horace is suitably stricken by the traveler's tale of woe and he can, of course, hear the ferociousness of the storm for himself. This is no night to be out in nature's fury.

However

Horace shares the house with his nearly deaf sister Rebecca (Eva Moore) a foul odor of a woman who loudly brays of her Christianity while openly wishing harm to others. She tries to be as manipulative as her handicap will allow and the balance of power swings back and forth between Horace and Rebecca, but Horace is glad of the company of strangers, especially on a night like this.

Well good for him, because he's about to get more. More travelers come knocking on the door, begging for shelter until the storm passes. They are the royalty of Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton: ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME [1939], THE CANTERVILLE GHOST [1944], THE MAN ON THE EIFFEL TOWER, THE STRANGE DOOR) and his lady companion, Gladys (Lilian Bond).

Horace appears to be the most sane of the Femm family and that's not saying a lot.

Terribly stormy nights like this frighten Morgan and sends him to drinking. Once he gets drunk he becomes a violent uncontrollable brute. At least that's how Horace tells it.

Life with Horace and Rebecca seems to be an endless game of one upmanship, each constantly scoring points of the other and neither winning.

Worse, as it turns out, there is danger in the house as well as other Femm family members that musn't be introduced.

As the storm gets worse and the little hill on which the old dark house sits is surrounded by floodwater, the travelers can only helplessly wait for it to pass while the goings on within grow stranger and deadlier.

THE OLD DARK HOUSE - Boris Karloff and Lilian Bond

THE OLD DARK HOUSE could be quite a scarefest except for one thing. The original novel by J.B. Priestley was a Horror comedy and that's just how Producer Carl Laemmle wanted it. Director James Whale (FRANKENSTEIN [1931], THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR, THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) was onboard with that idea, and his writers, Benn W. Levy (THE HATE SHIP) and R.C. Sherriff (THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY, THE NIGHT MY NUMBER CAME UP), delivered.

This was the second time that Whale directed Karloff as a silent hulk and, with his great success on Broadway as a talking actor, it was starting to wear thin on him. Other movie productions were casting him as a lead with dialog. Whale cast him for a second time as a silent hulk. During production Gloria Stuart said that Boris was the most difficult to get along with, but what she apparently didn't know was that Whale and Karloff were lovers and going through a quarrel so angry that the two men would refuse to speak with each other again.

All of which takes nothing away from the movie and might have even enhanced it.

THE OLD DARK HOUSE remains great fun and is perfect for a family night with the young'ns.

Four Shriek Girls.