User reviews

Seeking shelter from a storm, five travelers are in for a bizarre and terrifying night when they stumble upon the Femm family estate.

The film is based on the novel "Benighted" (1927) by J. B. Priestley, who saw the "queer inmates" of the house as symbols of post-war pessimism. He was quite reluctant to sell the rights, thinking his characters would not adapt well to the screen. However, in January 1932, he changed his mind when Universal offered him $12,500 (roughly $215,000 in 2017 money).

The novel was adapted for the screen by R. C. Sheriff ("The Invisible Man") and Benn Levy (Hitchcock's "Blackmail"). Universal Studios producer Carl Laemmle invited Levy from England to Universal City after being impressed with Levy's screenplay for "Waterloo Bridge" (1931), which was also directed by James Whale. Sheriff and Levy were able to have a script fleshed out by March 1932, a mere two months.

James Whale worked with many collaborators from his previous films including Arthur Edeson, who was the cinematographer for "Frankenstein" (1931) and "Waterloo Bridge" (1931) and set designer Charles D. Hall, who also worked on "Frankenstein". Edeson went on to help create the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and become its president. Hall kept "Old Dark House" very scaled back; a viewer could easily mistake the film for a stage production. Ultimately, Hall would work on 11 of Whale's 20 films.

For genre fans, the most obvious repeat collaborator is Boris Karloff, who plays the supporting role of a mute butler. Interestingly, though Karloff's best-known role is Frankenstein's Monster (under Whale's direction), and Whale's best-known film (also "Frankenstein") starred Karloff, the two were not necessarily friends. Cordial, yes, but never close, and yet their names are linked for all eternity.

The cast is all-star by anyone's standards. Whale chose newcomer Gloria Stuart for the glamour role, and this lead to her wider success and her helping found the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). She would soon work with Whale again on both "The Kiss Before the Mirror" and "The Invisible Man", both released in 1933. This was Charles Laughton's first Hollywood film, which came shortly after Laughton had worked with Whale on the English stage.

Laughton was married to Elsa Lanchester, who played the title role in Whale's "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935). "Old Dark House" also started Ernest Thesiger's Hollywood career, and he would go on to work on Whale's "Bride" as Dr. Septimus Pretorius, a role that the studio wanted Claude Rains to have. Of course, Thesiger embodies that role and is as memorable as the bride herself. At the time of casting "Old Dark House", Thesiger had already known Whale and was appearing in one of Benn Levy's plays.

According to Stuart, Whale was a very hands-on director, deciding line delivery, walking, costumes and more. She saw him as an "artist" with his background in both acting and set design, and was "fussy" about makeup, jewelry and props. Because of his rapport with Thesiger, Whale allowed for the most deviations from the script (and book) for his old friend.

"The Old Dark House" was largely ignored at the American box office, although it was a huge hit in Whale's native England. Variety and the Hollywood Filmograph gave the film negative reviews, with Variety calling it a "somewhat inane picture". Other reviews were more positive, but on the whole it was not seen as an instant classic, much to the astonishment of modern audiences.

For many years, the original version was considered a lost film and gained a tremendous reputation as one of the pre-eminent Gothic horror films. Whale's fellow director and friend Curtis Harrington ("Night Tide") helped to prevent "The Old Dark House" from becoming a lost film. Harrington met Whale and Whale's partner David Lewis in 1948, at a time when (according to Harrington) "Whale had no critical reputation at all", unlike how film historians view him today.

When Harrington was signed to Universal in 1967 to direct "Games" with James Caan, he repeatedly asked Universal to locate the film negative of "Old Dark House", although it was Harrington himself who discovered a print of the film in the vaults of Universal Studios in 1968. He persuaded James Card the George Eastman House film archive to finance a new duplicate negative of the poorly-kept first reel, and restore the rest of the film. The original nitrate negative had survived, though the first reel only existed as a lavender protection print.

Harrington further was the one responsible for getting the film legally released. Because Universal had not pursued the copyright, the rights to the story reverted to the Priestley estate and were bought up by Columbia, who released an inferior remake by acclaimed director William Castle in 1963. Harrington was able to convince Columbia to allow copies of the Universal film to be made, though it would be years before distribution and re-screenings were legally cleared.

In 2017, the Cohen Film Collection released a brand new Blu-ray featuring a 4K restoration that brings this classic back to life. They also packed the disc with two different commentaries (one with actress Gloria Stuart, the other with James Whale biographer James Curtis). There is a featurette on how Curtis Harrington saved the film from obscurity, and a completely new 15-minute interview with Sara Karloff.

Tod Browning (Freaks, Dracula), Karl Freund (The Mummy, Mad Love), Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M) and James Whale…. these are the guys that created the fabulous horror genre as we know it. And try to pick the most essential movie from Whale's repertoire! Alongside 'Bride of Frankenstein', this has got to be his finest creation and easily one of the most influential films ever made. The Old Dark House is a gripping mix of suspense and macabre black humor. The story is ridiculously simple and shows 5 people stranded near a remote, sinister house during a storm. There, they encounter the vicious and eccentric Femm family. The butler (played by the legendary Boris Karloff) is a dumb, scar-faced drunk; the lady of the house is deaf and aggressive and her brother speaks with an incomprehensible accent. On top of this, there's a bearded lady in the attic (supposed to be a 102-year-old guy) and a deranged pyromaniac brother locked up in yet another room! It sounds a little like the TCM Sawyer family forty years ahead of time. Whale constantly inserts subtle humor into his film, without actually losing a bit of the sublime Gothic atmosphere. This may well be the very FIRST haunted-house movie and he already makes it some sort of parody.

The Old Dark House is one of the lesser-known classic Universal horror movies, which is quite a shame. It's excellent every way you look at it. At first, it might seem a little slow (especially compared to Whale's equally brilliant 'Frankenstein' and 'The Invisible Man') but that's quickly made up by the utterly unique characters this film features. Classic, efficient horror like they'll never make it anymore.

Truly one of Universal greatest unsung horror films, The Old Dark House is a unique blend of gothic setting, quirky characterizations, wicked black and dry humour, a great ensemble cast, and the workings of the mind of James Whale. Whale made the film the year after Frankenstein. He was again paired with Karloff. But unlike their first association, Karloff's star is far less brighter in this film as his performance, although good and servicable, is over-shadowed by atmosphere, Whale's direction, witty dialogue, and a cast of scene stealers such as Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Eva Moore, and Ernest Thesiger. Others in the notable cast include lovely Gloria Stuart, Lillian Bond, and Raymond Massey. Thesiger and Moore, as the brother and sister imposed upon by travellers in the stormy night, are fantastic as they interact and play out their eccentricities to perfection. Thesiger has the choice lines in the film as the effeminate Horace Femm, a cowardly man that cowers to his deaf sister. He is a joy to watch and each of his lines oozes with oil. Moore is also very good as she bellows repeatedly, "N beds! No beds! They can have no beds!" The story is based on a novel by J. B. Priestly. The plot is somewhat antiquated now, but Whale's direction puts a lot of life into it. And let's not forget Karloff, however small his part, still turns in a great menacing performance as a lecherous, drunken servant named Morgan ogling Gloria Stuart from the moment he sees her. The Old Dark House is a great film, and it should be more highly touted by Universal!

The Old Dark House is the least well known of James Whale's four horror pictures, but don't let that fool you, as this one is just as good as anything else Whale ever made. Despite being over seventy years old, The Old Dark House still holds the power to feel like it could have been released yesterday; much like the rest of Whale's horror movies, which are as fresh today as they were the day they were made. The plot follows three people that get caught in a storm and are forced to take refuge in the only place nearby - an old dark house. There, they encounter the house's strange inhabitants - a nearly deaf woman and a cowardly old man, along with their creepy butler (played by Boris Karloff), a scar faced drunk. More travellers turn up, and the film only gets more fun; introducing us to more strange characters, including a very weird old lady...with a beard, and something else, which is so horrible that the inhabitants are forced to keep it under lock and key…

The Old Dark House is one of the first haunted house films ever made, and it works, primarily, for two reasons; the house itself and the cast of characters. Both of these entities are intriguing elements in their own right, and they combine to great effect. The house is, as you might expect, old and dark; and it's a sublime horror setting because of that. It creates a constant sense of malice and through it's dark corridors and many rooms, Whale is able to make the house into a labyrinth where we can believe that anything can happen. This coupled with the fact that the 'normal' people in the house are stranded there, thus creating claustrophobia along with the raging storm outside makes for an atmosphere that is as dark and morbid as anything that cinema has ever given us. The characters inside the house are enigma's themselves; each one is as frightening and inventive as the other, and they have all been imitated several times by later horror films. Even the travellers that are stranded in the house are given unique to each other. Whale also uses a few of these characters to implement his own brand of black humour (which can be felt strongly in his other three films as well). Many horror films don't work character-wise because they're all so similar to each other; but this film certainly doesn't suffer from that.

Overall, The Old Dark House is another feather in Whale's already feather filled cap. It's as genius as any of his other horror films and overall it's a crying shame that Whale didn't do more work in that genre, as that is the genre that is so rightfully his. If I haven't made it clear enough already: this film comes with the highest recommendation from me.

First one carload of normal people who can't go on due to flash flooding stop in a Gothic horror house for food and shelter and then another. Strange doings are happening at the house occupied by the Femm family and their mute servant Morgan.

You can't really say there is any kind of coherent plot to the unfolding events and plot for me is usually the one indispensable part of any film. But in this case I make an exception because obviously Director James Whale was having a little fun with the audience by now used to Universal Studios horror film products. Whale creates a film of dark moods and light banter among the guests who can't quite figure out what's with this family of weirdos.

The Old Dark House marked the American film debut of Charles Laughton and Laughton overacts outrageously as does the whole cast in the role a bluff, overbearing, but essentially good hearted Manchester businessman who's got himself a Sir before his name and is right proud of it. This was also early work for Melvyn Douglas and Raymond Massey as another two of the guests.

Boris Karloff plays the sinister and mute servant Morgan. Karloff had one of the great speaking voices ever in films and interesting that this and his break through role as the Frankenstein monster required no dialog.

The Old Dark House is one great Halloween movie and listen close to the campy dialog that will tickle your funny bone if you don't miss it.

One of the original 'stranded in a creepy mansion' movies, "The Old Dark House" brings a group of travellers, trapped by a massive rainstorm, together in an old estate somewhere in Wales. The home is owned by the Femm family, including paranoid Rebecca (Eva Moore) and sepulchral brother Horrace (Ernest Thesiger) who are served by a lumbering, scarred mute servant Morgan (Karloff). Needless to say, there is more to the family and the mansion than meets the eye. Directed by James Whale, the film reflects his flair for the comic-Gothic, but is not in the same league as his "Frankenstein" (1931) or "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935). The ensemble cast of 'strandees' including Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, and Raymond Massey, are all good in their respective roles, as are their hosts, but Karloff is a disappointment. After having brought so much humanity and pathos to his 'creature' in the Frankenstein films, here he just lurches and grunts as he menaces the stranded guests. ANTI-SPOILER ALERT: I was expecting some clever twist involving his character at the end of the film, but the story just plays out predictably (perhaps it was less predictable when the movie came out).

While perfectly enjoyable as a camp comedy of manners (that element comes courtesy of director James Whale) and as an elegant, low-key horror, The Old Dark House can best be appreciated when you know a little about JB Priestley, author of the source play Benighted. (Or was it originally a novel? It definitely exists as a stage play, at any rate.)

Priestley was an English playwright, novelist, radio broadcaster and journalist who became very well known in Britain in the 1930s and 1940s for presenting a kindly, commonsensical version of socialism and community spirit to a nation battling through the Great Depression, the Second World War and its aftermath. Several of his plays combine a supernatural or at least mysterious strain with an allegorical message about the importance of unselfishness and people working together to help one another. If you watch The Old Dark House with these points in mind you may see it in a more moving and profound light. Dangerous Corner and An Inspector Calls are similar examples of his work, still popular in Britain with amateur drama groups and touring theatre companies.

If you can, see Old Dark House and Whale's later Bride of Frankenstein as a home video double bill and compare Ernest Thesiger's delightfully feline and remarkably similar performances as Horace Femm and Dr Praetorius. "Have a potato" and "Have some gin" may well become part of your private family language for ever after.

Tales about sinister, creepy mansions were already clichéd by the time director James Whale directed THE OLD DARK HOUSE--and instead of presenting the piece as a straight-forward thriller he mixed the film's very atmospheric cinematography with a wild strain of parody. The result is a movie with a bizarre camp humor that foreshadows Whale's slightly later and even more bizarrely camp THE BRIDE OF FRANKESTEIN.

The plot, very based loosely on a J.B. Priestly novel, is perfunctory, existing only to throw together an ensemble cast of already-famous and soon-to-be-famous stars. Five motorists are trapped in the wilds of Wales during a horrific storm and are forced to seek shelter at, of course, an old dark house... but their unwilling hosts are a neurotic Ernest Thesiger, his religious fanatic sister Eva Moore, and their hulking, deformed, and mute butler Boris Karloff. Before the night is over the storm-weary travelers experience everything from a hellish meal to religious lectures--not to mention assault, attempted rape, mysterious cackling, a bit of arson, and a touch of homosexual hysteria (courtesy of Thesiger, Moore, and a surprise male character who is actually played by a woman) thrown in for good measure.

The cast is exceptional; in addition to Karloff, Thesiger, and Moore, we have Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Massey, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, and Lilian Bond, and they wring the most from the covertly wicked script, with Eva Moore ranting about "laughter and sin," Thesiger inviting Raymond Massey into his room "to see a few things," and one of the most socially awkward meals ever put to film. But the film's real power is its cinematography: when they say old DARK house, they really mean it, and the look of the film is just as disorienting for viewers as for the characters; particularly noteworthy is the scene in which Moore lectures Gloria Stuart, with their faces distorted by the bedroom mirror, and the sequence in which Karloff pursues the white-clad and wind-whipped Gloria Stuart with mayhem in mind.

Viewers who expect "Universial Horror" fare will probably be disappointed by THE OLD DARK HOUSE, and director James Whale would create a still more memorable combination of horror and high-camp with THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTIEN. But THE OLD DARK HOUSE is an overlooked jewel of unusual quality: a sardonic parody of a famous theme, well played, filmed and scripted. Recommended.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I have to say that I have loved this movie since I saw it Fifty years ago, and it was a revival, even then. It is certainly, in my book, the best film James Whale ever made, and if you see it on a good print, it stands up very well. The setting of the Old House on a dark rainy night is brilliantly done and the mood is held all the way through. The cast is excellent headed By Boris Karloff as the sometimes out-of-control Morgan, and Charles Laughton is a delight in his very off-beat role. Raymond Massey and Melvyn Douglas both contribute to the fun as does Gloria Stuart, but the creme-de-la-creme comes from Emma Dunn and Ernest Thesiger as the Femms - who can ever forget Mrs. Femm saying "No beds, you can't have beds!", or Mr. Femm offering the guests at meal time "Have a Potato". The remake many years later is an insult to this film, and should not be shown anywhere. Look everywhere you can to try and get a copy of this 1932 masterpiece.

The Old Dark House is a relatively boring old horror with a rather absurd romance angle. For a while, it was considered a lost film. It disappeared after being pulled from syndication when Castle re-made it in 1963. But was later re-discovered and re-released. It's also notable for being Karloff's first credited leading role (although he was in Frankenstein prior to this, he was not listed in the credits).

The story basically revolves around a group of vacationing friends who get trapped amid a landslide and flood, which forces them to stop at an old house, inhabited by a secretive family with a dark past, to ask for help.

Said inhabitants are an odd bunch to say the least....they aren't very hospitable, offer warnings...and seem to be hiding something sinister.

Next a showgirl and her sugar daddy show up at the door in a similar predicament (as to provide an oppourtunity to tie in a romance angle, and a little comic relief).

The remainder of the film has Karloff wooing the young gold digger; trying to discover what this family is trying to keep locked away and hidden; and of course....attempting to escape with their lives.

But the whole thing just plods along without really engaging you much....and the way the whole romance angle (which culminates with a f*cking marriage proposal....after knowing each other for half a night haha) plays out is just ridiculous. Then it's over.

Not sure it deserves the high rating it has on IMDb (7.3), considering what it is. Seems pretty basic, mild, and, well....boring, to me. Not to mention the whole romance angle seemed forced and out of place.

4 out of 10.

Filmmaker James Whale's famous tongue-in-cheek terror film, alive with atmosphere , eerie events and horrifying happenings . On a stormy night in Wales , five people , Philip (Raymond Massey) and Margaret Waverton (Gloria Stuart) , their friend Penderel (Mevyn Douglas) , Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and his lady friend, chorus girl Gladys Perkins , whose stage name is DuCane, seek refuge in a gloomy house off the road . But in the old haunted house live the bizarre Femm family , the 102 year-old patriarch (Dudgeon), an atheist son (Ernest Thesiger) , a religious fanatic daughter (Eva Moore) and a crazed pyromaniac son , all watched over by a mute , scarred and psychotic butler (Boris Karloff, first credited starring role) . As travellers are stranded for the night at an old mansion which one almost expects to crumble at any moment . More thrilling than "Dracula." More mysterious than "Frankenstein." The spookiest of them all. You'll tremble and thrill and laugh at your own excitement. Numbing Fear-Gasping Surprise-Choking Terror.

Atmospheric, slick terror film , creaky at times but it's still impressive . The picture blends horror with humor and acceptable visual effects. It was critically acclaimed and highly regarded with awesome critics , as well as box-office enough in cities across America , granting a special waiver because of its "extraordinary artistic merit" . Dealing with a strange family and a motley group who wander unsuspecting , stranded travelers who set all sorts of dastardly plots in motion. The film displays excellent set design , ambitious screenplay with too many ghastly scenes and adequate interpretation for all casting . This frightening movie is pretty welll , though it relies heavily on black humor and some absurd incidents. Full of quotable lines with more than a touch of comedy and creepy moments . Based on J. B. Priestley's book ¨Benighted¨ , the movie has a wonderful cast as : Boris Karloff playing the great hulking butler in his first starring role and the remaining fabulous actors as Melvyn Douglas , Charles Laughton in the first American film from UK , Lilian Bond, Ernest Thesiger , Eva Moore , Raymond Massey in the first American movie from Canada and Elspeth Dudgeon who's performing in drag.

The motion picture was splendid and competently directed by James Whale . The great James Whale was one of the best Hollywood filmmakers . His first project was Waterloo Bridge (1931) , based on the Broadway play by Robert E. Sherwood , the film starred Mae Clarke. That same year Universal chief Carl Laemmle Jr offered Whale his choice of any property the studio owned. Whale chose Frankenstein (1931), mostly because none of Universal's other properties particularly interested him and he wanted to make something other than a war picture. He directed a lot of prestigious films of all kinds of genres , drama, comedy, musical, adventure, such as : Journey's end, By candelight, One more river, Remember last night?, Show boat, The great Garrick, The man in the iron mask. Outstanding in Terror, mystery genre, such as : Frankenstein, The bride of Frankenstein, The old dark house and The invisible man ,based on the book by H. G. Wells . Rating 7/10 . Remade in 1963 by William Castle . It is a must for fans of the genre . Well worth watching. Essential and indispensable seeing .

James Whale directed this film about five travelers(played by Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Lillian Bond, Raymond Massey, and Gloria Stuart) who escape from a bad storm by entering the title dwelling, which belongs to the decidedly unusual Femm family, composed of a quarreling brother and sister, very old grandfather upstairs, and a pyromaniac named Saul locked away in the attic! Boris Karloff plays the mute and drunken butler Morgan, who will come to menace the travelers later on... Highly unusual film has wonderful atmosphere and cast, but goes overboard on the comedy and melodrama. Still, it is entertaining and memorable, and worth seeing for its cast alone.

It's a funny experience when a film evokes déjà vu, only to realize the source of the déjà vu is, itself, intended to itself incite déjà vu. Picture this: a miserable storm sweeps a carload of normal people, as earnest as they are bedraggled, into taking refuge at a spooky old manor, only to be besieged and coveted by the prurient, camp Gothic inmates. But don't do the Time Warp again just yet: at the core of this Russian Doll of horror, pastiche, and dark humour lurks James Whale's oft-overlooked but seldom forgotten mini- masterpiece – The Old Dark House. As Poe-faced as if the script had been quoth by the Raven itself, Whale's film is, if not the granddaddy of most horror clichés, then at least the wry, drunken great-uncle. And, weathered as it is, time has been kind to this one, making The Old Dark House a creepy, clever, and sordidly amusing addition to the pantheon of horror classics. Singing not included; pelvic thrusting barely omitted.

If nothing else, The Old Dark House makes for a fascinating transitional tonal touch-point for Whale, one of the defining masters of classical horror. The film isn't as overtly satirical and camp as Whale's later monster mash-terpieces, The Invisible Man and, especially, Bride of Frankenstein, but it certainly shows him creeping in that direction, with a persistent snicker of irreverent naughtiness under its raspy breath. This isn't to say the film is an outright farce - indeed, Whale runs the gamut of thematic leitmotifs that would proceed to become preoccupations for decades of horror to follow: dogmatic religion, lurid sexuality, class discrepancies, and shunned, disabled family members. Yet, his film crackles with an invigorating, nervy energy, and his characters banter with zingy, pre-screwball fury, with several double-entendres pushing the boundaries of Hays Code knuckle-rapping with cheeky aplomb (maybe Whale assumed American censors wouldn't understand them through the Welsh accents?).

His setup is certainly foreboding enough, with the harried car ride prelude across flooding, lightning-scarred Welsh countryside a perfectly ominous amuse-bouche for the sinister, Gothic castle theatrics to come. Whale's flair for atmospheric mise-en-scène is superb, peppering the film with marvelously spooky flourishes and Expressionist lighting keeping the audience biting their nails throughout (one bit, where a woman makes shadow puppets on the wall with her hands, only to have a dark figure emerge from the shadow, is a jump scare for the ages). But Whale bides his time, keeping his pacing cunningly slow and allowing his film to froth at the mouth with looming tension.

Whale's film is also remarkable for the unprecedented access the audience is given to his cabal of characters. Too many horror films introduce characters as disposable (and disposed of) props, but Whale treats the first half of his potboiler like a theatre piece, as the growing crowd of storm refugees and reluctant hosts meet, and poke hopes, dreams, prejudices, and – mostly – fears out of each other. Whale's ensemble rises to the challenge, delivering genuinely well-crafted and compelling characters, particularly the suave, sharp-tongued Melvyn Douglas, the tough but chipper Lilian Bond, and, especially, Charles Laughton, who gives a remarkably heartfelt performance, his effete bluster whisking away to reveal a man plagued by terrible loneliness underneath. His monologue, revealing his bitter turn to capitalism as a means of finding purpose and escaping past tragedy, is strangely tragic and surprisingly moving amidst the film's tongue-in-cheek tone, and a curious counterpoint to Depression-era cinema's usual propensity for portraying the super-rich as vacuous twits. Ernest Thesiger and Eva Moore deliver masterclasses of brooding as the manor's sister tenants, while title star Boris Karloff is genuinely terrifying, his performance so much more affecting than the mere rage-ravaged riff on his Frankenstein lumbering and grunting you'd initially expect. Finally, Brember Wills gives a performance so deft and daringly over-the-top that he turns horror conventions on their head even while pushing new boundaries of skin-crawling, especially for the 1930s.

Whale's quieter companion piece to his more famous forays into the macabre may tip the cap more at Hitchcock than Mary Shelley, but ably continues his macro theme of humans being far more terrifying than any conventional 'monsters.' The Old Dark House may be humbler in scope, and somewhat more tonally imbalanced than some of its cohort of horror classics (including a swooning romantic subplot that's altogether too saccharine and sincere to play amidst its sardonic surroundings). Still, at a mere 72 minutes, the film is as concise and sardonically sinister as it is creepy, and still a slice of spine-tingling fun for an eerie, rainy night.

-8/10

It is fully to James Whale's credit that he didn't lunge automatically for the horror genre's jugular after the lurch-away success of Frankenstein. Following his cynical romantic drama Impatient Maiden the urbane Brit next adapted JB Priestly's 1927 novel "Benighted' (or 'Cursed') for the screen.

Though Priestly felt Whale had jettisoned the novel's psychological aspects along with the title, The Old Dark House does in fact adhere closely to the source material, with verbatim dialogue and even lighting effects ripped directly from the text. It must be said that the film, stark and stagey and suffused with dread, is extremely odd; it's also very funny. (Whale even sends up his own back catalogue with one character shrieking "He's alive!"); while its influence on the likes of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Thundercrack, for example, is clear - another instance of one cult film paying dues to another.

The plot is simplicity itself: on a dark and stormy night in the wilds of Wales, five rain-lashed travellers, including bluff industrialist Sir William Porterhouse (Laughton, in his first US film), his 'escort' Gladys DuCane (Bond), and playboy Roger Penderel (Douglas), seek refuge at the Femm family mansion.

The Femms make the Addams' look like the Waltons. There's wry, effeminate Horace (Thesiger), who diffuses any sticky situation with the repeated exhortation "Have a potato." While his shrewish sister Rebecca (Moore, wonderful) is a deaf religious maniac who takes particular exception to Gladys. "You're silly and wicked. You think of nothing but your long straight legs and your white body and how to please your man. You revel in the joys of fleshly love, don't you?" Then there's the wizened, androgynous family patriarch, the 102-year-old Roderick (played, bizarrely, by Elspeth Dudgeon), and assisting, their mute alcoholic butler, Morgan (Karloff), given to random acts of violence and sworn to on no account unlock the Femm's dirty little secret from the attic - a cackling pyromaniac basketcase called Saul. As with Chekov's "hanging gun" dictum, we can be sure we'll meet Saul (Wills) by the third act.

This being a Whale film, those searching for subversive undercurrents will be sure to find them. One character refuses to come out of a closet, Gladys reveals that "Bill likes people to think he's gay" and the line "My feet were wet - among other things" is her none-too-subtle remark following Penderel's romantic overtures. However, the most obvious reading of the film is as a wry indictment of British manners, and of starched-upper lips in the face of adversity.

Each party (a cross-section of post-war Britain) has something to hide, and nobody is being straight with one other: as Porterhouse observes, "We've been sitting around for two hours talking, and what have we learned about each other? Nothing." There's genuine pathos in Laughton's performance as a lower-class businessman gone to seed ("When you've started making money, it's hard to stop") and in his peculiar relationship with his paid-for companion Gladys, the failed chorus-girl. ("If I were better at my job, I probably wouldn't be weekending with you.") In the Femms and in their visitors we might deduce the insanity of recent history manifested in a fractured, isolated nation still suffering the psychic fall-out from the Great War. And yet even as Whale skewers the woes of a generation, he strives for a happy ending; day follows night, as inexorably as peace, however fleeting, follows conflict.

Such themes may have soared clean over the heads of 1930s Americans; though owing something to the Gothic tradition (and especially The Cat And The Canary) The Old Dark House - free from supernatural trappings - stiffed on release with US audiences who might understandably have expected something a jot more 'monstrous' from the great Whale.

In fact, had the print not been discovered in 1968 mouldering away, unloved and all but forgotten, in the Universal vaults by Whale's friend and fellow director Curtis Harrington, The Old Dark House might never have seen the light of day again. There's something to be said for mucking about in vaults.

On the 2006 Network DVD edition, there's a jolly commentary with Kim Newman and Stephen Jones, the pair bringing their wealth of knowledge of the genre to bear on the subject. "People have dinner, somebody goes upstairs, somebody dies" is a typical Newman aside, before he launches into an erudite exposition. "I think Whale obviously had a chip on his shoulder about the state of Post-War Britain," thinks Newman, while launching into a further discussion of Whale's homosexuality: "It's not a homophobic film, because it's in love with camp culture." Jones, meanwhile, finds it "hard to believe Ernest Thesiger wasn't gay". It's also mooted that Horace may be on the run "because of some public indecency, perhaps homosexuality," although Newman thinks he may simply be a draft-dodger.

Of the cast, Newman gets the impression that "Karloff and Whale weren't on great terms," while revealing that Laughton and Whale definitely didn't get on; "they had different approaches to class, and sexuality and acting. Whale was very rude when he came over to Laughton's for dinner."

Both concede the on-set tea breaks must have been interesting; all these actors had fascinating lives. Newman observes that "each time you meet a new member of the Femm family they get progressively insane. Even the name suggests there's something of the sexually ambiguous about them." Jones admits they might be reading too much into it through hindsight. In summary, it's noted that, as with all old Hollywood films, "any injury can be treated by a bandage round the head."

James Whale's 1932 masterpiece is one of the most enjoyable films of its kind ever made; even when it's terrible it's still glorious. "The Old Dark House" set the bar for all spooky old house movies, (even if it wasn't the first), and it's never been surpassed, (there was a dreadful remake in 1963 which should be avoided). It was based on J. B. Priestley's novel "Benighted" and takes place over the course of one stormy night when a group of travellers, (Raymond Massey, Gloria Stuart, Melvyn Douglas Charles Laughton and Lilian Bond), are stranded in the crumbling old house of the title with its very weird inhabitants, the Femms, (Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore, Brember Wills and their 102 year old father played by Elspeth Dudgeon, but credited as John Dudgeon, as well as their mute brute of a butler played by Boris Karloff, sans the Boris in the credits). The Femms are all mad as hatters and they are superbly played; once seen, and heard, they are unlikely to be forgotten. On the other hand, both Massey and Douglas are very hammy indeed, though Laughton shows all the promise of a great actor in an early role. It's also superbly designed and photographed and although clocking in at only 72 minutes it was obviously a prestige production following hot on the heels of "Frankenstein". This old, dark house may creak in places but it has also stood the test of time and, newly restored, looks as good today as when it was first released.

This strange, strange curio from the mind of James Whale is more like an exercise in free association than it is a movie. A group of travelers gather in a big spooky house to shelter from a raging storm, and what follows is a bizarre plot in which events and actions occur with no relation to one another, back stories are hinted at but never explained, and characters every once in a while stop to deliver soliloquies with seemingly weighty psychological or philosophical underpinnings (about the horrors of WWI, for example, or about sins of the flesh) that aren't ever fully explored by the script. But in spite of, or maybe because of, all this random kookiness, the movie works a kind of magic spell. Whale's direction helps a lot; he brings a great deal of humor, all very British and dry, to the Gothic tale, and keeps it teetering on the brink between horror film and comedy. This makes the movie uneven, but it also adds a refreshing element of unpredictability.

The cast includes a very young Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas and Gloria Stuart, and, at the time the closest thing to a big star thanks to his performance in "Frankenstein" a year earlier, Boris Karloff as a horny, hirsute and menacing butler. He charges around harassing the ladies, and the juxtaposition of his hairy, physically imposing and quite masculine appearance to all of the prim and proper English gentility around him brings a distinctly barbaric and sexual charge to the film.

This one's weird. I liked it, yet at the same time can't bring myself to really call it a good movie.

Grade: B

From J.B. Priestley's book about a small group of people on a mountain drive who become stranded by a storm and take refuge in an eerie mansion inhabited by a very peculiar family. Predictably creaky thriller from 1932, although not quite as dated as one might suspect; the cast (including Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, Raymond Massey, and Melvyn Douglas--all looking so young!) certainly makes it interesting, and there are several welcomed bits of tongue-in-cheek humor. Maybe worthwhile if you come across a print that isn't ravaged by time. Directed by the now-legendary James Whale, a drawing card all on its own. Later remade in 1963. ** from ****