Although supposedly a remake of the James Whale film (and the J. B. Priestley book on which it's based) William Castle's OLD DARK HOUSE really has nothing in common with either except the titular domicile and a few character names. This movie starts out very promisingly, with Charles Addams' delightful credits complimented by Benjamin Frankel's lovely score, both eerie and lyrical. The opening scenes remind one of the darker Ealing comedies (KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, THE LADYKILLERS), what with the great cast of British character actors led by the wonderful Robert Morley, and the production values are up to the usual Hammer standard. Then about halfway through, starting with the scene where Tom Poston is "menaced" by a stuffed hyena, the movie goes downhill and never recovers. Now, I understand the difficulties of making a movie with limited resources but how anyone ever thought they could pass off this refugee from a taxidermist's as a real animal boggles the mind. And the Ark sequence, while promising in concept, is very badly executed. The miniature work is just too obvious to pass muster and the interior of the ark looks like it was shot at a broken down zoo somewhere, with little effort made to transform it into a boat interior. And so it goes, right down the toilet. A big disappointment.
Review of The Old Dark House
