Zucco, with his British accent, was usually a heavy -- a mad scientist or Professor Moriarty. Here, he's a man more or less of probity, although he has a secret past involving cheating his partner and seeing that the partner is convicted and sent up for the embezzlement. Now, however, Zucco runs a legitimate boarding house near the Canadian border.
During a terrific thunderstorm that drenches the plastic studio greenery, all the bridges to Canada are washed away and a number of guests pile up at Zucco's Black Raven Inn, mostly escapees from the states. They're a diverse lot.
First to show up is Zucco's ex partner, recently escaped from the slams and now ready to take violent revenge on Zucco. Next, a mousy clerk, Bryan Foulger, who has several thousand dollars he stole from the bank where he worked as a teller. A sneering gangster wanted for murder shows up and demands that Zucco arrange his transport across the border. Then an innocent young couple who have just eloped and are headed towards another country where they will be free of the interference of the girl's rich and nasty father. The rich and nasty father shows up last and makes a great pain of himself because, by coincidence, he owns the bank that Foulger, the timid teller, has fleeced and now he wants the money back.
The angry, domineering bank owner is the first to go, by unknown hands. The movie's pace is so fast that his daughter isn't given any chance to grieve. Nobody else is particularly upset either. Everyone seems to have a motive to bash him in the head. A determined sheriff, who seems to have the IQ of a parsnip, shows up and recklessly blames the young would-be groom. But another murder takes place, and then another.
It's nice to see George Zucco as a reasonable and half-way decent man, miscreant though he may be. But he puts little into the role. He's wooden, machine processed. The others -- all of them -- act like actors being paid to act in a low-budget B movie produced by PRC studios, which is not MGM. I kept thinking of what someone like James Mason would have done with the role.
The young girl is Wanda McKay who had been a model and never did develop much of a movie career, probably because she changed her birth name, Quackenbush, which would have been memorable. She's cute as hell though. The groom's haste in getting her across the border is understandable.
And the atmosphere is appealing -- a windy downpour beating against the windows and everyone trapped inside the inn. The set dresser, alas, didn't exert himself. The interior of the inn itself isn't very spooky and apart from one or two conspicuous shadows, the lighting is flat and uninspired.
Watch it when you can't sleep and are too dopey to care.
During a terrific thunderstorm that drenches the plastic studio greenery, all the bridges to Canada are washed away and a number of guests pile up at Zucco's Black Raven Inn, mostly escapees from the states. They're a diverse lot.
First to show up is Zucco's ex partner, recently escaped from the slams and now ready to take violent revenge on Zucco. Next, a mousy clerk, Bryan Foulger, who has several thousand dollars he stole from the bank where he worked as a teller. A sneering gangster wanted for murder shows up and demands that Zucco arrange his transport across the border. Then an innocent young couple who have just eloped and are headed towards another country where they will be free of the interference of the girl's rich and nasty father. The rich and nasty father shows up last and makes a great pain of himself because, by coincidence, he owns the bank that Foulger, the timid teller, has fleeced and now he wants the money back.
The angry, domineering bank owner is the first to go, by unknown hands. The movie's pace is so fast that his daughter isn't given any chance to grieve. Nobody else is particularly upset either. Everyone seems to have a motive to bash him in the head. A determined sheriff, who seems to have the IQ of a parsnip, shows up and recklessly blames the young would-be groom. But another murder takes place, and then another.
It's nice to see George Zucco as a reasonable and half-way decent man, miscreant though he may be. But he puts little into the role. He's wooden, machine processed. The others -- all of them -- act like actors being paid to act in a low-budget B movie produced by PRC studios, which is not MGM. I kept thinking of what someone like James Mason would have done with the role.
The young girl is Wanda McKay who had been a model and never did develop much of a movie career, probably because she changed her birth name, Quackenbush, which would have been memorable. She's cute as hell though. The groom's haste in getting her across the border is understandable.
And the atmosphere is appealing -- a windy downpour beating against the windows and everyone trapped inside the inn. The set dresser, alas, didn't exert himself. The interior of the inn itself isn't very spooky and apart from one or two conspicuous shadows, the lighting is flat and uninspired.
Watch it when you can't sleep and are too dopey to care.