Three travellers—Philip and Margaret Waverton (Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart) and their friend Penderel (Melvyn Douglas)—are driving through a storm on their way to Shrewsbury when they find themselves having to take refuge in a remote Welsh house inhabited by Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger), his sister Rebecca (Eva Moore) and their dumb butler Morgan (Boris Karloff). They are later joined by Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and his lady friend Gladys (Lillian Bond), who also seek shelter from the downpour. What the visitors don't realise, until it is too late, is that the Femms keep their deranged homicidal older brother Saul (Brember Wills) locked in a room at the top of the house
James Whale's The Old Dark House is a parody of the horror sub-genre that shares its name, where the action is set in an ominous building with creepy corridors, cobweb strewn passageways, dark rooms and even darker secrets. Whale knowingly takes his Gothic atmospherics to extremes, and quickly introduces his cast of quirky characters, all of which should add up to a whole lot of fun, except that the plot meanders all over the place for an absolute age, only getting down to business in the closing stages. Watching the guests and their hosts having dinner, sharing a drink, and engaging in polite conversation soon gets dull. Worse still, the film totally wastes Karloff in a role that doesn't make use of his distinctive voice, and introduces a ridiculous love story between Penderel and Gladys (who decide to get hitched less than twenty four hours after they meet!).
3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for beauties Gloria Stuart and Lillian Bond, who add some welcome sexiness to proceedings (this being a pre-Code movie, Stuart provides some 'cheesecake' by changing out of her wet clothes and Bond gives a brief glimpse of cleavage when grabbed by Karloff. Saucy!).
James Whale's The Old Dark House is a parody of the horror sub-genre that shares its name, where the action is set in an ominous building with creepy corridors, cobweb strewn passageways, dark rooms and even darker secrets. Whale knowingly takes his Gothic atmospherics to extremes, and quickly introduces his cast of quirky characters, all of which should add up to a whole lot of fun, except that the plot meanders all over the place for an absolute age, only getting down to business in the closing stages. Watching the guests and their hosts having dinner, sharing a drink, and engaging in polite conversation soon gets dull. Worse still, the film totally wastes Karloff in a role that doesn't make use of his distinctive voice, and introduces a ridiculous love story between Penderel and Gladys (who decide to get hitched less than twenty four hours after they meet!).
3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for beauties Gloria Stuart and Lillian Bond, who add some welcome sexiness to proceedings (this being a pre-Code movie, Stuart provides some 'cheesecake' by changing out of her wet clothes and Bond gives a brief glimpse of cleavage when grabbed by Karloff. Saucy!).