A remake of the 1932 Universal movie, The Old Dark House doesn't have a gimmick. It does have animated credits by Charles Addams and is the only movie that Castle made with Hammer. Both were making a remake at the same time and decided to just work on one movie. Sadly, the reserved Hammer wasn't one for the insane marketing tools of Castle, which may be why he never mentioned this movie in his biography.
While it was released in color in the UK, America only got it in black and white. Most people like it better that way.
Tom Penderel (Tom Posted) is a car salesman and a fish out of water. He's a U. S. citizen pretty much lost in England, delivering a car to an old mansion for his roommate Casper (Peter Bull). The car gets damaged in a storm and he has to go inside, only to discover that Casper is dead and his family - twin Jasper (also Peter Bull), ark carpenter Uncle Potiphar (Mervyn Johns), Cecily (Janette Scott), Roderick (Robert Morley), Agatha (Joyce Grenfell) and Morgana (Fenella Fielding) - invites him to stay.
They all have to remain in the mansion or lose their share of the inheritance, which increases as one of them dies every hour. Of course, one of them is the killer.
If you feel like you've been at this castle before and it was raining, that's because the outside is Oakley Court from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song that plays in the credits of that movie, "Science Fiction Double Feature," references one of the cast members of this movie: "And I really got hot when I saw Janette Scott fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills..."
While it was released in color in the UK, America only got it in black and white. Most people like it better that way.
Tom Penderel (Tom Posted) is a car salesman and a fish out of water. He's a U. S. citizen pretty much lost in England, delivering a car to an old mansion for his roommate Casper (Peter Bull). The car gets damaged in a storm and he has to go inside, only to discover that Casper is dead and his family - twin Jasper (also Peter Bull), ark carpenter Uncle Potiphar (Mervyn Johns), Cecily (Janette Scott), Roderick (Robert Morley), Agatha (Joyce Grenfell) and Morgana (Fenella Fielding) - invites him to stay.
They all have to remain in the mansion or lose their share of the inheritance, which increases as one of them dies every hour. Of course, one of them is the killer.
If you feel like you've been at this castle before and it was raining, that's because the outside is Oakley Court from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song that plays in the credits of that movie, "Science Fiction Double Feature," references one of the cast members of this movie: "And I really got hot when I saw Janette Scott fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills..."