The Old Dark House (1932)
Following Frankenstein (1931) director James Whale turned to JB Priestley's novel Benighted for this er' old dark house terror satire which is as much a comedy of manners as it is horror film.
The plot is slight. During an atrocious storm a three people are forced to call at an old Welsh mansion inhabited by stranger than strange butler Boris Karloff, an 102 year old lunatic, a fire loving brother and a God-fearing sister who all suffer from at least one type of ...chosis and neurosis. Then when things can't get any odder Charles Laughton turns up with his hooker mistress.
The whole thing is bathed in an atmosphere of musky decay and somehow the less than pristine picture quality seems to add to the general all round weirdness of The Old Dark House.
|