2014 Horror Countdown: The Old Dark House (1932)

The Old Dark House (1932), dir. James Whale, Universal Pictures.

The idea of a spooky house was considered fairly old hat by the 1920’s. The Cat and the Canary had been remade twice by 1932, although both films were subsequently lost leaving Whale’s hand at it as the only survivor. The Old Dark House was considered lost for a while, although after watching it I have to wonder if it wouldn’t have been better if it stayed lost.

Phillip Waverly (Raymond Massey), his wife Margaret (Gloria Stuart) and their mutual friend Roger Penderel (Melvyn Douglas) are driving through the Welsh countryside during a thunderstorm. A sudden mudslide takes out the road in front of them and a flashflood prevents them from going back. Not wishing to spend the night in the car, the trio makes their way to a forlorn mansion and ask to spend the night

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This proves to be a mistake, as the mansion is owned and occupied by the Femm family. Horace (Ernest Thesiger), the de-facto head of the clan, is a perpetual nervous wreck and insists that everyone eats their potatoes. His sister Rebecca (Eva Moore) suffers from selective deafness and religious mania. Sir Roderick (Elspeth Dudgeon), the patriarch, is the bedridden 102 year old head of the family and is gripped by senility. There is also Saul (Brember Wills), who has been denied the right to head the family despite being the oldest son, and is also a pyromaniac. Attending this group is the butler Morgan (Boris Karloff), a mute and drunken giant.

Not long after introductions are made another car shows up. The occupants are Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laugton) and his showgirl girlfriend Gladys DuCane Perkins (Lillian Bond). The duo proceeds to park in the barn and do darn little. 

In fact, most of the characters do almost nothing. The entire film is an exercise in telling us it’s scary rather than showing anything. Characters freak out over pretty everything from lightened candles to thunder. Saul escapes, but that plot resolves itself with so little assistance from the protagonists that you wonder why they even bothered to include them.  The film doesn’t even end so much as stop. Whale does stage a few nice scenes, the ones with Sir Roderick especially and Rebecca manages to act more menacing in her brief time than nearly the entire cast, but even it’s barely over an hour running time it manages to feel like several.