Riding on the coattail of FRANKENSTEIN (1931), UK director James Whale tosses off this single-location mansion horror, THE OLD DARK HOUSE, once considered being lost, and would be remade by William Castle in 1963, casually melds a spine-tingling Gothic horror horror with light divertissement.
During a night peppered with rainstorm and landslide in the Welsh countryside, a quintet of people, Philip Waverton (Massey) and his wife Margaret (Stuart), their bachelor friend, Roger Penderel (Douglas), a disillusioned veteran, Sir William Porterhouse (Laughton , in his first Hollywood movie), a rich industrialist and his companion, a chorus girl Gladys (Bond), fetches up in an ”old dark house” belonging to the Femms family, meets the proprietor Rebecca Femm (Moore) and her brother Horace (Thesiger) and their savage-looking dumb butler Morgan (Karloff).
The Femms are nothing if not spooky, Rebecca is a semi-deaf old harpy (stirring mirror-reflected scenery with her yapping about sin when terrorizing a soigné Margaret), and Horace has a vampiric countenance but a craven soul (with a pinch of starchiness ), both express their dread of a bearish Morgan, who once under the influence, begins to chase after Margaret, then there is the sibling's unheimlich, bedridden father, the centenarian Sir. Roderick Femms (funnily played by actress Elspeth Dudgeon with ludicrous silver beards and pasty greasepaint), and lastly, a cooped-up, stir-crazy sibling Saul (Wills), once released, is bent on set the mansion on fire. But crimped by the length, the picture only runs 71 minutes, what really happened to this sinful, godless household is only alluded to.
Among the unwitting visitors, the budding romance between Roger and Gladys takes some edge off the enfolding pall of unknown danger, and a sophisticated William surprisingly pockets his pride and gives his blessing. During the rough-and-tumble, ladies are better huddled together screaming while it is the gallant Mr. Penderel has to face the pyromaniac mano-a-mano, and it is somewhat bathetic Karloff's menacing appearance isn't given more malice to wield. A decent early horror pablum restored to its pristine production value, James Whale's THE OLD DARK HOUSE is as good as an unveiled myth whose reputation may prevail over its own nature.
referential entries: Rouben Mamoulian's DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931, 8.0/10), Bill Condon's GODS AND MONSTERS (1998, 8.7/10).
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