The Old Dark House (1932)

The Old Dark House is a 'old dark house movie', five travelers get standard at an isolated mansion one dark and stormy night, and the proprietors of said property, well they be hiding something, but what? A real good cast including Boris Karloff, Melvin Douglas, Gloria Stuart, Raymond Massey and Charles Laughton in his screen debut. Directed by James Whale this is his follow up horror feature to the tremendously successful Frankenstein, The Old Dark House however was a disappointment at that US box office but did well in the directors native England where the story is set. Whale's good friend Ernest Thesiger has a part in this film as one of the odd residents of the titular old dark house, Thesiger would later appear as Dr. Pretorius in Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein, by far the theater actors best known screen role. The story of The Old Dark House is based on the 1927 novel Benighted by J. B. Priestley, that novel apparently has a lot to do with post World War One disillusionment, there are some remaining vestiges of that plot element in the Melvin Douglas characters backstory, but for the most part that is left out of this screen version, makes me curious about it though. This is an extremely satisfying movie, it has everything you could want from the premise, and packs a lot into a lean 72 minutes, which is good because I think this film benefits from a short running time, you wouldn't want to stretch this material out unduly. I was lucky enough to see this movie in an old theater that dates back to the era when this film first came out, that definitely added to the experience but I'd say it is well worth seeing at home. ****