The Old Dark House (1932)

Directed by James Whale. Starring Melvyn Douglas, Lilian Bond, Eva Moore, Ernest Thesiger, Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, Raymond Massey, Brember Willis.

Between a pair of Universal horror classics (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man), James Whale produced this unusual (for the time) fusion of spooky horror and tongue-in-cheek humor; although not in the same league as those other movies, it’s a small, undervalued gem that knowingly ridiculed a few “old, dark house” clichés…before they were overdone enough to become clichés in the first place! Several travelers are trapped by a destructive storm, so they take shelter in a nearby house run by weirdos Horace and Rebecca Femm (Thesiger, Moore); what strange secrets are they hiding about their home (and behind a certain locked door) and just how dangerous is that lumbering, mute butler of theirs? (Hint: he’s played by Boris Karloff, so…) Whale and screenwriter Benn W. Levy (working off a J. B. Priestley novel, “Benighted”) pack a lot into the seventy-plus minute runtime, and some tonally askew elements aren’t as successful as others—even by 1930s “movie romance” standards, strangers Bond and Douglas fall in love awfully quick, especially under the unsettled circumstances—but there are a number of laughs big and small, a few shivers of dread, solid Gothic art direction and photography, and appreciable performances from some of the cast members, including babbling fop Laughton and comically enigmatic crone Moore. Feebly remade by William Castle in 1963.

71/100