The Old Dark House, 1932.
Directed by James Whale.
Starring Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, Lilian Bond, Raymond Massey, and Eva Moore.
SYNOPSIS:
During a thunderstorm, five travellers take shelter in an old house occupied by the very strange Femm family.
In recent times a particular subgenre of horror has become known as ‘old dark house horror’ and, unsurprisingly, this 1932 classic is where it stems from. There were haunted house stories before this in literature and film, but this is the point where all of those tropes that might seem cliché now all come from, together in one tight and concise movie that showcases the talent of the time.
Based on J.B. Priestley’s novel Benighted, a social commentary about British class structures, the movie opens with husband-and-wife Philip and Margaret Waverton (Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart), plus their friend Roger Penderel (Melvyn Douglas), driving through a heavy thunderstorm in the Welsh countryside. When their car gets stuck they make a run for it and find a creepy old mansion, where they are let in by the brutish mute butler Morgan (Boris Karloff), and inside they meet the very odd Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger) and his sister Rebecca (Eva Moore), who invite them to the shelter from the storm.
During dinner, two more people arrive in the shape of chorus girl Gladys (Lilian Bond) and Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton), and as the night goes on things start to get very weird as heavy drinker Morgan begins to get aggressive, but he isn’t the only threat inside the house as when the storm blows out the electricity, Horace is very reluctant to go upstairs in the dark for some reason.
With director James Whale the hot property in Hollywood after the success of Frankenstein in 1931, he insisted that Universal acquire the rights to J.B. Priestley’s book and set about putting together a cast of (mostly) British actors – none of them Welsh, funnily enough – with Frankenstein star Boris Karloff getting top billing, despite Morgan really being a secondary character.
Owing more than a little to the likes of Edgar Allan Poe with its story and coming out when it did, The Old Dark House didn’t really have a lot to draw on in terms of production values, meaning that James Whale had to be inventive. Like many early horror movies, German expressionism was a huge influence on Hollywood, and it is present here, but Whale brings a lot of his own visual flair to the use of shadows and lighting that separate it out from the relatively flat and uninteresting Dracula. As well as giving the film a specific look, it also meant the director could use light and dark in different ways, framing certain characters and making the atmosphere feed the audience clues about character or story beats that the dialogue or performances didn’t.
Despite being considered something of a commercial and critical failure at the time, The Old Dark House has grown in stature during the past 80-or-so years, being recognised as the starting point for an entire subgenre of horror and for James Whale’s masterful direction. Hindsight and changing social attitudes have also given audiences the chance to reassess the movie, viewing it through the lens of evolving societal norms and labelling it as a camp classic. Whale would go on to push the boundaries of innuendo and metaphor with Bride of Frankenstein a few years later, bringing Ernest Thesiger with him and creating one of horror cinema’s greatest villains in Doctor Septimus Pretorius (one of the best names too), but the seeds of subversion were being sown here in pre-Code Hollywood by a director with a strong grasp of storytelling and also willing to take risks.
Which begs the question as to what Whale would make of his movie being given the 4K UHD treatment and opening it up to a potential new audience. Given how sharp and intense the black-and-white visuals are, chances are he would be delighted, but this release also brings up another question about whether it is worth the upgrade if you already own Eureka’s previous Blu-ray release from 2018.
Make no mistake – this 4K UHD print is gorgeous, and if you are a fan of classic horror with the facilities to see it in this way then go ahead and indulge. However, the disc comes with the same extras as the Blu-ray – three audio commentaries, an interview with Boris Karloff’s daughter Sara, a video essay by critic and filmmaker David Cairns and an archive interview with director Curtis Harrington about the restoration of the movie – and although there is a collector’s booklet featuring new essays, is having the blacks a little blacker and the whites a little whiter reason enough to shell out on it again if you have the previous release? This is a movie that is over 80 years-old and there is only so much that can be done to sharpen the edges and remove any grime.
One for your own conscience to decide, but if you do double-dip then you will be rewarded with a classic horror movie from Hollywood’s golden age that looks the best it ever has and is ever likely to, and that is still effective despite being parodied and copied numerous times over the years.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
