Directed: by James Whale
Written: by J.B. Preistly
Starring: Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Lilian Bond
1 hour, 12 minutes
Three travelers are lost in a rainstorm in an area with heavy landslides. They stop at… wait for it… an old dark house. It’s more of a castle actually. They are greeted by Mr. Femm, a gaunt, tall man and his creepy deaf sister, Rebecca. They agree to let them spend the night, but they aren’t happy about it. The old man freaks out that they’re trapped in the house by the floods. The old lady calls him a wimp and picks on him. Mr. Femm is terrified of Morgan, the butler, and doesn’t want to be trapped in the house with him.
The old lady, Rebecca, should have an Academy Award for her creep factor. “My young, wicked sister died on this bed.” Then there’s a very awkward dinner scene, followed by a knocking at the door. Two more visitors come in for aid, a fat businessman and a chorus girl, both of whom appear to be quite drunk. The old lady does not approve of these two.
Mr. Penderel and Gladys, the chorus girl, get locked outside while hunting for some whiskey. They fall in love and plan to run off together.
Morgan the butler gets drunk. The power goes out, and the old man is afraid to go upstairs to get a lamp. We hear crazy cackling; there’s someone in a room upstairs.
Morgan literally chases Mrs. Waverly around the living room, and then he and Mr. Waverly fight. Waverly throws a lamp at Morgan, and Morgan falls down the stairs. Waverly wants to investigate the locked room with the voices. Inside, they find Sir Roderick Femm, an old man obviously played by a woman. The ancient man speaks of a crazy son, Saul, who’s locked in yet another room upstairs. He’s locked up because he wants to burn the house down; Morgan has tried to release him several times. Actually, Morgan let him out while all this was being explained.
The three men tackle Morgan and they drag him into the kitchen. Everyone seems to get locked into one room or another. Saul swears he’s not insane, and the Femms just locked him up because he knew the Femms killed their other sister. However, he quickly demonstrates that he’s the craziest one of the bunch, knocking out Penderal and running off with a torch and setting things ablaze. They fight and fall over the railing. Saul is killed, but Pendrel survives. The next morning, everyone goes on as if nothing unusual happened.
This is another movie with no soundtrack. There’s a lot of very monotonous wind and storm noises. Boris Karloff gets top billing, but never speaks. He’s lost under the makeup and hair for Morgan. There’s one one death, and no real surprises. There’s no purpose for the female actor to be playing an old man, and a lot of what happens seems pointless.
