The Old Dark House (1932)

 

Director: James Whale

Screenplay: Benn W. Levy

Based on the novel Benighted (1927) by J. B. Priestley

Cast: Boris Karloff as Morgan; Melvyn Douglas as Penderel; Charles Laughton as Sir William Porterhouse; Lilian Bond as Gladys; Ernest Thesiger as Horace Femm; Eva Moore as Rebecca Femm; Raymond Massey as Philip Waverton; Gloria Stuart as Margaret Waverton; Elspeth Dudgeon as Sir Roderick Femm (as John Dudgeon); Brember Wills as Saul Femm

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #195

 

Have a potato.

I had the pleasure to see The Old Dark House the first time during a brief British theatrical release in the 2010s. This is a rarity for me to experience as sadly such screenings have never been practical for me to access. This rare case in particular was a fascinating case, to experience a film from the era of mono sound and Academy ration framing on a large cinema screen, culturally alien to modern theatrical cinema which is post-widescreen and 5.1 sound. The film itself however is something completely alien even in context to when it was made, thankfully so. It is a film made by James Whale, in the midst of the boom in American horror films and when he made a huge iconic success with Frankenstein (1931) for Universal Studios, which is perplexing, hilarious and peculiar as something meant to be a horror film. Something I was thankfully able to experience in the dark on a giant theatrical screen in a pristine 4K restoration, rather than the history of a film once presumed lost and also neglected over the years.

And The Old Dark House is definitely a weird film. Not one of the strangest ever made in premise or aesthetic, but so peculiar. It is in premise a Universal horror movie without a main monster, and baring one major event it is a plot which is entirely against expectations for horror, completely going against its peers with a tone that is completely off-kilter the moment we get to the titular house. One which, baring of course a model avalanche nearly hitting a model car in the prologue bringing in some of the main characters, and one of two struggles, is entirely told in dialogue.

To think as well a film of this vintage was already possessing such a dark, scathing sense of humour with a deliberately sense of camp is already amazing to even consider, arguably more timeless than other peers of the era due to its and why, whilst not a major film of its era originally in success, it has thankfully grown in reputation over time. It is one of the most deliciously camp films populated by a smorgasbord of great performances firing on all cylinders, all purposely adding to this, in which a group of people - Philip Waverton (Raymond Massey), his wife Margaret (Gloria Stuart), and their friend Roger Penderel (Melvyn Douglas) - end up at the titular home to escape the extreme weather in the middle of isolated Welsh countryside. The people in the aforementioned house though are just off in their entirely - the godless and eccentric Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger), his surly and religious near deaf sister Rebecca (Eva Moore), and Morgan (Boris Karloff), their voiceless hulking servant they have to keep around but is a problem whenever he gets to the alcohol. This does not even begin to elaborate on where the film goes, as another couple, Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and his female friend Gladys DuCane (Lilian Bond), appear, and there are secrets about the house and its lineage including the figure locked away upstairs to contend with.

I can see why The Old Dark House was not as well known like Frankenstein or another of Whale's horror films The Invisible Man (1933), but having grown to admire him as a filmmaker, he is a fascinating figure. In mind of him as an openly gay man during his career at this point, a subversive streak in the material exists just going from these horror films. Bride of Frankenstein (1935), his even bigger success, is known as the film where he was able to get away with far more eclectic, humoured and even camper content, but even The Invisible Man also happens to be a lark juggling humour alongside full blown misanthropic content. I wonder how an audience back in 1932 reacted to The Old Dark House, but in hindsight the result's magnificent and perfect for our generation of viewers to finally appreciate.

It is still at its heart a Gothic tale, capable of incredibly atmospheric moments, the scene inter-cutting Gloria Stuart and Eva Moore in fragments of reflections masterful for the era, as Rebecca berates the younger woman in her late sister's room how beauty is a limited thing which decays and dies out. But this at its heart has its tongue so firmly in cheek it could dangerously pierce through the skin. Ernest Thesiger in particular is a shining star - a feat in a film with Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff among everyone else stomping through scenes - who manages to even make the phrase "I like gin" have incredible comic timing. Even before his introduction, when we start with the lead characters trying to drive through the Welsh countryside during a downpour, the potential problem of two milquetoast characters lead the film which has always plagued these older horror films, a heterosexual American couple, is counteracted by their friend Penderel being a likable wisecrack, and a spark of dialogue which allows all the characters to have personality. When we are introduced to the house and its occupants, even a gag of Thesiger's Horace suddenly throwing flowers into the fire is hilarious.

Even the fact Boris Karloff is not with a speaking role, which might be seen as a tragedy as he had an incredible speaking voice, is thankfully avoided by his stature and the physical acting he portrays. Charles Laughton is exceptional too, which is not a surprise, and to the film's credit, with no one necessarily bad, Laughton's character of a self made man conscious of his low self esteem is lovable as its own plot. Even the fact his female friend Gladys falls for Penderel does not lead to Laughton's character being demonised, but with a lovely grace to it of acceptance and a great little subplot as a result.

The general tone and plotting evoked mid-viewing two later films I lov for this type of comedy with horrific tones. They feel like they belong on their own peculiar family tree, bearing in mind that it was only in the late sixties due to the hard work of director Curtis Harrington that the film was rediscovered and preserved, and that in 1963 William Castle, the legendary hype man and filmmaker, remade the film. Jack Smith's Spider Baby (1967) is the more b-flick version of this strangers-in-a-strange-home story, handsome in its own idiosyncratic qualities, a whit to the dialogue and with Lon Chaney Jr. a nice web of connection back to the Universal horror films. And than there was Thundercrack! (1975), the infamous bisexual porno haunted house melodrama, which is so visibly influenced by this film in hindsight, especially as The Old Dark House was rediscovered and saved in the sixties, I cannot help wonder that it would have been a huge inspiration for a production that was a collaboration between screenwriter/co-star/LGBT experimental filmmaker George Kuchar and its director Curt McDowell. Even with its reputation for actual hardcore sex in the uncut form, Thundercrack itself is just as bonkers and relishable in its own dialogue too, and its eccentric characters, that this grows as a theory for me.

And there is a lot in The Old Dark House itself to admire beyond its humour. Willing to be surprising explicitly in sexuality just before the Hays Code was properly enforced, such as Gloria Stuart in revealing negligee, able to bring in implicit gay subtext, such as the hidden away patriarch who is over a hundred years old being played by a woman, or how Laughton's character, with a northern accent just above my neck of the woods to be proud of, introduces class issues into this light hearted romp. For an American film in particular it is also incredible British and, much to my amusement, set in Wales with the appropriate level of rainfall to match I experienced when I went there as a lad. It sadly was not shot Wales, so we could not get their beautiful countryside, but the choice and the cultural ticks from the British director and a story adapted from a British novelist's work do stand out.

That the plot itself is not really about much but still manages to go through various tropes of classic Gothic storytelling, of hidden attic rooms and mad relatives locked away, bringing them together into a nice potpourri, is a huge virtue for me, in mind that a lot of these horror films from the thirties are very short, even less than eighty minutes, and this one feels more detailed and elaborate than others. Of Christianity and heathenism butting head in two older siblings who've driven each other mad, or that Karloff manages to evoke such a great deal of emotion just through grunting and speaking gibberish.

It was a wonderful experience to see this type of film on the big screen, particularly as this is a rare case of a film even back in the past that, as a Hollywood bankrolled production, would have been an oddity to witness, and in the modern day is one too but has been thankfully canonised as a gem. I think back to the dining room sequence in particular, of how a horror film, or what is meant to be one, has a lengthy scene of just characters dining at a table, discussing their lives, and how Thesiger manages to say "potato" in so many different ways within a short passage of time and make that the main excitement of the sequence. If I could ever get away from quoting anything Thesiger says in this film in my ordinary life, I would gladly do so with the appropriate relish.