The Old Dark House

Assorted travelers find themselves stranded in a gloomy old house during a flood.

The Old Dark House is a wonderful light-hearted thriller, packed with atmosphere and great performances.

Granted, the script is a little thin in terms of plot, but director James Whale compensates by packing the film’s 72-minute running time with atmosphere, and stocking the cast full of great performers.

Top-billed Boris Karloff is suitably menacing as the butler Morgan in a performance that would later inspire the creation of Lurch from the Addams Family, and Brember Wills is truly frightening as Karloff’s character’s deranged brother. Rounding out the titular house occupants are Ernest Thesiger and Eva Moore, who manage to seem very creepy without going over the top, and Elspeth Dudgeon who plays the family patriarch and is world of atmosphere unto herself.

Equally well cast are the travelers. Melvyn Douglas and Charles Laughton both command a great deal of stage presence, and their scenes together are some of the film’s highlights. Opposite them, Lilian Bond is refreshingly charming as the object of their desires. Granted, Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart get somewhat lost in the shuffle, but neither mugs it up or makes himself or herself a nuisance.

The Old Dark House coasts along on wit and atmosphere, managing to find the perfect line between comedy and horror, a technique Whale would repeat with Bride of Frankenstein a few years later.

Unfortunately, the film’s biggest distraction is its print quality. Believed lost for years, the rediscovered negative is far from crisp, and the sound has a fair amount of hiss, but these are faults of the print and not the film.

That said, if you can get past the print quality, The Old Dark House is a great black comedy that stands the test of time thanks to some great production and performances.