The Old Dark House (1932) – Film Review

Director: James Whale
Cast: Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton
Certificate: PG

By Sarah Morgan

With the sun shining and holidays ongoing, it hardly feels like the right time to be watching movies set during one stormy night in Wales. But, if that’s exactly what you need right now, you could do a lot worse than to take up residence in The Old Dark House.

And although the story has a Welsh setting, there are a couple of Yorkshire connections – it stars Scarborough-born actor Charles Laughton and is based on the 1927 book Benighted by Manningham’s favourite son, JB Priestley.

By the time of the film’s release, director James Whale was best known for bringing what is now the most iconic version of Frankenstein to the big screen. He reunited with its star, Boris Karloff, here. The actor once again remains mute throughout as the terrifying, scarred butler Morgan (no relation to this reviewer); the impressive make-up was applied by Jack Pierce, who had created the Creature’s look in the aforementioned adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel.

“Cobweb-ridden closets”

Morgan works for the eccentric Femm family, who are not exactly welcoming when Philip Waverton, his wife Margaret and their friend Roger Penderel turn up on their doorstep asking for shelter after becoming stranded by a storm while en route to Shrewsbury.

The Femms, it turns out, have good reason to be wary of strangers – they are hiding a few skeletons in their dusty, cobweb-ridden closets, including a 102-year-old patriarch and a murderous brother who will make his presence felt before the night is out.

Packed with gallows humour amid the frights, The Old Dark House also manages to provide a social commentary on the mores of the day, including the British class system, while also touching on the impact of the First World War on those who survived it.

“Reliable faces”

Alongside Karloff and Laughton are a number of very familiar and reliable faces, including the always charming Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart, decades before she became famous all over again for playing the aged Rose in Titanic.

But it’s the lesser-known cast members who really catch the eye – they are the dictionary definition of ‘character actor’. Among them are Ernest Thesiger (who would reteam with Whale and Karloff on The Bride of Frankenstein three years later) and Eva Moore (a former Suffragette and the then-mother-in-law of Laurence Olivier), who play two of the unforgettable Femm siblings.

The story was remade by low-budget showman William Castle in 1963, but this version remains the better of the two.

The 4K restoration is accompanied by numerous special features, including commentaries, a video essay and an interview with Karloff’s daughter, Sara.