Rating: 
Summary: A CLASSIC NEARLY LOST
Review: In the 30's and 40's there arose a sub-genre of horror films that would be come to known as "old dark house" thrillers. The plots of these films varied slightly but always involved a group of people gathering at a creepy old house or mansion. Perhaps for a party or reading of a will and then strange things ensued in the house.
This film was not the first, but it became perhaps the definitive work. Directed by James Whale who also directed Frankenstein and Bride of FRankenstein, whale would be reuited with his Frankenstein star, Boris Karloff. This movie was thought to be long lost until a copy was found and restored in the late 1960's.
The story concerns 5 travellers who must take refuge in a creepy old Welsh estate when they are caught in a terrible storm. The Guests include Phillip and Margaret Waverton (Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart) their travelling partner Roger Penderal (Melvyn Douglas) and Sir William and his friend Gladys Perkins (Charles Laughton and Lillian Bond).
The house is inhabited by a family that would make the Addam's family look normal by comparison. There is the matriarch Rebecca Femm...a hell-fire and brimstone religious zealot with disdain for the female guests especially. Then there is her brow-beaten, timid, prim and proper brother Horace (played deliciously by Ernest Thesiger). Upstairs is their aging father sir Roderick...bed-ridden and living in fear. Then there is whatever lies behind the locked and bolted door upstairs where Horace refuses to go.
Karloff gets top billing even though he has no dialog. In one of make-up artist Jack Pierce's greatest works, Karloff is almost unrecognizable under a thich mat of black hair, thick black beared, and scarred face as the hulking, brute of a butler named Morgan. Karloff merely grunts his way through the role and menaces Gloria Stuart at every turn.
The movie is thick with terror and threats as the storm deepens, the lights go out, and people begin disappearing at every turn. Douglas and Laughton throw themselves into their roles and seem to be enjoying things at the expense of the rest. Stuart does a great job as the threatened damsel and is quite beautiful although Massey is rather dull as her husband.
Whale gets in his usual bits of humor under the radar, such as when Gladys who travels with Sir William tells Penderal that William give her money but "doesn't expect anything" in return. And that he want's people to think of him as being "gay". And of course, laughton in real life was gay even though he was married to Elsa Lanchester.
The DVD is a good Transfer by Kino although the sound is a bit dim. The DVD comes with two commentary tracks, one by surviving star gloria Stuart, who although in her 90's still vividly recalls the details of making the movie.
Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: James Whale's eccentric version of an eccentric story.
Review: It is only with hindsight that we can truly appreciate "The Old Dark House". No one knew it at the time, but Mr. Whale had assembled an all-star cast. Charles Laughton and Raymond Massey both make their American film debuts; Whale veteran Gloria Stuart(most recently of "Titanic" fame); Melvyn Douglas and Lillian Bond; the inimitable Ernest Thesiger and the sinister Boris Karloff, and the distinguished Elspeth Dudgeon in one of the talking screens earliest gender-bending roles. With a title like "The Old Dark House" and a director like James Whale, one has certain expectations, and on first view, this film seems to dissapoint. It is however with multiple viewings that "The Old Dark House" begins to reveal itself and succeed on multiple levels. To coin a phrase: It's like peeling an onion. For audiences of the 1990's, impatient with dialog and seemingly bored without special effects, the film will be exceedingly dull. For fans of James Whale, and classic/eccentric cinema, it is a must see. It is a bit like Paul Leni's silent "The Cat and the Canary" in design, and Whale's love of dark, sardonic wit is evident almost from the first frames. The Fenn family puts the Merry family from "Spider Baby" to shame. The biggest puzzle for first time viewers will be to decide which of the Fenns' househould is most dangerous. For those who've enjoyed the film time and again, the performances have aged and held up well. Although not a showcase for Karloff -- as the studio was probably hoping after the success of "Frankenstein" -- "The Old Dark House" is full of strange, curious and mad things. It should not be entered by the uninitiated. For the select, however, "The Old Dark House" will become a cherished friend. Will fit well between "Gods and Monsters" and "The Bride of Frankenstein" at your next James Whale memorial film festival.
Rating:
Summary: James Whales 2nd best film- Perfect mix of Horror and Humor.
Review: James Whale's "Bride of Frankenstein" is the film makers best horror movie, but this gets my vote for 2nd place. Really twisted, scary, and funny. And a cast that's out of this world! The modern "Scream" movies can't measure up to this film and "Bride" when it comes to mixing comedy and horror. Sit back and enjoy the bizarreness of it all. Oh yeah, also be sure to "have a Potato."
Rating: 
Summary: BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE
Review: Let's present this movie as a test for the 2000 movie buff. If he can stand THE OLD DARK HOUSE until its end without ejecting the DVD, he can undoubtedly consider himself as a real movie lover. Why ? Because it takes a lot of self-control not to laugh at the conventional plot involving a mad butler, a chorus girl, a depressed Lord (hilarious Charles Laughton !) and finally a schizophrenic * guess who he is ? * trapped in a labyrinthic house during a stormy night. Once you've accepted the situation, you can enjoy James Whale's THE OLD DARK HOUSE.Not ONE single drop of blood in the movie. Even if there a lot of knives waiting over the only table of the main set for a mad murderer. The fact that THE OLD DARK HOUSE is a 1932 movie shot in black & white isn't an excuse. No, James Whale believes in the power of shadows to suggest fear and also in the extraordinary presence of Boris Karloff . The unforgettable Frankenstein's creature mumbles a few words and that's it. A great make-up, a strange look and a robotic way to walk are enough to create uneasiness in the audience. One can also have a great pleasure to rediscover such interesting actors as Raymond Massey, Melvyn Douglas and Gloria Stuart in superb close-ups which the restored version of THE OLD DARK HOUSE is offering you without too many white spots. The sound is also very good, with just a little buzz annoying your speakers. Extra-features at the best. A DVD for the movie lover.
Rating:
Summary: Have A Potato !
Review: Out of the four classic 'horror' films James Whale directed for Universal ('Frankenstein', 'The Invisble Man', and 'Bride of Frankenstein' being the others) this movie is certainly the odd one out. There are no monsters and no mad scientists, just a collection of extremely strange characters. For once Boris Karloff is upstaged not by one, but two of his fellow cast members. Ernest Thesiger gives a wonderfully weird performance throughout and larger than life Charles Laughton dominates every scene he appears in. Because of the lack of any 'monster' and the fact that virtually the whole film takes place inside the house, it is the dialogue and characters that make this film so truly memorable. If you've heard that 'The Old Dark House' was a 'lost' film then you needn't worry about picture or sound quality. The film's restoration work has produced a very good quality print. Unusually for me, I watched this film 3 or 4 times within a week of receiving it, not least because of the great commentaries provided by James Curtis and especially Gloria Stuart. 'The Old Dark House' certainly demands multiple viewings, which is the best praise I can give it.
Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric, creepy classic.
Review: Saturday, August 28, 2004 / 4 of 5 / Atmospheric, creepy classic.
Old Dark House never had the airplay that the other classic universal monster films enjoyed, this was actually my first time seeing it. Despite its eclectic cast of horror film luminaries including Karloff, Charles Laughton, and the inimitable Ernest Thesiger, the movie drags a bit without a clear-cut antagonist. However, the mood and atmosphere is classic gothic horror hearkening back to Poe's `Fall of the House of Usher' and it's easy to see the clichés that numerous other films borrowed from down the line all the way to Texas Chainsaw. Rain drenched travelers arrive at night where they're greeted at a run down mansion by a mute and deformed manservant. In short order they meet the brother and sister owners, their parent, and finally most dangerous sibling. Everything in the house is decaying and breaking down, and Thesiger as the highly strung brother steals the show with his drier than dust humour. Modern audiences will chuckle at the saccharine love story that develops in an evening, but one can't deny that this was a fine example of the genre back in 1932 and probably scared the wadding out of folks. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A great underated "horror" flick!
Review: Some might say this is not horror, but viewing the film and every aspect of it, this is horror! It's ashame this film didn't get the recognition it truly deserves. Jame Whales made a great film. It is about a couple, with others don't think it's a good idea to drive much ahead being caught in the middle of a terrible storm. So they think going in a house like that is a better idea, hehe good move! In this house could be some of creepyest people in a horror movie, especially the one locked up in the room! Please get this movie, it would have been a lost film!
Rating:
Summary: Laughter and Sin! Laughter and Sin!
Review: Tales about sinister, creepy mansions were already cliched by the time director James Whale directed THE OLD DARK HOUSE--and instead of presenting the piece as a straight-forward thriller he mixed the film's very atmospheric cinematography with a wild strain of parody. The result is a movie with a bizarre camp humor that foreshadows Whale's slightly later and even more bizarrely camp THE BRIDE OF FRANKESTEIN. The plot, based loosely on a J.B. Priestly novel, is perfunctory, existingly only to throw together an ensemble cast of already-famous and soon-to-be-famous stars. Five motorists are trapped in the wilds of Wales during a horrific storm and are forced to seek shelter at, of course, an old dark house... but their unwilling hosts are a neurotic Ernest Thesiger, his religious fanatic sister Eva Moore, and their hulking, deformed, and mute butler Boris Karloff. Before the night is over the storm-weary travelers experience everything from a hellish meal to religious lectures--not to mention assault, attempted rape, mysterious cackling, a bit of arson, and a touch of homosexual hysteria (courtesy of Thesiger, Moore, and a surprise male character who is actually played by a woman) thrown in for good measure. The cast is exceptional; in addition to Karloff, Thesiger, and Moore, we have Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Massey, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, and Lilian Bond, and they wring the most from the covertly wicked script, with Eva Moore ranting about "laughter and sin," Thesiger inviting Raymond Massey into his room "to see a few things," and one of the most socially awkward meals ever put to film. But the film's real power is its cinematography: when they say old DARK house, they really mean it, and the look of the film is just as disorienting for viewers as for the characters; particularly noteworthy is the scene in which Moore lectures Gloria Stuart, with their faces distorted by the bedroom mirror, and the sequence in which Karloff pursues the white-clad and wind-whipped Gloria Stuart with mayhem in mind. Viewers who expect "Universial Horror" fare will probably be disappointed by THE OLD DARK HOUSE, and director James Whale would create a still more memorable combination of horror and high-camp with THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTIEN. But THE OLD DARK HOUSE is an overlooked jewel of unusual quality: a sardonic parody of a famous theme, well played, filmed and scripted. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: "BENIGHTED".....
Review: The dictionary defines the term "benighted" as "morally ignorant" and "overtaken by darkness or night". "Benighted" is the novel (by J.B.Priestly) on which this classic chiller is based. The deranged Femm family are the "benighted". Aged crone Rebecca Femm (Eva Moore) is a gruff self-righteous religious fanatic while her brother Horace (Ernest Thesiger) is the polar opposite---prim, cowardly and athiest. Also in the family is their ancient bedbound father---an androgynous 102 yr.old crumbling creature (played by actress Elspeth Dudgeon--billed as "John") who knows the family's decadent secrets. Kept locked away upstairs is the wild pyromaniac brother Saul, tended to by the facially disfigured butler Morgan (Boris Karloff) who is mute and a vicious drunk. They all reside in an old dark house, off the beaten path in the English mountains. One dark and stormy night, two sets of travelers are stranded by a landslide on the doorstep of this maniacal abode. And thus begins an unforgettable night of terror. No electricity, howling winds, pounding rain, lightning and a family of grotesques so weird only a writer could have made them up beset our travelers with primitive (and deadly) hospitality. Brilliantly directed by James Whale, the film is a rare treasure of the old Universal 30's horror films. Bizarre, grim and laced with black humor throughout, "House" features Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Lillian Bond, Raymond Massey and Gloria ("Titanic") Stuart as the rain-soaked travelers who find themselves at the mercy of the psychotic Femms. Karloff has never been more menacing as the hideous Morgan. The entire cast is priceless---especially Moore and Thesiger as the bickering brother and sister Femm. But wait until you meet Saul (Brember Wills) as the craziest of them all---he even bites! Good print on DVD with only minor flaws, "The Old Dark House" is a collector's item with nice extras including commentary by Gloria Stuart. You can't find a film like this just anywhere. There aren't any. James Whale was a misunderstood genius and this (and his other films) have thankfully survived to bear testament to a truly remarkable director.
Rating:
Summary: This Old Queer House
Review: The Old Dark House is not your orthodox horror movie. Far from it. The real specter here is secret queer vein running through the story. While heterosexuals may see this movie as a strange horror movie (there are no real monsters or ghosts) the real ghost is the specter of homosexuality. The queer in-joke of the family Femm of the titular home. The head of the Femm Family Roderick is played by actress Elspeth Dudgeon which is just the pinnacle of the queerness abound. Boris Karloff's psychotic Morgan who is in a deadly attraction to Melyvn Douglas as Roger Penderel. Their elaborate courtship is fraught with sexual tension with homicide as the only climax possible. Ernest Thesiger chews the scenery shamelessly as the strange and effeminate Horace Femm. Charles Laughton enters as the most unlikely heterosexual man.
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