One of my very favorite films. Incredibly well made, especially for such an early “talkie,” of the 1930’s. It’s atmospheric, with a dark, stormy night in rural Wales and likeable characters stranded in the only house for miles - a massive, sprawling, gothic stone house with huge chimneys. The family there is certainly odd, and neurotic. They also harbor some secrets, including in the locked attic bedroom. The film is directed by horror master James Whale (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, etc) and very smartly cast. A young Gloria Stewart (the sweet old lady in Titanic, 60 years later), Raymond Massey, Ernest Thesiger, an utterly charming Melvyn Douglas, Boris Karloff and the always fun Charles Laughton. Funny, without resorting to blatant camp or satire, and often creepy and weird. Not scary by today’s standards, but a very fun, short film from the early years of cinema. This film was nearly lost in time, but was salvaged when a copy was found in the studio archives and money was raised to remaster it. It’s a treasure.

Rocky Horror has sucked away it's effectiveness.

Not sure why the reviews are so gushing for this movie. It was neither horror nor comedy. And the slipshod writing felt like it was made up on set. Cinematography and some of the acting were the only highlights. Oh, and the risque 30s outfits.

A very promising and engaging first act abruptly peters out into tedium. Its well acted and well shot, but pretty dull.

Unusual and bizarre, but ultimately harmless. Fun cast and interesting. Saw on tubi.

Excellent film! Spooky old house on a dark and stormy night, filled with an assortment of colorful and creepy characters. Perfect blend of genuine chills and dashes of humor.

Spooky Season is upon us again, rather than starting out this year with a movie I was already familiar with, I thought I'd take the plunge with something completely unknown to me. Having deeply enjoyed James Whale's Univeral Monster movies, I knew I had to give another of his films a go this year and finally settled on The Old Dark House. Dripping with atmosphere and hilariously grim, Whale manages to parody the conventions of the haunted house horror genre as he creates them, in many ways managing to craft a film that puts many modern horror films to shame. Packed to the brim with thrills, chills and gallows humour, The Old Dark House combines Whale's marvellous stylistic flourishes and outstanding direction with witty drawing-room dialogue and campy theatrical indulgence.

James Whale's film was not the first ‘old dark house movie', but it was the quintessential contribution to this particular sub-genre, even if it was considered a lost movie until its rediscovery in the 1950s. In The Old Dark House, Whale established or reinforced the conventions of this enjoyably creaky form of mystery thriller, adding lashings of horror and comedy. Typical features of these films would include murders, a doomed family, a large and empty house, often with secret passageways (though not this time) and various sinister goings-on. Whale invested his film with the trademarks of his style, which often worked to make the films seem more like a parody of the genres to which they belonged, rather than a reverent treatment of them. He made use of a cast given to camp and over-ripe performances, such as Boris Karloff, Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore, Charles Laughton and Raymond Massey. The director devoted much time to creating the right creepy atmosphere. The old dark house is dimly-lit, and filled with shadows and flickering lights. The walls are pockmarked, and one corridor contains a perpetually billowing curtain. A bedroom has a distorted mirror that seems to belong in a funhouse. This seems to reflect the distorted worldview of the woman who inhabits it. The banister posts on the stairway are topped by strange-looking creatures. None of this makes any logical sense. These elements exist to create a mood – eerie and sinister perhaps, but with a certain sense of mischievous fun. If we laugh at such details, I suspect it is because Whale intends us to laugh. The Old Dark House was based on a J B Priestley novel, which the author intended as a social commentary on the British class structure following World War 1. Whale stops short of preaching any overt political message, but his film does seem to have a satirical tinge that is directed against these bizarre wealthy people. Whale fills the movie with atmospheric flourishes. A game of shadow puppetry is interrupted by another, more menacing shadow. The scarred hand of Morgan seizes the door held by Margaret, and Whale provides several staccato close-ups of Morgan's ugly face, each shot closer to Morgan's face than the last, as the butler looms over the young wife. At other times there is a deliberate use of bathos. Think of the hand on the banister and the insane cackle that precedes the appearance of Saul. When he emerges, he looks like a frightened old man of diminutive stature, but even this proves illusory. The more he talks the more dangerous Saul begins to sound. The Old Dark House is more of a fun movie than one which has any serious message. Nonetheless Whale pushes the story towards something resembling art by his gift for great visuals, and his sly, subversive humour that subtly places a mine under the bastions of respectable society. I wrote a longer appreciation of The Old Dark House on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2022/06/17/the-old-dark-house-1932/

In order for a movie to be worth seeing, you need more than just a terrific cast. I was interested in seeing the original version of "The Old Dark House" mainly because it starred the late horror legend Boris Karloff (Though I knew his role was minor.) and a pre-"Titanic" Gloria Stuart. While I was for the most part impressed with the production design and the overall good performances by the cast, in the end the movie felt incomplete and rather flat. The movie is very slow moving. It felt to me like the studio wanted the film to be a certain running time so the movie was padded with slow, drawn out scenes that did not seem to contribute anything to the plot. In my opinion the late Melvyn Douglas gives the best performance in the film. His scenes with the late Lillian Bond were well done. They had good chemistry and they played off one another very well. also. That being said in the end "The Old Dark House" is not a terrible movie, but it is dull. Very interesting thing to say about a horror movie.

Movie is disasterously silly. It has zero plot and no scares. Only the smoking hot Gloria Stuart gets any sympathy from me. She and pre code dialogue and scenes, are the only things I'll remember.

2.5 stars; I guess it didn't take a lot to scare people back in 1932. When this movie was released, it was so shocking that many had to leave the theater because of the scary tension in some of the scenes. By today's standards, not very scary. This movie was the first collaboration of Director James Whale and star Actor Boris Karloff after the successful Frankenstein movie. Interestingly enough Karloff had no lines and limited appearances in the movie. ut received top billing because of the previous success. Also in the movie were Melvin Douglas, Charles Laughton, and Raymond Massey. All of whom went on to have successful movie careers. The movie was once thought lost forever, but was found in 1968 and restored.

All kinds of fun. Very enjoyable.

One of the first movies to offer the set up where a car breaks down on a stormy night. The people in the vehicle seeks refuge at an old out of the way house. Once inside they quickly learn that the inhabitants aren't quite normal. Years later "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" borrowed heavily from this film. The movie is definitely dated a bit, but the atmosphere and eerie plotline still works. Fun and spooky.

It was an old film and I actually really liked the style even for the age. The sound is pretty messy. There was hiss, bass on cuts, flat sound. It was not what I was expecting. I was thinking House on Haunted Hill (1999) but got a slow brooding The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) but without the singing. Interesting though.

1930s Voice: Doesn't hold up terribly well, you see? Not to my eye, not as far as I could tell.

Check out my YouTube video about my top 10 favorite movies of the 1930s: https://youtu.be/JVRGgEJYE-A

I ended up viewing this as I'm a big fan of The Invisible Man and the two Frankenstein movies directed by James Whale. As expected, the director once again does a solid job of balancing humor and horror here. There are no jump out of your seat frights here. The movie is more creepy than anything thanks to a battering rain storm, gothic abode, and the eccentricities of its residents. I wish they still made movies like this. Even if all of the jokes and exaggerated characters don't connect, the film manages to come off as witty. I'm tempted to give this another 1/2 star but, there were elements of the story that were a bit too forced to include an over-the-top romance and a character or two who were a bit too ridiculous for my liking. Overall though, this film is won't disappoint if you'd like to spend some time with an atmospheric classic!

This creepy romantic comedy with light horror and a great cast (including Boris Karloff) feels like a classic short story from somewhere like Weird Tales. A trio of travelers get stuck in a mountain storm and have to spend the night in a gothic mansion with a ghoulish family of rich cretins and their booze-maniac servant. The characters warm themselves by the fire, share a few laughs, and a slowly sink into a plot of deepening tension. A series of surprises culminates in a great set piece as the final conflict plays out in an awesome fight. As for complaints, I thought the psychological terror presented early in the classic mirror scene would build to more than it did (the script maybe forgot about the female characters midway through). The movie also could have gone darker at the end, and serviced the major character arc better if it had.

This creepy romantic comedy with light horror and a great cast (including Boris Karloff) feels like a classic short story from somewhere like Weird Tales. A trio of travelers get stuck in a mountain storm and have to spend the night in a gothic mansion with a ghoulish family of rich cretins and their booze-maniac servant. The characters warm themselves by the fire, share a few laughs, and a slowly sink into a plot of deepening tension. A series of surprises culminates in a great set piece as the final conflict plays out in an awesome fight. As for complaints, I thought the psychological terror presented early in the classic mirror scene would build to more than it did (the script maybe forgot about the female characters midway through). The movie also could have gone darker at the end, and serviced the major character arc better if it had.

Horror flicks made during The Great Depression are worthwhile if only as a history lesson.