Directed
by: James Whale, Starring: Boris Karloff, Melvyn
“Have a potato!”
Watching THE OLD DARK HOUSE for the first time courtesy
of this stunning 4K restoration Blu-ray was quite a sentimental experience for
me. My late father would often recall the film with a wistful fondness whenever
I asked him about horror films he’d seen in his youth. (He was 12 when the film
was released, but I’m not sure exactly when
he first saw it). Considering all the splatter and gore I made him sit through
with me on VHS in the 1980’s it’s hardly surprising the poor man looked back
with fond nostalgia for the more gentile horrors conjured up by James Whale!
The first thought that strikes me upon watching the
film is that the actual horror is somewhat perfunctory. Yes the classic
elements are all in place, a stormy inhospitable night, a remote cut-off
location with a spooky old dark house, a
facially scarred menacing mute butler (Karloff), and a family secret locked away
in the attic. Yet the stagey dialogue (screenplay by Benn W. Levy based on the
novel ‘Benighted’ from J.B. Priestley) is positively bristling with pithy exchanges
and a liberal sprinkling of camp – the latter of which is mostly provided by
Ernest Thesiger and his wondrously expressive nostrils as Horace “Have a
potato” Femm. Like a gothic Kenneth Williams, the flickering flames and
candle-light accentuate his bird-like features alarmingly well. Credit where
it’s due then to Whale and his cinematographer collaborator Arthur Edeson
(FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN), who wring every drop of gothic atmosphere from
their cavernous mansion with billowing drapes and bolted rooms of mystery.
The plot, a gossamer thread upon which Whale spins
his theatrical web of camp comedic social satire, is a classic established
trope of the horror genre. A group of stranded travellers, married couple
Philip and Margaret Waverton (Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart) and gooseberry
Penderel (Melvyn Douglas), abandon their car after torrential rain causes a
landslide forcing them to seek shelter at the Femm ancestral home. Once ensconced
around a warming fire and tucking into a hearty plate of beef and potatoes,
they are joined by Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and his chorus-line
companion Gladys (Lilian Bond) who are similarly stranded. Their somewhat
reluctant hosts are the twitchy nervy Horace (Thesiger), his deaf, religiously
fanatical sister Rebecca “No beds!” (Eva Moore), and Boris Karloff’s grunting
alcoholic butler. Upstairs lurks the 102 year-old father of Horace and Rebecca
(played by actress Elspeth Dudgeon)
and behind a further locked door lurks the other Femm family member, Saul
(Brember Wills), a pyromaniac in true ‘Jane Eyre’ fashion.
After his hugely successful adaption of Mary
Shelley’s ‘Modern Prometheus’, James Whale was given near carte blanche with
this picture and he seems to have jolly well run riot with his humorous
sensibilities. That’s not to say there aren’t moments of pure gothic horror. A
stunning scene of shadow play and a bone-chilling description by Eva Moore of a
how a sibling died in agony provide genuine menace in amongst the near-farcical
comings and goings on.
It’s a splendidly entertaining spritely 72 minutes,
ripe and rich in both dialogue and atmosphere, and gorgeously restored in this
pristine 4K restoration which makes a visit to THE OLD DARK HOUSE
irresistible.
**** (Out of 5*)
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