‘They were all godless here…’
Director James Whale is a huge figure in relation to the dawn of the horror film. Having been at the helm for Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein, he is responsible for shaping what audiences expect from a movie monster. The Old Dark House, released between Whale’s two Frankenstein films, was for years thought to be a lost film until it was re-discovered in the Universal vaults in 1968. While it’s perhaps not as influential as the rest of Whale’s work, it’s still a creepy and effective haunted house story…
Seeking shelter from a terrible storm in the middle of the Welsh countryside, Philip Waverton (Raymond Massey) and his wife Margaret (Gloria Stuart) come across… you guessed it… an old dark house. The house is inhabited by the Femm family. We initially meet Horace (Ernest Thesiger), an anxious older gentleman, and his pious sister, Rebecca (Eva Moore), but it soon becomes apparent that there are other family members hidden in the house somewhere. Strange noises abound. There is also a mute butler (Boris Karloff). It’s very Rocky Horror. Finally, Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) arrives with his pretty companion Gladys in tow (Lilian Bond).
The Old Dark House both leans into haunted house tropes whilst at the same time lightly mocking them. Some characters are deliberately outlandish for comic effect (Horace, Sir William), while others are more severe and chilling (Karloff’s mute butler and whoever lives behind the locked door upstairs…). Whale utilises the contrast between light and shadow beautifully, and it is clear, following the success of Frankenstein, that this is a director with a clear directorial style and an eye for the aesthetic. Benn W. Levy’s screenplay (based on the novel Benighted by J.P. Priestley) is snappy and often funny, with Laughton typically brash and entertaining as a northern nobleman with an appetite for the finer things in life.
While it may not be as iconic as Frankenstein or The Invisible Man, The Old Dark House is still a clever and formative haunted house tale that uses the constant pitter patter of rainfall as a backdrop for both humour and horror – perfect for a stormy night.
