Director William Nigh is better known for his MR.WONG films with Boris Karloff but here he turns his hand to a creaking Old Dark House mystery. I admit I'm a sucker for this sub-genre of the horror movies and can't resist them even if many turn out to be plain dull. Luckily this one is fairly entertaining even if not a prime example of cinematic art. The cast were all unknown to me with the exception of George "Gabby" Hayes but they equit themselves well enough in a plot that involves the god Kali, a Hindu curse, an ape, sliding panels etc. Fans of this sort of thing will have no difficulty sorting out the murderer or spotting elements from Edgar Allan Poe and THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM. I thought the script contained a few good jokes and I actually liked the three comedy relief cops. Rating *** View the whole film at THE INTERNET ARCHIVE.
2 comments:
Wow, that's one of those thirties old dark house things I've never seen -- probably because I think I read somewhere that it wasn't very good. Of course I too am a sucker for the genre and I'm VERY forgiving so I bet I'll be watching it soon. It's good to know it can be seen on the Internet Archive. Next day off I have I hope to check it out.
The Internet Archive also has Charles Lamont's A SHOT IN THE DARK with Charles Starrett and Edward Van Sloan from the same period and that is described as another old dark house film with a masked killer - be warned, it isn't. It's a bog standard murder mystery sett in a Sorority house although Starrett is a likeable hero (although a rather old "student") and Van Sloan is always worth a look - movie is dull though. Also the Archive has a new Movie "cellar" collection which contains a mix of all genres from both film and TV.
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