The Old Dark House

James Whale’s The Old Dark House (1932) is not by any means the first Old-Dark-House movie, but it’s the only one adapted from the J.B. Priestley novel by that name (though in Britain, the book was called Benighted). (We will not discuss that 1963 abomination by the same title.) The movie — believed to be lost for years — was Whale’s followup to Frankenstein, and the first horror picture designed as a starring vehicle for Boris Karloff. It’s ironic then that Karloff’s role as the mute, mad and possibly murderous butler is not the center of attention — the filmmaking is. This is every inch a director’s picture. It’s about a group of travelers — Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Massey, Gloria Stuart, Charles Laughton, Lillian Bond — stranded by a landslide during a thunderstorm in the Welsh Mountains. They end up (despite Massey’s reservations that “it might be wisest to move on”) staying the night with the very peculiar Femm family in an — you guessed it — old and dark house.The house is lorded over by Rebecca Femm (Eva Moore), a religious fanatic fond of announcing, “No beds! They can’t have beds!” Her more hospitable but no less odd brother Horace (Ernest Thesiger) likes drinking gin, sneering at his sister, and hinting at dark secrets. There’s also a 102-year-old patriarch (actually played by a woman) upstairs — and something far more unsettling at the very top of the house. It’s all stylish, spooky fun that’s as much (or more) a dark comedy as a horror film — and a very fine one. The Thursday Horror Picture Show will screen The Old Dark House Thursday, July 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Grail Moviehouse and will be hosted by Xpress movie critic Scott Douglas.