Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Old Dark House Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 11, 2017

Anyone who has ever visited virtually any retail establishment will probably concur that there is often something akin to a “seasonal disconnect”, with the emporium promoting items that are (at least) a few months in the future. Therefore, it’s not unusual to see swimwear shortly after the first of the year, or (to mention one of the more vexing examples) Christmas displays as early as October or even September. Similarly, Halloween offerings can show up in midsummer in some locations, and that includes spooky films coming out on Blu-ray, which often arrive to be placed into my review queue months before anyone in their right mind should be thinking about trick or treaters. Commendably, Cohen Film Collection got The Old Dark House to me only a few weeks before Halloween, and it’s a wonderful way for any film lover to start getting into an appropriately spooky mood for the scary but sometimes silly holiday. The Old Dark House has an arguably outsized reputation for what is ultimately a kind of slight film, a reputation bolstered by the kind of ironic fact that the film was considered lost for many years. As is documented in one of the supplements included in this release, director Curtis Harrington’s friendship with James Whale led to Harrington insisting that Universal search its vaults for elements, something that Universal supposedly did repeatedly while insisting they were coming up empty. Harrington’s persistence finally paid off when the original negative was found, albeit with a very badly decaying first reel. More backstage finagling by Harrington finally got Eastman House to pay for what amounted to a “restoration” in those days, using a secondary source to replace the damaged original first reel (Harrington clearly states that Universal found the negative, while some online data states that Harrington found a print). With some legal hoops having to be jumped through due to William Castle’s 1963 version of The Old Dark House, the 1932 Whale version, while rescued from the ash heap of history (and/or vinegar syndrome), still wasn’t that widely seen, but with the advent of home video it’s become one of the curios of early horror cinema. Distinctly different in tone from some of Whale’s other early horror efforts (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein), The Old Dark House may frankly never raise many fright fueled goosebumps, but it’s weirdly entertaining nonetheless, positing a group of hapless tourists in an isolated mansion when a torrential downpour strands them in the backwoods of Wales.

At barely over an hour, The Old Dark House is not exactly a model of character development. We meet married couple Philip (Raymond Massey) and Margaret Waverton (Gloria Stuart), who are attempting to navigate some treacherous, storm drenched, roadways in Wales along with their friend Roger Penderel (Melvyn Douglas). The Wavertons are a little tense, in that long married way, with Penderel offering snarky jabs from the back seat of their jalopy. When landslides start raining debris down around them, they decide to try to take refuge at a spooky looking mansion that mercifully (?) appears out of nowhere.

That brings our world weary and very wet travelers into the domain of the decidedly odd Femm family. The first denizen of the mansion introduced is arguably the scariest — butler Morgan (Boris Karloff), a badly scarred and mute giant who lumbers about menacingly. Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger) is at least relatively friendly, a quality not shared by his deaf sister Rebecca (Eva Moore). Awkward introductions are made, and despite Rebecca’s abhorrence about having visitors, the trio, stranded as they are by landslides and the violent storm, have no choice but to camp out by the fire. Soon enough, two more victims of the weather arrive, the overly energetic Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and his companion Gladys Perkins (Lilian Bond).

While The Old Dark House has a plot of sorts, it’s really more of a vignette driven enterprise that offers its putative chills in scenes like a bizarre, near hallucinatory, scene with Margaret and Rebecca in Rebecca’s bedroom, where Margaret has gone to change her wet clothes. In just one of several rants the elderly Femm woman emits, Rebecca starts talking about sin and “fleshly pleasures”, leading Margaret to near hysteria (Stuart does a lot of panicked emoting throughout the film). Other threatening interchanges regularly feature Morgan, who it turns out is a violent drunk and who goes after both Margaret and Gladys at various points. In other sidebars, Gladys and Roger strike up something that's a bit more than a friendship (in one of the film’s patent oddities, given the fact that Gladys shows up with Porterhouse and might be assumed to be his girlfriend), and Philip and Margaret discover that Horace and Rebecca are not the only Femms in the Femm household.

If The Old Dark House never really makes a whale (sorry) of a lot of sense, and in fact its supposed climax turns out to be something of a “nothing burger”, the film is incredibly moody, while also offering ample amounts of pretty cheeky humor. In fact the obvious dysfunctions of the Femm family are weirdly comic despite their sinister undertones. Despite being even less verbose than Frankenstein’s monster, Karloff’s Morgan is a looming presence and does deliver the film’s most visceral impact, despite a fun turn from Brember Wills as a “secret” Femm who appears late in the film and might reasonably be thought of as the main villain of the piece. Laughton, in his first American film role, is a little too showy at times, offering a hyperbolic performance that never quite melds with either the tamped down styles of Douglas and Massey or the completely gonzo approach of Moore and Thesiger. The film’s evocative production design, while limited largely to just a couple of rooms of the Femm manse, also helps to create an ominous mood.

The Old Dark House Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Old Dark House is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Sourced off a new 4K restoration, this new transfer easily improves upon the quality of the old Kino DVD, with much better detail levels and a more sumptuous rendering of Arthur Edeson's evocative cinematography. The film is often drenched in shadows, and blacks are especially impressive throughout the presentation. There are some very minor variances in clarity and sharpness, interestingly not really having to do with what I assume was the damaged first reel (in fact I noticed no substantive difference in quality between the opening minutes and the rest of the presentation). Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation but can look a bit heavy at times (see screenshot 13). Contrast is superb throughout the presentation and the restoration has delivered a viewing experience devoid of any major age related wear and tear.

The Old Dark House Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Old Dark House's LPCM 2.0 mono track can't totally overcome some inherent deficiencies, almost all having to do with the vagaries of time and/or the original recording techniques. There's hiss and occasional crackle apparent throughout, and noticeable distortion in some of the blaring musical cues, as well as the repeated motif of gusts of wind that are used to (supposedly) subliminally up the angst levels at certain junctures. But dialogue makes it through the gauntlet relatively unscathed, and generally speaking (and with an understanding of the aforementioned context) the track is eminently listenable with no overly distracting issues.

The Old Dark House Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This release ports over the supplements from the old Kino DVD, with the exception of the Gallery, and adds a new interview with Sara Karloff:

• Feature Length Audio Commentary Track by Actor Gloria Stuart. Stuart is a lot of fun to listen to, though perhaps her memory falters a time or two (e.g., she seems to think Eva Moore was Laurence Olivier's first wife, when it was Moore's daughter who was).


• Feature Length Audio Commentary by James Whale Biographer James Curtis has a lot of great production and biographical information in it, though it's a bit sporadic at times, with relatively long stretches of silence.


• Daughter of Frankenstein: A Conversation with Sara Karloff (1080p; 14:45) features Dean Otto interviewing Karloff, who talks about her father's film career in general and this film in particular.


• Curtis Harrington Saves The Old Dark House (480i; 7:08) is an older archival piece with Harrington recounting what he had to go through to save the film.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:57)

Cohen has also provided an insert booklet featuring excerpts of a David Del Valle interview with Curtis Harrington.

The Old Dark House Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had a high school coach who, in "mentoring" a bunch of teenaged boys intent on relieving themselves of their sexual innocence, once told us, "The anticipation is greater than the realization." The same warning might be said for those who have never seen The Old Dark House, for while immensely enjoyable on its own often gonzo terms, it has little of the innate spookiness of some of the other early Universal horror opuses. The film is long on style if at times a bit short on narrative follow through and even internal logic. This new restoration by Cohen offers sumptuous video but audio that definitely shows (sounds?) its age. Highly recommended.