While their is a set of classic horror films people know, many others from the period fall in the cracks. Some found no audience, some were lost, and some just get missed. So let's look at a strangely missed work.
After the fun of
The Ghoul let's step back a year to another under appreciated classic from Boris Karloff's filmography. A dark manor house on a dark night filled by a raging storm. A house full of history, secrets, and misery. Then, as the roads are washed away, a collection of young and clueless travelers arrive, seeking shelter from nature's wrath. What ever will they find in the depths of...
The Old Dark House.
One of the next films James Whale worked on, following
Frankenstein, was
The Old Dark House. It also allowed him work with Boris Karloff again, in the colorful and silent role of Morgan the butler. Morgan is also a drunken and angry man who is held in place by the lady of the house. This also was the first film where Whale and Karloff worked with Ernest Thesiger, who plays Horace Femm. He is a member of the family that own the house, but is cowed by his sister and terrified of the house and it's secrets.
This is also Charles Laughton's first film in the United States. He plays voracious businessman Sir William Porterhouse. The character carries a grudge against wealthy elite snobs that he thinks look down on people like him.
Beyond these 3 men, this is also another production of Carl Laemmle Jr, and from Universal Studios. It has a clear pedigree as a part of the whole of Universal Horror. But it lacks any of the classic monsters, like the film
Black Cat, so it ends up excluded.
The story this film is based off is a 1920's book. There the focus is more on the post-WWI period and the impact on the war on the characters. Some of this can be seen in the film. Like with the character of Penderel. He is a friend and hanger on of a married couple. He is casual and jovial, but always is an outsider and disenchanted with the modern world. He's a little lost since the war.
Universal eventually let their rights to the book lapse, and another studio began working another film. At the time in the 1960's, Universal seemed uninterested in this film, and it was at risk of being lost due to neglect. But an enthusiast searched Universal and found the negatives. He then helped get them restored, to ensure the film would be available for decades to come.
And here we are.
