Joe Valerie dies at Dr. Paul Corneliusâs (Warner Oland) clinic, trading knowledge of where he hid a million dollars in stolen loot for euthanasia. Soon after, Joe’s wife (Jane Darwell) falls to her death after seeing Joeâs ghost. The police, picking up fraudulent spiritualists, get one whoâs real, Patricia Merrick (Dorothy Wilson). So on a dark night, Patricia, her corrupt father Horace (Dudley Digges), the sinister Dr. Cornelius, Mattie (Gertrude Hoffman), and officer Dwight Wilson (Stuart Erwin) all end up in the house together, to either solve the case or find the loot.
If thereâs anything unusual about this standard Old Dark House mystery, itâs that Patricia really does have clairvoyance. Usually in these sorts of pictures itâs just weird people and some Scooby Doo goings on, but she actually has power. But itâs not much power and does very little to help once they all get into the house. So that leaves the normal events and items: secret passageway, phones out of order (or not existing), screaming women, someone pretending to be a ghost, etc. Itâs only interesting when someone stylish is behind the camera, such as James Whale. Director Irving Pichel had neither enough style nor enough money to pull this off. Workmanlike is the most polite term I can think of for how this flick is shot.
Of course itâs those odd characters that make or break an Old Dark House film, and apparently Pichel wasnât much help there, though the actors and script can claim much of the blame. Darwell is flat and boring. Sure she’s supposed to be in a trance much of the time, but when she isn’t, she still seems like she is. Digges goes the other way and overacts, going arch when he shouldnât (why didnât Patricia know her father was a cheap creep when his every line screams, âIâm an immoral crook!â). Oland, best known as Charlie Chan in sixteen films, overacts as well, slipping into oozing evil psychopath mode, but he pulls it off better. Erwin does the old âOh shucksâ routine, so I canât tell if he canât act or his character is just really badly writtenâmy guess is both. Hoffman takes on the part of the gangster old lady, a version of which Iâve seen in multiple films of the time; sheâs fine, but her character isnât interesting enough for me to care.
Everyone acts stupidly, while telegraphing what they are going to do, and by the end I was tired of it all. It doesnât help that the sets are so cheap. This is an Old Dark House film; at least give us an interesting house.
You’re unlikely to stumble upon this one, but if you do, keep on stumbling.