A severe storm drives first Philip and Margaret Waverton and their friend Roger Penderel (Raymond Massey, Gloria Stuart, and Melvyn Douglas), and then wealthy Sir William Porterhouse and dancehall girl Gladys Perkins (Charles Laughton and Lilian Bond), to ask for shelter in an old dark house. They are ungraciously greeted by prim Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger), his nearly deaf and righteous sister, Rebecca (Eva Moore), and their brutish butler, Morgan (Boris Karloff). They try to make the best of the situation, but there are too many secrets and too much danger connected to the Femm family for comfort.
The Old Dark House is the signature James Whale film. His style—his mastery of shadow and movement, control of everything in the frame, and exuberant and quirky sense of humor—is visible in his classics Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man, but The Old Dark House has nothing but Whale’s style. The plot is nearly nonexistent. People are marooned at an out-of-the-way house. Events, generally unconnected to other events, happen. The end. It’s odd to think that the film was based on a novel, as novels normally require stories.
Whale presents a stream of fascinating images. Half of the cells in the film could be plucked out and hung in a gallery. Nothing is haphazard. Candles are precisely placed. Actors stand as if posed for Rembrandt. All movement is tightly choreographed, producing a near balletic effect. Atmosphere is everything.
The characters are much of the mood. The cast was remarkable. Fascinating voices abound. A young Charles Laughton (yes, Laughton was young once) rattles off a sharp, Welsh accent while a young Raymond Massey (yes, he was young as well) just does Massey. Thesiger warms up for his role as the effete Dr. Pretorius in Bride of Frankenstein, but his Horace Femm is not powerful, but a weak-willed prisoner of his own home. He is still flamboyant, and manages to make the line “Have a potato,” hilarious. Melvyn Douglas brought his normal dashing, impertinent tones. Gloria Stuart, known now as the old woman from Titanic, didn’t have an unusual or lyrical voice, but she was a beautiful woman who could scream and run down stairs with the best of them. Unfortunately, Karloff, who had the best voice of all, is given little to do and nothing to say as a savage mute.
While The Old Dark House is a stylish picture, style is all it has and it isn’t enough. Any moment works wonderfully, but as a whole, it gets tiresome. There’s plenty of weird behavior, but little of it is funny. With no real story to follow, it becomes a pointless exercise in skill. It is more interesting than enjoyable.