Twenty years ago, obnoxious treasure-hunter John Prendergast (Clay Clement) insults and attacks a Hindu temple, and is cursed. He makes away with two million dollars in temple gold. In âcurrentâ day, his investors and their heirs find him, and want their cut. He agrees, but only if they stay the week in his house to see the curse in action. The house fills with an absentminded professor and his abrasive wife (Harry Bradley, Mary Foy), an insurance salesman (Ed Lowry), a hypochondriac and her spiritualist companion (Dale Fuller, Fritzi Ridgeway), a gambler (George ‘Gabby’ Hayes), their lawyer (Sam Godfrey), Prendergast himself, his Hindu housekeeper/dancer (Joyzelle Joyner), his cute nurse (Verna Hillie), a plumber (John Sheehan), and a gorilla. To no one surprise, people begin to die.
Just what kind of legal advice were people getting in the ’30s? If my lawyer suggested I live in some weirdo’s house for a week that had avoided paying me what he owes me for years, I’d get a new lawyer.
Poverty Row loved Old Dark House movies. They also had a strange fondness for killer ape flicks, so here we have both. Two years earlier weâd gotten The Monster Walks, with a angry chimp in a house. Luckily House of Mystery doesnât take itself seriously because the stupidest thing on hand isnât the gorilla. I wonât say what takes the crown as there are so many options.
I call this a âlightâ film rather than a comedy because nothing is funny. Iâve no doubt the filmmakers intended some lines to be jokes, but they didnât put enough effort in to make the gags work. So it ends up as fluffy nothingness. It isnât boring, nor is it engaging, People die. People have a sĂ©ance. People discuss insurance. It all has the same weight. It is amusing how little the characters seem to care that bodies are piling up around them.
Some might cringe at the Orientalist stuff at the beginning, though I rather like it, particularly the temple and dancing girl. Sure it fetishize the mysterious East, but the “Asians” (I assume Indians; the tile card simply reads “Asia–1913”) are the good guys and the colonialists are depicted clearly as slime.
After youâve watched a dozen other Old Dark House films, give this one a shot, but not before.