One Frightened Night (1935)

Grumpy millionaire Jasper Whyte (Charley Grapewin) has given up hope of finding his granddaughter, who would be his sole heir, so on the night before the inheritance tax is set to rise, he tells his greedy relative and friends (Arthur Hohl, Lucien Littlefield, Regis Toomey, Hedda Hopper, Clarence Wilson, Rafaela Ottiano) that he will give them a million each on this night. However, immediately after, his granddaughter, Doris Waverly (Evalyn Knapp), appears at the door. As Jasper is getting to know her, another girl shows up claiming to be Doris (Mary Carlisle), this one accompanied by a stage magician (Wally Ford). And now both women are targets of a killer.

Old Dark House films are first cousins to Cozy Mysteries, but they aren’t the same thing. One Frightened Night is more mystery than horror. Yes, there’s a killer, but only the granddaughter, or anyone claiming to be her, is a potential victim. No one else is in danger. And the murderer is clearly one of the house guests. There’s no suggestion of a supernatural source or an escaped maniac. No one goes off to sleep and there’s not even an ongoing thunderstorm. Once there’s a murder, the police show up and for the rest of the film it’s interrogations and clue-finding. It still has plenty of the Old Dark House characteristics: the large house, the rich old man and his “will,” secret passageways, and screams. Plus there’s a bit more rushing about then in an average Cozy, but it’s quite a stretch to call it horror. Outside of classification, is that a problem? Well, yes. With the spooky elements so restrained, it needs a stronger detective/mystery story than it has to take up the slack.

The dialog is snappy, and the cast as a whole carries it off well. What keeps this film a step ahead of many of its peers is Charley Grapewin. He would soon jump into A-Pictures with The Petrified Forest and The Wizard of Oz, though he’d always be a character actor. Here he’s a curmudgeony fireball, with some real emotion between verbal attacks. He’s a more powerful actor than found in a majority of Poverty Row pictures.