IMDb meta-data is runtime of 1 hour and 3 minutes, rated 6.1 by 254 cinemitizens.
Genre: Old Dark House.
Verdict: There was still life in the Old Dark House.
Wealthy aunt Lorna invites all her carnivorous and rapacious relatives for a weekend at her Old Dark House. Along with a few stragglers there are married couples who bicker among themselves and a decorative nurse who has no duties, each hates Auntie, and all fear that Auntie’s companion, Mary, will inherit the dosh. Fortunately Mary’s beau is none other than Peter Gunn.
Auntie has plans of her own and starts by sending a cake full of steel files to her brother who is slammed up in an asylum for criminally bad actors. He is Milton Parsons whose bug-eyes have graced many a Charlie Chan film from this era. Once Miltie has outwitted the prison officials by walking out the door, while they are smoking, he secrets himself in the Old Dark House’s secret passages, concealed sliding panels, and trapdoors. This ODH has all melodramatic-conveniences including a black stereotype to do the work.
Auntie recruited bro to protect Mary from the Huns, i.e., the relatives. Then the fun begins when Auntie’s pet raven, named Poe — what else, dies after eating a biscuit from her plate. Next thing you know, Auntie is dead. The carrion move from bickering to murder.
Miltie was looking forward to trying his hand at murder, again, but they keep dying before he can get to them. Are they murdering each other, or….is there another presence?
Thereafter they drop like….ravens. Six by the fratenity brothers’ count.
Auntie and Miltie are superb. There is a neat trick with a wall decoration. An even neater trick with the doctor and his needle. A fine denouement. And a lot of energy all around. Miltie’s bug eyes behind the filigree of an air vent occurs just enough times to be startling.
Yet the ‘New York Times’ gave it a bored and boring review in 1942. The condescension of many reviewers in that inflated organ is noteworthy. Most them don’t seem to like movies.
As usual Will Best realises something is afoot long before this superiors who each dismiss his warnings. Though admittedly his reactions are put in more context than usual.
The day after the release of this film, Operation Torch landed American troops at nine points along the coast of North Africa. This task farce sailed directly from Norfolk Virginia in secrecy. Surely the longest amphibious invasion ever launched.
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