The Old Dark House (1932)
“I will give you a toast that you will not appreciate, being young--I give you illusion.”
The Old Dark House is based on the novel Benighted by J.B Priestley, which entered public domain in the US this year! ‘Round these parts, we love when something is in the public domain. In 1931, Universal Studios bought the rights to the novel on James Whale’s request.
The film wasn’t as iconic at the time as its predecessor, Frankenstein, and was lost for decades. When it came out, it received mixed (but largely negative) reviews, and it quickly disappeared from theaters. The Brits responded well when it was re-released in the UK in 1939—which makes sense to me because it does feel like a British domestic play and much of the cast is British.
In the intervening decades, however, the film disappeared and was not included in the 1957 television re-release of much of the Universal horror catalog. In 1963, Hammer Films produced a remake. In 1968, a friend of James Whale’s, Curtis Harrington, found a print of the film in Universal’s vaults. In 2017 a 4k remaster was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews. I think The Old Dark House was ahead of its time. It only took 80 years for audiences to love this movie.
I love opening credits for these movies. Up through much of the 1970s, credits were at the beginning of the movie. I think it makes for interesting credits that are produced in intriguing ways, as the credits have to set the tone for the rest of the film.
From the titles we meet three of our protagonists, Margaret and Phillip Waverton (Gloria Stuart & Raymond Massey) and their friend Penderel (Melvyn Douglas) who are searching for a haven in a rainstorm. Unfortunately, the only house off the road is full of fucking weirdos. They meet Morgan (Boris Karloff), the mute butler and Horace and Rebecca Femm (Ernest Thesiger & Eva Moore). Shortly after they arrive, another couple, Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and Gladys (Lilian Bond) arrive. This movie has an ensemble cast, and it is pre proto-Clue. The film unravels as the 4 guests explore the house and figure out why the Femms are so paranoid. (spoiler alert, somebody else in the house wants to kill them all).
The name Femm is used in the original novel, and I don’t have any evidence that JB Priestley intended a queerness to the use of that name. Femm, however, is not a common surname.
I’m unclear on when queer folks started using “femme” in the colloquial sense. “Femme” is French for “woman”, and “femminiello” is a queer gender expression observed in Neapolitan culture for centuries. I found the theory that queer women started using “femme” and “butch” in the 1940s and 1950s, partially due to shifting gender politics during and after the second world war. My ears perked up when Horace introduced himself and, intentional or otherwise, the use of Femm resonates with modern queer viewers.
The movie has a dusting of queerness throughout, and not just because of the unique surname. Director James Whale was openly gay, and Charles Laughton and Ernest Thesiger are rumored to have been queer. And a woman plays the aging patriarch Femm.
Elsbeth Dudgeon was credited as John Dudgeon in the film. According to James Curtis, Whale cast Elsbeth after he failed to find a male actor who looked old enough. Sir Roderick Femm is a century old, and lays frail in bed wheezing. When the Wavertons finally find the old man, he explains that his eldest son, Saul, is a pyromaniac they keep locked elsewhere in the house. Roderick is in good spirits, giggling as he explains that this house was once lively but is “unlucky”.
Horace Femm is delicate and nervous. Ernest Thesiger primarily played comedic stage roles throughout his career, and I think that comes across here in the best way. Thesiger has an upturned aristocratic look about him, and Horace is styled to look like a sunken corpse. His nervousness is both silly and adds to the discomfort of this house—what is he so nervous about? He’s a great foil to his sister Rebecca who is preachy, defensive, and cruel. We will see more of the delightful Thesiger in Bride of Frankenstein here in two weeks.
The Old Dark House is not quite like any horror movie I’ve seen before. The script is a comedy, with Rebecca and Horace being both hilarious and terrifying all at once. The dialogue is overwrought and the actors are playing to the back of the house. Yet the scares tend to be subtle—a locked door that Horace is terrified of or Rebecca appearing suddenly out of Margaret’s shadow. Everything about the house and the people living there is disconcerting. This house is haunted, not by ghosts, but by the terrible people who are trapped, rotting together in their fear. The Old Dark House reminds me of the trope in horror video games “explore creepy places without an adequate light source.”
James Whale directed horror movies for Universal in an attempt to do anything other than another film about war, but The Old Dark House is about the first world war. Horace makes a toast to Pendrel, noticing another man hiding his past. Penderel admits that he is of a generation damaged by the war—who can’t fully smile anymore.
The original novel is explicitly about post war social shifts, and R.C. Sherriff (who wrote the war play Journey’s End) did work on the script. The post war, shifting class structure of Britain is a huge focus of this narrative—as all our characters are of different classes and backgrounds and coming together in one old fucked up house. The old aristocracy in the Femms is creaky and doomed because of their uptightness and commitment to keeping their family secrets sloppily hidden away. The younger people, social climbers among them, are unable to find safety in the old house and have to protect each other from the aging madman hidden in the attic.
This film has one of my favorite shots ever. It’s when Saul (the craziest Femm) has been let out. Our entire cast of protagonists is at the bottom of the stairs and a man’s hand appears on the banister. Boris Karloff steps onto the stairs, and then forward. For a split second it looks like the hand is Karloff’s, then it looks like maybe he is some supernatural entity with freaky limbs, before you realize that Saul is standing beside him and the hand belongs to Saul. I’m sorry it’s a classic “you had to be there” moment, but if you watch the movie for nothing else I promise that 3 second moment is worth it.
It truly captures the mindfuck moment when your subconscious temporarily believes in the impossible before your rational brain can make sense of what’s going on.
I recommend this film to anybody who wants to watch a horror movie without monsters or gore. It’s character-driven and dialogue heavy. It’s more dynamic and well-paced than other character focused films of the era. Gloria Stuart is my crush for this movie, and I’m excited to watch her again next week when I review The Invisible Man (1933).
Thank you for reading!
Sources:
Clemente, F. (2020). Subverting or essentialising gender? Performing childbirth in the figliata of the femminielli. Whatever (Pisa), 3, 305–322. https://doi.org/10.13131/2611-657x.whatever.v3i1.62
Curtis, J. (1982). James Whale. Scarecrow Press.
Whale, J. (Director). (1932). The Old Dark House [Video file]. Cohen Film Collection. Retrieved February 27, 2024, from Kanopy.
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, February 17). The Old Dark House (1932 film). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:58, February 28, 2024, fromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Old_Dark_House_(1932_film)&oldid=1208365481
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, February 13). Shock Theater. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:08, March 13, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shock_Theater&oldid=1206739265