Movies - The Old Dark House

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	Movies - The Old Dark House

The Old Dark House is a 1932 horror film directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff produced just one year after their success with Frankenstein. For many years, it was considered a lost film and gained a tremendous reputation as one of the pre-eminent gothic horror films. Finally, in the late 1960s/early 1970s, the original negative of the film was discovered by Curtis Harrington in the vaults of Universal Studios and restored so that it could once more be shown in public. Filled with humorously sophisticated dialogue, the movie also featured Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Ernest Thesiger (Praetorious in Whale's 1935 The Bride of Frankenstein), Raymond Massey, and Gloria Stuart (the elderly "Rose" in 1998's Titanic) as the ravishing young ingenue.

Plot summary

Seeking shelter from a pounding rainstorm in a remote region of Wales, several travellers are admitted to a gloomy, foreboding mansion belonging to the extremely strange Femm family. Trying to make the best of it, the guests must deal with their sepulchral host, Horace Femm and his obsessive, malevolent sister Rebecca. Things get worse as the brutish manservant Morgan gets drunk, runs amuck and releases the long pent-up brother Saul, a psychotic pyromaniac who gleefully tries to destroy the residence by setting it on fire.

Cast & Crew

Directed by James Whale
Based upon the 1927 novel Benighted by J. B. Priestley

Boris Karloff
.... Morgan
Melvyn Douglas
.... Roger Penderel
Charles Laughton
.... Sir William Porterhouse
Lilian Bond .... Gladys DuCane
Ernest Thesiger
.... Horace Femm
Eva Moore
.... Rebecca Femm
Raymond Massey
.... Philip Waverton
Gloria Stuart
.... Margaret Waverton
Elspeth Dudgeon .... Sir Roderick Femm (as John Dudgeon)
Brember Wills .... Saul Femm

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Old Dark House ]

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