The Old Dark House (1963; William Castle)



Silly posh from William Castle, working in concert with Hammer Studios, with a mostly British cast inside a decaying manor and the And Then There Were None plot of family being picked off one by one as an American car salesman (Tom Poston of “Newhart” fame) “invited” to help out one of the members by driving his new car to said ancestral estate. Once there, a serious thunder/rain storm kicks up something fierce leaving the roads awash, problematically trapping Poston with this family of kooks, whose infamous pirate ancestor, Femm, ultimately left them potential inheritance if each, every time at Midnight, congregate together to make sure they are all alive. The caveat of being inheritor of a fortune (the pirate Femm was hanged for his criminal history) is that as long as the manor stands (it must “die” according to the pirate’s will) they must continue to meet in the study at Midnight. Well, having to live together year after year, you could see how they all might eventually tire of one another, so the inevitable killing spree might not seem so out of the norm.

While a remake in name, I could see very little similarity to the 1932 James Whale Gothic classic for which it shares besides the name of the family and a dilapidated structure where they remain. Poston is the only “visitor” to the residence and he actually let a flat with a member of the Femm family, Casper (Peter Bull; I knew I placed him somewhere and soon realized he was in the Alastair Sim Christmas Carol from ’51), who had to flee back to the manor at night while spending time away during the day, returning in time for the customary and enforceable Midnight deadline. A fun little twist has a twin brother introduced played by Bull slightly differently, Jasper. Jasper tended to his orchids and was more of a dandy while Casper liked to gamble and enjoy his winnings such as the purchased car and plane trips back and forth to the estate from London. Other family members included classy and very pretty, Cecily (Janette Scott), who Poston obviously takes a shine to, the somewhat daft and a bit clingy but nonetheless attractive, Morgana (Fenella Fielding), gun-enthusiast (to put it mildly) and obsessively suspicious, Roderick (Robert Morley; he goes way back to “Scrooge” (1935)!!!), ark-building, apocalypse-preparing Uncle Potiphar (the great Mervyn Johns of the masterpiece,” Dead of Night” (1945), and yet another Ebenezer Scrooge connection, portraying in one of his most memorable roles as Bob Cratchit to Sim’s Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1951)), and compulsive knitter, Agatha (Joyce Grenfell). A friend of mine on Facebook described Danny Green in his IMDb account review of the film as a shoe-in for Bluto in Popeye cartoons, and I couldn’t agree more…he portrays Morgana’s seemingly mute but brutish father, always chasing down and violently pursuing any guy that might try to mate with his daughter!




So I did some reading in the user comments and reviews of the film upon its release…let’s just say my contemporaries and those who actually wrote about it for legit publications weren’t particularly high on it. Quite frankly, the response was less than underwhelming. Many flat either disliked it, were not especially impressed with it, or hated it altogether because of its ties to the Whale film—again this isn’t a direct remake of that film. What this film has in relation to the film is the skeleton and that’s it. Castle opted for slapstick (Poston trying to evade Green is a common setpiece chase Castle thoroughly enjoys returning to) and emphasizing the oddball personalities of his Femm family (Whale did this as well, but his characters were often dark and morbid, much to the delight of many of us horror fans who adore that era when the genre was developing itself) version. This cast assembled is a rich vein of British character acting talent, as Castle clearly wanted interesting faces, voices, and characteristics for Poston to play off of and opposite. Poston, to his credit, is game and has plenty of reactions in his comedy grab-bag, including worry, curiosity, fear, suspicion, and conflict. It really is a gamut he can run in any given scene. Because death is all around him, including a race-against-time when he must disconnect dynamite bombs tied to clocks throughout the manor. The reveal of the twist wasn’t a surprise to me, but I understood it…out of the candidates, you’d think it wouldn’t be the most normal who turns out to be a complete psychopath. I wish the house had been a bit more eerie or sinister…it is, instead, just a rundown, leaking (a running sight gag is the amount of ceramic pots needed to catch all the rain in different areas of the manor), rotting structure indeed dying, but not fast enough for the family having to endure living in it. The trap door at the front door of the house is repeatedly used by Castle to keep Poston from ever leaving. The various deaths are rather inventive…knitting needles, fireplace tongs, a trick release of a gun when a cabinet is opened, and the aforementioned dynamite explosives that almost does take out the house.

I think the oddball dialogue and myriad of strange family behavior—eccentricity can be a deterrent or attraction depending on the audience—has not helped this film since its release. I didn’t even know much about it until Turner Classics showed it a few years ago and it was included in a William Castle collection I acquired two weeks ago. Because of the cast, I found this too irresistible. I didn’t mind it. In fact, Poston and Johns together was always a treasure to me…I loved watching them work with what they were given, which was often silly but not so offensive. Here’s the thing…I didn’t compare it to the Whale film. To do that—as many critical of the film do—would have left me with fists and teeth clinched, full of bitter anger at it. Instead I chose to just enjoy the cast…Morley was just a hoot to me and Grenfell, although leaving the film a bit too early for my tastes, has some really fun moments with Poston (her explanation to him about the neverending project she currently works cracked me up) and particularly Bull. The lighting and thunder every time Castle takes his camera back to the open coffin corpse of Casper is another running gag, as is the recording of a poem that even factors into the twist at the end following murders. I do believe that this film relies a lot on whether or not you enjoy Poston and his back and forth with the Femms…he just can’t seem to leave or keep away from the Femm business without always being drug back into it all. ***/****

*The version I watched was colorized. Turner Classics, if I remember correctly, shows the B&W version*

**I just envisioned a giddy Castle excited about unveiling the Noah's ark and Johns informing an exasperated Poston that he's to be the human male species opposite Fielding, it is inspired.**

***I had a nice little Castle triple feature for Friday night, including “The Tingler” (1959) and 13 Ghosts (1960). Both films are in my blog archives, and I’m sure you can find plenty of my musings on them nearly every October since I started The Blog from the Darkside back in 2009.***


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