Tonight I watched a movie called "The Old Dark House". It wasn't the original 1932 version, directed by James Whale of "Frankenstein" fame and said to be a classic (I haven't seen that one but you know with Whale at the helm it's classic status is a given). The version I watched was the 1963 remake, directed by our friend William Castle, with whom we have spent much time lately. The remake was financed by the legendary Hammer Studios of England at the height of their Horror Heyday, so with Castle directing and Hammer producing, the ball has gotta get knocked so far out of the park that it's irretrievable, right? The result should be a guaranteed masterpiece of low budget but extremely well crafted quality, especially if we are using the other Castle spookers in his Horror Collection as examples to set high expectations for the film.
From the Horror Collection we have already reviewed "13 Ghosts", "Mr. Sardonicus" and the ingenious "Homicidal", all receiving Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, and all displaying inventive storylines, supercrisp photography and first rate art direction given the budget. All were well played by the actors. The thing about Castle is that he has a signature. His horror movies are different from those of other directors. They may not be the scariest, but they exude atmosphere, have unique storylines, kooky characters, and are just plain fun. And oftimes they are darn scary as well.
So what went wrong with "The Old Dark House"? (One moment while I turn off the italics)....
Hmmm, I'm not sure what went wrong, but I suspect that the mashup of Hammer and Castle had something to do with it. A case of too many cooks perhaps. Too many bigwigs. The Castle version is supposed to be an almost exact remake of Whale's original film as far as the plot is concerned. I knew enough about the Whale to know going in that "Old Dark House" is not a horror movie per se, but more of a comedy or farce set in a horror context, inside a Big Ol' Spooky Mansion (are there any other kinds of mansions?). So right from the get go I was not expecting the shock value or Hitchcockian suspense of Castle's other films. Also, the film was in color, the first I had seen as such. I had been used to the black and white format used in the three previous Castle films, with it's grey scale that worked so well not only in these movies but for decades in sci-fi and horror films from the 1930s through the early 1960s. Color gives a different feel to horror, and while Hammer mastered that effect, it has to be very subtly controlled by the director. In horror, you are trying to achieve the specific effect of scaring people, so you have to be very careful to have the right lighting, the right shadows, the proper depth of field and the right colors - if you are going to use color (which has been the standard for a long time). I miss the days of black and white horror, but I digress.
I do think, though, that the choice of color contributed to the overall humdrum effect the movie had on me. It was too brightly lit, and with fully saturated colors ablaze, it looked like you were on the set of a horror movie, with all the lights on, rather than watching a real story in the form of a movie, with disbelief automatically suspended. Maybe because the film is basically a comedy wrapped in horror guise, Castle felt the need to lighten up the look of the film as well, and add *obvious* trilling music whenever a caper was around the corner.
1960s comedy stalwart Tom Poston arrives in London to deliver a luxury car to his boss, who lives in the Old House in question. What he doesn't know is that he is a long lost American relation to the man, and to the man's in-laws. A whole bunch of them live in the Old Dark Joint and are not allowed to move out, lest they be disinherited by the requirements of the will of their wealthy progenitor. Each night, all seven or eight (you count 'em yourself) relatives must meet in a special room at Midnight, to prove that they are all home and inside the house, each and every day. Poston, who had a great bug eyed face, is now forcibly included in this nightly regimen. Having delivered the bosses' car, he wants to leave but can't.
From there the plot becomes your basic "Ten Little Indians" whodunit. One quirky relative is murdered in the night, and who will be next? Of course, all the relatives are quirky, except for the beautiful and normal young Englishwoman who provides the romantic foil to Poston. There is also a sexy, leopard skinned leotard wearing Auntie who has designs on Tom, but he must continually avoid her because her gigantic, bearded and mute father will tear him limb from him if he responds to her advances.
The movie has a decidedly 1963 eccentric English sense of humor, when that kind of thing was in vogue. Robert Morley is one of the stars, so you get the gist. It's all very Mod.
But unfortunately nothing ever gels. The characters jump, pose and gesture their way through the scenes, keeping everything professional and stagey, but there is no tension, no "what's gonna happen next"?
It's a Castle and Hammer Mashup, and because they say there is a first time for everything, I am gonna say that this is the first time I've been disappointed by a William Castle film, whose every Western has entertained me and whose previous horror movies have shocked me with their originality. This time, for whatever reason, or maybe for the reasons I have pointed out, it didn't work. I have never been disappointed by a Hammer Horror Film either - good Lord no! Hammer was equated with fright and terror in the 1960s. So this is a first for a Hammer film as well, a tepid result.
You should not get the idea that "The Old Dark House" (1963 version) is a complete flop. There are entertaining moments, and the movie does gain momentum in the last act, but overall I am sorry to say I can only give it one, half turned and wavering, Thumb Up. I give it the wavery Single Half Thumb because the players are clearly trying to please, but it just didn't add up.
Tomorrow night we will try again with another picture, hoping for better results.
Hope you had a great day. See you in the morning with much love sent until then, and more non-stop after that.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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