The Old Dark House(1932)

Approved
1h 12m

Release Date: Oct 27, 2017 | Limited

Seeking shelter from a storm, five travelers are in for a bizarre and terrifying night when they stumble upon the Femm family estate.

Releases

Original Release | Oct 27, 2017

Director & Top Cast

James Whale
Director

Robert Morley
Roderick Femm

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Summaries

Plot Summary

On a stormy night in Wales, five people, Philip and Margaret Waverton, their friend Penderel, Sir William Porterhouse and his lady friend, chorus girl Gladys Perkins, whose stage name is DuCane, seek refuge in a gloomy house off the road. The denizens of the house include Horace Femm, an hysteric, his sister Rebecca, a religious fanatic, and Morgan, their scarred, brutish butler, who is a mute. At dinner, Horace confides that sometime in the past, their sister Rachel died in a mysterious fashion. As the evening progresses, the Wavertons discover the Femms' 102-year-old father in an upstairs room. Transformed by drink, Morgan pursues attractive Margaret up the stairs, where he craftily releases another brother, pyromaniac Saul, from his locked room at the top. Penderal and Gladys have fallen in love at first sight. They break the news to Sir William who, because he is still in love with his dead wife, is not very upset. Soon after, Penderal encounters the liberated Saul in one of the dark rooms. At first Saul seems to be the only sane inhabitant of the house, but he proves that he is as crazy as the rest when he tries to kill Penderal. Both men are wounded in the fight that follows. Morgan, having sobered up a little, carries the wounded Saul back to his room. After Gladys treats Penderal, dawn finally breaks and the storm is over. The five guests leave the house behind as quickly as possible and Horace cheerfully bids them goodbye, as if the events of the night had never happened.

Storyline

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. — Doug Sederberg While driving in a stormy night on a lonely road in the countryside, Philip Waverton, his wife Margaret and Roger Penderel seek shelter at a creepy old house. Horace and his sister Rebecca Femm are reluctant but receive the travelers and warn that the butler Morgan is a dangerous man when he drinks. When they have dinner, a man called Sir William Porterhouse arrives in the house with his girlfriend Gladys Duquesne seeking shelter. Out of the blue, the light goes out and they split to get candles and lamps, while Roger and Gladys go to the car to get a bottle of whiskey. While they drink and talk together, the drunken Morgan attacks Margaret and Philip along a most unusual and bizarre night. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil On a dark and stormy night in the Welsh mountains, two carloads of people in quick succession encounter trouble on the seemingly washed out roads and decide to take refuge in an old, dark house for the evening until the storm subsides rather than risk driving on the road if their car is even still operational. The first car contains married Philip and Margaret Waverton and their friend, war veteran Roger Penderel who has been coasting through life in not having found a calling. The second car contains widowed Sir William Porterhouse, whose focus on earning money is more to show up people who looked down on him and more importantly his now deceased wife, and his current casual girlfriend, chorus girl Gladys Perkins, who uses the stage name Gladys Duquesne to appear higher class. The house is inhabited by elderly siblings Rebecca Femm, the stern owner who doesn't seem to appreciate these strangers intruding on their existence, and milquetoast Horace Femm, and their housekeeper, mute Morgan who almost seems beast-like in his appearance and demeanor, especially if he's had drink. The one inhabitant the stranded travelers may not meet is the Femm patriarch, bedridden centenarian Sir Roderick Femm. The travelers find that staying in the house has its own mortal dangers, not only open ones like the possibility of the landslides from the rain wiping it out like it has the roads or the actions of beastly Morgan, but also hidden ones such as what Horace seems so afraid of. — Huggo