TODAY’S BOOK Everything about this book/movie is just plain weird. Opinions about both seem to be bifurcated across the board; people usually love or hate both. Or maybe just don’t understand them. One thing for sure; as previously mentioned, a copy of Grosset & Dunlap’s KING KONG may command the highest asking price for a photoplay novel, but THE OLD DARK HOUSE is without doubt the hardest to track down. You may have more luck finding it under author J.B. Priestley’s original 1927 title, BENIGHTED (to save you a trip to the dictionary, it means: “intellectually or morally ignorant.”) I stumbled across the pictured copy by sheer dumb luck. A major Universal and Karloff fan, I was unaware of either book or film until 1970 when old pal Bernie Wrightson took me aside: “You gotta see this thing, Bruce—they dubbed Karloff’s voice, he mumbles like a cretin!” A respected English author in the 1920’s, Priestley begins his opus with the “it was a dark and stormy night” premise, wherein Philip and Margaret Waverton and friend (chief protagonist) Roger Penderel become lost “in a remote part of Wales” in their motorcar. The group seeks shelter at the brooding manse of Horace Femm and his slightly weird, nearly deaf sister, Rebecca. Another Femm, Sir Roderic, the supposed master of the house, is “confined to his upstairs room, very old, very weak.” The reluctant hosts warn the travelers there are no beds in their decayed Victorian of mostly closed off rooms, but allow the strangers to share dinner—this under the brooding eye of manservant and usually drunk Morgan. Two more trapped travelers, fleeing the storm, join the revels: Miss Gladys Du Cane and Sir William Porterhouse. Not really haunted (except perhaps by the minds of its inhabitants), the house’s baroque atmosphere and weird owners soon begin to work their spell on the dripping, innocent guests. That’s pretty much the plot. Some will find Priestley’s prose and dialogue nearly as arcane as the manor, as the various characters reveal themselves and, in some cases, bond throughout the book. The suspense amounts largely to the storm waters raging outside the precariously old house and who or what exactly is staying in that whispered upstairs room--and , of course, the presence of the drunken, brutish Morgan (Karloff in the movie). Meanwhile, wild-eyed Rebecca preaches hellfire to the group, Horace reveals he’s wanted by the police, the power fails and candlelight alone illuminates the shadow-leaping proceedings. If you can get past Priestley’s stiff continental prose and endless, expository sentences, the conversations are actually pretty interesting, especially when the group indulges in a game of “Truth” (Truth or Dare today—Priestley was ahead of his time on that one) wherein, among other things, Penderel reveals he’s still suffering from WWI shellshock. Maybe the whole novel is really about facing our own fears? I don’t know. The climax—the best part of the book, if long in coming--is the big reveal of who dwells upstairs and his/its effects on those present. THE OLD DARK HOUSE was one of several Universal pictures made under legendary Carl Laemmle between 1931 and 1936, following hard on the heels of FRANKENSTEIN (another glorious photoplay book I’ll try to get to in future posts.) Of the 20 films director James Whale made, HOUSE is probably the most theatrical-looking. Nearly as cramped as Browning’s DRACULA, at times the movie looks like a filmed play. The terrific cast—8 of which held estimable West End credentials—helps pull the thing together and includes Charles Laughton and Raymond Massey in their American film debuts. Top English playwright Benn W. Levy, who penned the script, arrived in NY in October of 1931 thinking he had been hired to write THE INVISIBLE MAN. Laemmle Sr. himself invited Levy to Hollywood, having much admired the writer’s work on WATERLOO BRIDGE, also directed by Whale. In the confusion of his arrival, Universal loaned Levy to Paramount until they got their house (studio) in order. Karloff, meantime, had been signed to a term contract with Universal after his star-making role in FRANKENSTEIN, and it was probably Levy, not Whale, who suggested the actor for the part of Morgan in HOUSE. Melvyn Douglas and Raymond Massey had been assigned to the film ADVENTURE LADY but when that project was delayed, were reassigned to HOUSE, Douglas getting the romantic lead of Penderel and Massey having to settle for Philip Waverton, a part he described as “long and colorless.” Ernest Thesiger, of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN fame, had been friends with Whale since 1919. Gloria Stuart (TITANIC) was a comely contract player given the role of Mrs. Philip Waverton-- often looking like she was poured into that slinky, tight-fitting dress- and the fanatical Rebecca Femm was portrayed to perfection by London stage legend Eva Moore, who nearly steals the show. The picture did fairly well with audiences upon opening, but it was no doubt eventually hurt by Karloff’s relatively small part, which must have disappointed his monster fan following. Universal lost the story rights to BENIGHTED in 1957 and for years the film itself was considered lost (these were pre-archival days, folks!) Copyright problems kept THE OLD DARK HOUSE largely off TV for decades, fans having to settle for washed-out, ragged dupes from grindhouse companies looking to make a quick buck off public domain issues. Then, in 1968, 9 years after Whales death, a print of THE OLD DARK HOUSE was located by Curtis Harrington stashed away in the Universal vaults. The film stock was in miserable shape, shrunken and misused, but a good print was eventually struck. Whale’s quixotic but undeniably memorable movie was finally, thank the fates, available again to a whole new generation of viewers via VHS and DVD. Give it a look…and decide for yourself.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 19:05:36 +0000
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