The Old Dark House (1963)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

THE OLD DARK HOUSE has many reasons it should be a success. It's an all-colour remake of a 1930s classic that spawned an entire genre of subsequent 'old dark house' style movies, made with strong production values by the reliable chaps at Hammer Films. Imported American director William Castle came off the back of a string of enjoyable hits including HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and THE TINGLER. You'd think that nothing could go wrong, but you'd be sorely mistaken about that.The truth is that THE OLD DARK HOUSE goes out for the out-and-out spoof approach to poor effect. American funnyman lead Tom Poston simply isn't very endearing or funny, just goofy. The supporting cast of eccentrics is very good, with Fenella Fielding in dry-run mode for CARRY ON SCREAMING, Robert Morley as funny as ever, and Mervyn Johns stealing all his scenes as the old-timer eccentric. The first half an hour of the film sets up the plot and mystery and is quite workable, but it goes downhill from there. The various murder scenes are dragged out and the story elements get sillier and sillier as they go on, with the whole 'Noah's ark' sub-plot being the real nadir. In the end, THE OLD DARK HOUSE is neither scary nor funny, just silly, and a far cry from something much more cheaply-made but far funnier, like WHAT A CARVE UP!

This was the result of an unfortunate marriage between William Castle and Hammer Films and it is hard to find much to get excited about. Tom Poston isn't much of an actor and can barely keep the pace in his lighter-than-air role.The attempts at humor - and they are everywhere - fizzle for the most part. They are mainly the domain of a comic book and not much more. They might appeal more to children. however or to the memory laners. The wall-to-wall music is overwhelming and after a while works against the film, despite some clever moments in the orchestration. So, what is there to recommend? The same title of a film made in 1932 by James Whale! Now that's good film making.Curtis Stotlar

I used to take people to task when they said that, being fond of a particular film, they would not watch some other version of the same source material…but, while I am a fan of Hammer Horror and (to a lesser extent) genre exponent William Castle, I have to admit to being guilty of this fault (or, if you like, bias) myself when it came to my all-time favorite movie – James Whale's similarly-titled 1932 adaptation for Universal of J.B. Priestley's "Benighted"! For this reason, I have postponed viewing the by-all-accounts "best forgotten" remake (Castle apparently did, because he fails to mention it in his memoirs...and, apparently, Boris Karloff declined to participate in it for being overly jokey!) for the longest time but, in view of my ongoing Whale marathon, I thought it was high time I got around to it! By the way, though I recall coming across a copy of the novel as a kid (that is, long before I watched the original film), I have been searching high and low ever since catching up with it – given that I was intrigued enough by the back-story to wish to concoct a veritable prequel!According to "The Leslie Halliwell Film Guide", the Whale picture had adhered fairly closely to the text albeit "omitting the more thoughtful moments"; the Hammer version, then, is nothing like Whale's but it does include a nice 'exclusive' subplot involving one character's attempt to reproduce Noah's Ark! In most other respects, however, the film is a dismal failure (a pitifully poor sequence supposedly depicting a hyena attack must be seen to be disbelieved!): comedy does not suit Castle (despite his tendency towards Camp), much less Hammer (their recognizable style only coming through here in the overall look, aided by Charles Addams' evocative animated title sequence; the latter is said to owe his choice of career to a viewing of Whale's original!) and the end result barely raises a chuckle – with none of the subtle wit that so characterized the classic original! One grave mistake is the fact that only a single interloper is made to contend with the family of eccentrics, and resistible American comic Tom Poston at that; for the record, he had already collaborated with the director on the previous year's ZOTZ! (which I also own but have yet to check out).The Femms, on the other hand, are incarnated by a promising gallery of actors but to little effect: Robert Morley, Joyce Grenfell, Janette Scott, Fenella Fielding (who would play a similar role in CARRY ON SCREAMING [1966]), Peter Bull, Mervyn Johns and Danny Green; incidentally, Fielding and Bull would later appear together again in the period romp, LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS! (1969) – which I have just acquired. The Whale film had no young women, crazy or otherwise, within the household but there were indeed 2 among the stranded travelers. Whereas Morley is supposed to replace Elspeth (billed as John!) Dudgeon, Grenfell stands in for Eva Moore, Bull has a dual role (which, again, is a new addition) while Johns more or less emulates Brember Wills (since he is perhaps the looniest – that said, his murderous inclinations are transferred onto one of the ladies, which is an agreeable novelty in itself!) and Green doubles for Karloff's giant mute butler (though, in this case, his dumbness is merely a ruse!).Even if the original was relatively uneventful (a criticism leveled at it by hardened horror-movie buffs not satiated by its inherent stylized quirkiness), this one takes the form of an Agatha Christie whodunnit, with characters being eliminated one by one (among the murder methods are having water replaced by acid and, most ingeniously, a shotgun going off 'accidentally') over an inheritance – even Poston is linked with (and suspected of) this, which detaches it all the more from Whale's infinitely superior rendition! As if to emphasize this shift from Gothic horror to murder mystery, Hammer released the film theatrically in black-and-white (as per their current standard for thrillers) despite having shot it in color…with the latter prints only cropping up as TV screenings (which is how I came across my copy) and, fairly recently, DVD!

Tom Penderel (Tom Poston) is invited to stay at the Femm household... which seems all fine and good until a big storm comes and it is revealed that the family has its share of eccentricities. Not the least of which is the idea that it's time to build an ark.Director and producer William Castle seems to do no wrong. He has taken an old story, one that was previously made into a dark film in the 1930s, and added his own brand of humor and madness. And who better than Tom Poston to be the star? His slapstick comedy blends in perfectly as he interacts with the amorous Morgana and makes good use of trap doors.If you're looking for a horror film, this really is not the film for you. There's nothing scary about it. But it is a fine film from a horror master, and there is the threat of death. For, you see, an inheritance is on the line and it would be to each family member's advantage if the others were not to survive.Please pick up the William Castle box set from Sony and Columbia Pictures. There is not a bad film in the box.