Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Organnall Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

l_rawjalaurence Set in the kind of boarding-houses that simply don't exist any more, SHADOWS ON THE STAIRS is based on a West End hit and contains a cast of Hollywood British stalwarts augmented by Turhan Bey as a suspicious Indian student (in his first film).The plot is straightforward: Mr. Reynolds (Paul Cavanagh) is apparently knifed to death one night when everyone else is asleep. The Scotland Yard inspector assigned to the case (Lumsden Hare) makes all the wrong deductions and is set right by aspiring playwright Hugh Bromilow (Bruce Lester). An hysterical maid Lucy (Phyliis Barry) apparently commits suicide as she realizes that Tom Armitage (Miles Mander) - who has had a clandestine affair with her - wants to dump her. Add to that an hysterical boarding-house maitresse d'h (Freda Inescort), and a comic spinster (Mary Snell), and you have plenty of material for a fifty- nine minute quickie.Director D. Ross Lederman ensures that his camera keeps moving up and down the staircases and from room to room; this fast pace seems ideal for a film with more than its share of implausibilities, no more so than at the end, when a final plot-twist reveals that we, the viewers, have been hoodwinked just as much as the Inspector. But it really doesn't matter: the film's primary purpose is to provide a showcase for a gallery of British eccentrics, even down to the mustachioed police constable (Charles Irwin), who averts his eyes to anything potentially salacious.

blanche-2 Shadows on the Stairs is a B mystery film from Warners and, despite some of the British accents, it was filmed in Hollywood on the Warners lot. It's a light mystery that probably was just what the Brits needed as war was raging.Based on a Broadway play produced in 1929, the story concerns a boarding house, the Armitage, where a murder takes place. The victim is one Joe Reynolds (Paul Cavanagh), who was up to something no good with another lodger, Ram Singh (Turhan Bey) and also having a clandestine relationship with Mrs. Stella Armitage (Frieda Inescourt) herself.Ram Singh, we learn, is a patriot attempting to free India from the British. His group is to get $500,000 British pounds with Joe's help, but Joe is a racketeer.Mrs. Armitage is a wreck about Joe's business affairs and lets him know she's determined to put a stop to them. Little does she know that her husband Tom (Miles Mander) saw her and Reynolds embracing. So he's another suspect, right along with Stella and Ram Singh.Other characters include a recently fired maid, Lucy (Phyllis Barry) who was also involved with Joe. The only ones who don't seem involved are the Armitage's daughter, Sylvia (Heather Angel), and a playwright (Bruce Lester) who is in love with her. Then there's the spinster, Phoebe Martin Saint John Snell (Mary Field).With a second murder, the problem becomes even more difficult to figure out for the inspector.And the denouement will surprise you.Very well done mystery that will bring a smile to your face. The acting is delightful, with the exception perhaps of Frieda Inescourt, who seems to be playing to the last row of the National Theatre.An unusual film for Warner Brothers, but entertaining just the same.

csteidler Nearly everyone has something to hide in the London lodging house that is the setting of this enjoyable thriller. Even the young writer (Bruce Lester) who is a central character is not what he seems—posing as aspiring but not yet successful, he is in fact (we learn early on) an already popular playwright living incognito in a setting that he thinks will provide him with material for his next work….a thriller. The other lodgers are embroiled in various political intrigues, secret relationships, and hidden resentments and jealousies. Plot elements include a knife hidden inside a bedpost; a heavy box of something mysterious; figures coming and going at odd hours, including one whose face is hidden beneath a shawl; and a portable chess board and pieces. Also worth noting: the characters all seem familiar with the play "Charley's Aunt" when it is mentioned.The one character who has no secrets, no suspicions, is the young woman (Heather Angel) who naturally takes a special interest in the young writer; to her, the house is just a home and "A mouse in the pantry's the most exciting thing that's happened around here since I can remember." Mary Field is excellent as Phoebe St. John Snell, the chatty single lady who has a vivid imagination. Mystery purists may not like the cute ending scene; personally, I found it rather charming. Overall, it's a fun little picture—plenty of plot (but not too much) packed into 61 minutes.

Terrell-4 This old-dark-house movie...well, old-dark-boarding-house movie...is a lot of fun. If you're willing to accept that it's dated and the acting is clunky, you'll be rewarded with something either suspicious, threatening or violent going on almost every minute, with genteel accents by the main characters plus a twist at the end that should have you smiling. In London in 1937 the Armitage rooming house is run by Mrs. Stella Armitage (Frieda Inescort) with help from the maid (Phyllis Barry) and from her daughter, Sylvia (Heather Angel). Her husband, Tom Armitage (Miles Mander), is an older, distracted man who concentrates on solving chess puzzles. Among the roomers is a mysterious young man from India, Ram Singh (Turhan Bey); a smooth older man, Joe Reynolds (Paul Cavanaugh), who seems to know Mrs. Armitage rather well; a handsome writer, Hugh Bromilow (Bruce Lister), who is keeping something secret and who has eyes for Sylvia; and a talkative spinster, Miss Phoebe Snell (Mary Field), who loves describing her romantic dreams at length to anyone who'll listen. Right at the start we learn that there is some sort of skullduggery that involves Ram Singh, Joe Reynolds and a heavy chest Singh spirits into his room from the foggy London docks. The last character is the rooming house itself, a three story dwelling filled with heavy furniture and dark corners, balustrades and carved oaken doors, dim lamps and pots of aspidistra. The movie is only one hour and five minutes long. In those 65 minutes we have murder, suicide, presumed adultery, corpses, disappearing lodgers, locked rooms, smuggled gold, a creeping specter with a shawl over its head, comic bobbies and bemused inspectors, threats and counter threats...and young love. Frieda Inescort does a fine job. She has a young face, a matron's body and an overwrought acting style that can move as fast as a snake from hysteria to barking out orders like a drill sergeant. Paul Cavanaugh is a practiced hand at playing doubtful smoothies. He and his pencil mustache are always amusing to watch. Turhan Bey, in his first movie, was only 19. He has a handsome, baby face, a mellow voice and a surprising amount of gravitas. He's also a dab hand at throwing a knife. Bey became something of an exotic star in the Forties, but saw his career fade away in the Fifties. He returned to Turkey, became a prosperous commercial photographer, then began playing television character parts in Hollywood during the Nineties. Shadows on the Stairs, especially with that unexpected ending, is more of a romantic/ comedy mystery than an old dark house scarum. For two first-rate old dark house movies you should see the 1927 version of The Cat and the Canary and 1932's The Old Dark House. The latter was directed by James Whale and has fine performances by, among others, Boris Karloff, Melvin Douglas and, especially, Ernest Thesiger. He is one of the Femm family, and a stranger bunch of siblings speaking some of the ripest dialogue there never has been since. Says Rebecca, the Femm sister, "They were all godless here. They used to bring their women here -- brazen, lolling creatures in silks and satins. They filled the house with laughter and sin, laughter and sin. And if I ever went down among them, my own father and brothers, they would tell me to go away and pray, and I prayed -- and left them with their lustful red and white women." Now that's a family in an old dark house to avoid.