Konterr Brilliant and touching

Murphy Howard 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.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Leofwine_draca 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!

Coventry One would expect a collaboration between the American director William Castle and the British production studios Hammer to result in a terrific must-see film, considering they were both horror genre giants in their respective continents during the early sixties. Castle became world famous and appreciated thanks to his morbidly themed but nevertheless light-headed Gothic horror spectacles ("House on Haunted Hill", "Mr. Sardonicus", "13 Ghosts"…), and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Hammer studios boomed with the gruesome re-imaging of the legendary Universal classics from the thirties ("Dracula", "The Mummy", "Frankenstein"…). Knowing this, "The Old Dark House" seems to be the ideal marriage, since it's more or less a remake of the underrated 1932 Universal masterpiece and a great opportunity for a director like Castle to showcase his creativity. Strangely enough, however, the film is somewhat of a disappointment and it's only rescued from inglorious mediocrity thanks to a handful of nice gags and an entertaining final act; including a surprising plot-twist and an exciting race against the clock – literally! The rest of the film clumsily bounces back and forth between talkative mystery and immature comedy. Please don't get me wrong, "The Old Dark House" is never boring and I still prefer it over most of the soulless horror junk being released nowadays, but I simply expected a little bit more… American car salesman Tom Penderel drives out to the god-forsaken British countryside in order to deliver a car at the request of his odd pal Caspar Femm. The two share an apartment, but they never see each other since Caspar always mysteriously vanishes before midnight. When he arrives at the sinister Femm country estate, he learns that all the eccentric family members are obliged to stay at the house and gather at midnight, or otherwise they lose the rights to their part of the inheritance of their notorious ancestor (a pirate). Synchronous with Tom's arrival, the family members are being killed off one by one. Tom should leave while, but he fell for the charming cousin Cecily and the remaining Femms suspect him to be the killer. "The Old Dark House" begins delightfully, with animated opening credits by none other than Charles Addams – the creator of the immortal blackly comical series "The Addams Family – and brings forward several great Gothic aspects, like a moody old castle and never-ending thunderstorms. Some of the supportive characters are also uniquely bizarre, like the crazy uncle who's building an arc or the grandmother that doesn't stop knitting, but overall the film isn't absurd or spooky enough. The actual "horror" footage in the film is limited, a few inventive death scenes and a laughably inept moment with a stuffed hyena.

AaronCapenBanner William Castle directed this remake, co-produced with Hammer Studios, of the 1932 original directed by James Whale, which had starred Boris Karloff and Charles Laughton. Based on the novel by J.B. Priestly, this version casts Tom Poston as Tom Penderil, an American car salesman in England who is invited to a castle inhabited by the eccentric Femm Family, who are also reclusive. There is a strain of madness and murder in this home, and Tom may not make it out alive... Dreadful and instantly forgettable film is far too reliant on unfunny comedy, poorly executed, with bizarre and ineffectual horror. A complete and total waste of time. Watch the original instead!

horrorfilmx Although supposedly a remake of the James Whale film (and the J. B. Priestley book on which it's based) William Castle's OLD DARK HOUSE really has nothing in common with either except the titular domicile and a few character names. This movie starts out very promisingly, with Charles Addams' delightful credits complimented by Benjamin Frankel's lovely score, both eerie and lyrical. The opening scenes remind one of the darker Ealing comedies (KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, THE LADYKILLERS), what with the great cast of British character actors led by the wonderful Robert Morley, and the production values are up to the usual Hammer standard. Then about halfway through, starting with the scene where Tom Poston is "menaced" by a stuffed hyena, the movie goes downhill and never recovers. Now, I understand the difficulties of making a movie with limited resources but how anyone ever thought they could pass off this refugee from a taxidermist's as a real animal boggles the mind. And the Ark sequence, while promising in concept, is very badly executed. The miniature work is just too obvious to pass muster and the interior of the ark looks like it was shot at a broken down zoo somewhere, with little effort made to transform it into a boat interior. And so it goes, right down the toilet. A big disappointment.