The Old Dark House (Whale, 1932): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 4pm
This film, part of the Big Screen Classics strand, is also being shown on 5th, 10th, 25th and 29th August. Details here.
Time Out review:
Alongside The Bride of Frankenstein,
James Whale's greatest film, a masterly mixture of macabre humour and
effectively gripping suspense. A very simple story - a group of
travellers stranded by a storm take shelter in the sinister, unwelcoming
Femm household, a gloomy mansion peopled by maniacs and murderers -
allows Whale to concentrate on quirky characters (Charles Laughton's
brash, boorish Yorkshire mill-owner, blessed with a
near-incomprehensible accent, is particularly delightful) and thick
Gothic atmosphere to stunning effect. But what is perhaps most
remarkable is the way Whale manages to parody the conventions of the
dark house horror genre as he creates them, in which respect the film
remains entirely modern. (Form JB Priestley's novel Benighted.)
Geoff Andrew
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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