Escaped maniac murderer Milton Parsons makes his way to sister Cecil Cunningham's home, where she makes him the butler. Then she assembles her relatives, arranges for nephew Frank Wilcox to inject her with something which will make her appear to be dead, but can be reversed. When the relatives gather for the reading of her will, they discover that half goes to her secretary, Elisabeth Fraser; a quarter goes to Wilcox; the rest she has converted to cash and bonds and hidden. Good luck finding it in the house, which is liberally set up with hidden passages, paintings with moving eyes, and traps that can be triggered to plunge the victim to a watery grave. Plus Parsons dresses up in a cloak and threatens houseboy Willie Best, who's afraid of ghosts.
It's based on a stage play by Rufus King, and I can't tell whether it's a serious story about the insane done ineptly, or a comedy played so straight that there's nothing risible in it. Best is the only obvious comic around, and he's given the Black-man-scared-of-ghosts role to play. Given that the Old Dark House show has always had a strong streak of comedy in it, I have to conclude that this attempt to turn it into an outright farce misses the fun of such movies. How can you mock something that doesn't take itself seriously? With Craig Stevens, Julie Bishop, and Monte Blue.
It's based on a stage play by Rufus King, and I can't tell whether it's a serious story about the insane done ineptly, or a comedy played so straight that there's nothing risible in it. Best is the only obvious comic around, and he's given the Black-man-scared-of-ghosts role to play. Given that the Old Dark House show has always had a strong streak of comedy in it, I have to conclude that this attempt to turn it into an outright farce misses the fun of such movies. How can you mock something that doesn't take itself seriously? With Craig Stevens, Julie Bishop, and Monte Blue.