User Reviews

Good early sound film about a photographer who helps an out of work and destitute dancer. She helps with the business while he tries to get into the spiritualism racket where he thinks big money lies.

Better than I thought it would be film works thanks to the leads, Neil Hamilton and Evelyn Brent. The film is also nicely pre-code with some small bits they could never have gotten away with a few years later. It also scores points for not seeming to have been hampered by the limitations of early sound recording.

I enjoyed it enough that I think it's going to be a film I hand off to friends.

I don't think stars like Evelyn Brent had any choice about the movies they appeared in, in the early days of the talkies. Most stars (with the exception of Greta Garbo) were put into talkies early, regardless of the quality of the movie or the story (usually both were not that great). In fact I think it was almost a sign of your prestige at the studio, as to how early you were "thrown in". Clara Bow made "The Wild Party" in early 1929 - she had been at the peak of her popularity in 1928. Evelyn Brent had made "Interference" in 1928, it was Paramount's first all talkie and one of the year's most popular films. Brent's voice recorded well and she was at the peak of her beauty. The films she made in 1929 alone were very diverse - a comedy, a musical, drawing room drama and sophisticated crime -she may have thought that in "talkies" she was able to show off more of her talent. Neil Hamilton was another star, who, like Conrad Nagel, found his voice in the talkies.

In the early days there seemed to be a fascination for seances and spiritualism ("The Thirteenth Chair") and "Darkened Rooms" a taut little thriller really delivered. It also gave Neil Hamilton his best role since "Beau Geste", as the unsympathetic fake spiritualist.

Emory Jago (Neil Hamilton) runs photographic studio but supplements his income by faking pictures of spirits for the medium (Gale Henry) next door. He wants to get into it full time as he feels he has a special "gift" and he also sees it as easy money. When Ellen (Evelyn Brent), a chorus girl, down on her luck (is there any other kind?) comes to his store to have some photos taken, he offers her a job as his assistant. She doesn't like the phoniness of it but falls in with his schemes because she loves him. He targets a wealthy society girl whose fiancé has been killed in an air crash. Joyce (Doris Hill) has already found someone else - Billy (David Newell) who is helping her pick up the pieces. At the seance, Ellen "channels" the spirit of the dead airman and suddenly Billy (who is really a nice guy) is out in the cold as Joyce starts to deal with hidden emotions. Ellen is horrified at the callous way Emory is playing with people's feelings and enlisting the help of an out of work actor friend, she exposes Emory in a very unusual way.

Neil Hamilton did not sound at ease but the script overcame that by Emory's interest in hypnotism - a lot of the time he sounded as though he was trying to hypnotise people. Doris Hill was definitely a WAMPAS Baby victim. She was made a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1929 and started the year as the female star of "The Studio Murder Mystery" - she ended the year as a supporting player of "Darkened Rooms".

Recommended.