Tonight on MeTV- we invite you to join a group of unexpected visitors and a very weird family within an ancient unlit domicile! All end up stranded in this rundown mansion- along with a sinister servant and a mystery hidden up on the top floor. There’s more danger than just the inclement weather that makes a deadly trap out of “The Old Dark House”! This is the original version from 1932 featuring the great Boris Karloff helping to provide the chilling atmosphere that made the title of this film a common descriptive term in film classification.
Philip and Margaret Waverton and their wisecracking pal Roger Penderel drive along a road in the Welsh countryside during a violent thunderstorm-a road that appears to be getting flooded and washed out by the rain. Amidst deep puddles and fallen trees, they finally admit they are lost-but are lucky(?!) enough to see an old mansion where they might stop for shelter and to regain their bearings. Their first experience there is a frightening encounter with a hulking mute butler ,and once inside, they meet the owners, Horace Femm, an eccentric old fellow, and his even more eccentric sister Rebecca, who would rather the visitors not stay around at all. However, with the storm only getting worse, she relents and allows them to stay in the house- while constantly complaining about them! They are warned that the mute butler they encountered, Morgan, has a tendency to drink- and become very violent. Quite the welcome!
Rebecca fills young Margaret in on the family history- claiming her ancestors were godless and sinful- and she actually accuses poor Margaret of being the same. She also warns that her 102 year old father still resides in the mansion-somewhere.
With this less than cheery atmosphere, the entire group sits down to dinner- which is interrupted by the arrival of a couple more unexpected visitors- Sir William Porterhouse and his chorus girl companion Gladys Ducane. These two new additions, boisterous and a little silly, join the dinner party (listen for the line “Have a potato,” which this film is known for!) After their starchy meal, they all sit by the fireplace, where more stories are told-encouraging Penderel and Gladys to sneak out to the car for a nip of some alcohol he has there!
Meanwhile, the storm causes the power to go out! Philip is asked to go upstairs and fetch an oil lamp- yet, for some reason, Horace seems deathly afraid to accompany him. Could it have something to do with the fact that there is a locked room up there, and another from which an odd voice can be heard?
While Margaret is alone downstairs, the now drunk Morgan stumbles in, with evil intent! Meanwhile, Gladys, out drinking by the car with Penderel, reveals that she and Porterhouse are only platonic friends-hence, it looks like Penderel and the chorus girl are becoming a couple! Back inside the house, secrets are revealed-courtesy of the aged father Sir Roderick Femm- and new dangers, as well as old ones like Morgan, provide life-threatening horrors to the trapped visitors!
This film, directed by James Whale, is indeed where the genre of film known as an “old dark house” story got that name- and you can see the similarities that were adapted by later movies in that vein. It was considered a lost film for a long time, having had the rights to the novel it is based on lost by Universal, which forced them to remove it from distribution- but we’ll explain how the film was restored, as well as running down the amazing cast, including Karloff, Gloria Stuart, Charles Laughton, Melvin Douglas and Ernest Thesiger- the memorable Dr. Pretorious of “Bride of Frankenstein”. We will also reveal a somewhat obvious “secret” about the cast member playing the ancient Sir Roderick ( please- no spoilers)! You’ll be invited to a new, very specialized restaurant, and get visits from a questionable real estate agent you may have seen on MeTV. We’ll also present a song, a vintage bit with a hard-boiled suspect, and another look at some past Flashback Weekend festivities.
“The Old Dark House” opens its doors on the MeTV airwaves tonight at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time. You are invited to join the multitudes live-Tweeting during the show on Twitter/X - just use the hashtag #svengoolie. Our Chicago area viewers get to meet up with Boris Karloff one more time in “The Invisible Ray” at 11 am on CW26.
More Sven merchandise is on the way- including the great new Svengoolie lunchbox from Toynk! Take a look at it at toynk.com ! Of course, you will find all the Sven merchandise in the MeTV Mall, including the Sven bumper stickers- the favorite seems to be the “No Personal Checks” one! Just click on the “store” tab on our website.
Tonight, we invite you to spend the evening with some bad eggs-and several potatoes- in “The Old Dark House” on MeTV!
4571 Comments
I've spent decades being an anxiety ridden tool. And quite the Richard😋.
I'm better now.
Wish you all the best.
Looking out toward the street through dining room window Looking out the back door.
Won't happen again. Be well and safe😃
Here’s what we’re gonna need soon ~
💙 Be safe ~ Love Yinz ❄️_❄️
Do that now on a $70+k Lexus, you're buying glass.
In my USAF years ('78-'82) I bought a California Bug, with a really built 2.0l motor. The custom exhaust allowed no heat. That car was just as cold as my Mom's, albeit much quicker and twitchier.
Upshot? Live in a cold climate, leave the Beetles to Cali.😁
The German engineers designed an engine that would operate in North Africa and in Russian winters without special treatment. The Beetle functions very well when maintained and operated as designed. But as they say, “your mileage may vary.”
Looking forward to your comments on Sven's pick "Evil of Frankenstein". Gotta tell ya, I LOVE films from Hammer Studios, and not for the "heaving bosoms"!
Archetypical '70s horror, Christopher Lee v Peter Cushing, the best horror actors EVER.
I was 8yoa when my folks took me to the drive-in to see "Dracula Has Risen From The Grave".
I never recovered. I own every Hammer film I can buy, have bots looking, gots books, magazines, promo stuff from Hammer.
"You pray, you're the priest"! As Dracula blasts the coffin lid off.
Dad said: "If you have nightmares, you stay in your room."
Two weeks later, Dad said: "Son, can't you give this vampire s**t a rest?"
Never have. Hammer Films RULE.
I'll die (probably) on this hill, Svenfriends... I'm a Hammer fan😁
Not all monsters are imaginary
Lampreys go back 350 million years.
Somebody should do a movie.
Since eels and lampreys are very different, I don’t think the eel scene in _The Tin Drum_ counts.
Lobster food, that’s interesting.
I remember when Mom and Dad stopped spending December and January in Florida because winters in Tennessee weren't that severe.
🥶🥶🥶
Happy Birthday Edgar 🥳
Did anyone have trouble charging their EV or lose battery power due to the colder weather.
Photo is a scene from Leave The World Behind.
Tesla has built one of the most aggressive and quickest cars ever in the Plaid. Don't use it to commute. The 3? Same. Better plan on 150 miles instead of 290- source? Work with a 3 owner, car club bro modifies them. And the S as well.
Ernest Thesiger as Violet Banks, Curate, and other characters
Palace Theatre, Manchester, 17 March 1925
“You will also see Thesiger, who made a wonderful success as the Dauphin in St Joan, and now gets a much bigger salary for pretending to be a lady undressing for bed.”
—Bernard Shaw, letter to Siegfried Trebitsch
“The most comical thing in the revue is the Vicarage Garden Party on the lines of a musical comedy, with Miss Hermione Baddeley giving a clever and cruel burlesque of Nellie, the heroine, and Mr. Ernest Thesiger and Mr. Douglas Byng, as two clergymen, singing the funniest number of the evening.”
—_The Era_, 9 May 1925
Even Clergymen Are Naughty Now And Then
by Noel Coward
Vicar - Douglas Byng
Curate - Ernest Thesiger
Verse I
People have a wrong idea of Members of the Cloth;
It’s really an enjoyable profession.
And though we don’t indulge in much frivolity and froth
We really haven’t cause for much depression.
Our lives are full of jollity and gaiety and fun,
With christenings and funerals and such,
There’s not a week goes by
In which someone doesn’t die,
So we really mustn’t grumble very much.
Refrain I
When we wake up in the morning and the birds are trilling
There is something thrilling
In the air;
CURATE:I can feel my pulses starting
As I struggle with my parting,
And my thoughts go gaily darting
Here and there.
When we visit village invalids on New Year’s Day
We’re really just as gay
As other men;
VICAR:Mrs Jones whom I was chaffing
Had a fit and died from laughing.
BOTH:Even clergymen are naughty
Now and then.
Verse 2
VICAR: The villagers will never disregard a festive cause
To join in any humble sale or raffle,
And every Christmas evening I appear as Santa Claus,
A good disguise which never fails to baffle.
A whist drive in the Parish Room
Could only be described
As a positively brilliant affair.
And when old Mrs Meyer
Gives a picnic for the choir
It’s really almost more than we can bear.
Refrain 2
BOTH:When we wake up in the morning and the weather’s bad
We’re really always glad
To be alive.
VICAR:With a faithful repetition
Of our family tradition
Every year a new addition
Will arrive.
BOTH:Though we fill the cup of duty to the very brim
Ideas may sometimes swim
Into our ken.
CURATE:When our thoughts are most volcanic
We remember in our panic
Even clergymen are naughty
Now and then.
