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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Saturday, October 5, 2013

Haunted House (1940)

Starring Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, George Cleveland, Christian Rub, Henry Hall
Directed by Robert F. McGowan
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A pair of teenagers try to find evidence to clear a kindly handyman convicted of murder, but their efforts keep getting them into trouble.

Earnest performances from Moran and Jones are the best asset of this small-town murder mystery from low-budget Monogram Pictures, which despite its title, does not actually feature a haunted house.   The young leads are cute together, and surrounded by a good cast of character actors, but one actor's performance as a Chinese restaurant owner comes off as an offensive stereotype.  Nevertheless, there's enough good-natured fun here to make this an amiable time-passer, and I'd therefore rank this film as one of Monogram's better productions.

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