Starring Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Lilian Bond, Ernest Thesiger
Directed by James Whale
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
After being caught in a terrible thunderstorm, a quintet of characters seek shelter at the Femm house, whose residents range from eccentric to downright dangerous.
Director James Whale and his star Boris Karloff follow up Frankenstein with this tale of the bizarre Femm family who inhabit a gloomy manor with a fearsome butler (Karloff) and terrible secrets locked away upstairs. However, it's not just a horror movie, although it has its share of screams and shocks, but also possesses romance, quirky humor, and commentary on society and the pursuit of happiness. I've seen the film twice, perhaps three times, and each time discover something new I failed to notice before. This time I was captivated by the visual sequence in which actress Gloria Stuart is tormented by mirror images of the characters she's met that have frightened her most, conveyed by Arthur Edeson's photography and Clarence Kolster's editing. Those coming to the film to see Karloff as another monster will find that, but be left with so much more, and truthfully the picture's most terrifying sequence may be Douglas's climactic meeting with Saul Femm (played by Brember Wills), whose initial meekness hides something far more sinister.
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