Hollywood was still enamoured with the German cinema - even in this little Action Pictures thriller from 1932. An eerie corpse lies in a candlelit room, outside a storm rages and all is presided over by movie's most sinister housekeeper - Martha Mattox. Meanwhile whisperings are going on between wheelchair bound Robert Earlton (Sheldon Lewis) and his menacing hireling Hanns (Mischa Auer).
Ruth (Vera Reynolds) has arrived from Europe to learn her father is dead. She is due to inherit the estate, that is, if she lives - if not, it will all come to her Uncle Robert. From the interesting beginning, quite clearly derived from "The Cat and the Canary", the film suffers from massive doses of over acting, Lewis pointedly exclaiming "If only I were not so HELPLESS" and "If only I could WALK" with plenty of shots of Hann's rolling eyes and Ruth saying every ten minutes "Oh Ted, take me away from here"!! Through it all is the maddening screams of Yogi, the ape, caged in the cellar, which is a bit of a problem as it is supposed to possess superhuman strength and be bitterly unforgiving of those that have taunted it but when you finally see it, it is only a chimpanzee and because of all the jungle films around at the time in which chimps were cute and funny, Yogi just doesn't convince.
There is also a family secret which Hanns is forever on the point of revealing, especially when he realises that he and his mother, Mrs. Krug, were not that well provided for in the will. Ruth's fiancée, Dr. Clayton (handsome Rex Lease) is also staying there and he is convinced Ruth's hysterics are real and the whole mystery has something to do with the myriad of secret tunnels in the house that Ruth says confused her as a child. Unfortunately another red herring as the viewers see none of the subterranean passages. When Mrs. Krug is murdered it is obvious Ruth was the intended victim and Clayton is determined to get to the bottom of Robert's affliction. I just love the way, in these old chillers, two o'clock in the morning is no deterrent to performing an examination to see if Robert really is wheelchair bound or only "putting it on"!!!
There is some awful racist humour involving Exodus (Sleep 'N Eat, which is the name Willie Best originally went by), including a joke about being descended from apes!!! Also Vera Reynolds, a former Cecil B. DeMille star who had seen better days, to me seemed a bit too matronly to be the innocent and easily excitable heroine.
Ruth (Vera Reynolds) has arrived from Europe to learn her father is dead. She is due to inherit the estate, that is, if she lives - if not, it will all come to her Uncle Robert. From the interesting beginning, quite clearly derived from "The Cat and the Canary", the film suffers from massive doses of over acting, Lewis pointedly exclaiming "If only I were not so HELPLESS" and "If only I could WALK" with plenty of shots of Hann's rolling eyes and Ruth saying every ten minutes "Oh Ted, take me away from here"!! Through it all is the maddening screams of Yogi, the ape, caged in the cellar, which is a bit of a problem as it is supposed to possess superhuman strength and be bitterly unforgiving of those that have taunted it but when you finally see it, it is only a chimpanzee and because of all the jungle films around at the time in which chimps were cute and funny, Yogi just doesn't convince.
There is also a family secret which Hanns is forever on the point of revealing, especially when he realises that he and his mother, Mrs. Krug, were not that well provided for in the will. Ruth's fiancée, Dr. Clayton (handsome Rex Lease) is also staying there and he is convinced Ruth's hysterics are real and the whole mystery has something to do with the myriad of secret tunnels in the house that Ruth says confused her as a child. Unfortunately another red herring as the viewers see none of the subterranean passages. When Mrs. Krug is murdered it is obvious Ruth was the intended victim and Clayton is determined to get to the bottom of Robert's affliction. I just love the way, in these old chillers, two o'clock in the morning is no deterrent to performing an examination to see if Robert really is wheelchair bound or only "putting it on"!!!
There is some awful racist humour involving Exodus (Sleep 'N Eat, which is the name Willie Best originally went by), including a joke about being descended from apes!!! Also Vera Reynolds, a former Cecil B. DeMille star who had seen better days, to me seemed a bit too matronly to be the innocent and easily excitable heroine.