What classics did you see last week ? (9Feb - 15 Feb 2020)

My dad kindly gave me 3 discs as presents,one of which was this set:



Birthday viewing:



The Old Dark House (1963) 8

Oddly suffering a similar fate to the original, (which the studio tried to destroy all copies of, so only the remake would survive)in Hammer and Columbia dumping the movie, (it came out in a black and white version in the US,then thrown out 3 years later in the UK with a heavily cut edition) and Castle not mentioning the title once in his autobiography,Indicator stage a huge re-evaluation, presenting 3 cuts of the film with crystal clear image and sound, backed by fascinating extras including a new Kim Newman and Stephen Jones commentary,all tied up with a detailed booklet.

Walking down the stairs towards the camera gazing at her figure,Fenella Fielding gives a magnetic performance as Morgana, whose bright chic costumes stand out on the screen, as Fielding layers Gothic glamour with a tempting ambiguity over Morgana's true warmth towards Penderel.

Whilst Tom Poston is a bit too meek as Penderel, the other guests turn this place into a fun house, with Peter Bull bringing out the Gothic chills in Jasper's startled face, Robert Morley whipping up stern shocks as Rod,and Janette Scott keeping Penderel on a knife edge to the bumps in the night within the house. Lashing the windows with the same opening rainfall as the original, director William Castle & regular Hammer Horror cinematographer Arthur Grant ignite a explosive coalition between Castle's flamboyance, and the sparkling Gothic of Hammer Horror. Opening the house more to laughs than chills, Castle unlocks each door with terrific rolling whip-pans finding every hidden corner in the house, which becomes lit in ruby reds, as the Femm's slither round the house.

Having worked with Castle,and Hammer before, the screenplay by Robert Dillon neatly blends the two styles, where in the era of Hammer "remakes" of classic Universal Horror's,Dillon tastefully pays tribute to the original with bookends, whilst refreshingly making the contents of the house its own thing. Entering with Penderel as a outsider, Dillon turns the screws on the mystery of the femm family with a delightfully dark comedic slap-stick needling a growing body count with unsettling quirks each family member holds within the old dark house.