During the 1930's there was an endless line of "old dark house" thriller produced by every major and minor company in the movie business. Most are about the same thing. This one is a notch above a lot of them in presentation.
The plot revolves around an American who inherits a manor in the UK and sets out to take control of it as soon as possible.
Leslie Fenton plays the hapless American named Barry Wilding who discovers that the estate he has inherited in being occupied by some very odd people who keep telling him he is not welcome there. He and a detective friend named Tom Starr (Sidney Blackmer) investigate.
They find the shady dealings going on within the estate reach clear to the top of Scotland Yard and beyond. Just what is going on in the old estate?
There are many, many plot threads in this well crafted little film and it never slows down. The pace of the film sets is way apart from many others of its kind.
I really enjoyed watching this and found everyone involved to be very believable in their characters and the directing was spot on. Those chores were handled by Roland D. Reed who went on to produce the "Rocky Jones..Space Ranger" series in the early to mid 50's.
If you like ODH mysteries, you will probably enjoy this well crafted little film, and I bet you can't guess the ending either. It's a bizarre one indeed.
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