Old Dark House, The (1963) – Nostalgia Central

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This spoof remake of the 1932 Boris Karloff horror thriller (based on a novel by JB Priestley), was produced by the legendary Hammer Studios and stars Tom Poston as timid young Tom Penderel, an American living in London, where he sells cars.

He is invited by his eccentric millionaire flatmate, Casper Femm (Peter Bull), to his family’s country home, to deliver the new car he has just bought from Tom.

He accepts reluctantly on a dark and stormy night but finds Casper murdered in the old dark house, which he shared with weapons collector Roderick Femm (Robert Morley).

Also living in the house are other members of the Femm family: Casper’s knitting-obsessed mother, Agatha (Joyce Grenfell); his twin brother, Jasper (also played by Peter Bull); Potiphar Femm (Mervyn Johns), who races about like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland and is obsessed with the impending end of the world (he has been building an Ark for 20 years); two young cousins, sweet Cecily (Janette Scott) and slinky Morgana (Fenella Fielding) – both of whom are attracted to Tom – and Morgana’s overprotective and psychotic father, Morgan Femm (Danny Green), who would willingly murder the American for even looking at his daughter.

Agatha, Jasper and Roderick are then brutally murdered an hour apart, on the hour.

Cousins, aunts and uncles are pushed off the roof, brained with a poker, shot with a blunderbus, and ventilated with knitting needles.

One after another the corpses are stacked in the library.

Suspected of murder and, simultaneously, the victim (and unsuspecting survivor) of various homicidal traps, Tom tries to unearth the real killer in time to prevent total destruction of the old dark house and its few survivors.

And so he finds himself running around the grounds in his underdrawers, getting stuck in a bog, and falling several times through a trap door while being chased by a club-wielding madman.

The mansion is so liberally outfitted with traps and pitfalls, in fact, it’s no wonder the residents are a little dotty.

Wash basins are filled with acid, gloved hands grope out of the woodwork, clocks are rigged with dynamite, and there’s an endless supply of fresh coffins in the basement for those unwary enough to be caught off guard.

Like many Hammer films, most exterior filming took place at Oakley Court in Berkshire.

The movie was filmed in Eastmancolor but released in cinemas in black and white. Colour prints were later made available when the film aired on television.

Tom Penderel
Tom Poston
Roderick Femm
Robert Morley
Cecily Femm
Janette Scott
Agatha Femm
Joyce Grenfell
Potiphar Femm
Mervyn Johns
Morgana Femm
Fenella Fielding
Casper Femm/Jasper Femm
Peter Bull
Morgan Femm
Danny Green
Club Receptionist
John Harvey