House of Mystery (1934)

Brilliant and touching

An Exercise In Nonsense

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Copyright 15 May 1934 by Monogram Pictures Corp. A Paul Malvern Production. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 30 March 1934. 62 minutes. NOTES: Only film appearance of bandleader and radio personality, Ed Lowry. COMMENT: Here's an odd one. This version follows the stage play fairly closely, despite a quarter-hour of opening out with a Prologue in a Poverty Row India and a scene in a lawyer's office. The name of the play, however, has been changed. On the other hand, when Monogram re-made the property under its original title, The Ape, in 1940, the story was altered beyond recognition. Both versions were directed in a fairly humdrum style by William Nigh. Despite this lack of creativity, the original play retains a moderate amount of interest here, thanks largely to a few thrills in the plot and a lot of fairly amusing comedy relief. The players also rise to the occasion, particularly Harry Bradley as a wonderfully dotty professor of Egyptology and Mary Foy as his sharp-tongued harridan of a wife. I also enjoyed the gloriously exotic Joyzelle Joyner, who has at least two wonderful scenes and two superb changes of costume. Ed Lowry does okay by the brash insurance salesman hero, though way outclassed by lovely Verna Hillie's attractive feminine lead. Alas, Clay Clement overdoes the villain and Brandon Hurst disappoints as the chief priest. Irving Bacon's flamboyantly dumb detective also fails to distinguish himself, as does "Gabby" Hayes as a surprisingly dull gambler. As for the ape, this creature is no clone of Kong, but an obvious stunt man in a moldy gorilla suit.

"The mansion of a retired adventurer is the scene of some mysterious happenings, all apparently caused by the 'Curse of Kali'. The authorities and the adventurer's relatives all end up caught in the middle of these bizarre events, with plenty of suspicious characters to choose from. It's going to take some clever detective work to uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. The film begins in 1913 Asia, where the Hindu curse begins. Twenty years later, this connects with a group of investors gathering at a spooky old mansion, to collect their share of the Hindi's treasure. Supposedly, the Hindu curse resurfaces, claiming the lives of greedy treasure-seekers. The curse manifests itself as a stuffed gorilla (first seen in 1913 Asia) seems to come alive, and kill people. "Pocahontas" is somehow involved. Honest Injun. *** House of Mystery (3/30/34) William Nigh ~ Clay Clement, Ed Lowry, Verna Hillie

House of Mystery (1934) ** 1/2 (out of 4) An adventurer kills a sacred monkey and soon a curse is put on him. He returns to America and his share holders want their money but before he returns it they must stay a week in his mansion where all sorts of strange things are going on. This is yet another "old dark house" film with another mystery and another deadly gorilla. As I've said countless times before, I'm really not sure why everyone of these films had to have a gorilla in it but I guess people in the 30s were terrified of them. The cast of characters are pretty varied and fun including a nerdy professor and his pushy wife. There's some light comedy thrown in that works as well but the film mainly tries to work its mystery and it does so to a nice effect. I think the screenplay is rather good and I enjoyed how they added in the curse of the monkey. The gorilla outfit doesn't look too bad but then again I might be saying this because I've seen some really bad ones out there. Clay Clement does a very good job in the lead and the supporting cast is fine.

House of Mystery is ok as a 1934 mystery movie with a respectful dose of comedy thrown in. I was hoping for something a little scarier but that never came about. As a mystery, I thought it was below average but the strange and often comedic characters did keep things interesting. The movie doesn't drag or bog down, but that may be in large part to the fact that the film is only 62 minutes long. It never really met my expectations but had enough going for it that it managed to keep my interest. My impression of this movie is that it was just an ok movie, nothing special, but certainly not bad. If you see it, I think you might get some enjoyment out of it, but if you don't see it, you're really not missing too much. A respectable but forgettable 30s mystery movie.