Director: Kurt Neumann
Writers: Erich Philippi, William Hurlbut
Stars: Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Paul Lukas
1 Hour, 6 Minutes
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/366gOMZ
Synopsis
A group of guests gather for a midnight dinner. It’s Irene’s birthday celebration. Irene’s father points out that the three men there don’t love as much as he does. The three young men are all Irene’s suitors.
Frank is a reporter, and Walter is a soldier. Tommy, the youngest of the three, proposes to Irene. Irene then sings to the group. Irene is played by Gloria Stuart, who was both the old lady from “Titanic” and young lady from “The Invisible Man” and “The Old Dark House.”
Frank points out that this is a cold, windy night, just perfect for ghost stories. Tommy brings up the subject of the “Blue Room.” The room’s been locked for twenty years. Irene’s father, Robert, tells them the story about how three people died there. His sister died there. His best friend died there. A detective died in there as well. All three at one o’clock, and all in the same room, and the door was locked from the inside each time.
There’s a knock at the door, and someone the butler recognizes wants in, but the butler tells him to come back later and slams the door on him.
Tommy wants to prove he’s brave. He wants to sleep in the Blue Room that night. He dares the other two to do the same. Frank thinks he can get a story out of it, and Walter just doesn’t want to look like a coward. Paul, the butler, overhears all this and looks shocked. He’s been the keeper of the key for the blue room for all this time.
Paul unlocks the door, and they all go in. It’s Tommy’s night to go first, so the others leave him alone in there. Frank notices Robert’s car driving away after one o’clock.
The next morning, Tommy doesn’t answer. They break in the door, and Tommy’s nowhere to be found. The chauffeur says the car hasn’t been out since yesterday afternoon, but Walter notices there’s mud all over the fender.
Irene goes in the Blue Room, sees a strange man, and faints. Frank says he’ll sleep in there tonight and wait for that man to come back. He takes a six-shooter with him. Suddenly, a shot rings out, and Frank is shot dead, but not by his own gun. A little later, they find a cat in the room, but there’s no way a cat could get in.
Everyone in the household, including the servants, are collected into the blue room. The police asks each of them a few questions. The maid accuses the chauffeur, and she saw him take the car out the night Tommy went missing. She saw a strange man leave the blue room along with Robert before the gunshot went off. Robert says he was in bed at the time, but the inspector also learns that Frank was fully dressed in suit and tie when he met the others in the Blue Room. The maid mentions that she saw Paul flashing a flashlight out the window like a signal after midnight the previous night.
The chauffeur admits he did have the car out, as he was seeing his girlfriend in the next town. That’s why the maid has it in for him, too. The police capture Paul’s secret friend from earlier. He’s the man who attacked Irene and walked out with Robert. The man is Robert’s brother, and is also actually Irene’s father, which no one else knows. Paul the butler is the only other person who knows the truth.
Walter says he’ll sleep in the room tonight. He’ll play bait to see what happens. The inspector grudgingly agrees, but he also has made some plans. A secret door opens behind Walter, and someone shoots him in the head from behind. It turns out that it was a dummy that got shot. There are more shots in the dark as Walter chases down the unseen villain. The inspector finds them both in the tunnels and shoots the perpetrator in the hand.
They all come upstairs into the light. It was Tommy all along. He murdered Frank. He saw this as a way to eliminate the competition for Irene’s love. He found the secret door, and knew he could use it to take advantage of the room’s history. The police take him away, leaving Irene to be with Walter, who looks old enough to be her father.
Commentary
I spotted that the house was the same one used in “The Old Dark House (1932)” from the prior year.
This is more of a mystery than a straight-up horror movie, but it was well done, and I really hadn’t guessed it was Tommy. Like the inspector, I thought it was going to turn out to be Robert’s doing, but that wasn’t the case.
The acting here is mostly good, with the exception of a couple of the servants who played minor roles. We finally get to see Lionel Atwill play something other than a police inspector, and Onslow Stevens, who played Frank, was Doctor Edelmann in House of Dracula. Universal loved reusing the sam actors!
I’d not seen this one before, but even then, it was worthwhile.