The House of Secrets

An American, who has inherited a stately British house, travels to the UK to take ownership of his new estate. What he finds though, are a group of shady individuals living in it, who are seemingly up to no good. Our hero then tries to get to the bottom of this mysterious situation.

House of Secrets is another in the seemingly endless cycle of 30's mystery films. I found it all-in-all to be one of the more enjoyable ones, as there are quite a few plot threads going on, so the film never drags. When it comes to old creaky Poverty Row movies you do have to keep your expectations in check, as these old flicks do have definite limitations. This one does have many of the deficits of these pictures – flat dialogue, a lack of suspense and a ridiculous plot – but it at least tries to keep us entertained throughout with plenty of characters and plot avenues. So overall, as these films go, this one's not too bad at all.

The wise-cracking Leslie Fenton (as "Barry") sounds quite a bit like James Cagney in his gangster days. The lovely Muriel Evans (as "Julie") looks quite a bit like Jean Harlow. The movie is not a true "Old Dark House" movie, because it doesn't have some of the elements required to qualify, but there is an old dark house, a hidden treasure, & lots of mystery. "House of Secrets" is interesting, the dialog is snappy with lots of current day (copyright 1936) slang, the acting is good, the sets are dark & spooky, & there are a few neat sub-plots (one involving Chicago mobsters). What drags this movie down a bit is the redundancy. I couldn't count the number of times Barry asks "What's going on?" & Julie (among many others) replies "I can't tell you." Although I was eventually able to guess the ending, it was difficult to figure out, & fun meanwhile. I rate it 6/10.

I like the Chesterfield stable of 1930s mysteries which is where this one hails from. This film is a modest affair but it does have an out and out mystery thing going for it.

An American man finds he has inherited a property in England but he is barred from entering it from the outset. He's unable to trust anyone as he is sold all sorts of information about this old country house. He doesn't know if the Hawk's Nest manor is already occupied by a bunch of crooks or a bunch of cranks. There are all kinds of mystery ingredients to the story which include a 300 year old manuscript and scientific experiments and a couple of big mysterious cellars.

There are no characters that immediately spring out. My favorite is the friend of the American inheritor. A fellow American man called Tom who is solidly played by Sidney Blackmer. He got to play the lead in a later mystery called 'The Panther's Claw' (1942) which I recommend to genre fans.

Some of the dialog is fairly good. I like the posters for this film especially the green ghoulish one that has the Hawk's Nest in the background. As expected the critical rating by the film general viewer is never going to be that great for this one. But I think the typical 1930s B-mystery fan will find it irresistible.

1936's "The House of Secrets" has an interesting story and excellent cast, but unwinds in maddening fashion. Liverpool-born Leslie Fenton ("The Public Enemy") stars as an American in England, who finds his own inherited mansion already occupied by strangers armed with guns. Occasionally we hear wild screams, and there's rumored to be buried treasure, livened up by strong performers such as Sidney Blackmer, Morgan Wallace, Holmes Herbert, and perennial gangster Noel Madison. Love interest is supplied by the comely Muriel Evans, whose career in features never surpassed her extensive career in Hal Roach comedy shorts, working with Laurel and Hardy, Grady Sutton, and especially Charlie Chase (retiring by 1940, she died in 2000). Leslie Fenton had four more acting roles ahead, switching to directing in 1938, piling up an impressive total of 20 features by 1951 (he died in 1978). This was virtually the last gasp for Chesterfield Pictures, an independent outfit responsible for over 100 features over its 11 year lifespan.

The House of Secrets starts with an intriguing shipboard encounter: Leslie Fenton (as Barry) assists Muriel Evans (Julie) escape the unwanted attentions of a stranger. She thanks him nicely—but when he attempts to take a look in her handbag for whatever it was the stranger was after, she—get this—throws the whole bag overboard rather than let him see its contents! Hmm, mysterious.

Not surprisingly, they soon meet again (in a major but not shocking coincidence, she happens to be living at the large estate he has just inherited), and she becomes one of numerous characters determinedly resisting Barry's attempts not only to enter his own property, but to find out what the heck is going on. These characters include practically everyone else in the story—his detective friend, Julie's scientist father, some police and government officials, and a gang of crooks after a hidden treasure.

The plot is fast-moving and fairly intricate, and the dialog is mostly sharp. However, as the story progresses, frustration builds—not only for Barry but for us viewers, who also have no idea why everyone is trying so hard to keep him in the dark. By late in the film, my own sympathies had shifted almost entirely over to the gang of crooks, because at least they were straightforward about what they wanted, which is something you can't say about any of the other characters.

The movie also features an ancient document written in "old English," which means it has some words like "ye" and "olde" in it, that is fun for the gangsters to try and sound out. And an inn landlady offers some entertaining colloquial dialog, like her criticism of her husband's aches and pains: "He calls it rheumatism, but I calls it arthritis. I likes to keep up to date." Nothing is particularly authentic, but hey, I point that out in fun, not as a real quibble with the film. Overall, the dialog is one of this film's quite interesting qualities.

Overall: well done—but maddening.