The Black Abbot

"Ghosts indeed! Servant's talk!" Crooks use the legend of the ghostly Black Abbot at an old mansion near London in order to kidnap its rich owner. In fact there is a former monastery that adjoins the large house - Old Monk's Hall, "It's 'aunted!" The legend says that the old wing of The Grange is haunted by the Black Abbot, who was said to have dabbled in Black Magic. This is a "quota quickie", it runs a mere 56 minutes but even that felt somewhat stretched for what is a very basic plot. Two characters, a gardener and a maid, not only add a comical element but they are obviously there to pad out the run time too. He is constantly talking about his small rare plant (a Saxifrage) and she keeps talking about her heavy cold in a very bunged up sounding nasally voice, this soon wears very thin and they were hardly funny in the first place. Made in 1934 the English spoken is all very jolly, old chap! Indeed, seeing the old fashions and motor cars (Austin) was rather splendid too! It is very talky and with most of the characters being situated in the same areas this looks more like a stage play than a movie set. As a horror fan I found the ghostly Abbot wandering around the grounds and the old building itself to be atmospheric. The plot, well nothing much to say really other than decades later it could have been used as an episode for "Scooby Doo". To top things off there is a silly shootout in the dark at the end. I had never heard of this British film before, despite its age the print that the excellent Talking Pictures TV screened was of a good quality. Worth a look.

This is a comedy of its day that isn't what I'd call as funny today. It's got its gags that would have caused a titter or two but it's mainly the individual characters that help it along, not that it really did move along. I don't want to criticise it as there were a few things that were uttered that made me laugh. For one, I like the maid in it; there's one scene she's telling her fella about her last master who came to the kitchen & offered to 'butter me parsnips!' It made me laugh.

There's a very pretty lady, Judy Kelly, her eyebrows are so thin, I thought that she must've painted them on. I don't see women today, with similar brows although the shapes have changed in nearly a hundred years.

A gang of dodgy crooks use the legend of The Black Abbott to hide a crime.

Zero action, it's like a stage play, it's sixty minutes of dialogue, some of it good, some of it really dreary. It's amusing in parts, arguably thanks to two characters in particular.

Mary Hillcrist was a funny character, so quirky and eccentric, Drusilla Wills certainly had charisma, best of all though, The Maid and her runny nose, she stole it for me, she was so amusing.

The plot is non existent, it's almost as if a group of actors were given a few loose threads, and told to play out a scenario to the best of their abilities. When The End finally appears, you'll be scratching your head trying to work out what it was all about.

It looks decent, it's full of atmosphere, and for 1934, it's a really clean looking film.

5/10.

A slight but entertaining quota quickie in which a group of stereotypical upper-class types gather in an old mansion when the owner is kidnapped and held to ransom. The working class comic relief prevent things from being too serious.

This is one of those British quota quickies in which the only name I recognize is cinematographer Ernest Palmer. It starts out with John Stuart getting engaged to Judy Kelly, some talk about the household ghost, the Black Abbot, then Miss Kelly's father is kidnapped.

It's a lesser variety of the British Locked Room mystery, with silly-ass humor and servants canoodling each other. Palmer's camera-work is wonderful -- lots of moving shots --but the performances are all over the shop, indicating that director George Cooper either couldn't afford to hire decent actors for the smaller roles, or couldn't direct actors for beans. At 54 minutes it's bearable, but I won't be revisiting.