Captain Applejack

I'm watching this antique Old Dark House mystery on TCM right now and it quickly became evident to me that the film, its first silent incarnation ("Strangers In The Night") or the play it was adapted from were the first kernel of inspiration for Belgian comic book artist Hergé (Georges Rémi)'s "Secret of the Unicorn" and its sequel "The Treasure of Rackham the Red" (1943-1944). More proof that a large part of the inspiration for Hergé's melodramatic adventures were from sometimes second-rate Hollywood movies and plots that were very creaky to begin with. What he did with them of course was sheer genius and entirely original. But the basic idea was this: An ordinary man discovers that he is the descendant and inheritor of a famous pirate's treasure hidden somewhere in an old house. In the process, he has flashbacks of being the pirate himself, which is just what happens to Captain Haddock in those comic books.

Of course, not all of Hergé's inspirations were "second-rate". One might also reflect on the similarity of the ending of Sacha Guitry's "Les Perles de la Couronne" (The Pearls of the Crown, 1936, finally available on DVD in the US) and the ending of Hergé's "L'Oreille cassée" (The Broken Ear, published as a serial starting in 1935 and ending in 1937).

Rich, old guy ambrose is used to his routine. During a terrble storm, madame valeska asks for refuge from the weather, and from a dangerous spy who is chasing after her. But when ambrose goes to call the po-po, he falls under valeska's spell, and decides not to call the coppers. Even when more interlopers show up! Clairvoyants and general riff raff suddenly appear, but they are really there to look for hidden treasure. They all seem to come and go, without being questioned. Will ambrose put a stop to these burglars? A sixty three minute shortie from associated artists. Directed by hobart henley. Story by walter hackett. This has the feel that it started as a play.....the sound quality is pretty bad, and the fact that there is a storm raging in the background for most of the film doesn't help. It's all just okay. A bit tedious. It was probably more interesting back in the day, but it's pretty dated at this point.

It's the House of Applejohn on the storm-battered English coast. Ambrose is the last of the Applejohns and intends to sell the house that has been in the family for a hundred years. His ward Poppy Faire has an unrequited crush on him. Aunt Agatha is beside herself over the sale. Madame Anna Valeska comes out of a stormy night seeking shelter from the murderous Ivan Borolsky. Psychic Horace Pengard and Kate Pengard show up secretly looking for something inside the house.

It is a pre-Code American comedy. With the constant storm noises, this is set up for a spooky horror thriller. Instead, everybody is doing crazy accents and there are sexual shenanigans. It turns into a Scooby-Doo treasure hunt and then a pirate movie. This loses me during the unnecessary pirate section. The stormy night does feel like a play. I can see this being funnier even when they start doing the chasing around.

There was in the 1920s on stage and the 1930s in the movies a genre of 'Old Dark House' shows, so-called for the J.B. Priestley novel of the same name. Priestley's novel was eventually made into a wonderful movie by James Whale with some great stars playing people with ordinary problems who are forced to take shelter from the storm in an ancient house inhabited by lunatics.

But what, this movie asks, do you do if you live in an ancient house, you are bored out of your mind and a horde of lunatics descends on you during a storm? Well, you have this movie, which is quite all right, although not a patch on Whale's movie, being hampered a bit by competent but not great actors, stagy direction and a plot which distracts you from the potentially interesting performances. Definitely worth a look, but you won't be coming back for a second show.

THE STORY & GENRE -- Aristocratic home holds secret pirate's treasure which brings forth crooks. Not genre.

THE VERDICT -- Brisk and zany comedy, grade bumped up a notch for love of the ward (Mary Brian). Also some pre-code naughtiness. 6.5.

FREE ONLINE -- Yes, foreign websites from a TCM broadcast, 63 minutes.