The Unholy Night

This very early talkie mystery-thriller was directed by Lionel Barrymore, and is quite well acted and written if one has a taste for old-fashioned melodrama and barnstorming ham. A fascinating period piece, which, if one likes the period, is priceless.

As in have patience AND determination with this one. Lord Montague (Roland Young) is walking through the London fog when someone comes up behind him and attempts to kill him by strangulation. He is found by a cop and brought to Scotland Yard where he learns that five of the members of his old WWI regiment have died by strangulation in the foggy streets of London that very day.

A plan is made by the Yard by which all of the living members of the regiment gather at Montague's estate - in uniform - under the guise of a reunion, in hope of smoking out a killer. Later that night a motive arrives. First, another member of the regiment, Mallory, is found dead in Montague's home. Next a mysterious woman bursts in on the gathering and passes out. Finally, Boris Karloff, as a lawyer, comes to tell the surviving member of the regiment that one member that they sentenced to death for cowardice, but escaped and made a fortune in Asia, has died and plans to punish them all by his will. Half his money he leaves to his daughter - the mysterious woman who burst in (Dorothy Sebastian). The other half is divided among those members of the regiment who survive to the next day when the will is probated. Thus they will have a motive to kill each other in hopes of getting the entire fortune available - one million pounds. That would be like thirty million dollars today. Creepy complications ensue.

The actual story, as it completely plays out, is very clever and morbid. The problem is in the execution. Everybody talks in that early talkie halting speech, sometimes launching into monologues that have nothing to do with what is going on and aren't that interesting to begin with. With some expert editing of dialogue and presentation this thing could have been cut down by at least 20 minutes without losing anything. Dorothy Sebastian surprised me as the exotic girl. For somebody with an almost insurmountable southern accent, she acquitted herself marvelously.

This film with its seances, and people all wondering which one was the murderer somewhat reminded me of "The 13th Chair" made the same year. Strangely enough, the most mysterious character in that film was Bela Lugosi where here it was Boris Karloff, a couple of years before their professional fates intertwine. Recommended for the film history buff.

On a foggy night in London, five men are strangled. Four die but the fifth (Roland Young) escapes. Turns out the men all served together in the same regiment years before. Now Scotland Yard gathers the other men from the regiment together at Young's house to figure out the killer.

Nice old dark house mystery with a creepy pre-credits ghost and effective opening few minutes. This was directed by Lionel Barrymore. He only directed a handful of movies and nothing past 1931. Which is a shame because, if this is any indication, he had talent as a director. It does creak some, being an early talkie, but it's still worth checking out. Boris Karloff has an uncredited part as a Hindu lawyer named Abdul. I love Karloff but this is one of his worst performances. He's so over the top you just have to see it for yourself.

THE UNHOLY NIGHT (aka: GREEN GHOST) is one of the earlier in a long line of "old dark house"-type movies. This time, a thick fog settles over London, and a killer takes advantage of the cover, strangling a number of unwary victims. The scene switches to the obligatory mansion, where a group of soldiers have gathered for a reunion. As often happens in these films, a will is introduced, and a mysterious figure apparently starts murdering them.

It's all fairly enjoyable in a mindless way, but the real highlight is a cameo from Boris Karloff. While his character isn't in it for long, he certainly makes the best of it. He's basically the world's creepiest lawyer. The rest is a silly yarn, but Mr. Karloff is superb...

1929's "The Unholy Night" was one of a handful of features directed by actor Lionel Barrymore, who seems far better at atmospherics than getting decent performances. A London fog is the setting for mayhem, as members of a regiment from the Gallipoli Campaign of World War 1 are targeted for death. The opening finds Scotland Yard working with Lord Montague (Roland Young) to use his home for a reunion that should bring the killer out into the open, and it works; unfortunately, the bodies pile up for over an hour before a solution turns up in a séance conducted by an Oriental mystic (Sojin). The working title, and British, of this early talkie was "The Green Ghost," which might have worked better for an MGM feature, particularly with the uncredited appearance of Boris Karloff as Abdoul Muhammad Bey (related to Ardath Bey?), the Turkish lawyer in love with hysterical Lady Efra Cavender (Dorothy Sebastian). Dorothy was a wonderful actress but she, like Boris, is so over the top that the character cannot be taken seriously, making for a lengthier 94 minutes. Barrymore and Karloff first worked together in 1926's "The Bells," and last did so in 1931's "The Yellow Ticket," but this was the only time Karloff was directed by him. Considering he has two very important scenes, it's a shame Boris was the lone cast member unbilled, but his foreign accent and slow delivery would undoubtedly be better played by Bela Lugosi, who had recently starred in MGM's "The Thirteenth Chair." Having made his talkie debut as a Soudanese servant in Fox's "Behind That Curtain," Karloff remains stuck in ethnic mode, while his broad, unnatural, overly theatrical performing style must be chalked up to bad direction. It was indeed fortunate that his starmaking triumph in "Frankenstein" resulted from his exquisite talent in mime, while the numerous different roles done in between helped him better adapt to sound film, and escape the usual ethnic villain roles he was often saddled with in silents.