The Black Abbot

A rather silly British comedy-mystery that takes place in an old mansion & an adjoining monastery which is supposedly haunted by the Black Abbot. There is too much talk (often in the form of isolated, stagy vignettes, & too little plot. Some of the smaller roles are juicier than the major roles. For example, the parts of Aunt Mary (played by Drusilla Wills) & the maid (played by an unknown actress who keeps wiping her nose) are well done.

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.

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.

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.

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.