O Terror

As to whom can roll their eyes most.This is a typical Edgar Eallace thriller with a rather predictable plot and climax.A good cast helps make this entertaining.

People who complain about the predictability of this film miss the quality. Just as with a sonnet you can expect a number of lines and syllables, and some occasional tweaking of the language to fit, so you can expect style and structure fitting a well rehearsed pattern. You have the gothic mansion, a former monastery, with secret doors and passages, an organ playing in the night (no one operating the bellows) and a detached but eerie chapel. The place is a guest house/ private house with a staff including Irene Handel as kitchen maid, Kathleen Harrison as the house maid playing the sorts of parts they played for decades. There is a lost £300,000 in stolen gold, two gaolbirds who, after ten years, waaant to recover it, and get the organiser of the gang who betrayed them. Star turns are Alistair Sim as a crook disguised as a dotty vicar, and James Bond's 'M' as a serial drunk. A number of murders and the melodramatic denouement complete the early 20th century stage play, transferred to film. The style of acting reminds us that several of the performers were already on stage when Victoria died, and the elocution and style were necessary to project across large audiences before sound films came along. The formula for a stage play is all there, including the expected 'crisis'. Worth a watch.

This is the story of a spectacular gold coin robbery carried off by three men. Once its over, the mastermind, a man named O'Shea, turns his pals in and they go to prison vowing to get revenge when they get out. Ten years later they get out and go looking for O'Shea, and the gold, which has never turned up. At this point the film shifts gears to the happenings in and around an old monastery, now turned into a semi-boarding house. Strange people begin showing up, ghostly happenings begin occurring and finally people begin dying...

From the pen of Edgar Wallace comes a fantastical little murder mystery that's very witty and breezy and a great deal of fun. Certainly its better than the long series of German films from the 1960's that strung Wallace's books together to make a continuing series by never having the villain caught, who became a pseudo-Mabuse super villain.

While the mystery is good, the best part of this film is the acting. What a joy it is to see Bernard Lee, years before Bond, playing a lead. You really get the sense of what his range was. There's Arthur Wontner who several years earlier had played Sherlock Holmes. And of course Alastair Sim bringing a smile to your face as one of the crooks. There are others in the cast, all of which you've probably seen before but never knew their names, and who are equally good.

This is a movie to seek out on DVD, since its one that will certainly give you a good night's entertainment.

It is the wit and self-mockery of this splendid little minor comedy-thriller that lifts it out of the pack of 30s quota quickies. A very standard Edgar Wallace plot, with a mysterious hidden mastermind, a ghostly monk, a damsel in distress and a houseful of assorted weirdies is turned into a beautifully characterised and choreographed ballet of murder with a nick o' time climax. Another comment complains about the clichés - of course it is clichéd, but that is the point, it is playing with them.

What brings this to life are the splendid performances. Linden Travers as the spooked girl, John Turnbull as ever the solid copper, Arthur Wontner as the tortured father (or 'deddeh', as his daughter calls him), and Iris Hoey as the psychic lady of a 'certain age' are all on good form. Richard 'Stinker' Murdoch in his second proper film catches the eye and steals all his scenes despite only being there to serve a running gag; it is obvious he will become a star. Wilfred Lawson (top-billed and shortly to achieve immortality as Mr Doolittle in Leslie Howard's Pygmalion) serves up several slices of lovely ripe ham.

But the stars of the show are obvious. A brilliant comedy drunk act by Bernard Lee gives a hint of his range, which may not be obvious to those familiar only with his work in the Bond films. But Alistair Sim takes over every film in which he features, and this is no exception. As the master of disguise Soapy Marks, he manages to play the gamut from the driven revenge maniac to the the fluffy comedy vicar. He could make you laugh out loud at the beginning of a scene, and send a shiver up your spine at the end of it.

Three men steal £300,000 in gold by staging a robbery. Two of them are caught and sentenced to 10 years each in prison while the criminal mastermind escapes with the fortune. Upon their release both men seek their share. From the pen of Edgar Wallace this is a crime thriller/drama but with added horror elements, the latter being what attracted me to watching it. Much of the film takes place at creaky Monk's Hall Priory. There is a monks tomb in the grounds, at night organ music can be heard and a ghostly, hooded figure seen. Insanity also plays a part. It is rather delightfully acted and fans of 1930's movies won't be disappointed. Through in some humour, a decent final reveal and a dash of romance and you get a fairly enjoyable 70 minutes.