House of Mystery

In the 1930's there seemed to be three types of poverty row films that were made over and over again: (1) mystery films, (2) old dark house movies, (3) films featuring men in gorilla suits. The makers of House of Mystery evidently came to the natural conclusion that all of these elements should be combined together. In fact, along with films such as The Gorilla and Son of Ingagi, this film was part of a very specific sub-genre that can best be described as 'Gorilla Hiding in a House' movies.

Comedian Harry Enfield did a funny sketch once where the Arsenal football team of the 1990's played the one from the 1930's. The latter team's tactics were to kick the ball and then chase after it in a large group. Funnily enough, this is exactly what happens in these old dark house mysteries from the 30's. In them a large group of people move from room to room en mass trying to get to the bottom of some mystery or other. From a 21st century stand-point I don't think we will ever truly understand why so many films were made involving large groups of people moving from room to room in houses with hidden passageways, moving paintings and, well, men in gorilla suits. But, they sure made a lot of them in the 30's, so audiences must've liked them I guess.

In this one an immoral adventurer kills a sacred monkey in India. Once back in the USA, he gathers a group of investors together to give them the chance to obtain a fortune in gems from the Hindu temple. But naturally, things are not what they seem.

Like pretty much all of these types of movies this one is nothing great. It's creaky and obvious most of the time with only the killer gorilla providing anything in the way of thrills. I can't really recommend it exactly but if you've seem a few of these types of movies, well, this one is more of the same I suppose.

Years ago fortune hunter ran a foul of an Indian cult. Now years later he calls together the backers of his trip to try and make amends and to make right what happened.

Or so he says.

Actually there's more going on here than meets the eye, not to mention a potentially murderous gorilla.

This is a very good, completely unremarkable and completely forgettable movie that is probably destined to end up lost in your memory. I know I have a hell of a hard time remembering which movie this is every time I run across it in my movie collection. I have to put it on to see what it is and more times than not I'll leave it on. Its not one that I actively search out to watch, even though I've seen it numerous times.

Should you get the chance, you might want to give it a try, just don't expect to remember it in the morning.

House of Mystery (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

An adventurer kills a sacred monkey and soon a curse is put on him. He returns to America and his share holders want their money but before he returns it they must stay a week in his mansion where all sorts of strange things are going on. This is yet another "old dark house" film with another mystery and another deadly gorilla. As I've said countless times before, I'm really not sure why everyone of these films had to have a gorilla in it but I guess people in the 30s were terrified of them. The cast of characters are pretty varied and fun including a nerdy professor and his pushy wife. There's some light comedy thrown in that works as well but the film mainly tries to work its mystery and it does so to a nice effect. I think the screenplay is rather good and I enjoyed how they added in the curse of the monkey. The gorilla outfit doesn't look too bad but then again I might be saying this because I've seen some really bad ones out there. Clay Clement does a very good job in the lead and the supporting cast is fine.

From the time I was a small child, watching our first TV set, I was intrigued by the movies of the 30's and 40's featuring men in gorilla suits. We were to take them seriously (my favorite was the one in the Laurel and Hardy movie in Switzerland). Here we have the standard mystery with the central character a boorish man who supposedly has a curse on him. He has done shameless things in a foreign country in the past, and now decides to meet his investors a mansion to pay them their rightful earnings from their investments. It is a cast of the usual buffoons where several are murdered. Still it is quite a bit of fun.

The theme is nice and supernatural, nearly but it's a murder mystery. I didn't expect there to be comedy too. I found the film in the first half hour interesting but the second was silly. The policemen were comics and it became too over the top daft. I like old films but this one was just not my kind of thing. The ending felt rushed and I wanted to see a bit more to round it off.