The Old Dark House was the first teaming of director James Whale and the remarkable Ernest Thesiger, a duo who would later bring such camp mastery to The Bride of Frankenstein.  Whilst not in itself being the first ‘old dark house’ film, it certainly spawned the label for this particular sub-genre.  The Cat and the Canary, And Then There Were None and The Bat Whispers, would all follow its example, and William Castle would directly remake the film for Hammer in 1962, prompting this assessment from LH:

          ‘A travesty which… possesses no merit of its own.’

The Old Dark House was the first American film to feature Charles Laughton, who would become a major star the following year, winning an Oscar for The Private Life of Henry VIII, and later appearing in such classics as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Rembrandt.

Year: 1932