USA, 1932
"For those rebellious, here their prison ordained
In utter darkness, and their portion set
As far removed from God and light of heav'n
As from the center thrice to th' utmost pole
O how unlike the place from whence they fell...
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire"
- Milton, Paradise Lost
Saul Femm: "And Saul loved David...but Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him, and was departed from Saul. And it came to pass on the morrow that an evil spirit came upon Saul and he prophesied in the midst of the house."
Amid the black comedy and genre clichés, it is easy to overlook the melancholy heart of the Femm family and their old, dark house. Theirs is a story not of madness, but disinheritance. One could watch the entire film through the lense of Calvin's "limited atonement" - this is a family trapped outside the grace of God.
Can a person (or a family) be not among the elect and aware of their own damnation? I know nothing of Calvin's position toward the consciously damned, but in "The Old Dark House," director James Whale (who was always cutting at organized religion) takes Calvin to his logical conclusions.
"The Old Dark House" begins with the horror cliché of innocent travelers lost in a storm. They enter the Femm mansion to escape landslides and floods, only to find a harsher storm within. But here the film abandons conventional horror and gets more interesting. The Femms aren't merely frightening: they're full of fear and despair, as lost as their guests and just as weary. What's more, their plight is religious in nature.
In terms of religion, "The Old Dark House" sets itself apart from James Whale's other horror films. In "The Invisible Man" and the "Frankenstein" films, religious norms and sensibilities are ignored by headstrong protagonists. The result is usually disastrous, but the films never quite endorse the broken norms - Dr. Frankenstein may have created a monster, but we don't leave the film thinking, "The Bible-thumpers were right after all...some things are meant for God alone!" If anything, we retain the cynicism of Dr. Pretorius, who sneeringly reminds Frankenstein (encouraging him to create a female monster), "Follow the lead of nature - or God, if you like your Bible stories: Male and female created He them."Dr. Pretorius is played by Ernest Thesiger, who plays Horace Femm in "Old Dark House." Like Pretorius, he is a cynic, but unlike Pretorius, his cynicism is feeble and quickly silenced by Rebecca Femm's Puritanical quips. When Horace serves dinner without saying grace, the nearly deaf Rebecca exclaims...
Horace: "Oh...I have forgotten my sister's strange tribal habits. The beef will seem less tough when she has invoked a blessing upon it."
Rebecca: "If I can't hear, I can see: you're blaspheming!"
Horace: "On the contrary my dear Rebecca, I was merely telling your wandering guests that you were about to thank your gods for their bounty..."
Rebecca: "That'll do! I know your mocking, lying tongue."
Horace: "...to thank them for the health and prosperity and happiness granted to this family. For its years of peace and plenty..."
Horace's sarcasm is hard to miss - this is a miserable family. But nothing Horace says can deter Rebecca's judgment, and she particularly relishes any hint of weakness in her cynical brother. When a storm wreaks havoc on the Welsh countryside, three weary travelers make their way to the Femm villa in typical horror-film fashion. Rebecca is reluctant to let the outsiders in, but they protest: the storm has resulted in landslides, and the roads are flooded. Rebecca: "You're afraid, Horace. You're afraid, aren't you? You don't believe in God and yet you're afraid to die. You see His anger in the sky and you've heard Him in the night, and you're afraid - afraid - afraid! Where's your mocking now? You would well be afraid...your time will come!"
Horace's godlessness is not as pronounced as he wishes it to seem, and Rebecca's piety seems too pronounced to be sincere. Religious quacks are common in horror films, but her religiosity is not the horror film sort. Upstairs, the androgynous 102-year old patriarch, Sir Roderick Femm, is confined to bed. Sir Roderick is played by Elspeth Dudgeon, a British actress. Her scene is among the creepiest in the film, and is very sexually suggestive (James Whale, a homosexual, was fond of such scenes, and here seems to be invoking the traditional view of sexual sin).
Further upstairs is Saul Femm, the pyromaniac brother of Rebecca and Horace. All members of the Femm family regard Saul with horror - especially Sir Roderick, who describes Saul as hopelessly insane. It is said that Saul once tried to burn the house down, and would try again if ever he escaped his room. Only the resident non-Femm, Morgan the butler (played by Boris Karloff), seems kindly disposed toward Saul. When Morgan gets drunk, he releases Saul from his room.
Saul is the most interesting member of the Femm clan. He has neither the godlessness of Horace nor the piety of Rebecca. When he arrives (late in the film), he recites the story of his Biblical namesake, King Saul. He believes his siblings are responsible for the death of their other sister, who died when she was only 21. Her death seems to have transformed the Femms' lives; they were once light-hearted gaiety, but now live in gloom and doom. Rebecca has no sympathy for her dead sister, whom she considered a sinful disgrace. Horace doesn't even speak of her. Many allusions are made to the Femms' bygone days of happiness. Even Rebecca, who harshly condemns her family's sinful ways, seems to miss happier times. Saul's fascination with King Saul is in keeping with the film's overall tone: like Saul, this family once enjoyed God's favor, and like Saul, they have fallen into disarray and madness. Indeed, "The Old Dark House" is one of the best portrayals of familial madness ever committed to film.
What's more interesting is the familial nature of the Femms' madness. Everyone in the house seems to be mourning a lost time, a lost connection to God. Rebecca's false piety and Horace's false godlessness both underline a deeper state of despair, a profound anguish, at having lost their souls to darkness. Saul is the most sane (despite his strange pyromania), and accurately identifies his lot with that of King Saul's.
Many have criticized "The Old Dark House" for its break from genre convention. They expect it to be a typical horror movie (as if James Whale could make a "typical" horror movie), and are upset when it strays. They focus on narrative blunders and holes in the plot. A reviewer at the Internet Movie Database writes:
Such questions miss the point. This film isn't about a group of travelers who must survive a night at the Femm mansion; that's just the landscape of a deeper story. This film is about a family who have survived a miserable lifetime with each other, and who see nothing in their future that looks any better.
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Note: There is another interpretation of "The Old Dark House" that takes the King Saul parallel even further. One can view the film as an indictment against God, because God favors those beloved (like David) over the "little men" (like Saul, who is described as "little" not in stature but in character and persona). There's a scene involving one of the travelers who, while telling a story about his dead wife, seems to take on a "Saul-persona" (this character also vies with the character Penderel, who is clearly identified as the "David character," over a woman's heart). Such an interpretation makes many scenes in the film more interesting.
For more on "The Old Dark House," visit this overview of James Whale's career, and read the reviews by Dave Sindelar of SciFilms.com and Pam Grady of Reel.com.
