I started and stopped the THE GHOST WALKS (1934) over the course of several nights before making it to the end: my work-weary brain couldn't keep track of all the reversals, reveals, and red herrings. It's the Platonic ideal of Old Dark House movies, with all the requisite elements (secret passageways, portraits with moving eyes, thunderclaps and sudden shrieks). Johnny Arthur is aces as an extremely high-strung theatrical type. #1930s #Movies #Mystery #OldDarkHouse #OldMovies

I have a case of The Mondays (don't you?) and need to lift my spirits with a stodgy Old Dark House movie at the day's close. I've decided: it's gonna be THE BAT WHISPERS (1930), Roland West's sound remake of his earlier THE BAT (1926), both based on the Mary Roberts Rihehart source novel. Chester Morris and Una Merkel have fun, and as with the earlier adaptation, there's plenty of proto-Batman imagery to admire. #1930s #Movies #OldDarkHouse #OldMovies

I have a case of The Mondays (don't you?) and need to lift my spirits with a stodgy Old Dark House movie at the day's close. I've decided: it's gonna be THE BAT WHISPERS (1930), Roland West's sound remake of his earlier THE BAT (1926), both based on the Mary Roberts Rihehart source novel. Chester Morris and Una Merkel have fun, and as with the earlier adaptation, there's plenty of proto-Batman imagery to admire. #1930s #Movies #OldDarkHouse #OldMovies

I have a case of The Mondays (don't you?) and need to lift my spirits with a stodgy Old Dark House movie at the day's close. I've decided: it's gonna be THE BAT WHISPERS (1930), Roland West's sound remake of his earlier THE BAT (1926), both based on the Mary Roberts Rihehart mystery novel. Chester Morris and Una Merkel have fun, and as with the earlier adaptation, there's plenty of proto-Batman imagery to admire. #1930s #Movies #OldDarkHouse #OldMovies

Tonight's filmic oddity: THE PHANTOM OF CRESTWOOD, a borderline Old Dark House movie from 1932 featuring Ricardo Cortez, Karen Morley, and an unusual gimmick (the solution to the plot's mystery was apparently provided by the winner of a "write our movie's ending!" contest). I probably would have wrapped it all up differently. #1930s #OldDarkHouse #OldMovies

Now that Halloween (as much as I love it) has passed, I can return to watching hokey, low-budget 1930s mysteries. As opposed to hokey, low-budget 1930s monster movies. #OldMovies #OldDarkHouse