The Old Dark House (1932) | James Whale

Thursday, October 17, 2019 - 7:00pm
a woman bites her nails in horror as a hand reaches out from behind her

The Old Dark House
(James Whale, 1932, 75 min, USA, B&W, DCP)

Presented in a dazzling restoration, this Pre-Code horror classic gives creepy-house conventions a wild and unpredictable spin, laced with black humor, sexual perversity, and expressive stylistic flourishes. The plot details a group of travelers seeking shelter from the pounding rain in a creepy old mansion inhabited by the Femm family. You know what comes next… Directed by James Whale  and starring Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, and Boris Karloff. 

"Whale mixes a quasi-realistic atmosphere (his monsters are decidedly human, his guests ever so civilized) with high Hollywood Gothic: a tremendous thunderstorm, swirling roads, and the eerie house with its Chinese-box series of horrors." - Pacific Film Archive

"The greatest of all horror films. Nothing better in this vein has ever been done, before or since." - Classics of the Horror Film

Sponsored by the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI).

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Screen/Society screenings are free and open to the public.

Parking Info:  https://artscenter.duke.edu/parking/

Rubenstein Arts Center, Film Theater