Brilliant and touching

Better Late Then Never

Absolutely brilliant

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Ah, you've got to love Tod Slaughter. As far as I can see, this English actor was pretty much forgotten for decades but has now rightfully been rediscovered in large part because of the glories of the internet and public domain DVD collections. It's via these two channels in particular that the great man has now become known to fans of movies from the less seen corners of cinema history. Slaughter made a number of British melodramas back in the day where he played a succession of utterly evil cads whose actions were totally immoral. Slaughter's performances in these movies were always the best things about them and it is only right that he is slowly receiving praise and fans many decades down the line.Crimes at the Dark House is another typical Slaughter offering. In it he plays another nasty bit of work called Sir Henry Glyde, who not only is a serial murderer but who also replaces his wealthy wife with a look-a-like from the local asylum! He begins the story as he means to go on by entering a tent and hammering a spike into a sleeping man's head! He takes on this unfortunate individual's persona and travels to his estate in order to claim his huge inheritance, only to discover a pile of debts instead of a pile of loot. He then coerces a very young wealthy woman to be his bride, in order to ultimately claim her money.This one is essentially business as usual for Slaughter. Again, he is on fine form in another boo! hiss! performance of quality ham. His actions are utterly deplorable of course but he ultimately meets a suitably macabre end which is as it should be. I personally wouldn't put this in the upper bracket of his films; it's more serviceable than especially good. But it's still one that should certainly be seen by any fan of this awesome old school actor!

I was surprised by this film. The featured review currently showing on IMDb for "Crimes at the Dark House" gave it a 10 and they obviously loved it. However, I found the film was pretty bad--mostly due to lots of very broad acting. No, perhaps BAD acting is what I should have said, as the acting is clearly from the Snidely Whiplash school of over-acting.The film begins on a grisly but exciting note. In Australia, a man receives a letter that he's just inherited an estate--and his 'friend' kills him and takes the letter--planning on impersonating the beneficiary. Once in England, the fake heir learns that his grand estate is mortgaged and in debt...but there is some good news. It seems that a rich neighbor had betrothed his daughter to the heir--and once he marries the unsuspecting lady, he can pay off his debts and live the life of a country squire. However, problems arise and once again, the new lord of the manor needs to kill to keep his secret.Tod Slaughter (great name) played the heir, Sir Perceval, with as much subtlety as Jerry Lewis or Pee Wee Herman. With mustache-twirling, bombastic over-annunciations and bluster, he's downright funny...though the film is meant to be a scary mystery-suspense film! Most of the rest of the actors are either adequate or bad--with no performance that rose above the crappy script. The script lacks subtlety as well--with too many very obvious moments and clichés. And, needless to say, with such bad acting, the direction was also quite horrid.The bottom line is that the film has an interesting IDEA but does nothing with it. A bad film that could have been worth seeing had the folks associated with the production been even semi-competent.

The Wilkie Collins novel "The Woman in White" has been made into several films, a TV miniseries, and a Broadway musical by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. In this 1940 version, it's pretty much the same story, but acted in a somewhat over the top manner by Tod Slaughter, who plays an impersonator of Sir Percival Glyde after he kills the real Glyde.Even though it's a short film, this movie seemed endless as Glyde gleefully kills anyone who stands in the way of the money from his alliance with Laurie Fairlie.The rest of the acting is okay; Hay Petrie plays Isidore Fosco, and he's a small man, nothing at all like Sydney Greenstreet. Not having read the original novel, I don't know how much this veers from it, but it definitely veers from other versions.If the entire film had been done in a tongue in cheek manner, it would have been one thing, but everyone played it straight except Slaughter.

I have to admit to having never seen a Tod Slaughter movie. What a great screen presence. What an absolute cad. He is the consummate conniver and master of perversity. He kills a man in Australia and takes over his identity. He becomes the Lord of the Manor and runs the household on his own rancid terms. He gets a servant girl pregnant. He marries a local landowner's daughter and does anything to get his hands on the money available to him. There are some wonderful performances, especially that of Hay Petrie, the great sniveling character actor. He consorts with Slaughter with hopes of getting some of the money himself. There are convenient murders and acts of desperation. Through it all, Slaughter laughs at the suffering of others. There is only one person in his world.