speechless ( chinese : 無言 ; pinyin : wu yan ) is a 2012 hong kong — mainland china film , directed by simon chung , about a mute frenchman who is found naked by the banks of a river in wuhan in mainland china .

he is rescued and sent to a local hospital where he is treated by a male nurse who cares for him and later discovers the secrets of his past .

speechless is the third feature film by director simon chung .

his previous films were innocent , released in 2005 , and end of love , in 2009 .

the film premiered at the bfi 26th london lesbian and gay film festival , on 28 march 2012 , and contains brief full-frontal male nudity .

speechless ( 2012 film )

colombian film development production fund ; festival premiers : miami international film festival , cartagena international film festival , atlanta international film festival , santiago international film festival , and others .
breaking glass pictures has annouced today ' s november 27 dvd release of simon chung ' s speechless ( srp $ 24 . 99 ) . speechless is a love story encompassed in a mystery where the past is never left behind , and love can flourish even without words . the film was acquired during the 2012 cannes film market .
speechless is a 2012 hong kong drama about a mute frenchman who is found naked by the banks of a river in wuhan in mainland china . directed by simon chung , the film starred pierre - matthieu vital and qilun gao . urltoken
ibermedia coproduction fund ; malaga international film festival official selection ; santander international film festival official selection ; gramado international film festival official selection .
how did abc’s speechless make life with disability funny ? by hiring the right people .
ecuadorian film development fund ( 2013 ) , ecuadorian film production fund ( 2015 ) , consejo nacional de cinematografía del ecuador .
“speechless” will be shown at 3 pm sunday , june 3 , during the 14th annual filmout san diego lgbt film festival . sdgln and sdpix are sponsoring the movie , which is being co - presented by the san diego asian film festival .
speechless speaks volumes long after it ' s done ,
hailed black sheep reviews . the film screened this year at philadelphia qfest to a packed house , as well as filmout san diego , insideout toronto , and the london lgbt film festival .
simon chung , director of “speechless , ” talks about how he had to make his movie “underground” in china , where homosexuality remains largely taboo .
natalie martinez , best known for her role in the 2012 film end of watch , portrays jess murphy , the grieving mother of young tom murphy and the crawford family’s neighbor . no stranger to television , martinez has starred in shows , including under the dome and csi : ny .
( this won ' t really affect the plot of the second film , but if you went into the film without reading the book , you probably missed this . )
cook made his television acting debut as casey , a cardiac asthmatic patient on abc ' s hit drama grey ' s anatomy , at the age of 9 . in 2012 , he landed the coveted lead role of eddie munster in the 2012 critically acclaimed re - imagining of cult television classic the munsters , called mockingbird lane . while promoting the special , mason made a hilarious appearance as a guest of ellen . and he played the role of sean bean ' s son in the first season of the hit series legends .
the film suffers along with its characters insomuch as the difficulties of communication are not just verbal ones .
last night saw the international premiere of simon chung’s third feature , speechless , at the bfi 26th london lesbian and gay film festival . it’s notable for a chinese film with a gay theme that it was filmed ( and is set on ) the mainland , straying beyond the usually safe boundaries of hong kong island . it’s a film of two halves , beginning as a slow - burning mystery - cum - romance before turning into a love - triangle thriller , but it doesn’t really manage to pull off making those parts into a cohesive whole .
tickets are also being sold for opening night film , the opening night party and the combo pass . click here .
a wife ' s discovery of her husband ' s affairs yields some bloodily violent consequences in lou ye ' s film .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
sdgln : talk about the casting of pierre - matthieu vital as the “speechless” frenchman found naked along a riverbank in rural china , and where you found him ? although he has no dialogue in the first half of the film , later he speaks in flashback scenes . is he fluent in mandarin or was that dubbed ? and what about the casting of the other main characters ?
screened at film festivals , comic cons and art shows nationally and abroad , and has earned over 20 , 000 views on vimeo .
the guy who plays jiang , the hospital aide , is from beijing . his name is gao qilun . i know him from another film he did for a hong kong director a couple of years back , but since then he had not done much acting . i flew to beijing to meet him , but he didn’t want to be in the film at first because was trying to develop another career . and then the job he was waiting for fell through , and he decided to become involved in
speechless .
a collection of queer characters , representations , and sensibilities on film . from queer masterpieces to camp classics , documentaries to romantic comedies , …
remington smith is a working filmmaker and assistant professor of film production at the university of louisville . in 2009 he earned his ma in film studies from the university of edinburgh in 2010 for his thesis ,
unsafe horrors : a critical analysis of horror cinema , torture porn and
, which spurred his eventual interest in pursuing an mfa in film and video production from the university of iowa , which he earned in 2014 .
diego f . bustamante - creative director diego studied filmmaking and cinematography in spain . after that he returned to colombia and founded proyección films . diego directed “speechless” , the first feature film produced by proyeccion films . this is the guy with the ideas ; some of them are a bit crazy , that’s why he is lucky to have two producers who make sense of that wild creativity and transform it into solid entertainment products .
since the film contains homosexual content , the authorities would not have granted permission to shoot , and once it’s made , it would not be able to be shown there officially . hopefully when it comes out on dvd , the people in china could access the film on pirated copies and online .
( editor ' s note : san diego gay & lesbian news will be previewing the 14th annual filmout san diego lgbt film festival , which runs may 30 through june 3 at the historical birch north park theatre . look for q & a interviews with celebrities and directors as well as film reviews . )
the film did a poor job of explaining this through some short video . district 13 comes into play in book 2 and full center in book 3 .
hopefully , those on the cusp of understanding their own sexuality or that of their partners , will see this film before the all too common consequences ruin lives forever . jwr
and the capitol during the film ,
the hunger games
sidestepped a few huge points important to the plot and setup for the subsequent sequel
catching fire .
for the past 8 years , tin has split his time between writing , directing and composing . he originally attended the queensland college of art , studying at the griffith film school in brisbane . in 2008 , tin was accepted in the industry renowned usc / universal producing and directing program , completing a gruelling six weeks of intensive filmmaking and adding a impressive three short films to his reel within the period of time . this led to experience in film development with several different companies in los angeles including color force , dreamworks and vendome pictures . after working on two seasons of the cw’s smallville in vancouver , he returned to sydney as a freelance assistant director and production manager on television and feature films . taking a brief scenic tour into the world of animation , tin worked in script and development at australian animation studio flying bark productions , along with stints in voice direction and voice acting . in 2014 , he completed the short film , the pale moonlight , a neo - noir sci - fi thriller that enjoyed a world premiere at the fantasia international film festival . the short also screened in los angeles at the hollyshorts film festival .  his latest project , the single take stroke awareness short film mother , child , premiered at the 2017 melbourne international film festival and won the 2017 atom award for best short fiction . it has since screened at flickerfest 2018 in sydney , as well as hollyshorts , mammoth film festival and the legacy film festival on aging in the united states .  in 2018 , tin completed a director ' s attachment placement under the guidance and mentorship of renowned director catherine millar on foxtel ' s hit australian drama a place to call home . tin is currently writing his first feature film and developing a short narrative comedy series .
colombian film development production fund ; ecuadorian film development coproduction fund - cncine 2014 ; mejor largometraje documental , sección screenings , bogotá audiovisual market ( bam ) 2015 ; mejor documental , sección nuestra américa , festival internacional de cine documental ciudad de méxico - docsdf en 2015 , mejor documental . festival de cine colombiano de nueva york , estados unidos en 2016 .
that’s what ultimately drew lewin to speechless : its unexpected mix of humor and compassion . “i wouldn’t want to work on a show that made you cringe , but i like to work on a show that almost says the wrong thing on a fairly regular basis . it bangs into political incorrectness , ” lewin says , “and that tickles me . ”
it helps that his director understands him . lewin , 69 , the writer - director of the 2012 critically acclaimed film the sessions , survived boyhood polio and uses crutches to walk . “it’s a real challenge to give the audience a sense of what’s in your mind and what’s developing in your mind when you can’t speak , ” lewin says of working with fowler on the scene . “what i was trying to get out of him was , he was seeing all this stuff laid out and as they see it laid out , he realizes this is all crap , how am i going to sell this ? so i was just trying to get the sense of the idea brewing . ”
before speechless — the abc comedy starring minnie driver and bowie as maya and jimmy , the heads of the dimeo family , raising jj and their two other children in orange county — the australian indie filmmaker’s american tv résumé was limited to one episode each of ally mcbeal and touched by an angel . lewin’s approach to actors is simple : treat each one individually .
however , after leaving the theaters , despite the cheers and praise , we noticed there were five huge plot details missing from the film that need to be addressed in the follow - up .
most of my films have received funding from the hong kong arts development council , but it’s not enough for a feature film . i had to get additional sources of funding , such as dvd rights .
screwed ( orig . pihalla ) is a finnish drama film , where seventeen year olds miku and elias find themselves , and each other , during a summer in the finnish countryside . love is not as easy as it seems .
i didn’t have official permission to film in china , so i just shot it the “underground” way . i shot it in a small city called shantau , and in the northern part of guangdong province in the south of china .
simón beltrán - producer . you’ve probably seen him in a party in cannes , berlin , afm or any other film festival or market . but don’t be fooled , beware because that’s his favourite place to close business deals . simón studied filmmaking in argentina and later joined diego to start proyección films . he holds an mba obtained in madrid and is in charge of the film , production services and commercial projects in the company , a task he shares with juan pablo .
in
catching fire ,
katniss uses her government aid as a scapegoat ( we won ' t say why ) . the film can easily write this point out , but we find it interesting that the main character went deaf at all .
, about a woman who must choose between her job as a bounty hunter or saving a young boy whose parents have been killed by the vampire landlord . this will be his first feature narrative film and is currently raising funds for the project .
it ' s okay . the movie did start off very slow , and by the time you get to the actual point of the plot - that very much drags you in - it ' s been over a hour of you watching this film .
at just 16 years old , mason cook has made quite an impact on film and television , most recently receiving a daytime emmy nomination for outstanding performer in a children ' s series for his guest starring role on the emmy award - winning show the haunting hour .
you wouldn ' t have guessed it from the way the film made it appear ; however , peeta ' s injury was much worse than you thought . it was so bad , the capitol deemed his leg unsaleable , hacked it off and replaced it with an artificial one .
this factor isn ' t as important to the plot line . ( we imagine showing mutilated humans wouldn ' t go over well for a tween film . ) however , if there was ever any doubt of the capitol ' s unyielding power and mercilessness , this certainly provides confirmation .
los angeles — speechless actors john ross bowie and micah fowler are working through a scene for a january episode of the abc comedy on the fox lot . in it , we see jj’s ( fowler ) mischievous side for the first time : during a stop at a crafts fair during a family road trip , somebody mistakenly assumes the dimeos are selling water from their car , which gives jj an idea to peddle off the family’s junk — yoga pants , a curling iron , among other items — out of their truck . impressed by his son’s initiative , the father ( bowie ) and son start conspiring .
as a screenwriter , i was trying out different things with narrative structure , such as how the film shifts gear when luke leaves the hospital , and again when ning appears . also i was playing with different narrative perspectives , such as when ning tells her version of the story , and later on you see things from luke’s perspective .
as i said , we had no permission to shoot . however , for some of the locations , we sought the permission of the relevant authorities , like in the university and the church . for the church we did not tell them about the content of the film , and the love - making segment was added on in post - production .
the guy who plays han , jiang jian , is from guangzhou . aside from acting he also models and is a magician ! the actress who plays ning is yu yung yung . she was born in indonesia , studied in australia , and now lives in hong kong . i saw her in another independent film called
26 happiness road .
speechless opens with a young caucasian man ( pierre - matthieu vital ) found naked by a river in rural china . though seemingly lucid , the man refuses to speak and the police , frustrated in their attempts to ascertain his identity , eventually move him to the local hospital for examination . as the young man settles into the ward , he begins to grow close to jiang ( gao qilun ) , one of the hospital nurses and when the authorities signal their intentions to move their still - silent prisoner to a mental institution , jiang busts him out . together they attempt to unravel the truth about the young man ' s identity and the events that led up to his arrest .
the two chinese characters in my film are both from small towns , and for such people , homosexuality is mostly underground . some may not even be aware of their own sexual desires . of course nowadays with the internet people can read about such things , but it’d be difficult for them to find someone to have sex with , much less a sustained relationship . ( mind you , grindr and facebook are both banned in china . ) perhaps some will have furtive encounters in public baths or toilets , and that’s it . most gay men and women in china have heterosexual marriages , even in big cities . so for han and jiang in my film , they would probably not have acted out their sexuality until they had met luke .
the inspiration for the film came from the “piano man , ” a guy who washed up off the eastern coast of england a few years ago . there was no id on him and he refused to speak , so they took him to a mental hospital . he was given a piano and started playing , and stories became circulating of him being a musical genius who went mad , like the guy in
shine .
in reality he was a gay student from germany who had a mental breakdown . i transplanted the story to china because i wanted to see what would happen to such a character there . the film goes both ways : it is about homosexuality in china from a western perspective , and also about chinese perception of westerners .
juan pablo solano - producer . if you talk with him , i bet you wouldn’t crack his nationality , so just call him citizen of the world . juan pablo , the unique accent man , studied filmmaking in argentina and holds a masters in creative and media enterprises from the university of warwick , england . he manages film , production services and commercial projects in the company .
yes , the two
star - crossed
lovers share a few flames ; however , while peeta honestly is head - over - heels for katniss , she ' s simply along for the ride . for katniss , their romance is purely a survival tactic contrived to keep them both alive . haymitch briefly mentions this after peeta ' s interview in the film ; however , the topic never returns .
while i may regret saying this at some future point in my life , i saw a lot of myself in swanson , the protagonist of this film who , day by day , is trudging through a malaise . not so much the naked debauchery , but definitely the desire to withdraw oneself from feeling . many people see this film as a critique of hipster culture . exposing the popular fallacy of believing that it is better to be above it all . to make a life of understanding the way the game is played , but just choosing not to play . there is definitely some of that peppered in this film , but what i really latched on to was the character study ; one of a man who is obviously capable of empathy and understanding , but seldom exercises either mental process . at first it appears he feels nothing . sitting beside the bed , concerned little with the cancer that is languidly eating away bit by bit at the man who he calls father , he probes the doctor about prolapsed anuses . watching his sister - in - law frantically pace before his eyes , he assumes the role of a southern plantation owner , cracking wise about the good crop of slaves he now has in his possession . yet , aided by a surprisingly subtle but strong performance by absurdist comedian tim heidecker , one can see that he isn ' t incapable of feeling . he simply prefers disaffection . after all , the world can some easily overwhelm you with emotion , so i understand the desire to want to control the sentiment of the room by creating one yourself . there are a lot of parallels to the television show louie . it has the capacity to make you laugh at the absurdity of it all one second , while leaving you speechless with grief the next . it is a recipe that doesn ' t sit well with many . but for those who were looking for this particular dish , even if as a whole it isn ' t perfect , the ingredients are a pleasure to take in .
in the forest near the end of the film ? in the book , katniss makes mention of how the eyes of the mutts look awfully familiar , until she realizes they ' re those of the fallen tributes . yes , the capitol actually made rue , glimmer , thresh and the rest of the bunch into mutated wolves . each ones shares the eyes of its tribute combined with a distinct fur that matches their hair .
fresh from its world premiere at the london film festival , this superior british crime thriller takes place in a shabby english seaside town that has seen better days , but with a plot that addresses much bigger questions of crime and punishment , masculinity and family loyalty . it is faithfully based on conviction , an acclaimed six - part bbc miniseries first broadcast in 2004 , with an all - new cast stepping into the same character roles .
the ending of the film is deliberately ambiguous and raises more questions than it answers about both the characters’ relationships and the relationship between china and the west . luke’s attitude to his relationship with han is different because he’s more relaxed about being gay and it’s as if the fact of luke’s nationality is a deliberate strategy to contrast those attitudes , but also to examine what can happen when cultures with varying degrees of acceptance try to come together .
cook has made a name for himself in feature films as well , having made his theatrical film debut in spy kids 4 : all the time in the world , with jessica alba , joel mchale and jeremy piven . in addition , cook had large supporting roles in two summer feature films of 2013 , including the lone ranger , starring johnny depp , and the incredible burt wonderstone , starring steve carell , jim carrey and olivia wilde .
it didn’t matter . levinson knew reiser would be his rogue element—“a sensibility , a motor , that i knew how to play with . ” he encouraged him to explore off - script riffs like “nuance : it’s not a real word … ” or “you don’t chew your food ; that’s why you get so irritable . you get lumps … you have roast beef in your heart that just stays there . ” by the end , reiser had so hijacked the patter that levinson had him serve as the movie’s literal final word , layering reiser - dominated banter over the closing credits—another nuanced touch that hollywood had yet to employ—and closing the story with his unscripted wedding speech . and as reiser spiels on , the camera follows in slow motion the bouquet tossed by eddie’s unseen bride until it drops onto the guys’ table . they freeze , staring , so stunned by the idea of marriage that it leaves them speechless .
bowie , who also has a recurring role on the big bang theory , remembers hearing about speechless during pilot season from actors who thought the subject matter was too risky . “this is either going to be really , really sentimental or it’s going to be really tasteless , ” bowie recalled of the chatter about the show . “i thought to myself , okay , what if it’s neither , or what if it’s a decent balance of both ? wouldn’t that be a show i’d want to watch ? ” then he read the script and caught onto the show’s dark sense of humor . “really early on in the script there’s a moment where ray calls jj a bully , ” he recalls . “i’ve never seen a kid who uses a wheelchair called a bully . i really wanted in . ” when bowie met fowler and realized playing with nonverbal cues would become a cornerstone of the comedy , he readily welcomed the challenge .
the movie makes it out to seem like katniss drops the act and slowly warms up to peeta . this is partially true ; however , in the book the reader is constantly aware of katniss ' true feelings toward peeta . she believes the entire romance an elaborate scheme that even peeta knows about . the film fails to show peeta discover katniss faked every hug , kiss and smile—for the most part—and that the idea of a relationship outside of the games is nothing more than a pipedream .
visually , the film looks as moody and gloomy as the plot , with a stylishly washed - out color palette of grainy browns and rainy - day grays . most interior scenes take place inside large wood - panelled offices and ancient , rambling , cluttered houses . this calculated aesthetic feels oddly retro and anachronistic for a contemporary drama , with a faintly 1970s sense of moral decline mirrored in urban decay . if this noir - ish family saga were a us remake , it might resemble one of james gray’s brooding manhattan melodramas about battling brothers , or clint eastwood ’s morally murky mystic river .
juliette lewis , best known for her oscar - nominated performance as danielle bowden in cape fear , was most recently seen in the academy award - nominated film , august : osage county . hailed as one of the most talented actors in the industry , the versatile actress has entertained audiences with her countless roles , including what ' s eating gilbert grape , the basketball diaries , from dusk till dawn , the other sister , old school , and whip it . in secrets and lies , lewis plays detective andrea cornell , the county’s top homicide detective determined to catch 5 - year - old tom murphy’s killer .
but , at heart , diner is , as i love you , man director john hamburg says , “the cadillac of male - bonding movies , ” and no one has tapped that vein better in recent years than director judd apatow . with the 40 - year - old virgin and knocked up , apatow was credited with creating the “bromance , ” one of the few genres capable of luring the increasingly elusive male audience into theaters . when apatow was asked in the spring of 2009 to speak at the u . s . c . film school and screen his favorite movie , the choice couldn’t have been easier .
that kind of freedom isn’t always welcome . barkin , daly , and bacon didn’t have that kind of chops—nearly all their lines come straight from the page—and rourke , * diner’ * s breakout star , never connected with the process that became its great legacy . “the whole movie for me was an effort , because it wasn’t a film that i particularly wanted to be in , ” he says . “i didn’t get that middle - class sort of humor . i never hung out or rolled with guys , like what this movie was about . all this shtick and the bantering back and forth : man , i didn’t get it at all . ”
after watching the comedy , i ' m sort of perplexed at the idea that i liked the movie . to be honest , i couldn ' t give you a real reason why either . as a character study , it works to a degree , but it is sort of aimless . as far as plot , none . the whole production is done in the quietest and most depressing manner possible . i ' d even go as far as to classify it as a dull movie . yet , i still liked it . a 35 year old hipster , who is on the verge of inheriting his dying father ' s estate spends his days on his boat or galavanting through downtown acting like he works at places he doesn ' t . his nights are mostly spent with his equally depressing and boring hipster friends who share in weird conversations with each other and drink . that ' s the basis of the story to the film , and most of the time a lot less than that is going on . the comedy is offbeat and weird to be sure , but that is a big reason why i like it , i think . i love movies that desire to be something completely different and don ' t care how it ' s going to play to a large audience . this is completely different and it will never appeal to a large crowd , but there is an audience for it . by the way , the comedy isn ' t really a comedy . you ' d be hard pressed to throw this into any genre other than the broad independent film genre . as far as a recommendation goes for this film ; i would never give anyone the idea that they would certainly enjoy it . odds are most won ' t be able to sit through it and those that do will wonder why they did . for those out there like me though that have a taste for these type of movies , it ' s worth a look .
made for $ 5 million and first released in march 1982 , diner earned less than $ 15 million and lost out on the only academy award—best original screenplay—for which it was nominated . critics did love it ; indeed , a gang of new york writers , led by pauline kael , saved the movie from oblivion . but diner has suffered the fate of the small - bore sleeper , its relevance these days hinging more on eyebrow - raising news like barry levinson’s plan to stage a musical version—with songwriter sheryl crow—on broadway next fall , or reports romantically linking star ellen barkin with levinson’s son sam , also a director . the film itself , though , is rarely accorded its actual due .
levinson dug in . without the director knowing , mgm had other actresses tested , but czech cinematographer peter sova—working on only his third feature film—took it upon himself “to make ellen look really good and the other girls look really bad , ” he says . “the other girls , i used these obscure angles and wide lenses and it wasn’t fair , maybe , but it was fair in one way . ellen was way above the other girls . ” weintraub backed down and has since become one of barkin’s great champions . when told , last spring , about sova’s piece of counter - sabotage , he said , “that’s not very nice . if i was him , i’d keep that quiet . ”
diner soon set house records in new york . a string of high - profile studio disasters such as cannery row and pennies from heaven had set up kwit for a fall , but diner may have been , as one mgm exec put it to the new york times , “the mallet that hit the camel on the head . ” on april 13 the studio fired kwit and replaced him with one of the movie’s champions , jerry esbin , who had good reason to declare a month later : “ diner is lazarus . ” though the film never received a wide release , moviegoers nationally were still paying to see it seven months later . soon , nearly everyone involved would be rich and famous .
but , while seinfeld mass - marketed levinson’s focus on minutiae , the ultimate film geek made it cool . in 1994 , quentin tarantino’s pulp fiction won praise for its ultra - stylized , ultra - violent take on the l . a . underworld . but what made the movie click were the jazzy back - and - forths between hit men john travolta and samuel l . jackson about big macs , foot massages , and the virtues of eating pork like “that arnold on green acres . ” tarantino’s genius , first demonstrated in 1990’s reservoir dogs , sprang from the decision to make his reprehensible characters sympathetic—to make the audience laugh in recognition while wincing at the blood—through dialogue that any truckdriver would recognize . guy talk . diner talk .
meanwhile , two production crises serendipitously played into levinson’s hands , allowing his ambition to “do the ordinary” to take flight . the first occurred when johnson learned just how expensive it would be to rent a stadium and film a crowd scene , with the actors hanging from a goalpost in celebration . so the idea was dropped . oddly , levinson didn’t mind . “for a first - time director ? that was really ballsy , ” stern says . “take your own script and mush it around and just have a vision of a movie that’s about nothing ? i mean , we took out the one plot thing : it was about a football game , we were going to the game , we were at the game—and they cut it . ”
simon chung’s latest offering demonstrates a maturity for delving into issues and extraordinary sense of matching pace with events that will reward all who see it . boy - boy - girl love triangles are nothing new whether gay or straight ( e . g . , the dreamers ) ; opening a film with a completely naked lost soul who will need considerable healing is also not a new narrative device ( e . g . , saved by the belles ) and revenge more heinous than the crime has stimulated filmmakers’ imaginations since the dawn of cinema ( unforgettably in confessions ) . here , chung has successfully combined all of those elements into a marvellous concoction of just what can happen when “there is nothing covered that will not be revealed” rears its deadly head .
secrets and lies features a cast of seasoned veteran actors and up - and - coming talent that deliver emotion - evoking performances as the show unfolds its central murder mystery . ryan phillippe stars as ben crawford , the main suspect in the murder on secrets and lies . the veteran actor has an extensive body of work on television and in movies since bursting onto the scene in the 1990s on the soap opera one life to live . phillippe has since starred in a number of hit movies , including white squall , 54 , cruel intentions , i know what you did last summer , crash , stop - loss , and clint eastwood’s flags of our fathers . most recently , he was seen in the film lincoln lawyer and fx ' s damages .
quickly , the cast’s offscreen dynamic began to unfold in an uncanny shadowing of levinson’s script . daly , so green that he didn’t know how to hit his mark , and reiser were both film novices playing men unsure of their place . rourke , 28 and just married , trafficked in a world - weary patter , much like his character , the gambling hairdresser boogie . earnest eddie was played by the wide - eyed guttenberg , who found himself startled by barkin’s swearing and was soon under mickey’s spell . “ [ guttenberg ] kept coming up to me , ” daly recalls , “and saying things like ‘mickey says that if i don’t have sex or beat off the whole time , my acting will get a lot better : i’ll have this endless tension . ’ i’m like , ‘you listen to this shit ? ’ ”
“i wanted the piece to be without any flourish , without anything other than basically saying , ‘this is all it was , ’ ” levinson says . “these conversations that can go on endlessly through the night—bets over the stupid fucking things that you can bet on—is it . without gimmicks : nothing . without gimmicks . this is it . period . ” john wells , the executive producer of the kaleidoscopic 90s hospital series , er —nominated for a record 122 emmys during its 15 - year run—and former president of the writers guild of america , west , was a graduate student at the u . s . c . film school when diner came out . mesmerized by levinson’s “tremendous empathy for those characters even when they were being idiots , ” wells estimates he saw it 30 times in 1982 alone . he still makes a point of watching diner once a year .
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openly gay banker daniel debates whether to return to australia or stay in hong kong when he meets kafka , a straight swimming instructor . the young men fall in love , believing that their . . . see full summary »
high school senior ben secretly lusts after bad boy classmate johnny . after ben gives johnny a ride home one night , the boys end up in johnny ' s swimming pool and have an encounter that breaks the rules and blows ben ' s mind .
a young man of chinese - cambodian descent dies , leaving behind his isolated mother and his 4 - year male lover , who grieve but don ' t speak a lick of each other ' s language .
mike has felt alienated and alone for as long as he can remember , until a new boy arrives at his school - awakening feelings and a world of possibilities he ' d never before dared to dream of .
in a village in the southwest of france , 1962 . maite and francois are 18 years old . they are friends , not lovers . in francois ' s classroom , there are serge , whose brother has just married to . . . see full summary »
after meeting in a chat room , fede ( 22 ) arrives at a downtown building to have an intimate encounter with a gay couple older than him . as the night unfolds , fede has an intense and telling . . . see full summary »
in a suburb of london , young jamie is escaping sport hours , to avoid being the victim of his comrades . young ste , his neighbor , is beaten by his father , and comes to sleep overnight . they discover new feelings , sleeping in the same bed .
szabolcs quits football against his father ' s will and returns to his country in hungary to take charge of an inheritance from his grandfather . there , he meets aron and they both explore their identities .
james has served time for drowning a little boy when he was a child , although the body was never found in the river . a visit from his victim ' s mother upon parole sends him on a quest to . . . see full summary »
martin , a young argentine student , is exploring the reactions of his sports coach , sebastian , while vying for his love and affection . he has an opportunity - one night to push the envelope . . . see full summary »
on the first day of shima ' s new job he met a man with a hangover in the elevator . that was his first meeting with his new boss , togawa . though togawa seemed rude and cross , shima was drawn . . . see full summary »
a guy is found by the police swimming naked . he can ' t , or refuses to , speak and is sent to a hospital . since no diagnosis can be made , he will be transferred to a mental hospital , when his male nurse decides to take another route . slowly the reason for his speechlessness becomes clear . together with the nurse ' s girlfriend and a female friend of the silent stranger , their history is explained .
really , this movie is just dumb ! here ' s what happens - this european dude goes to china to further his mandrin language studies . a native male chinese student becomes emotionally involved with the european dude . the chinese guy comes to an unfortunate end because it ' s discovered he ' s having an affair with the european guy . european guy goes bonkers and won ' t talk to anyone and is found ' nekkid ' passed out on some river bank . he ' s taken to a mental hospital where yet another chinese guy becomes attracted to him and puts his job on the line because he ' s so taken with european guy . we eventually find out why european guy goes bonkers , and the ending of the story is just stupid . the whole movie is stupid and not one character comes across as believable . and the only thought i had is why these guys thought the european guy was a catch - he was just bad news !
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in a remote part of southern china , a mysterious westerner appears on a riverbank , completely naked . taken to the local police station and afterwards to the hospital , he refuses to speak . while the doctors soon move on , the hospital ' s orderly , jiang , befriends the stranger . when jiang learns that the westerner is about to be transferred to a mental asylum , he decides to rescue him and takes him to his uncle ' s village . there , he accidentally discovers a secret that provides a key to the mysterious stranger ' s past . . .
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found without a stitch and clearly traumatized into wordless silence , french foreigner luke ( pierre - matthieu vital ) is kept out of the insane asylum by jiang ( gao qilun ) , an instantly smitten nursing assistant whose brand of tlc may well be headed for very personal international relations as the ever - attentive chinese rescuer ferries his unexpected companion back to his past .
lan ( si tu yu ting ) jiang’s date—one of the local police who helped fish luke out of the river—is none too amused when it appears the exotic , mute stranger has captured her prospective partner’s attention . ( the screen positively radiates on several occasions when gao’s smile says more about the feelings between the two men than any line of dialogue could . )
filling out the principal characters are a pair of luke’s university chums who are both headed for careers in biology . ning ( yu yung yung ) seems to have spurned the amorous advances of the exchange student but can’t abide losing him to her current beau , han ( jiang jian ) . the nervous young man—like so many others of any race or nationality—wants to know just how his “gayness” was so readily sensed by his sudden caucasian lover . no reply is given or needed as chung silently answers another of his theme’s questions .
the drama is lovingly unfolded , employing many deliberately stagnant shots ( beautifully rendered by chan chi lap ) that let the characters and audience reflect each step of the way , truly savouring or slinking away from those moments of truth . completely at one with that thoughtful atmosphere is sebastien seidel’s original score where percussionist karina yau is note perfect—particularly her marimba artistry for the “road” sequences .
as the miserable climax takes shape , chung’s ability to have his images speak louder than words fires on all cylinders . ning exacts her pound of steamy flesh during a christian church service where she is the steadfast , stoic accompanist even as the object of her scorn sings innocently in the choir . the shattering effect on all lives in the house of forgiveness , tolerance and love of all creatures is a cinematic knockout punch for the ages .
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a naked westerner walks into a river and is washed up on the banks of a nearby town . the police take him in but he refuses to speak , or is incapable of speech . eventually they transfer him to the local hospital where he is befriended by jiang , a handsome young nursing assistant , who brings him home - made steamed buns , and a tentative friendship develops .
before the silent foreigner can be transported to a mental institution jiang helps him escape and takes him into the countryside where they visit the places jiang spent his childhood . they begin to unlock things in each other , and this leads them back into how luke , as we discover the foreigner is called , came to the decision to drown himself .
a french exchange student , luke started an affair with han who , along with his girlfriend yun , is a member of a local chinese christian church . when yun discovers what luke and han are up to she takes it upon herself to expose han publicly and humiliates him to the point of suicide . the director cleverly tells this back - story from yun’s point of view first before revealing the whole picture . unfortunately this requires an overlong flashback that disrupts the narrative drive , already dislocated by the change of pace and tone once the more melodramatic thriller elements are brought in . the plot becomes somewhat overwrought and the young actors are just not strong enough to carry it .
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chung talks with san diego gay & lesbian news about how challenging it is to be an indie filmmaker and how he wanted his movie to explore both a western perspective of china as well as a chinese perspective of the west .


the old dark house is a 1932 american pre-code horror comedy film directed by james whale and starring boris karloff .

the film is based on the novel benighted ( 1927 ) by j. b. priestley .

the supporting cast includes melvyn douglas , gloria stuart , charles laughton and ernest thesiger .

the old dark house

abandoned old house . old broken door to the balcony . ancient down pipes .
boris karloff as morgan , “the old dark house” ( james whale , 1932 ) .
old log cabin wall texture . dark rustic house log wall . horizontal timbered background .
cohen media : the old dark house and churchill blu - ray releases de . . .
eva moore and gloria stuart in “the old dark house” ( james whale , 1932 ) .
cool old dark wood house background stock photo , picture and royalty free image . image 14355275 .
haunted horror house . old wooden grungy dark evil haunted house with evil spirits with full moon cold fog atmosphere and trees illustration .
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old log cabin wall texture . dark rustic house log wall . horizontal stock photo : 146745877 - alamy
in 1963 , william castle directed a comedic version of priestley ' s story , the old dark house .
69 old wooden grungy dark evil haunted house stock photos , vectors , and illustrations are available royalty - free .
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dracula frankenstein the old dark house rebecca the uninvited the ghost and mrs . muir the house on haunted hill 13 ghosts horror films scary films ghost stories gothic horror and haunted houses
a scary haunted red wooden house in the country with old trees and dark clouds in the sky for a fear or halloween concept .
william castle film collection - 5 movie pack : 13 ghosts , mr . sardonicus , homicidal , the old dark house , 13 frightened
william castle film collection - 5 movie pack : 13 ghosts , mr . sardonicus , homicidal , the old dark house , 13 frightened girls
the old dark house is directed by william castle and adapted to screenplay by robert dillon from the novel benighted written by j . b . priestly .
old dark house : the trope namer , although the trope is older , dating back to lon chaney ' s the monster and the stage productions of the cat and the canary .
stylishly filmed , the old dark house is a one - of - a - kind film peppered by fine performances from a stellar cast . using the framework of a horror story , whale let his talents loose and created a camp masterpiece . while not a traditional thriller , the old dark house is nevertheless creepy and moody .
it is very obvious that the old dark house was richard o ' brien ' s inspiration for the rocky horror picture show . the couple caught in the rain , . . .
the old dark house was whale ' s second horror film after 1931 ' s frankenstein and his return to the genre sees the director leaning fully in to its gothic tropes .
curtis harrington saves the old dark house ( 480i ; 7 : 08 ) is an older archival piece with harrington recounting what he had to go through to save the film .
shrill , sly , and terrifying , the old dark house would coin a new horror subgenre , just as frankenstein had ; this time , the species would bear the name of whale ' s remarkable film . ever since , in films like the haunting and rosemary ' s baby , we have been cheerfully going into the old dark house first let to us by james whale .
james whale ' s old dark house is an atmospheric , sardonic and deft delight of a film . beautifully lit . beautifully shot . beautifully ( if camply ) performed .
old wooden grungy dark evil haunted house with evil spirits with full moon cold fog atmosphere in the wood . halloween horror theme halloween . illustration of a spooky foggy forest in night .
in the late 1920 and throughout the 1930s , there flourished a sub - genre of horror films that one has dubbed the old dark house thriller . these were nominally similar to haunted house films , excepting that old dark house genre rigidly eschewed any hint of the supernatural . instead , the dark gloomy old mansions would be filled with masked killers ( who usually adopted the name of some animal ) , mad relatives locked away in the attic or supernatural elements that at the end were revealed to be an absurdly contrived plot upon the part of relatives to drive someone crazy and obtain their inheritance . these included the likes of
master of horror james whale , the man behind frankenstein , the invisible man and the bride of frankenstein , arguably kick - started an entire sub - genre with the 1932 gothic horror film the old dark house , which paved the way for films like the texas chain saw massacre and house of 1000 corpses .
the sole co - production for hammer films and master showman william castle , the 1963 version of the old dark house would be dreary stuff even if james whale ' s 1932 film hadn ' t been . . .
the old dark house
was shown at a midnight screening at the 1970 san francisco film festival along with another long - lost early - 1930 ' s horror classic ,
mystery of the wax museum .
college professor ben ( stoppard ) moves his family to an isolated house , and is tormented by visions of blood and death . conventional old dark house thriller , spoiled by reliance on clichés ( dank cellars , flickering lights ) and an uninteresting central character .
the cohen media group has officially announced the four new 4k restorations that will head to u . s . theaters later this year : king of hearts , the official story , the old dark house , and heat and dust .
the old dark house ( 1932 ) . director - james whale . stars : ernest thesiger , melvyn douglas , boris karloff , charles laughton . moria - the science - fiction , horror and fantasy film review .
each of the characters plays a role in a storyline , which has no central villain , rather evil as a unit . this is something that makes the old dark house different than dracula , frankenstein , or the mummy . there is no central focus of horror but the uncertainty of nature . be it saul , morgan , the femms , or the house itself , the story illustrates an allegory for the cruelty of fate . though the old old dark house has become synonymous with a cliche that is still portrayed in cartoons and terribly written stories , its birth came on the wings of tension and excellence .
whale loosened up a lot with the old dark house ( 1932 ) , a bizarre little film with an all - star cast that , along with frankenstein , would someday provide the inspiration for the rocky horror picture show .
the cohen media group has detailed its upcoming blu - ray releases of the new 4k restoration of james whale ' s the old dark house and jonathan teplitzky ' s churchill . the two releases will be available for purchase this october .
before taking a closer look at the film , and some of the fascinating recesses that whale worked into the story through his sly visual genius , let ' s pinpoint this particular old dark house on a larger literary and cinematic map .
this technicolour comedy - horror is a remake of the original 1932 classic horror directed by james whale . we all know the path the majority of remakes go and this colour version of the old dark house is another that can be added to the list .
what struck me , not having seen the old dark house in several years , is how suggestively whale uses lighting and design to create a world that both traps and exposes the characters , or rather forces them to reveal themselves .
“a group of stranded travelers stumble upon a strange old house , and find themselves at the mercy of the highly eccentric , and potentially dangerous , femm family . ”
i ' ve never seen the old dark house . i ' m going to see if i can change that . this has a terrific cast . wow . thanks , m . m . great post ( as always ) . : )
gothic , horror , and haunted houses , part 1 : dracula ( 1931 ) , frankenstein ( 1931 ) , the old dark house ( 1932 ) , rebecca ( 1940 ) , the uninvited ( 1944 ) , the ghost and mrs . muir ( 1947 ) , the house on haunted hill ( 1959 ) , 13 ghosts ( 1960 ) .
the old dark house is a universal horror movie from the year 1932 . it is based on the 1927 novel benighted by j . b . priestley . it was directed by james whale and features boris karloff among its cast . both men previously contributed to the 1931 frankenstein .
we’ve just learned that cohen media group will be releasing a 4k restoration of the boris karloff - starring the old dark house on blu - ray this coming october . the blu - ray , now available for pre - order , is set to be released on october 24 .
an american who sells cars in england receives a mysterious invitation from an old , eccentric millionaire to visit his house in which he lives with his twin brother .
. whale refined the long tradition of ' old dark house ' thrillers — poe ' s story
the fall of the house of usher
is a defining work — and in the process , created a hilarious , and sometimes disturbing ( who ' s sane ? really ! ) , picture that holds up remarkably well after more than three - quarters of a century .
the cohen media group has provided us with the first official u . s . trailer for the new 4k restoration of director james whale ' s classic film the old dark house ( 1932 ) , starring boris karloff , melvyn douglas , charles laughton , lilian bond , and ernest thesiger . the . . .
just as whale set the standard for horror with frankenstein , he created in the old dark house a classic of the horror subgenre named for this very film that announced whale’s distinctive blend of horror , satire , camp and farce . the typical “old dark house” film features innocents who stumble upon a sinister mansion ; here , in a typically perverse whale touch , the heroes are a flighty , cynical quintet who are hardly wholesome themselves . still , they are no match for the freakish femm family that inhabits the house . perversely , whale cast aging actress elspeth dudgeon as the femm patriarch – she is credited in the film as “john dudgeon , ” a secret joke that was not revealed until 1975 .
according to an old school friend , sill went through a series of female lovers whom she treated with mild contempt . ' i just have her around to clean my house , ' she would say of some poor besotted creature when friends visited the stone canyon house .
after the success of frankenstein ( 1931 ) , and before the future successes of the invisible man ( 1933 ) and bride of frankenstein ( 1935 ) , james whale directed the old dark house ( 1932 ) . this once lost movie provides as much early dna for the horror genre as those other whalean masterworks . it’s hard to think of a title that sounds older and creakier than the old dark house , but the film remains stylish , funny , and surprisingly modern . for a brisk 72 - minutes , the film entertains handsomely and never varies its perfect tone of witty suspense or its atmosphere of wry , comic horror .
this is a continuing series reviewing classics and gems of the universal horror group . the universal horror group was a series of american horror films that were popular in the early to mid part of the 20th century . the classic cast of dracula , frankenstein , the invisible man , the mummy , and the wolfman have become iconic in the annals of cinema . while the aforementioned characters and their respected movies have become iconic of the universal horror group , there were other films made at the same period and by the same studio . the old dark house was one of them and never made it to a cereal box like the other films . despite this fact , the horror films of the early 30’s and 40’s sometimes hold great unappreciated gems . the old dark house is one of them .
on will stanton ' s 11th birthday , he discovers he is the last of the old ones , beings with ancient knowledge of the power of the light , and must collect and join six signs to wage a battle against the dark . he is aided in his quest by merriman lyon , the first of the old ones , and races to retrieve the signs before the forces of the dark , led by the mysterious black rider . dogging his footsteps is the sinister yet somehow sympathetic walker , whose role in the struggle ( along with will ' s family ) reveals the cruel consequences of loved ones caught in the middle of a timeless war . when the dark starts to rise , will with the help of merriman lyon and herne the hunter , stall the dark in their effort and wait until the second and final rising .
special thanks : rob stone , library of congress ; pat doyen , george eastman house .
merriman explains to will that two things have saved him ; the real name of maggie barnes , and the road that they have used . the road is one of the old ways , trodden by the old ones over several millennia , and therefore protected from the powers of the dark . the walker has been frozen in time ; merriman releases him and sends him to another time , believing that the old man needs peace . whilst merriman disappears , will returns home , now with two of the signs .
he made this film in between his classics frankenstein ( 1931 ) and the invisible man ( 1933 ) ; and in his masterpiece , bride of frankenstein ( 1935 ) , he uses some key actors from the old dark house , including karloff and ernest thesiger ( who in the later film chewed up the scenery as the wild - eyed dr . pretorius ) .
the first world war broke out when priestley was twenty , so he joined the duke of wellington’s regiment and was invalided by mortar fire , an event that inspired fierce criticism of the officer class in his autobiography ‘margin released’ . initially developing a reputation as a humorous writer , his novel ‘benighted’ was transformed by james whale into the bizarre gothic satire ‘the old dark house’ .
wagstaff - it was a wonderful treat to read about the old dark house here at the house next door this eve . silly as you may have felt writing it , i got a huge giggle out of : . . . our trio comes upon a large , ominous house . it ' s old . it ' s dark . ( maybe you didn ' t feel silly at all . . . i dunno . ) i ' m a huge , huge fan of this film , and this is the perfect time of the year to sell this flick . thesiger is an outstanding screen presence and horace ' s ongoing talk of his atheism throughout the film amuses me to no end - it seems so bold for a picture this old ( or maybe i just haven ' t seen the right old movies ) . i hope people take your recommendation on this one , as they ' ll be greatly rewarded . posted by ross ruediger on 2006 - 10 - 05 03 : 27 : 00
as his paranoia rises ben convinces himself he ' s witnessing apparitions from the past and begins investigating jack ( russell tovey ) – an ex - military man suffering from ptsd – and local priest father patrick ( paul kaye ) , while a mysterious owl - faced boy seems to be the key to the sinister secrets that lurk within this archetypal old dark house .
darkly comic and beautifully made , this creaky old house story still has the ability to send a shiver down the spine . a story about a couple breaking down and seeking refuge in an old dark house these days is a well worn premise . here it still feels fresh and you will be swept up bythe macabre and wonderfully creepy characters you encounter . exactly what is upstairs haunts the entire story and when it is finally revealed , enough tension has been built for it to genuinly spook you . if you like the universal monster films and especially james whales ' output this is a real treat .
the production of early cinema ran at an incredible pace and is reminiscent of grindhouse cinema in the later 20th century . boris karloff , who one year earlier played one of his most iconic roles , frankenstein , also starred in more than 10 films that same year . the old dark house , also helmed by frankenstein director james whale , was released the same year as karloff’s the mummy and the mask of dr . fu manchu . for every film in which a star became known were a handful of others that never made it to that status . for early cinema , however , those handful of films happened yearly . the old dark house may not be karloff’s most remembered film , but it is another artifact to show the versatility of not only the actor but the studio that was literally cranking out these films by the dozen .
at some point , it seems , a car accident reduced sill to such pain that she returned to ' the dark peace ' .
you might argue that , in film history , the old dark house doesn’t lead anywhere . it has precedents in comic horrors such as the cat and the canary , but us spookery went somewhere less challenging after the shocks of tod browning and edward g ulmer . the wolfman and dracula ended up becoming part of a franchise family that has echoes in the current marvel universe . the coupling of sexual unpleasantness with horror wasn’t much welcome in hollwood once the hays code came in .
the brutal stabbing murder of a justice - of - the - peace sparks an investigation of dark family secrets in a sleepy small town in southern california .
( 1932 ) , she was not only disguised as an old man , but billed pseudonymously as male to boot .
the ark : potiphar is convinced that another biblical flood is imminent , and has built an ark , complete with animals , in the backyard of the femm house .
: oh , you have no idea . every night in this house , with just a whole family of femms .
as merriman finishes explaining , the hall is attacked by the forces of the dark . the sounds of howling dogs and of his mother ' s voice draw will to a door that appears in the wall ; the dark are attempting to draw will out . merriman explains that the forces of the dark are always threatening them , and that their power is now growing . the forces of the dark threaten the hall again , and the rider appears in the darkness . though will drives back the threat , the portal doors through which he first came reappear , and in his eagerness to return home , he breaks the circle of three held by him , merriman and the lady , leaving them defenseless . in order to protect him and merriman , the lady uses her power to open the portal doors , returning merriman and will to the chiltern hills , but at the cost of her vanishing in the process . though she remains undefeated by the dark , merriman explains that she has retreated for now , needing time to recover from the ordeal .
dangers of the digital home the ft’s edwin heathcote looks at the dark side of the ‘internet of things’ : “our houses are being possessed . and the 21st century’s evil spirits are the ghosts controlling our machine . ” ( ft )
the old dark house is a wonderful survivor of the early sound era . belonging to said era , it is particularly stage - bound and theatrical , naturally . what is so wonderful about it is that it is rabidly antic , full of marvelously overwrought characterizations , and almost every scene seems to rearrange the world we are visiting . a lot of stuff is compressed into this thing . james whale was a true weirdo sophisticate .
is there a better horror film than the old dark house ? yes , there probably is . ranking films in such fashion is , of course , a mug’s game . also , you might reasonably argue that james whale’s extraordinary 1932 entertainment isn’t really a horror movie at all . there is nothing of the supernatural about it . the picture leans towards camp mania as much as it does towards the ghost story . there’s really nothing much like it in the canon .
will asks the walker for the second sign , showing him the first that he already possesses . the walker miserably explains how the sign has been such a burden for him . he is also suspicious , hoping that will is the one he has been waiting for and not a servant of the dark . he trusts neither the dark nor the light . will is forced to command him to give him the sign , and the walker relents , handing him the sign of bronze .
one of the most authentically bizarre old hollywood movies i ' ve ever seen . my head is still swimming trying to guess what was intentional .
in the old dark house , i was fascinated by the frank yet subtle depiction of laughton ' s character ' s homosexuality . his mistress explains that their relationship
isn ' t like that
, because he
isn ' t that type .
he just finds that traveling with a female companion allows him to avoid uncomfortable questions . this seems particularly brave since both laughton and whale were somewhat of that ilk .
granada tv made superb versions of both this and ‘lost empires’ , about a dark romance in the dying days of music hall . they’re available now on dvd .
one of the most haunting images in the film , that we see a couple of times , is of huge curtains billowing in dark corridors : the inspiration originally came from the cat and the canary , and that motif has been reused in many pictures , most poetically in cocteau ' s beauty and the beast ( 1946 ) . although whale ' s film , like the novel , is set in its present day , he ' s turned that welsh manor into something out of the dark ages — not to mention something out of the dark , if droll , emotional recesses of all of the characters .
on 23 november 1979 , judee sill was found dead at her house in the unglamorous north hollywood area where she ' d spent most of her life . cause of death was given as ' acute cocaine and codeine intoxication ' . her old asylum friends did not find out until the following year .
a family inherits what proves to be a haunted house , but a special pair of goggles allows them to see their ghostly tormentors .
on one condition : if a member of the femm family wants to keep their share of the fortune , they must live in the house and be present for the daily gathering or they ' ll lose it .
after a narrow escape from a wet and sodden avalanche , our trio comes upon a large , ominous house . it’s old . it’s dark . they bang on the thick , heavy door , seeking entry . it opens to reveal the half - visage of morgan , the mad , mumbling butler played by boris karloff . in one of those classic universal horror closeups so exquisite and so careful that it’s worth the price of admission , the door slowly widens so his face waxes full . we see the black beard and coarse skin , the scarred nose and the hirsute brow…and then it closes again , his face eclipsed by the dark . the hulking neanderthal morgan is one of karloff’s and makeup guru jack p . pierce’s finest collaborations , ranking alongside their other classic creations like frankenstein’s monster and the mummy .
chairman of the brawl : saul attacks roger with a chair , which is in pieces after two hits . with him out cold , he then tries to burn down the house .
for those readers who haven’t yet seen this gem , i will stop the retelling here…before the lights go out…before morgan gets his drunk on . suffice to say that the old dark house has more secrets upstairs—secrets like the bedridden 102 year old patriarch sir roderick femm , played by actress elspeth dudgeon , but billed as “john dudgeon” and , on the very top landing , behind a door that is padlocked and bolted shut , the darkest secret of all : a pyromaniac madman known as saul femm ( brember wills ) . we’ve already been warned what can happen : “the fact is , morgan is an uncivilized brute . sometimes he drinks heavily . a night like this will set him going and once he’s drunk he’s rather dangerous . ”
disc # 1 - - the old dark house 1 . shelter from the storm [ 10 : 36 ] 2 . unwelcome guests [ 10 : 37 ] 3 . six strangers [ 11 : 17 ] 4 . upstairs [ 9 : 23 ] 5 . funny feeling [ 7 : 24 ] 6 . an unlucky house [ 8 : 56 ] 7 . playing with fire [ 13 : 41 ] 8 . chapter 8 [ : 01 ] 1 . chapter 1 [ 14 : 43 ] 2 . chapter 2 [ : 01 ] 1 . chapter 1 [ 7 : 06 ] 2 . chapter 2 [ : 02 ]
in the old dark house , i was fascinated by the frank yet subtle depiction of laughton ' s character ' s homosexuality . his mistress explains that their relationship
isn ' t like that
, because he
isn ' t that type .
he just finds that traveling with a female companion allows him to avoid uncomfortable questions . yeah , the movie treats it in a very matter - of - fact manner , neither with hostility or with derision , which would have been the usual approach in those days .
the old dark house’s singularity is ( or should be ) part of its appeal . a few years ago i showed it to students at the huston school of film in galway , fulling expecting them to hate it . only one had even heard of it , never mind seen the thing , but they laughed in all the right places and seemed properly unnerved by its creepier moments . enjoy the film in full here . interestingly , having fallen into copyright hell , it is not officially owned by anybody . so , this post is legal and everything .
james whale directs this classic adaptation of j . b . priestley ' s novel in which five people travelling through wales end up lost and seek sanctuary in an old house . upon their arrival they are introduced to the building ' s owners who seem at first to be most accommodating , but as the evening draws on they realise all is not as it seems . when lives begin to be claimed and terrifying events take place , can they find and stop the murderer lurking in the house before it ' s too late ?
hints are dropped about the existence of a mad relative in the attic . it soon becomes apparent that everyone in the house is a bit touched . especially rebecca , who rants about
wickedness
in their family ' s past . in the film ' s weirdest moment , gloria stuart changes her wet clothes while the old woman speaks of her blasphemous father .
you ' re wicked too ,
she says suddenly , admonishing the young woman .
you think of nothing but your long straight legs and your white body and how to please your man .
she fingers the edge of staurt ' s dress and says
this is fine stuff , but it will rot ,
and then touches stuart ' s bosom and says
that ' s finer stuff still , but it will rot too in time .
stuart screams and flees the room . like the antagonists of the later rocky horror , the inhabitants of the old dark house seem to be hollywood monsters primarily because of seemingly perverse sexuality .
there is a small and silent “every day dinner scene” in the film , once we arrive at the house . the scene is greater than words certainly . it is the ordinary made extraordinary and the extraordinary made ordinary . it is unnecessary , but essential .
help support this site by using any of my amazon links — costs nothing extra . thanks ! this text link goes to art house and international dvds .
the film is particularly well entitled , or rather retitled as we saw above , since the house itself seems to be the most vivid , not to mention central , character . through whale ' s fertile , and feverish , visual genius , the house becomes a reflection of all of the characters , much as , say , the crumbling - before - completed xanadu becomes an externalization of welles ' s title character in citizen kane ( 1941 ) .
the two boys also meet maggie barnes the dairymaid at the farmhouse , who apparently has a liking for their elder brother max . the boys leave with some mincemeat for their mother , and on the way back past the churchyard , they see the old tramp again , who is imminently attacked and scared away by rooks , much to the confusion of the boys .
meanwhile , the monster hears the sound of a violin playing
ave maria
and comes upon a cottage in the forest . inside lives an old blind man who invites the monster into his home . he holds out his hands to the monster , who is overwhelmed by his charity , and gives him food and shelter . during his stay , the monster learns how to speak - and how to smoke cigars . the old man tells him that it is
bad to be alone
and the monster smiles at him and says
friend . good .
these scenes are unforgettable , especially when the old blind man holds the crying monster ' s hands and thanks god for bringing him a friend .
we open on a dark and stormy night somewhere in the welsh mountains . the rain is coming down in bucketfuls . a rickety old jalopy struggles on a road so precarious it seems half precipice and half mudslide . as someone later observes , it’s nice weather for ducks . driving the car are philip and margaret waverton ( raymond massey and gloria stuart ) trying to make their way to shrewsbury . the desperate , bickering sarcasm of the wavertons’ opening dialogue is characteristic of the whole production :
an inspector calls is quite wonderful . i love the old alistair sim film and there have been several more radio productions on the bbc , there was version with bob peck and one from 2010 on the bbc with toby jones . quite wonderful .
ernest thesiger ( 1879–1961 ) — began as a painter at london ' s slade school of fine art , became a renowned theatre actor including a leading role in bernard shaw ' s saint joan ( 1924 ) , then in the early ' 30s went to hollywood at his friend james whale ' s request to appear in the old dark house ; other credits include olivier ' s henry v ( 1944 ) , anthony asquith ' s the winslow boy ( 1948 ) , brian desmond hurst ' s scrooge ( 1951 ; us title a christmas carol ) , the robe ( 1953 ) , ronald neame ' s the horse ' s mouth ( 1958 ) .
as i had been commissioned to renovate the house and prepare it for a change of use , i thought that if we were to renovate the house , then surely we should restore this painting . i raised the question of its restoration with the gallery . the then assistant director , dr . brian kennedy , agreed at once to have the painting restored if it was a honthorst in return for which the jesuits would make it available for exhibitions when required . he then brought the restorer , sergio benedetti , to examine the painting and we agreed on the final details for its cleaning .
james whale had this instinct in spades . he never does anything halfway . if the script calls for rain , the rain comes down in bucketfuls and gets everyone soaked . when three grown men wrestle boris karloff to the ground , they really scuffle hard and throw their weight around . gloria stuart opens a window , and it’s like she’s just let a hurricane enter the room . the book calls for our lost travelers to stop and consult a map that’s too wet to read , and on screen the map is as sopping wet as a dirty dish rag . this is the main reason that james whale’s darkly humorous films withstand repeated scrutiny . the storming rains won’t wash them away because , like the old dark house itself , they’re built on a foundation of solid rock .
philip : “i’ve never been in a better temper in my life ! i love driving a hundred miles through the dark practically without headlights . i love the trickle of ice cold water pouring down my neck . this is one of the happiest moments of my life ! ”
john smith offers will refreshment , and also introduces him to a white mare , a horse that comforts will . eventually , will leaves , and then finally meets the old tramp , who will knows to be the walker . the walker asks him to show him ' the sign ' which will knows to be the quartered iron circle that mr dawson gave him , but as he does so , the rider appears again , scaring away the old man . the rider grows in size , attempting to seize will , who is rescued by the white mare from the smithy . will escapes from that time and from the clutches of the rider , and is led through the chiltern hills . the horse abandons him on the road , but when will gets up , he finds two great doors standing before him on the road . passing through the doors , will finds himself in a great hall with many tapestries . here , will meets two people ; merriman lyon and the lady . both explain to will that he is one of the old ones , a servant of the light with exceptional magical abilities who came into his inheritance on his eleventh birthday . merriman begins to teach will about his abilities , namely telepathy and telekinesis , learning how to place images in other people ' s minds and how to extinguish and relight fires . after that , merriman explains will ' s quest to him ; to seek and to protect the six signs of the light , which had been devised by the old ones . the enemy of the light , the dark , is rising again , and must be stopped .
geffen , who ' d made the first of his fortunes on the back of another bisexual songstress , laura nyro , landed sill a lucrative publishing deal with a handsome advance . the money enabled her to make a down payment on a house on the valley side of stone canyon .
dr . frankenstein ( colin clive again ) lies in a swoon following his ordeal , lamenting that
perhaps death is sacred and i profaned it .
he is visited during the night by dr . pretorius ( the old dark house ' s ernest thesiger ) . minnie , the housekeeper , describes him as a
queer old looking gentleman .
it is worth noting that pretorius interrupts dr . frankenstein and his bride on their wedding night . pretorius has
grown
life in jars and wishes to join forces with the doctor .
to gods and monsters ,
he announces as the two men drink a toast . the scene were he displays a series of jars containing tiny living kings , queens , bishops and ballerinas is one of the most magical in the history of film ( and a marvel of special effects considering its day . )
science ,
he tells dr . frankenstein ,
like love , has her little surprises as you shall see .
the femms and morgan are still , well , who they were at the beginning , although the pyromaniac , cradled by morgan , may be dead . transformation has fallen back into stasis ; no doubt the house has remained unchanged for centuries , just getting older and , with the fires put out for now , darker .
there are twists and turns aplenty in this deeply strange comedy that seems far ahead of its time . it ' s a highly entertaining , multi - layered combination of laughs , tension and dark visual beauty .
i hadn ' t heard of the old dark house until just a few years ago when james
the angry video game nerd
rolfe decided to film a trip through his video collection . he really raved about what a wonderful film it was , a perfect mix of humor and horror that was produced by two of his filmmaking icons : hammer films and william castle . at the time i didn ' t realize just how little shit i knew about shit because i wasn ' t familiar with either name , and yet here was a guy i like and identify with splattering compliments all over them . using my stubborn desire to want to know everything about everything in the world of film , i grabbed a pen and…
reviewer pronouncing it
a laboriously arch and broad blend of humor and the creeps . it still leaves the old j . b . priestley property as defunct as a doornail . even a picturesque cast . . . . can ' t rejuvenate it .
in interviews , sill said the spiritual hunger that drove her to seek the ' dark peace ' also drove her to express her pain in song . her discovery of religious and theosophical literature , as well as magic , gave her new subjects to sing about , too .
once inside , we are introduced to the owner of the house , miss rebecca femm ( eva moore ) , a squat , inhospitable zealot who keeps yelling “no beds , we’ve got no beds” at our weary travelers . “you must excuse my sister . she is deaf . . . sometimes quite deaf” explains her brother , the cadaverous horace femm , brilliantly played by ernest thesiger , who would later go on to play dr . pretorius in bride of frankenstein . thesiger’s richly comic performance—all nervous tics and sinister , passive - aggressive cowardice—is the tingling spine of the old dark house . a fellow brit , he was one of whale’s favorites and known as an actor’s actor . he was an open homosexual who sat around the set between setups doing his favorite hobby : needlepoint ( he even wrote a book on the subject ) . whale liked to shoot his thin frame from cockeyed angles . patrick macnee said that such was the angle of his nostrils , that whenever he surveyed you , which was often , it was as though you were being transfixed by his olfactory organ instead of his eyes .
this is a excellent remake of a 1932 film that then stared boris karloff , he was asked to come back for a role in this film but refused because the script read to much comedy . and that ' s what this is a comedy with a little horror one of william castle ' s many films . the house itself from the outside reminds me of the housed used in the tv serial the addams family . tom poston was over the top as a yo0ung sales man from ny in england to deliver an american car . ends up at a haunted house with a crazy family . very enjoyable 1960 film . 4 stars
the next morning , will is woken by music , which fades away as he wakes . the house is silent on midwinter ' s day . as he looks outside , he hears the music again , and again it stops . he goes to wake his brothers robin and james , but for some strange reason they don ' t wake , and remain in a deep sleep . he shouts in the silent household , but nobody responds . will dresses and leaves the house through the back door . the world outside is also completely silent as he walks , and again he remembers mr dawson ' s words : ' . . . tomorrow will be beyond imagining . ' whilst walking back in the direction of dawson ' s farm , he hears the sound of a hammer striking metal . in huntercombe lane , he comes to a group of unusual old buildings . he realises he has entered a different time . here , will meets john smith , a blacksmith working on a horse shoe . he also meets the black rider for the first time ; he seems to know who will is , and at the same time will seems to recognize him . the rider tries to capture will as he departs on his dark horse , but the smith saves him by pulling him out of reach .
lego replaces chief executive only eight months after it appointed its first non - danish chief executive , the danish toymaker has brought in a new , younger replacement . 51 - year - old niels christiansen will take over on october 1 as the company adjusts to the increasingly digital world of play . ( ft )
comedy horror at its best , robert morley the master of the house . keeping members of the family , prisoners in the large country mansion . twins known as casper and jasper , the one who shares an apartment in london , has an american friend he invites to his country home to meet the rest of the members of his family . great 60 ' s technicolour film and a bit like carry on screaming , starring felnella fielding .
an artefact from the past . but don ' t let that put you off . this is a stunning restoration of an 80 year old film that was previously thought to be lost to time . and its great fun to boot ! a must buy .
merriman leads will to a clearing . when merriman questions him as to where they are , will realises he is standing in the grounds of the future huntercombe manor , owned in his time by a miss greythorne . as he realizes this , he suddenly sees the huntercombe lane from his time appear before him , and glimpses his own house . merriman explains that the old ones are loosely placed in time , meaning they can move between various periods of history ( in other words , time travel ) . the doors that will discovered are only one of the gateways through time . merriman provides some background to the time that will entered from his own time ; he had entered the time of the royal forests , preserved by the kings of england centuries ago .
the film does , however , draw a distinction — one of degree — between the comic horror we can see downstairs and something more wretched lurking upstairs . in a masterstroke of unheimlich , whale casts a woman , elspeth dudgeon , as the 102 - year old sir roderick femm , who knows something awful about another , unseen member of the family .
at about the 33 minute mark of the film there are two times when you can clearly hear the motor of the fan rev up to create the wind .
' there was a lot of hanging out at her house , ' says straw . ' she was surrounded by her adoring female fans . i remember going round there one morning and there were maybe four or five other women , all sunbathing in the nude . '
husband and wife philip and margaret waverton are driving to shrewsbury along with their friend penderel . they become lost somewhere in rural wales in the midst of a rainstorm . a mudslide then washes out the road ahead . they seek refuge at a nearby house where they are welcomed by the eccentric horace femm , who lives with his deaf and suspicious sister rebecca and the mute , sinisterly hulking butler morgan . they settle in for the night and are joined not long after by two other travellers , the wealthy industrialist sir william porterhouse and his girlfriend , dancehall girl gladys duquesne , whom penderel takes an instant liking to . however , as the storm causes the power to go off and the brutish morgan becomes menacingly drunk , they realise that the house holds secrets , including one family member , the mad pyrokinetic son saul , who is kept locked in the attic . the drunken morgan now lets saul loose .
what makes it even more disappointing is that a spark of intelligence is evident at the film ' s heart , with the pieces of the puzzle falling into place in a supremely satisfying manner ( even if the ending itself is fairly anticlimactic ) . unfortunately by then it ' s too little too late – blackwood ' s adherence to convention leaves it feeling strangely old fashioned .
the thought of the storm leaving everyone stranded in the house has horace spooked . something upstairs seems to bother him . “i am rather a nervous man , ” he explains after dropping a dish . his frightful reluctance to go upstairs to retrieve a lamp after the storm knocks the lights out is quite funny . try as he might , philip can’t make horace femm ascend the stairs ; it’s like trying to put a cat into water .
laughton is one of several dissolute young people — all affected by the first world war , we feel — who , on an appallingly rainy night , end up sheltering at the house of the horrible femme family . the first person they meet is karloff as a towering , grunting butler named morgan . “even welsh oughtn’t to sound like that , ” one of the party says upon hearing his efforts at speech .
they are welcomed at the door by a monstrous , mute butler named morgan ( boris karloff ) . the masters of the house are the elderly horace and rebecca femm . like rocky horror ' s riff raff and magenta , they are siblings . . . and there are subtle suggestions of incest . horace invites his wet guests to sit by the fire while his sister rebecca repeatedly shrieks that there are no beds .
' judee was troubled , but there were a lot of people then that were troubled , ' says music business lawyer bill straw , who met her in the autumn of 1969 . ' she had been a junkie , and she contrasted the white peace - the term she used for lsd - with the dark peace , which was heroin . but she was not using heroin when i knew her . '
to begin at the beginning , the femm family is obviously very rich , but that wealth was not gained legitimately . the founder of the line was a notorious pirate called morganó whom we are indeed apparently supposed to identify with that captain morgan , even though the timeline and biography for the femmsí morgan donít remotely line up with his . building this house in the middle of a swamp was morganís way of going belatedly straight , and the terms of the trust in which he put his plundered riches were intended to keep all of his descendants out of the buccaneering business , too . in order to maintain any claim to a share of the family fortune , a femm must meet at least a minimal standard of permanent residence within the old manse ; they must be present beneath its roof each midnight , which is obviously incompatible with a life of piracy on the high seas . that it would also be incompatible with many other totally legitimate lifestyles was apparently of no concern to morgan . the trust is inalterable so long as the house remains within the family , which is the next best thing to saying itís inalterable forever , since thereís also a clause forbidding its sale . not even arson would get the clan out from under their ancestorís thumb , since the only fire that could harm the fortress - like walls of femm manor is the volcanic variety from which the basalt blocks originally sprang . meanwhile , the funds disbursed from the trust as an allowance to the heirs are equally divided among all of them who play by its rules , so that they each have an obvious incentive to engineer each otherís disinheritance .