Tangled Destinies

Tangled Destinies (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Forgotten "old dark house" entry has a plane going down during a storm and the passengers are forced to spend the night at a creepy house. Within a few minutes a man is murdered and some diamonds stolen, which makes everyone a suspect. This ultra low-budget shocker has been all but forgotten by today's crowds, which probably isn't fair because this movie is a lot more entertaining than some of the films from this genre that are still talked about today. The cast is full of unknowns and a few who appeared in some minor films but they are all quite effective and make the film worth viewing. I was really surprised at how good the performances were as the entire cast really digs in and delivers some very memorable characters. The writing here certainly isn't anything special and often times the dialogue is rather bland but that doesn't keep anyone from giving it their all and in the end really delivering some nice moments. Director Strayer is best remembered for various BLONDIE movies but he handles the subject matter here quite well and keeps the thing moving for its ultra fast 57-minutes. The budget must have been so low that they couldn't even afford an opening music score so instead we get some dumb sound effects of a plane flying. The low budget does eventually help out as it gives the film some nice atmosphere so fans of the genre will certainly want to track this one down.