The Black Room

Nicely plotted period horror tale that just goes to show the kind of talent that the legendary Boris Karloff possessed. As directed by Roy William Neill, it's great fun, with a fine supporting cast, an adequate pace, thunderous music, and respectable atmosphere. It leads to a solid action climax and a satisfying denouement. This may not be one of Karloffs' better known vehicles, but it does deserve more exposure.

Karloff plays twin brothers (one good and one evil, naturally) who have a nasty family prophecy hanging over their heads, seemingly solved when a room inside their castle is sealed up. Also helping matters is the fact that Anton, the nice younger twin, travels the world for a while before being summoned home by his brother, a cruel despot who abuses his position of power. This leads to a great twist, but it won't be revealed here. Gregor, the evil twin, has his eye on beautiful young Thea (the radiant Marian Marsh), and intends to marry her despite the fact that she's already attached to another man, Lt. Lussan (Robert Allen), whom he frames for murder.

"The Black Room" does have its assets, but chief among them are the dual Karloff performances; he's superb at creating two very different personalities. His delicious villainy when he plays Gregor easily rivals his equally compelling turn in "The Body Snatcher" a decade later. Also doing creditable work are Thurston Hall, Katherine DeMille, John Buckler, and Henry Kolker. The dog, Thor, is great too.

Highly recommended to Karloff fans.

Eight out of 10.

Boris Karloff only made a handful of movies that demonstrated he had some real range as an actor, and of that handful, THE BLACK ROOM has to rate as one of the best. In this work, Karloff plays twin brothers of a family of aristocrats. The older brother Gregor is a nasty piece of work. He is the titular head of the family of land barons, and has long developed a reputation for brutality in the region he governs. His estate is notorious for having disappeared several young women. Anton, the younger of the twins, is a cosmopolitan sort, has been away travelling and studying for many years. Both men are haunted by a family prophecy, in which the younger of the two twins is supposed to slay the older in order to complete a family curse, which apparently began in the "black room" of the film's title.

The room itself was ordered sealed shortly after the birth of the twins in order to avert a repeat of the tragedy. Unbeknownst to the villagers, Gregor has found a hidden passage into the black room, and it is the torture pit of the room where he disposes of the bodies of his victims.

Anton, the younger brother, returns home upon the urging of his brother Gregor, who has, after several attempts on his life, realized that he must step aside in order to calm the people down. Gregor has in mind a phoney abdication in which he seems to step aside in favor of his twin. His actual plan is to murder Anton, and to continue to reign in Anton's identity, in his own twist on the family curse. He falls over his own hubris for a number of personal reasons, but before film's end, he manages to indulge in a round of crafty Karloffian mayhem.

Karloff plays both the monstrous and benign brothers, but in addition, he portrays the nasty brother imitating the gentle one. That's what makes this piece fun. Seventy minutes of the grand old man of the gothics at his best. I've probably seen it about thirty times now, and it holds up well.

I must agree with the other posts on this site, Karloff is excellent here. In fact, this is just about the best example of his acting skill I've come across. In this film, he is not just a generic Halloween ghoul, but shows a very nice range of characterization, as he plays twin brothers who are polar opposites. The film is beautiful to look at, and well paced and plotted. Even if you see the ironic ending coming at you a mile and a half away, it's still fun to anticipate it.

Incidentally, is it just me, or does the loud brass fanfare that occurs in the title sequence, and throughout the film at dramatic moments, sound like part of the song "Come Rain or Come Shine" ("days may be cloudy or sunny...")? I just found it a bit distracting to suddenly picture Judy Garland in my mind at all the most tense and dramatic moments of the story.

The Black Room: 7 out of 10: In the Tim Burton film "Ed Wood" Martin Landau's Bela Lugosi complains about his rival Boris Karloff continuing to work even though he played Frankenstein which required only grunting under heavy make-up as opposed to accented seductive Dracula.

Well I hate to point this out to a long dead actor but Karloff can really act. The Black Room is a tour de force performance.

Karloff plays three roles (two twins and one twin pretending to be the other) and manages to give them such a distinctive nuanced performances I squinted at the screen to make sure it really was the same actor in the roles.

The story itself is quite a good set-up. With one brother a devilish tyrant with a taste for village girls and the other a slightly fey traveler with a birth defect. Hanging over their head is a family curse that states one brother will kill the other in the titular Black Room.

There are twists and turns and as many reviews have pointed out this is more a costume drama/mystery than straight horror film. The supporting cast is competent and the sets are well done but this is Karloff's show and he runs away with it.

Well-written and acted, this is a gem of a movie. Discover it and you will realize once again that Karloff truly was a great actor (in a dual role here as a cruel Baron and his kindly twin). The twin angle is played for tension and creepiness and really works in the hands of a great but under recognized director, Roy William Neill. Check out more of Neill's work- most often in the b-movie category but always superbly crafted. Neill's films are always a cut above the average and I believe that his gifts are nowadays finally being noticed and receiving well-deserved recognition.

Marion Marsh hits just the right note in a fine youthful performance as the stunningly beautiful daughter of a local official, committed by family to potential lifetime unhappiness and depravity at the hands of the despicable Baron. Ms. Marsh was one of the most beautiful women ever in the long history of film, but is unaffected by her looks and is almost always natural and effective in her roles. Probably the best word to describe her is simply that she is likable- a good trait for a movie star but too often lacking in many of them.

This film moves along energetically in juggernaut fashion and is marvelously entertaining, totally without any padding or slowness. Its a winner.