The House of Fear

Theatre actor John Woodford (Donald Douglas) dies suddenly while on stage, and his body mysteriously goes missing shortly thereafter. The actor's ghost is rumoured to haunt the theatre, and the place closes down.

To try and solve the mystery, police detective McHugh (William Gargan) poses as a producer who wants to reopen the theatre, putting on Woodford's last play, 'Dangerous Currents', with the same cast members.

Mysterious notes, purportedly written by Woodford, warn the cast not to go ahead with the play, and leading man Carleton (Walter Woolf King) is found dead. The play goes ahead, however, McHugh determined to catch the killer.

A creaky whodunit with plenty of suspects, The House of Fear is like a live-action Scooby Doo episode, with the detective discovering clues along the way that help him to solve the crime. And like a Scooby Doo episode, any seemingly supernatural occurrences are explained away, with the villain chased, caught and unmasked in the final act, an outpouring of convoluted exposition explaining their motive and modus operandi.

It's all a bit too talky to be wholly entertaining, but at just over an hour, the pace is fairly brisk and there are some fun performances (Dorothy Arnold is great as gold-digger actress Gloria DeVere), although the obligatory comic relief -- El Brendel as stagehand Jeff -- is thoroughly irritating.

This film adds nothing more to the hundreds of others which had been made during the thirties and forties: mystery stories taking place in a mansion, or simply on a room, all very talkative, tales that could be made for stageplays. Not necessarily movie theaters. OK, this one may be a little above average, there is a ppretty good suspense, and it is not too long to endure. That's not my stuff, my cup of tea and I made an effort. I don't regret it. Director Joe May gave us INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS and also HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES. Joe May was a film maker from Germany, and I suppose that explains thee good directing skills which are obvious here.

An actor, John Woodford, dies on-stage during a performance of a play. His body is taken to his dressing room, where it disappears. The theatre is closed for over a year, and rumors that Woodford's ghost haunts it spread all over Broadway.

A detective (posing as a producer) rents the theatre and attempts to present the same play, but all sorts of "ghostly occurences" happen to try to thwart his plans. (Woodford's voice coming over a dead telephone, his face appearing on the pitch-dark stage during a police vigil, more murders, mysterious notes from the "dead man", etc).

All-in-all, a "different" mystery with good acting; if you watch the film intently, you can figure out who the murderer is (but, it's DIFFICULT!). Highly recommended. (btw....this film has NOTHING to do with the Sherlock Holmes film of the same name).

Enjoyable programmer helped by a solid cast of recognizable faces and a script that's wittier than it has any right being. Despite being a Universal picture, this has no connection to the Universal Sherlock Holmes film of the same name released six years later. This is a remake of the silent film The Last Warning. It's also part of the Crime Club series.

The plot isn't any better than your average Charlie Chan flick, but there are some fun characters here with some snappy lines brought to life by great character actors like William Gargan and Alan Dinehart. The standout to me was Dorothy Arnold (who married Joe DiMaggio a few months after this was released). She's a lot of fun. Anyway check this out if you like cozy old murder mysteries with a little humor.

Bearing no relation to the Sherlock Holmes 1945 outing of the same title, and actually being a little mistitled itself (shouldn't it be "Theater of Fear"?), "House of Fear" (1939) is a minor if well-plotted whodunit, a remake of a 1928 silent film called "Last Warning" (which I have not seen). It begins well, with a murder (?) during a radio show that turns out to be part of a stage play (the radio show, not the murder), it stalls midway through as it seems no progress in the investigation is being made, but there are some good stunts at the end, and an amusing turn by the little-known Dorothy Arnold as the "easiest study in town" (wink, wink). **1/2 out of 4.