Get In on the Frightening Ground Floor of the Ominous "Old Dark House"- Tonight!

Tonight on MeTV- we invite you to join a group of unexpected visitors and a very weird family within an ancient unlit domicile! All end up stranded in this rundown mansion- along with a sinister servant and a mystery hidden up on the top floor. There’s more danger than just the inclement weather that makes a deadly trap out of “The Old Dark House”! This is the original version from 1932 featuring the great Boris Karloff helping to provide the chilling atmosphere that made the title of this film a common descriptive term in film classification.

Philip and Margaret Waverton and their wisecracking pal Roger Penderel drive along a road in the Welsh countryside during a violent thunderstorm-a road that appears to be getting flooded and washed out by the rain. Amidst deep puddles and fallen trees, they finally admit they are lost-but are lucky(?!) enough to see an old mansion where they might stop for shelter and to regain their bearings. Their first experience there is a frightening encounter with a hulking mute butler ,and once inside, they meet the owners, Horace Femm, an eccentric old fellow, and his even more eccentric sister Rebecca, who would rather the visitors not stay around at all. However, with the storm only getting worse, she relents and allows them to stay in the house- while constantly complaining about them! They are warned that the mute butler they encountered, Morgan, has a tendency to drink- and become very violent. Quite the welcome!

Rebecca fills young Margaret in on the family history- claiming her ancestors were godless and sinful- and she actually accuses poor Margaret of being the same. She also warns that her 102 year old father still resides in the mansion-somewhere.

With this less than cheery atmosphere, the entire group sits down to dinner- which is interrupted by the arrival of a couple more unexpected visitors- Sir William Porterhouse and his chorus girl companion Gladys Ducane. These two new additions, boisterous and a little silly, join the dinner party (listen for the line “Have a potato,” which this film is known for!) After their starchy meal, they all sit by the fireplace, where more stories are told-encouraging Penderel and Gladys to sneak out to the car for a nip of some alcohol he has there!

Meanwhile, the storm causes the power to go out! Philip is asked to go upstairs and fetch an oil lamp- yet, for some reason, Horace seems deathly afraid to accompany him. Could it have something to do with the fact that there is a locked room up there, and another from which an odd voice can be heard?

While Margaret is alone downstairs, the now drunk Morgan stumbles in, with evil intent! Meanwhile, Gladys, out drinking by the car with Penderel, reveals that she and Porterhouse are only platonic friends-hence, it looks like Penderel and the chorus girl are becoming a couple! Back inside the house, secrets are revealed-courtesy of the aged father Sir Roderick Femm- and new dangers, as well as old ones like Morgan, provide life-threatening horrors to the trapped visitors!

This film, directed by James Whale, is indeed where the genre of film known as an “old dark house” story got that name- and you can see the similarities that were adapted by later movies in that vein. It was considered a lost film for a long time, having had the rights to the novel it is based on lost by Universal, which forced them to remove it from distribution- but we’ll explain how the film was restored, as well as running down the amazing cast, including Karloff, Gloria Stuart, Charles Laughton, Melvin Douglas and Ernest Thesiger- the memorable Dr. Pretorious of “Bride of Frankenstein”. We will also reveal a somewhat obvious “secret” about the cast member playing the ancient Sir Roderick ( please- no spoilers)! You’ll be invited to a new, very specialized restaurant, and get visits from a questionable real estate agent you may have seen on MeTV. We’ll also present a song, a vintage bit with a hard-boiled suspect, and another look at some past Flashback Weekend festivities.

“The Old Dark House” opens its doors on the MeTV airwaves tonight at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time. You are invited to join the multitudes live-Tweeting during the show on Twitter/X - just use the hashtag #svengoolie. Our Chicago area viewers get to meet up with Boris Karloff one more time in “The Invisible Ray” at 11 am on CW26.

More Sven merchandise is on the way- including the great new Svengoolie lunchbox from Toynk! Take a look at it at toynk.com ! Of course, you will find all the Sven merchandise in the MeTV Mall, including the Sven bumper stickers- the favorite seems to be the “No Personal Checks” one! Just click on the “store” tab on our website.

Tonight, we invite you to spend the evening with some bad eggs-and several potatoes- in “The Old Dark House” on MeTV!