GhostWalks

The Ghost Walks (1934)

A playwright comes up with an ingenious way to convince a producer to back his newest show in this classic haunted house movie from the early 30s. While traveling to the playwright’s house the car that he, the producer and his secretary are traveling in becomes stuck in the mud after avoiding a tree that has fallen across the road. They have no choice but to go to the nearest house for shelter from the storm. But unbeknownst to the producer and his secretary this is all a set up arranged by the playwright. You see the house is actually his and the accident was staged. The occupants of the house are all actors that are performing the play with the producer as an unwitting participant. Of course things take a turn for the worse when one of the cast is killed and a guard from the local sanitarium shows up to tell them that a dangerous inmate is on the loose. All they have to do is stay alive and safe until help arrives, but can they?

During the 30s a whole subgenre of horror films sprung up and were referred to as the Old Dark House films after one of the earliest and most successful of the films. The movies themselves were patterned after the stage productions that were very popular at the time. The best of these films normally added a few comedic characters and/or situations to help cut the tension. So how does the Ghost Walks measure up? The movie clocks in at just a bit over an hour and is well paced and interesting throughout it’s entire duration. There aren’t really any scares in the movie, as it tends to really focus on the characters. The cast does an excellent job of bringing these characters to life and is clearly very talented. The dialogue is another strong point for this movie and is very clever and fun. If you listen very carefully you will hear some playful and risqué (for the time) innuendo that was very common in both the plays and films of the 30s. The whole film has a very staged feel to it. It is almost as if you were watching a play and not a movie. This is very common in these types of films and actually adds to the atmosphere and overall feel to the movie.

I know that most horror fans yawn at the idea of watching a movie that is more than 70 years old. Hell many so-called horror fans haven’t even watched the classics like Dracula or Frankenstein. To those of you haven’t even tried watching something like this. Please give them a chance because you are missing out. I highly recommend The Ghost Walks.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer