|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
Related stuff you might want!!!(commissions earned) |
|
|
|
After the death of her father, Ruth (Vera Reynolds) is made the sole
heir of his fortune - much to the dismay of everyone living in his house,
like his wheelchair-bound brother Robert (Sheldon Lewis), his maid Emma
Krug (Martha Mattox), who had an affair with Ruth's father, her son Hanns
(Mischa Auer), a product of said affair, and Yogi, the ape locked away in
the cellar. Staying at her father's old dark house the night of the
reading of the will, Ruth finds the ape's hand looming over her -
obviously protruding from some secret opening in the wall -, but when she
screams for help, the hand is gone, and when her boyfriend Ted (Rex Lease)
and lawyer wilkes (Sidney Bracey) investigate, they find no evidence to
corroborate her claims, and find the ape safely locked away. But Emma,
whom Ruth calls her auntie, agrees to stay with her that night to
calm her down ... but a few hours later Emma is found strangled in Ruth's
bed, at exactly the time Ted and Wilkes checked up on the ape and heard
Hanns playing his violin. And wheelchair-bound Robert couldn't have done
it, Ted - a doctor - makes sure of that. But while Ted and Wilkes still
try to figure out what has happened and evetnually find Hanns'
violin-playing to be nothing but a record, Hanns confronts Robert - and it
turns out the two were in league to get rid of the girl and get their
hands on the fortune ... and the death of Emma was just a tragic accident,
so tragic indeed that Hanns now strangles and almost kills Robert, then
ties up Ruth, takes her to the cellar, and whips his ape into a rage so he
will tear Ruth apart - thing is, the ape gets a hold of Hanns' whiplash
and tears him apart instead. And when Ted finally rushes in for the
rescue, everything's already resolved.
Old dark house-thriller with all the usual pulp mainstays, including
hidden panels and secret passageways, apes in the cellar, seemingly
unsolveable murders and an assortment of greedy heirs - so admittedly,
this film doesn't offer all that many new insights into a tried and true
story ... but in its cheap and old-fashioned way, the film is still pretty
charming and entertaining anyways.
|