It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The concept of the old dark house type of horror movie was very common in the 1930s but died out relatively quickly . This is down to the fact that it's very self limiting but still cast a shadow against the rest of the genre . How many times have you seen a sequence set in a dark house where lightning flashes across the sky and thunder rumbles ? It's become something of a cliché and one wonders how audiences would have reacted when this type of movie was something new ? THE MONSTER WALKS is one of the very earliest old dark house movies and to be blunt it's absolute rubbish . This is not to say it's not entertaining but it should be pointed out that none of the entertainment value is intentional . Whlist James Whale's THE OLD DARK HOUSE is deliberately tongue in cheek keeping with the director's sense of humour this film is funny for all the wrong reasons A good example of this happens in the opening credits where one of the cast members is credited as " Sleep n Eats "a pseudonym for actor Willie Best . It's fashionable for African Americans to use a made up name such as Snoop Dog or 50 Cents but Sleep n Eat ? I bet Willie Best didn't pick that name . As you can imagine being African American he speaks in a stereotypical manner as in " Where da dead man dat "which if nothing else relives the tedium In fact the rest of the cast do their best to out do one another by giving the most dreadful , stilted wooden performances you can never hope to see in a movie with only Sidney Bracey giving any sort of accetable performance as the polite English sounding butler . As for the rest of the movie it would have been totally forgettable if this wasn't a film that was so bad it's almost good

The Monster Walks (1932) ** (out of 4) It's rather amazing at how many films would follow after The Bat was released in 1926 and kicked off the "old dark house" genre. This time a daughter returns to her father's house after his death so that she can hear the will being read. Everything starts off okay but soon a killer is stalking everyone with the help of a gorilla. I'm still rather curious why every "old dark house" from this period featured a gorilla. I'm going to guess that movie crowds back then were scared of them as I don't see why they should play such an important part in these films. Nothing really stands out in this film, although the running time is just over 60-minutes. The performances are decent but nothing special and the story itself doesn't offer enough twists to be entertaining. God knows there are far worse than this out there but then again there are much better ones. The racial humor from a servant (named Sleep 'N Eat) is off base and doesn't really help matters.

WoooOOOoooOOO... In the mood for a cheap, substandard rehash of the 1927 silent horror classic THE CAT AND THE CANARY? It's a dark and stormy night at an old, creepy mansion. The home's wealthy owner, a follower of the theories of Darwin for what it's worth, has just recently bought the farm. Assorted family members and the hired help all gather together to find out what kind of goodies the deceased has left them. Friend and attorney Herbert Wilkes (Sidney Bracey) presides over the reading of the will. Present and accounted for are the wimpy, overly emotional daughter Ruth (Vera Reynolds), her doctor boyfriend Ted (Rex Lease), wheelchair bound Uncle Robert (Sheldon Lewis), fraidy cat black chauffeur Exodus (Willie Best aka Sleep 'n' Eat), elderly maid Emma (Martha Mattox) and her very tall and menacing half wit son Hans (Mischa Auer), who... speaks... very... very... slowly... Even though the deceased made sure everyone basically got what they deserved, he left the majority of his cash (50,000 bucks) and his home to his daughter. One, or perhaps several, of the others decide they want poor Ruth dead so they can get her share of the inheritance. Did I forget to mention there's also a hyperactive "ape" (chimp) named Yogi locked up in the cellar? Everyone shudders in fear about the dreaded evil monkey being in the same home as them even though it never once leaves its cage. It basically just lets out the occasional shriek, bounces up and down, grabs the cage bars and shakes it all around, and later becomes an easy scapegoat when one of the characters ends up dead with hand prints around their throat. Exodus says "I had a grand pappy who looked somethin' like him!" Groan.Fans of cheap old horror flix will be all-too-familiar with this film's set-up, plot and roster of stock characters. The whole thing is dull, lifeless, excessively talky, set-bound and hopelessly clichéd, and that's even when you put in context of the time it was made. The one pseudo scary moment, as a hairy arm reaches through the back of a bed toward the sleeping leading lady, is lifted directly from the aforementioned CAT/CANARY, the supposed comic relief isn't the least bit amusing, the revelation of the killer(s) is predictable and the acting is horribly stiff from nearly everyone concerned, with Bracey and Mattox being the least offensive of the bunch. The sound quality is also bad and the sets are so flimsy that when someone knocks on a door the whole wall shakes like it's about to fall over. It's only worth checking out for a couple of unintended laughs or for monkey movie fetishists.

This would be a decent creaky old dark house movie if it wasn't for the acting and over acting. Basically a prodigal daughter returns to her home when her father dies for the reading of the will. The servants are weird, the uncle is in a wheel chair, an abused chimp is in a cage in the basement and there are secret passages through the house. This is low budget film from the early days of sound and it seem like it. There is little background noise and no music which more times than not slows things down. Worse is the acting which seems to have been done in some odd experimental style. Misha Auer, seen in later films with a pronounced accent seems almost not to have one. His performance is very odd, especially when compared to later films. Interesting here you get to see just how big and imposing man he was. The movie is painfully slow and probably would have put me to sleep had I been just sitting and watching the film. This is not a film to recommend unless you have insomnia. Its an interesting film as a curio but isn't remarkable and the plotting is truly run of the mill. There are better ways to spend your time.