The Black Room

Karloff plays a dual role here as twin brothers, the oldest of which is heir to the family fortune and lands. The children's' father fears the old prophesy that as the family began, so will it end, and it began with a younger jealous twin killing the older twin. This is what he fears will happen again since the younger twin inherits none of the lands that the older one does. Furthermore, the younger twin's right arm is paralyzed, giving the younger twin even more reason for bitterness and ultimately jealousy and murder. The prophesy also says that the murder will occur in the "Black Room" just as before. A family friend states the obvious - seal off the black room so that it cannot be used and thus the murder will never happen. The father does that, and erroneously rests easy.

Well, history doesn't exactly repeat itself. The older twin, Gregor turns out to be evil, and the younger twin, Anton, though disabled and without property of his own, is a good and generous soul. Gregor invites Anton home to "help him" - which, unknown to Anton, is actually part of a devilish escape plot by Gregor whose subjects are boiling over with rage from all of the women who have gone missing in the castle over the years. Both brothers take a fancy to the daughter of Colonel Hassle, Thea (Marian Marsh), though Thea actually loves a soldier. Thea is quite uneasy with the affections of Gregor, given his polite but menacing demeanor and all of those rumors about missing girls. So how can Gregor manage to both get the girl and get away from the angry villagers? Watch and find out.

The plot is extremely clever and ironic, Karloff's acting is superb with his roles seemingly tailor made for him, and the supporting players are very good, but there really isn't much atmosphere in this one to the point that it is really difficult to classify it as horror. Its strength is in its screenplay and in Karloff's performance, not its visuals. Still, I'd recommend this one.