The Strange Door *** (1951, Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Michael Pate, Sally Forrest, Richard Stapley) – Classic Movie Review 11,875

Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff overact entertainingly as a mad French nobleman and the family servant in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Door in 1951.

Director Joseph Pevney’s 1951 black and white Universal-International Pictures horror film The Strange Door stars Charles Laughton as mad French nobleman Sire Alain de Maletroit, who goes into lip-smacking malevolent revenge mode after his grasping brother Edmond (Paul Cavanagh) pinches his childhood sweetheart.

She died giving birth to Edmond’s daughter Blanche (Sally Forrest) and Alain imprisons Edmond in his dungeon for 20 years, convincing Blanche that her father is dead and plotting to debase Blanche her.

Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff (as the family servant Voltan) seem to realise that it is trashy horror stuff and ham it up amusingly. They make a splendid double act.

Despite all its flaws and shortcomings, this is a thoroughly enjoyable little horror picture, quite eerily handled, with a good plot that is securely based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story The Sire de Maletroit’s Door, adapted for the screen by Jerry Sackheim.

Also in the cast are Michael Pate, Sally Forrest, Richard Stapley, Alan Napier, Paul Cavanagh, William Cottrell, Morgan Farley, and Charles Horvath.

The Strange Door was shot quickly from 15 May 1951 to 5 June 1951.

It was released on DVD in 2006 by Universal Studios as part of The Boris Karloff Collection with Night Key, Tower of London, The Climax and The Black Castle.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,875

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