Just as Whale set the standard for horror with Frankenstein, he created in The Old Dark House a classic of the horror subgenre named for this very film that announced Whale’s distinctive blend of horror, satire, camp and farce. The typical “old dark house” film features innocents who stumble upon a sinister mansion; here, in a typically perverse Whale touch, the heroes are a flighty, cynical quintet who are hardly wholesome themselves. Still, they are no match for the freakish Femm family that inhabits the house. Perversely, Whale cast aging actress Elspeth Dudgeon as the Femm patriarch – she is credited in the film as “John Dudgeon,” a secret joke that was not revealed until 1975.

Remember Last Night? recalls The Thin Man’s mix of urbane comedy and murder mystery, and indeed, MGM’s success may have helped Whale convince Universal to let him try the same combination, which he pulled off with obvious relish and considerable sparkle. Raffish sophisticates Tony and Carlotta Milburn celebrate their six-month anniversary with a wild traveling party, house-hopping among their splendidly decadent social set and awakening the following morning to discover a corpse in the next bedroom. Too hung over to remember what happened, they find themselves retracing their steps to piece together the events of the night before. This sadly overlooked classic offers perhaps the best showcase for Whale’s deliciously offbeat and subversive comedy.