Shocks! Shivers! Sensation! Surprises! Creeping shadows, clutching hands, a blue death-chamber and a houseful of bewildered men defying the supernatural for the sake of a beautiful girl!…
Often mislabeled as a horror film, 1933’s Secret of the Blue Room is more accurately as thriller with gothic overtones. Yes, there are dark shadows, a few heavy breezes and many reused sets from previous Universal horror films, but the gist of the film is an old school mystery. Many have debated which sets come from which Universal film, but it really isn’t that important at all to the proceedings at hand.
Gloria Stuart plays just turned 21 year old Irene von Helldorf, and as we open she’s having her birthday party, hosted by her father Robert (Lionel Atwill). Along for the ride are three would-be suitors in the form of actors Paul Lukas, Onslow Stevens and William Janney. All the men (including rather creepily, her own father) dote on her over dinner in pursuit of her affections.
After a rather warbled singing excursion from Ms. Stuart, Tommy (William Janney) offers the other two men (here excluding her father) a challenge. Starting with himself, they will each spend a night in the mysterious Blue Room. Though never explained (among many things left hanging in Secret of the Blue Room) evidently a few men previously went missing or were found dead after spending a night in the Blue Room, with all the incidents happening around 1 AM.
Tommy stays the first night and is found missing the next morning. Frank (Onslow Stevens) takes his turn the second night and is found shot to death. Only when Captain Brink (Paul Lukas) takes his turn does the mystery unfold with the help of the local police commissioner (Edward Arnold).
While clearly a low budget film (reportedly Universal’s lowest budget picture for 1933), Secret of the Blue Room makes up for some of what it lacks in plot and depth with great mood and relatively strong performances.
That said, the picture still relies on many old (even for the day) tricks and manufactured drama which makes the running time seem much longer than the seventy minutes or so that it actually is. The producers through in a few fairly obvious red herrings (unexplained cars driving off in the night and a strange visitor who visits the kitchen a bit too often) in the proceedings which serve only to stretch things out. There are also more than a few loose ends that are never explained adequately such as what was the source of the original murders in the Blue Room and what’s the deal with the mysterious kitchen visitor?
Secret of the Blue Room doesn’t get viewed too often and though that might not be the worst of things, the film is still a fine example of how studios could cheaply and relatively quickly crank out product.
The cast all do a fairly good job with the material, especially Gloria Stuart, who manages to drive a bit of drama into her performance without the support of a strong script. Lionel Atwill, though leading the bill, is more or less an afterthought outside of a few good scenes.
On a final note, at least the police are portrayed as relatively competent, with Commissioner Forster being light years ahead of Universal’s later bumbling Inspector Lestrade of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vzrVBYaaSs[/embedyt]