Secret of the Blue Room (1933)

... and have a higher rating! It certainly holds up on repeat viewings. In spite of the artwork and tag lines, it is not a horror film, but instead belongs in the mystery genre. Robert Von Heldorf (Lionel Atwill), father of Irene Heldorf (Gloria Stuart) is hosting a 21st birthday party for his daughter. At the party are the three men who hope to marry her. One seems too young - William Janney as the rather impulsive and hard sell Thomas. Another seems not that competitive - a newspaper reporter, as Frank. Finally there is Paul Lukas as the confident but caring Captain Walter Brink. They all want Irene to decide now - like tonight! -which one she is to marry. You get the feeling that Irene has not put much thought into this.Thomas brings up the subject of the legend of the blue room in the Von Heldorf castle. Three people in succession who have spent the night in it have died under mysterious circumstances, and it has been shut up ever since. Thomas proposes that each of the three suitors spend a night in the blue room, and since it was his idea, he will be the first. He further stipulates that if anything happens to any of them, that the others go ahead with their plans to sleep in the blue room.So Thomas sleeps in the blue room, and the next day is missing! He's not in the moat - he's nowhere to be found. The next night the reporter spends the night in the blue room, and is shot dead. Will Captain Brandt, who has been taking this opportunity, freely given by Irene, to get closer to her and comfort her, keep the bargain and spend the third night? If so what happens? Watch and find out.In the middle of all of this mystery, the maid is holding something over the chauffeur's head and threatening to tell, the loyal head servant Paul (Robert Barrat) is signaling someone in the distance from the castle, and Robert Von Heldorf is making trips out into the night in his automobile. Police Commissioner Forster has much on his hands trying to figure this one out.Let me say just one thing - if you listen carefully at the beginning of the film you probably can figure at least part of this out. Let me also tell you that the three first deaths that started the legend of the blue room are not solved by this film. Also, the exact location of the film is never actually revealed. Since this was based on a German play, I assume Germany. If that is the case, Paul Lukas is the only one speaking with the proper accent, and some characters, such as the chauffeur and the newspaperman, sound like they are from urban America, not Germany.At any rate, I highly recommend this one.

I last saw this film 30 years ago, remembering only the final chase down the innumerable underground stairs. Seeing it again I see why that's all I remembered. There is no feeling of suspense. The lighting is bright and uninteresting, the directing bland, the actors simply walking through their roles with some of them being downright amateurish. Lionel Atwill shows not a trace of evil intent, immediately removing him as a red herring. The three suitors have no chemistry with Gloria Stuart or for that matter with each other. The only actor that adds some mystery to the film is Robert Barrat as the butler. The under-appreciated Barrat could play anything believably - judge, madman, sophisticated jewel thief.A few comments about the accuracy of previous reviewers' statements. The Swan Lake title theme was used for Dracula but amended for The Mummy and as such used for Murders in the Rue Morgue and Blue Room. A short studio composed prologue was added as the faces of the pyramid rotated.No sets from The Old Dark House were used in Secret of the Blue Room. It is possible that some details such as wood paneling and stair case portions were re-used.The lowest staircase is identified as the cellar from Frankenstein. This is problematic. The Frankenstein set had a solid floor; Blue Room had flowing water. This same set with rushing water was rented for White Zombie, intimating that it was new or substantially rebuilt for an unknown Universal film subsequent to Frankenstein. Blue Room also had a stone arch in the foreground, lacking in the Frankenstein cellar.Paul Lukas was not imitating Bela Lugosi; he had an identical accent.

1933's "Secret of the Blue Room" was a remake of a 1932 German film titled "Geheimnis des blauen Zimmers," and even uses a few exterior shots from the original, while all interiors were filmed on the same marvelous sets built for James Whale's "The Old Dark House" (1932), also seen in independents such as "The Vampire Bat" and "Strange People." The last of the vintage Universals to utilize Tchaikovsky's serene "Swan Lake" over its opening credits (following "Dracula," "Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Mummy"), it begins on a suitably blustery midnight, celebrating the 21st birthday of young Irene von Helldorf (Gloria Stuart), along with her father Robert (Lionel Atwill), and three determined suitors, police captain Walter Brink (Paul Lukas), newspaper reporter Frank Faber (Onslow Stevens), and the much younger Thomas Brandt (William Janney), who impulsively proposes marriage to Irene on the spot. Mocked by the others, the young Brandt brings up the locked blue room, where Irene's mother had died 20 years before, with two others falling victim within since the original tragedy, all at the stroke of 1:00AM. Betting each of his rivals that they must all spend a night in the forbidding salon, Brandt seeks to prove his bravery by going first, only to disappear without a trace before morning, the bed not even slept in. Von Helldorf is reluctant to phone the police, until on the second night, a shot rings out from the blue room, and Faber is murdered at 1:00AM. Lionel Atwill heads a superb cast in his Universal debut, and Edward Arnold turns in some solid sleuthing, as he later would in the 1935 James Whale whodunit "Remember Last Night?" Formerly husband and wife in Whale's "The Kiss Before the Mirror," are Paul Lukas and seductive Gloria Stuart (disrobing just as her jealous husband shoots her dead); she would next appear in Whale's "The Invisible Man," while Lukas would turn up in Whale's "By Candlelight." Part of the original SHOCK! package of vintage Universal horror classics released to television in 1957, this remake was itself twice remade by the same studio, in 1938 as "The Missing Guest," and in 1944 as "Murder in the Blue Room," both of which changed the backstory and added different characters (in this 1933 feature, no one solves the 20 year old mystery of the blue room). Neither of the two remakes were included in the SHOCK! package, but all three turned up on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, with four broadcasts for "Secret of the Blue Room" - May 18 1968 (following 1959's "Terror is a Man"), May 24 1975 (following 1940's "Chamber of Horrors" and 1943's "Calling Dr. Death"), Mar 5 1976 (following 1957's "The Deadly Mantis"), and Sept 10 1983 (solo).

Because it was released by the premier horror studio Universal, focuses on an old castle with a spooky room, and features horror star Lionel Atwill, SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM has been marketed as a horror film throughout the year. It's actually a whodunit with horror elements that influence but never dominate the film. But it would be close-minded to reject this film just because it's not a full-fledged chiller. SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM is an enjoyable film that projects an air of menacing mystery and efficiently moves the plot with a palpable suspense until the movie's resolution.SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM benefits from attractive sets (leftover from THE OLD DARK HOUSE and FRANKENSTEIN) that convey an ornate yet forbidding castle milieu. Director Kurt Neumann, while no stylist in the James Whale vein, effectively utilizes the setting's atmospheric potential. He provides a suitably eerie aura with taste and restraint, avoiding obvious stunts like self-playing pianos. Such gimmicks would damage the film's mood and credibility.On the whole, performances are good. The actors and actresses provide believable characterizations that help propel the plot. Particularly impressive are Lionel Atwill as the castle owner troubled by his estate's secrets and Edward Arnold as a detective who handles the castle's mysteries in a domineering, no-nonsense manner. Elizabeth Patterson is mildly annoying as a terrified maid, but fortunately her performance doesn't affect BLUE ROOM's atmosphere.Curiously, a few of the plot's riddles remain unexplained at the film's end. It would have been logical for Universal to provide a sequel with the same fine cast in order to resolve everything. Instead, the studio chose to remake the film twice with different performers. But BLUE ROOM's minor plot holes shouldn't detract one from enjoying this well-made mystery.