The Black Room
       
Director: Roy William Neill
Year: 1935
Rating: 6.5
At 68-minutes, one would guess that this was a 2nd feature but if so, it had some very fine production values - large crowd scenes, period costume, a large castle and two Boris Karloff's. Karloff was a certified star by this time and in the same year as this, he was in The Bride of Frankenstein and The Raven. Horror had latched on to Karloff and it would never really let him go. This has elements of horror, but one without any specific frights. It is more drama and mood. And Karloff as twins - one good, one evil - is particularly good as is the film technology at the time for showing them both in the same frame. It was shot for Columbia rather than Universal and the director is Roy William Neill who definitely fell into the B film unit and was to later direct Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman and many of the Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films. He doesn't waste much time in this one, jumping right into it.

 

The setting is 18th century Germany and the de Berghmann family rule over a province as Barons. All is well except for a prophecy in which there are twins and the younger kills the older. In the Black Room. But what are the chances you might ask? Well, when the Baroness has twins they decide to wall off the Black Room so that it could not come true. But you know how these things go. In some civilizations, they would just have killed the younger son or sent him off never knowing who he was. But the two brothers grow up together until Anton decides to leave and live elsewhere leaving his twin Gregor to rule.

 

Gregor turns into a psychopath with a taste for the local ladies. The castle is like the Roach Motel - they come in but never leave. And are never seen again. He invites his brother Anton to come home, saying he needs him. Anton has had a paralyzed right arm since birth, otherwise the two of them look nearly exactly alike. Gregor has his reasons for inviting his brother back and it is not brotherly love. There is some sort of nonsense with both brothers appreciating the charms of the same woman played by Marian Marsh. But the film is all Karloff as he goes back and forth between playing the twins and giving each a distinct personality. The kindly urbane Anton with his mastiff by his side - while Gregor tries to keep his insanity under control.  Unsuccessfully. And then of course, there is the Black Room.