The Secret of the Blue Room [Blu-ray]

Director: Kurt Neumann Kurt Neumann

Overview

In this melodrama, a group of wealthy people are staying at a luxurious European mansion. According to legend, the mansion's "blue room" is cursed. The three suitors of the heroine wager that each can survive a night in the forbidding blue room.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/02/2021
UPC:	0738329256463
Original Release:	1933
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:06:00
Sales rank:	22,878

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Lionel Atwill	Robert von Hellsdorf
Gloria Stuart	Irene von Hellsdorf
Paul Lukas	Capt. Walter Brink
Edward Arnold	Commissioner Foster
Onslow Stevens	Frank Faber
Robert Barrat	Thomas Butler,Paul
Muriel Kirkland	Betty
Russell Hopton	Max
Elizabeth Patterson	Mary
Anders Van Haden	Stranger
James Durkin	Foster's Assistant
William Janney	Thomas Brandt
¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿	Composer

Technical Credits

William Hurlbut

Kurt Neumann	Director
Carl Laemmle Jr.	Producer
William Hurlbut	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

The fact that Universal made it has awarded this tight little whodunit status as a horror film. There are indeed some horror elements (spooky rooms, secret panels, etc.) but the mysterious goings-on are subsequently explained to everyone's satisfaction, except perhaps the viewer who is forced to grabble with a couple of loose ends. The Secret of the Blue Room was indeed one of Universal's cheapest releases of 1933 -- a Depression year that did not call for extravagance anywhere -- but good utilization of standing sets, including the mansion from James Whale's far superior The Old Dark House (1932), adds production values not matched by its Poverty Row competitors, of which there were many. Also leftover from The Old Dark House, so to speak, is Gloria Stuart, who makes the perfect foil for Lionel Atwill's troubled estate owner. Remade twice by Universal, Secret of the Blue Room was based on the German Geheimnis des Blauen Zimmers, produced by Engels & Schmidt Tonfilm in 1932.