| The Missing Guest | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | John Rawlins |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Based on | Secret of the Blue Room by Erich Philippi |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Milton Krasner [1] |
| Edited by | Frank Gross [1] |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures Co. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 68 minutes [1] |
| Country | United States [2] |
The Missing Guest is a 1938 American mystery-comedy film directed by John Rawlins. [1] It is a remake of the 1933 film Secret of the Blue Room .
A newspaper reporter is sent by his editor to spend a night in a country house where a notorious murder had been committed exactly twenty years before.
The Missing Guest was the first of two remakes of the 1933 film Secret of the Blue Room . [1] [3] The film was budgeted at $80,400 and was completed under budget, at $72,000. [4]
Music in The Missing Guest is recycled from previous films including Werewolf of London and Dracula's Daughter . [4]
The Missing Guest was distributed by Universal Pictures on August 12, 1938. [1] [2]
From contemporary reviews, "Hobe." of Variety referred to the film as a "feeble whodunnit for bottom billing" and that "Every outdated [haunted house] situation and piece of business is included - not only included, but embarrassingly highlighted." [1] [4] The New York World-American stated that "[I]f you know your mystery stories at all, you must know by now how unfunny a couple of presumably comic detectives can be when they get mixed up with spooks, sliding panels, and clutching hands" and found that the film "is a feeble and fumbling attempt at being eerie and funny" [1] Kate Cameron of The New York Daily News said that the comedy in the film was "such feeble fooling that it entirely destroys its purpose and merely serves to shatter whatever illusion the murder and the mystery might otherwise hold for the audience." [1] Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times declared "The cast does as little with it as it deserves, and that is little enough." [1]
In their book on Universal Horror films, the authors stated that "mile-a-minute wisecracks and inane humor stand in for atmosphere and chills" declaring the film to be a "dismal mystery-comedy that serves up none of either." and declaring it to be "one of the worst Universal mysteries of the '30s." [1]
The Invisible Man is a 1933 pre-Code American science fiction horror film directed by James Whale based on H. G. Wells's 1897 novel, The Invisible Man, produced by Universal Pictures, and starring Gloria Stuart, Claude Rains and William Harrigan. The film involves a stranger named Dr. Jack Griffin (Rains) who is covered in bandages and has his eyes obscured by dark glasses, the result of a secret experiment that makes him invisible, taking lodging in the village of Iping. Never leaving his quarters, the stranger demands that the staff leave him completely alone until his landlady and the villagers discover he is invisible. Griffin goes to the house of his colleague, Dr. Kemp and tells him of his plans to create a reign of terror. His fiancée Flora Cranley, the daughter of his employer Dr. Cranley, soon learn that Griffin's discovery has driven him insane, leading him to prove his superiority over other people by performing harmless pranks at first and eventually turning to murder.
The Invisible Man Returns is a 1940 American horror science fiction film directed by Joe May. The film stars Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, Nan Grey and John Sutton. The film is a sequel to the 1933 film The Invisible Man, and the second film in the Invisible Man film series. The film is about Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe (Price) who is condemned for a murder he did not commit, which leads to him begging Dr. Frank Griffin (Sutton) to inject him with the invisibility serum despite Griffin's warning that the serum will drive him mad.
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The Secret of the Blue Room is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Kurt Neumann and starring Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Paul Lukas, and Edward Arnold. A remake of the German film Geheimnis des blauen Zimmers (1932), it concerns a group of wealthy people who stay at a European mansion that features a blue room that is said to be cursed, as everyone who has stayed there has died shortly after. Three people suggest a wager that each can survive a night in the blue room.
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