During a performance of the Broadway show “Dangerous Currents” at the Woodford Theater, the star of the show, John Woodford (Donald Douglas), falls down dead. The body is taken to a dressing room before the police arrive. When the coroner arrives, it is discovered that the body is missing. A search turns up nothing. The theater is closed. Soon tales of Woodford’s ghost being seen haunting the theater are whispered.
A year later a man named Arthur McHugh (William Gargan) leases the theater from the owner, Joseph Morton (Alan Dinehart). McHugh tells everyone that he is a producer and plans on reopening the theater and putting on the original play that was being performed when Woodford was murdered. He also plans on assembling as much of the original cast and crew as possible.
It turns out that McHugh is really a police detective. He has convinced his boss (Charles C. Wilson) that someone wants to keep the theater closed. McHugh believes that there was a reason for that and intends on finding out why. He also believes that if he sets things up properly, he can flush out the murderer.
To replace the missing Woodford, McHugh hires an actor named Carlton (Walter Woolf King). Carlton starts receiving cryptic messages threatening his life. Carlton threatens to quit the production. Before long Carlton is murdered, and McHugh is no closer to discovering who the murderer is.
“House of Fear” was released in 1939 and was directed by Joe May. It is an American mystery thriller with a few old dark house elements and a bit of comedy. The film was based on the 1916 novel by Charles Wadsworth Camp. It is actually one of Universal’s forgotten horror/thriller films and is a remake of the 1928 film “The Last Warning”.
Many mistake the film for one of the Crime Club mysteries that were produced in the thirties by Universal, but it is not part of the Crime Club canon. Some also believe that the film was based on a novel called “Backstage Phantom”. Some believe that there was a reprint of the film called “Backstage Phantom”. Lots of things concerning Wadsworth Camp are a bit confusing. To add to the confusion, the original film, “The Last Warning” 1928, was based on a stage play written by Thomas F. Fallon, who in turn wrote the play based on the novel by Camp.
It’s not the best mystery out there but it wasn’t bad either. It’s not as flamboyant as “The Last Warning”, or as confusing. Part of the draw of the film is the opening scene. We watch what looks like a radio program until the lead actor is murdered. We then find out that it is really a stage play we are watching and that the lead actor in the play was really murdered. From then on it continues as a regular theater murder mystery.
Dorothy Arnold, who plays the gold digger Gloria DeVere, married baseball legend Joe DiMaggio the next year. They were divorced in 1944.