Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

calvinnme Karloff plays a dual role here as twin brothers, the oldest of which is heir to the family fortune and lands. The children's' father fears the old prophesy that as the family began, so will it end, and it began with a younger jealous twin killing the older twin. This is what he fears will happen again since the younger twin inherits none of the lands that the older one does. Furthermore, the younger twin's right arm is paralyzed, giving the younger twin even more reason for bitterness and ultimately jealousy and murder. The prophesy also says that the murder will occur in the "Black Room" just as before. A family friend states the obvious - seal off the black room so that it cannot be used and thus the murder will never happen. The father does that, and erroneously rests easy.Well, history doesn't exactly repeat itself. The older twin, Gregor turns out to be evil, and the younger twin, Anton, though disabled and without property of his own, is a good and generous soul. Gregor invites Anton home to "help him" - which, unknown to Anton, is actually part of a devilish escape plot by Gregor whose subjects are boiling over with rage from all of the women who have gone missing in the castle over the years. Both brothers take a fancy to the daughter of Colonel Hassle, Thea (Marian Marsh), though Thea actually loves a soldier. Thea is quite uneasy with the affections of Gregor, given his polite but menacing demeanor and all of those rumors about missing girls. So how can Gregor manage to both get the girl and get away from the angry villagers? Watch and find out. The plot is extremely clever and ironic, Karloff's acting is superb with his roles seemingly tailor made for him, and the supporting players are very good, but there really isn't much atmosphere in this one to the point that it is really difficult to classify it as horror. Its strength is in its screenplay and in Karloff's performance, not its visuals. Still, I'd recommend this one.

GL84 Aware of a vicious curse rumored to fall on them, a man murders his benevolent twin to continue rule in his stead as he has been doing, only to slowly see his plan unravel when he falls for a young woman and threatens to find his ploy exposed.This here has a lot of problems that really hold this one down a lot. One of the biggest problems here is the simple fact that not a lot happens at all, as there's very little happenings that really generate any suspense or tension at all because it's gone ahead with the switch at the earliest possible convenience. Rather than build up the possible effects of the curse driving him mad and then making the switch to everyone's complete shock, this has them go out in quite early fashion so instead of anything remotely horror based going on it's left with his attempted wooing of the family and romance with the daughter while everyone else at the castle is nary a suspect to the real situation, a possible product of the time that may have been scary then but instead renders the entire middle segment of the film a complete bore. The fact that it takes a completely obscure plot-point with the dog knowing the truth to finally undo the ruse, who comes out of nowhere and is treated rather flimsily anyway as it's ignored most of the movie, and while it does have some fun in the chase back to the castle as well as the attempts to hide amongst the different passages for an exciting conclusion, it's not enough to rise above the dreariness before it.Today's Rating-PG: Violence.

classicsoncall Fans of Boris Karloff are in for double the pleasure with this early Columbia film. He portrays twin brothers, and though the good versus evil twin concept has been done before and since, Karloff gives it a neat twist based on legend and prophesy. With the titled 'Black Room' lending the picture a mysterious and frightful backdrop, an ancient curse proclaims that a younger brother will one day rise to slay the older. I thought it fairly clever that Gregor de Berghman would renounce his barony only to turn around and victimize poor Anton to remain in power and win over the lovely Thea Hassle (Marian Marsh). Gregor's dispatching of Anton lent new meaning to giving his brother the shaft, and for a while there, I was holding out hope that Anton would have survived his ordeal and found a way out of his predicament. But dead is dead as they say, and Gregor would soon enough get his. The fun was in trying to figure out how the younger Anton would eventually fulfill the ancient curse. There was nothing in the rule book that said he had to be alive to do it, which gave the picture an ironic and fitting conclusion.

dotlikestotrot I love Boris and in this movie he shines as the set of twins. I saw it for the first time last year. I recorded it and have watched it numerous times since. If you are his fan...this movie can not be missed. All the supporting actors are wonderful as well, and the beautiful Marion Marsh easy on the eyes. I knew Karloff was an under rated actor...But this movie proves it. Why more fuss was never made about this film, I just don't know. I will tell you I never saw the out come of this movie coming. Or maybe I just didn't want to spoil the shock for myself. Thank goodness for Halloween movies and TCM's airing of them or I would have caught this flick. Enjoy it, I know you will.