MikeMagi There are two ways to react to the twist ending of this low-budget thriller. You either love it or hate it. If you're sucker for a roguish surprise -- as I am -- you'll thoroughly enjoy it. At the risk of having to check the "spoiler" box, I will say no more. While the movie was apparently made in Hollywood, the cast is largely British -- Frieda Inescort as the hysterical proprietress of a London B&B, Miles Mander as her hapless husband, Paul Cavanagh as a tenant sweating out delivery of a dangerous package and Heather Angel as Inescort's daughter, smitten with a mysterious writer. Then there's Turhan Bey as a knife-throwing student from the Far East with a dying assassin hidden under his bed. As tenants vanish and dead bodies pile up, the police keep coming up with the wrong answer. But despite the somewhat stolid direction, stick with it. The ending is too much fun to miss. Unless, of course, you're among those who hate it.

Terrell-4 This old-dark-house movie...well, old-dark-boarding-house movie...is a lot of fun. If you're willing to accept that it's dated and the acting is clunky, you'll be rewarded with something either suspicious, threatening or violent going on almost every minute, with genteel accents by the main characters plus a twist at the end that should have you smiling. In London in 1937 the Armitage rooming house is run by Mrs. Stella Armitage (Frieda Inescort) with help from the maid (Phyllis Barry) and from her daughter, Sylvia (Heather Angel). Her husband, Tom Armitage (Miles Mander), is an older, distracted man who concentrates on solving chess puzzles. Among the roomers is a mysterious young man from India, Ram Singh (Turhan Bey); a smooth older man, Joe Reynolds (Paul Cavanaugh), who seems to know Mrs. Armitage rather well; a handsome writer, Hugh Bromilow (Bruce Lister), who is keeping something secret and who has eyes for Sylvia; and a talkative spinster, Miss Phoebe Snell (Mary Field), who loves describing her romantic dreams at length to anyone who'll listen. Right at the start we learn that there is some sort of skullduggery that involves Ram Singh, Joe Reynolds and a heavy chest Singh spirits into his room from the foggy London docks. The last character is the rooming house itself, a three story dwelling filled with heavy furniture and dark corners, balustrades and carved oaken doors, dim lamps and pots of aspidistra. The movie is only one hour and five minutes long. In those 65 minutes we have murder, suicide, presumed adultery, corpses, disappearing lodgers, locked rooms, smuggled gold, a creeping specter with a shawl over its head, comic bobbies and bemused inspectors, threats and counter threats...and young love. Frieda Inescort does a fine job. She has a young face, a matron's body and an overwrought acting style that can move as fast as a snake from hysteria to barking out orders like a drill sergeant. Paul Cavanaugh is a practiced hand at playing doubtful smoothies. He and his pencil mustache are always amusing to watch. Turhan Bey, in his first movie, was only 19. He has a handsome, baby face, a mellow voice and a surprising amount of gravitas. He's also a dab hand at throwing a knife. Bey became something of an exotic star in the Forties, but saw his career fade away in the Fifties. He returned to Turkey, became a prosperous commercial photographer, then began playing television character parts in Hollywood during the Nineties. Shadows on the Stairs, especially with that unexpected ending, is more of a romantic/ comedy mystery than an old dark house scarum. For two first-rate old dark house movies you should see the 1927 version of The Cat and the Canary and 1932's The Old Dark House. The latter was directed by James Whale and has fine performances by, among others, Boris Karloff, Melvin Douglas and, especially, Ernest Thesiger. He is one of the Femm family, and a stranger bunch of siblings speaking some of the ripest dialogue there never has been since. Says Rebecca, the Femm sister, "They were all godless here. They used to bring their women here -- brazen, lolling creatures in silks and satins. They filled the house with laughter and sin, laughter and sin. And if I ever went down among them, my own father and brothers, they would tell me to go away and pray, and I prayed -- and left them with their lustful red and white women." Now that's a family in an old dark house to avoid.

dbborroughs In a boarding house in London in 1937 all is night quiet. The boarders and the landlords are all enmeshed in plots of love, lust and greed. It isn't long before bodies begin piling up.Unremarkable, but rather enjoyable little mystery based upon a stage play called Murder on the Second Floor, which is the floor that all of the boarders stay on. I went into the film knowing next to nothing about the plot and had myself a really good time. Forgive me for not giving more details as to the plot but since the film is so convoluted it takes a good long while before you can really get a handle on who is who and who is doing what. I think had I known what was going on at the get go I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much, part of the fun was waiting to see what was actually going on. It is all explained, a bit too nicely, but considering the denouncement, understandably.Definitely worth a look see if you like mysterious mysteries of a contrived sort.6.5 or so out of 10, 6 out of ten for IMDb purposes.

kidboots The blurb on my DVD says "the creatively twisted ending is what has contributed to the popularity of this movie for the past six decades"!!!!! Don't believe it. I would class the ending as very annoying and in the "it's all a dream" category - even though it isn't.As in many of these "little' films there are tons of stars. Frieda Inescourt plays the owner of a boarding house.Heather Angel plays Sylvia, the landlady's daughter. I adore her. In the same film collection as this one she is also in "Bulldog Drummond Escapes" - where she is very smart and sassy.Phyllis Barry, who in 1932 made such a splash as a jilted shop girl in "Cynara", 10 years later was reduced to playing maids and uncredited bits. In this film she plays Lucy, the put upon maid.Bossy (and married) Mrs. Armitage, the boarding house owner, is having an affair with Mr. Reynolds (Paul Cavanaugh), who, in turn, is having an affair with Lucy, the parlour maid.Turhan Bey (in between Maria Montez and Sabu films) plays a mysterious boarder.Strange things start to happen - someone is found unconscious under a bed. (You find out who did that early in the film). There is a strange person in a shawl on the stairs (the clues lie in a conversation at the beginning of the film.) Then Lucy disappears. Then Mr. Reynolds is shot dead. Mrs. Armitage has hysterics. There is also a mysterious note delivered half way through the film. "Dear Dwight - Why are you going under the alias Hugh Bromilow". Why indeed - everything is explained in the end.