JohnHowardReid Under the inspired advertising slogan, "Horler for Excitement", Sydney Horler became an extremely popular and prolific writer in the 1930s. Under his own name and two pseudonyms, he published over 150 books. If this picturization of The House of Secrets represents a fair sample of his plotting and characterization abilities, the public was indeed sold a counterfeit, second-rate product. Not only are Horler's plots outrageously dependent on the most incredible co-incidences, but his characters are the leftovers of impossible melodrama. No attempt is made at vivifying these walking pasteboards with any semblances of credibility - let alone originality. And as for the dialogue, Horler's is so riddled and weighed down with the cliched, the mundane and the flatly ridiculous as to make it all seem as if the author's real intention was to write a spoof of Victorian melodrama, complete with energetic but completely smitten hero, beautiful but darkly mysterious heroine, secretive yet overly protective father, thuggish but stupid gangsters, helpful but simple-minded domestics, well-spoken but devious city men, dumb but implacable policemen, aloof yet timely detectives. Add a cackling lunatic or two, a couple of creepy henchmen and a blackmailing stranger (who disappears from the tale after receiving an elaborate introduction) and you have The House of Secrets. A witless spoof, admittedly, but even this possible glimmer in the Horler darkness is negated by the deadly dull seriousness of all the actors on the screen - except Syd Saylor - who play this stupefying nonsense through from beginning to end with not so much as a twinkle of the eye, let alone tongues firmly in cheeks. No wonder Sidney Blackmer doesn't include this feeble effort in his filmography! 64 minutes - it seemed more like 164!

csteidler The House of Secrets starts with an intriguing shipboard encounter: Leslie Fenton (as Barry) assists Muriel Evans (Julie) escape the unwanted attentions of a stranger. She thanks him nicely—but when he attempts to take a look in her handbag for whatever it was the stranger was after, she—get this—throws the whole bag overboard rather than let him see its contents! Hmm, mysterious.Not surprisingly, they soon meet again (in a major but not shocking coincidence, she happens to be living at the large estate he has just inherited), and she becomes one of numerous characters determinedly resisting Barry's attempts not only to enter his own property, but to find out what the heck is going on. These characters include practically everyone else in the story—his detective friend, Julie's scientist father, some police and government officials, and a gang of crooks after a hidden treasure.The plot is fast-moving and fairly intricate, and the dialog is mostly sharp. However, as the story progresses, frustration builds—not only for Barry but for us viewers, who also have no idea why everyone is trying so hard to keep him in the dark. By late in the film, my own sympathies had shifted almost entirely over to the gang of crooks, because at least they were straightforward about what they wanted, which is something you can't say about any of the other characters.The movie also features an ancient document written in "old English," which means it has some words like "ye" and "olde" in it, that is fun for the gangsters to try and sound out. And an inn landlady offers some entertaining colloquial dialog, like her criticism of her husband's aches and pains: "He calls it rheumatism, but I calls it arthritis. I likes to keep up to date." Nothing is particularly authentic, but hey, I point that out in fun, not as a real quibble with the film. Overall, the dialog is one of this film's quite interesting qualities.Overall: well done—but maddening.

MartinHafer "House of Secrets" is a B-movie--a film with a very limited budget and minor actors that was meant as a second, 'lesser', film on a double-bill. Most Bs are a few notches below A-pictures in quality, but there are also quite a few that are nifty entertainment. Well, unfortunately, this is NOT one of those nifty pieces of entertainment! While the film is pleasant enough viewing, those who have seen a lot of Bs and mystery films will recognize practically every cliché from the genre in this one film! Plus, on top of this, the plot is so very contrived that you can't help but giggle now and then--even though this is supposed to be a drama!! The film begins with a woman being bothered by a man on a boat crossing the English Channel. He recognizes her from some sort of compromising situation and tries to force himself on her. At that moment, the hero of the story sees this and intervenes--slugging the filthy blighter. Good show, old man! Pip-pip and all that rot! Then, the hero announces that he now loves this woman--a woman he met only 20 seconds before--making you assume he's had a massive head trauma. Then, after arriving in England, his path just happens to cross hers again and again when he inherits some property. There's of course more to it than this--but not much! With silly script ideas like love at first sight and the like, you simply are left with the impression the film was either written by some 11 year-olds or the film makers were idiots. Either way, it doesn't look very good and is a pretty silly little film.

dbborroughs Although not perfect, this is a film that cheats its audience in order to have a proper running time, this is still a good film. The basic plot has a man from America going to England because he has inherited a house. Amazingly when he gets there, he finds that there are people there already who threaten him and run him off. With the help of a friend who is a well known detective he tries to get to the bottom of it all and falls in love in the process. This is a very good old dark house story, or would be if the film were really set in the house. Much of the movie is involved in getting into the house and in wooing the girl.As I mentioned earlier this is also a movie that can be frustrating since several times characters are about to talk about whats going on when the movie fades to black or cuts to the next scene. Its annoying, for some fatally so, for me I just shrugged and went with it. There is no reason for the fades , other than to annoy the audience since in all but one instance and earlier fade out would have been less maddening.Should you run across this on late night TV give it a shot. Its a nice way to spend an hour.