DARK AND STORMY NIGHT - ***

Directed Director, Larry Blamire. Starring Fay Masterson, Brian Howe, Jim Beaver, Robert Devreau, Kevin Quinn, James Karen, Daniel Roebuck, Jennifer Blaire. Comedy/Mystery, USA 2009, 93 mins, Certificate PG

Release Date : 9th May 2011. RRP : £12.99

Writer / director Larry Blamire has quietly carved out a cinematic niche for himself making genre-pastiche movies like THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA and TRAIL OF THE SCREAMING FOREHEADS, gently spoofing American B pictures of the 50’s and 60’s, with an obvious affection for old-school horror and sci-fi in particular. He has built up a recurring repertory company of actors in the patented fashion of fellow filmmakers Mel Brooks and Christopher Guest. DARK AND STORMY NIGHT, billing itself on screen as “A Larry Blamire Thing” is an affectionate pastiche of Gothic drawing room mysteries and Hollywood old dark house pictures of the 1920’s and 1930’s - movies like THE BAT and THE CAT AND THE CANARY. Fans of the format will immediately and nostalgically notice the old-school credits, well-timed thunder claps, rapid fire dialogue, melodramatic music, fainting dames and those portraits where the eyes follow you around the room.

As in its pre-war predecessors, this black and white movie centres around the reading of a millionaire’s will at his mansion during a storm. Citadel reporter Daniel Roebuck, in the middle of nowhere desperately seeking a scoop, is among the assorted travellers, rival reporters and optimistic hangers-on who turn up at the house hoping for their cut of the departed’s fortune. If you don’t at least smile at some of the character names (Seyton Ethelcake, Dr Van Von Vandervon, Farper Twyly, Mrs Cupcupboard) you’re probably watching the wrong movie. Brian Howe is the twitchy nephew of the deceased, Robert Devreau is a boss-eyed, meat cleaver-wielding chef who once made muffins so small no one could eat them, the resident medium notes wisely “I sense death” while standing next to a corpse, and everyone’s a suspect when a cloaked murderer begins stalking and stabbing during carefully contrived “lights out” moments. Panic and confusion ensue, including the unfortunate mix-up of the words “sedative” and “poison”.

Blamire has a lot of infectious fun with surrealistically odd colloquialisms and peculiar character behaviour, and the consciously broad, deliberately theatrical cast (among them genre veteran James Karen) rise to the occasion. Jim Beaver is especially funny as a hunter fond of riddles and odd turns of phrase : “Like the Cantonese walking goose one doesn’t tell until it is time…”. For no extra cost, you even get legendary genre collector / erstwhile performer Bob Burns essaying the role of “Kogar the Gorilla”.

Fans of the vintage movies this satirises will most appreciate the way Blamire piles up the red herrings and outrageous array of McGuffins : not only has the house been cursed by a witch burned at the stake exactly 300 years earlier, but the deceased vowed to return from the grave on the same night and there’s an escaped lunatic on the rampage. Plus an array of hitherto unexplained strangulations in the area of late.

“I thought I heard something like an ostrich behind me, but cant be sure…” The barrage of one-liners and quips wont be to everyone’s taste, and neither will the intentionally theatrical look and feel. It’s certainly clever and amusing rather than laugh out loud funny, and Blamire is hampered by over length : there’s a reason the old movies of this nature got the job done in a nimble 70 minutes. Nonetheless, although the rich visual sense of a genuine 35mm black and white feature is sorely missed (this was shot on HD and converted to monochrome), the wordplay is genuinely witty, the performances are dead-on and the pastiche accurate to the point of including one genuinely godawful cockney accent in the great tradition of 1930’s Hollywood.

Steven Wes

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