Too much of everything

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Absolutely Fantastic

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

An American, who has inherited a stately British house, travels to the UK to take ownership of his new estate. What he finds though, are a group of shady individuals living in it, who are seemingly up to no good. Our hero then tries to get to the bottom of this mysterious situation.House of Secrets is another in the seemingly endless cycle of 30's mystery films. I found it all-in-all to be one of the more enjoyable ones, as there are quite a few plot threads going on, so the film never drags. When it comes to old creaky Poverty Row movies you do have to keep your expectations in check, as these old flicks do have definite limitations. This one does have many of the deficits of these pictures – flat dialogue, a lack of suspense and a ridiculous plot – but it at least tries to keep us entertained throughout with plenty of characters and plot avenues. So overall, as these films go, this one's not too bad at all.

Leslie Fenton's most famous role (apart from being married to Ann Dvorak) was as "Nails" Nathan the dapper gangster in "The Public Enemy". Shortly after appearing in "House of Secrets" he took to directing and directed a few good westerns.Barry (Leslie Fenton) is sight seeing in London when he gets a call from a lawyer. He finds he has inherited an estate from an uncle he never knew he had. When he goes to look it over, he is set upon by dogs, a disgruntled groundsman and a man with a gun. Julie (Muriel Evans) is also there - coming over on the boat, Barry gets into a fight with a chap who is pestering Miss Kenmore. She comes to his rooms to tell him that the man with the gun is her father, although she didn't know anything about buying the house (Barry has had an offer and the lawyer, oddly, has urged him to sell and leave the country!). Barry's friend Tom Starr (Sidney Blackmer), a detective, has found part of a parchment message he gives to Barry. The crooks have the other half!!Julie won't tell Barry what's going on, her father appears to be mixed up in it and there is a mad uncle that needs particular medication. Even Scotland Yard is against him.The secret is not particularly exciting (the confrontation on the boat between Julie and the crook has a clue in it) but the film is okay.

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.

The wise-cracking Leslie Fenton (as "Barry") sounds quite a bit like James Cagney in his gangster days. The lovely Muriel Evans (as "Julie") looks quite a bit like Jean Harlow. The movie is not a true "Old Dark House" movie, because it doesn't have some of the elements required to qualify, but there is an old dark house, a hidden treasure, & lots of mystery. "House of Secrets" is interesting, the dialog is snappy with lots of current day (copyright 1936) slang, the acting is good, the sets are dark & spooky, & there are a few neat sub-plots (one involving Chicago mobsters). What drags this movie down a bit is the redundancy. I couldn't count the number of times Barry asks "What's going on?" & Julie (among many others) replies "I can't tell you." Although I was eventually able to guess the ending, it was difficult to figure out, & fun meanwhile. I rate it 6/10.