After courting a woman called Vera for seven years, friends Jack and Leo decide to seclude themselves in the Vermont woods near her home, when she finally decides to accept a third man called Gideon.
A drunken newspaperman is rescued from his alcoholic haze by an heiress whose love sobers him up and encourages him to write a play, but he lapses back into dipsomania.
A quick glimpse at the cast for this film would make any horror fan giddy with glee. The actual movie doesn't live up to those high expectations, but it's far from being all bad. Desi Arnaz Jr. (!) plays an author who makes a crazy $20,000 bet with his publisher that he could write a great novel in only 24 hours. To do so, the publisher gives him the keys to an old abandoned house where he won't be disturbed. Not true. Once he gets there he is interrupted by a multitude of guests including a family which consists of John Carradine, Sheila Keith, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. They are gathered there in a twisted family reunion to release their brother from the room he's been imprisoned in for forty years. Even Christopher Lee drops by as Corrigan, the man who has just purchased the house. Soon, they realize that the caged brother is loose and out for revenge.
What a great plotline and what a dream cast! This movie should have been a hell of a lot better. It's hard to pinpoint the exact problems with the film, but I would venture to say that the lack of lighting was a major fault. Sure the house has no electricity but I think they took the title of the movie a little too literally. Scenes after scenes are barely visible and the actors' faces are undecipherable. Only the moments in the main dinning hall are well lit. Also, the great actors are given very little to do. Cushing gets a few chuckles as the scared brother but Price, Lee and especially Carradine are somewhat wasted here. Well, at least Price gets the best line of the film: `Please don't interrupt me while I am soliloquizing.' And on the plus side, the story has enough twists and turns throughout to keep one`s interest and the ending, while a bit of a cop-out, manages to surprise.
When William Gridley arrives from the US in London, he rents part of Carly Hardwicke's house from her and promptly begins to fall in love. Gridley doesn't know that many people think she killed her husband but his boss, the American ambassador, knows and doesn't take this "lapse of judgement" lightly. Since Carly is also American, Gridley saves his job by introducing her to the ambassador, who is promptly smitten and promises to help her. So when a Scotland Yard detective arrives, wanting to get to the truth one way or another, they say they'll help him. And then the comedic complications really begin.
碧翠丝(金格尔·罗杰斯 Ginger Rogers 饰)是一名已经过气的百老汇女明星,一次偶然中她邂逅了名为克劳恩(威廉·霍尔登 William Holden 饰)的作家。年轻气盛的克劳恩当着碧翠丝的面对她提出了诸多的批评,没想到这反而吸引了碧翠丝的注意,让她对其产生了好感。
碧翠丝的前夫哈里(保罗·道格拉斯 Paul Douglas 饰)是好莱坞知名的制片人,他于偶然之中读到了克劳恩所写的剧本,对其大加赞赏。碧翠丝和哈里找到了克劳恩,劝说他将故事里原本十九岁的女主角年龄改成二十九岁,以方便碧翠丝出演这个角色,最终克劳恩妥协了。莎莉(帕特·克劳蕾 Pat Crowley 饰)是初出茅庐的女演员,在读了克劳恩的剧本之后,她认为自己才是出演女主角的不二人选。