Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

HotToastyRag We all know Charles Laughton can play someone likable, and we all know he can play a bad guy-but in The Strange Door he plays both! He's a man driven insane by jealousy and a broken heart, but he's not dark and brooding. He cracks jokes, giggles, and treats everything with a light touch that doesn't overlap into mugging or milking. In the midst of this very dark, creepy story, I found myself laughing every time he was on the screen!Charles lives in a creepy, mysterious house with his niece, Sally Forrest. He arranges for her to marry Richard Wyler, but the pair isn't very willing. Charles is very insistent that his plans get carried out, so he enlists his faithful servant Boris Karloff to help. Poor Boris! Throughout the movie, his only motivation is to be helpful, but he's ordered around by so many different people he gets confused. Despite Charles's humor and Boris's sweetness, this movie isn't really very good. It's not one I'd want to watch over and over again, but if you like old, campy, scary movies, you can rent it.

Michael_Elliott The Strange Door (1951) ** (out of 4)Alain de Maletroit (Charles Laughton) pretty much forces a man (Richard Stapley) to marry his niece (Sally Forrest) but what neither know is that her father, who was believed killed twenty years earlier, is actually being held prisoner is a secret location inside a castle.THE STRANGE DOOR was Universal's attempt at a "horror" film but it's actually a melodrama taken from a story by Robert Louis Stevenson. I'm really not sure what Universal was thinking at this time but it's easy to see why they were becoming a second tier studio in regards to horror and why sci-fi was going to take over the decade. You'd have to search pretty far and wide to find many defenders of this film because there's really nothing too special here outside of the cast.Speaking of the cast, it's really too bad the screenplay and direction are such a bore because we're given some pretty good performances. Laughton delivers in his role but then again he could play these types of crazy characters in his sleep. I also thought both Stapley and Forrest were good in their parts as were supporting players like Alan Napier and Paul Cavanagh. Boris Karloff has a brief role here to press the horror market. THE STRANGE DOOR is just a very boring movie that moves extremely slow and goes no where.

kevin olzak 1951's "The Strange Door" is something of a throwback to the Gothic horrors of previous decades, except that it comes from Universal, which rarely did such pictures (1939's "Tower of London" and 1940's "The House of the Seven Gables" instantly come to mind). Reuniting Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff 19 years after 1932's "The Old Dark House" (James Whale English Gothic), Laughton especially has a field day, alternately menacing and comical, and always fun to watch. Karloff is sadly reduced to a tongue-in-cheek servant role, quietly speaking his lines while rolling his eyes with great frequency. The château was used as a torture chamber during the Middle Ages, featuring a dungeon full of armor and weapons, plus a cell where the walls come together (Lugosi made use of one in 1935's "The Raven"). Richard Stapley (later Wyler) makes little impression as the hero, but Sally Forrest captures the eye as the endangered beauty (even lovelier in "Son of Sinbad" with Vincent Price, where she dances in a skimpy harem outfit). Laughton's sadistic nobleman is ably supported by a terrific supporting cast of rogues ("villainy binds men together!"), with William Cottrell, whom I've never seen in anything else, Morgan Farley, and Hollywood newcomer Michael Pate, who earns a piece of mutton for his handling of a bribe (he later starred as the vampire gunslinger in Universal's 1959 "Curse of the Undead"). Paul Cavanagh and Alan Napier have smaller roles, but are welcome faces nonetheless. This eternally underrated little 'B' features music cues from "The Wolf Man," "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man," and "House of Frankenstein," and was followed a year later by a similar Gothic, "The Black Castle," also featuring Karloff and Pate. "The Strange Door" aired 3 times on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater- November 23 1974 (following 1960's "Doctor Blood's Coffin"), March 13 1976 (preceding 1956's "She Devil"), and December 17 1983 (solo), one of the very last broadcasts, and now available from Chilly Billy himself.

Scarecrow-88 Devlish aristocrat develops scheme to destroy his niece by forcing her into marrying womanizing scoundrel, while holding her father prisoner in a dungeon cell, not knowing that his oft-abused servant is working to set them all free.Charles Laughton is a riot as the lecherous Sire Alain de Maletroit, gnawing without restraint on the scenery, applying relish to the dialogue..his dinner table scene, where he's tearing into his meal along with his underlings, had me in ribbons. Maletroit's château is one of those wonderful Universal sets with secret passageways, torture chambers, hidden rooms, and large areas only a massive castle could contain for banquet guests. While accepting that beautiful fair maiden Blanche(Sally Forrest)and rogue Denis de Beaulieu(Richard Wyler)would fall in love with each other is a bit of a stretch(..and this romance does deter from spending more time with Laughton and Karloff), and the fact that it's hard to fathom Maletroit trusting Voltan(Karloff) to move about unimpeded, I still found The Strange Door incredibly entertaining. The juicy sanguinary dialogue is cheerfully delivered by Laughton who understood how over-the-top the material was, playing it very tongue-in-cheek. While embarrassed critics would commonly complain of Laughton's ham, I say, "Prepare the feast!" Yep, Laughton, in his performance, might deliver the ham, but I'm at the table licking my chops with a fork and knife. Karloff, while in an unflattering role as a mistreated servant, he does get to be the hero at the end, in a suspenseful climax, badly wounded after an altercation with Laughton, attempting to deliver the key to the cell trapping Blanche, Denis, and her father as the walls are closing in to crush them. The 50's wasn't exactly that good to Karloff, but he did what he could with the roles given him. I consider The Strange Door the kind of chiller perfect for a late rainy night, a definite midnight movie deserving of a cult following, if you approach it in the right frame of mind, that is. The villains are so positively evil, you can't help but grin at their benevolent antics.