Alicia I love this movie so much

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

preppy-3 Movie takes place in a large dark eerie castle where a man (Lionel Atwill) lives with his daughter (Gloria Stuart). She's being wooed by three young men who want to marry her but she can't decide which one she wants. Twenty years before three unsolved murders happened in one room of the castle (the blue room). Since then the room has been blocked off. The three guys decide to prove their bravery--they'll each spend a night in the room. Naturally things go wrong.Often thought of as a horror film but it really isn't. It's whodunit with horrific touches. The castle is dark and spooky and the movie begins on a dark and rainy night. Also it's lots of fun. It moves quickly (it's only 66 minutes), has a good cast and an interesting mystery. Worth checking out.

MartinHafer During the 1930s, there were a ton of 'dark house mysteries'...films where a murder takes place at some creepy house or mansion. The cops end up investigating and eventually it's all sorted out by the end...and there are usually a few more bodies by the time it's all sorted. Because of this, there is definitely a sameness to this movie as these others...though fortunately there are enough differences to make it interesting.The film begins with Irene's 21st birthday. Apparently she (Gloria Stuart) is quite the catch, as three men are there vying for her affection at this little party. To prove his rugged manliness, the youngest of her suitors promises to spend the night in the Blue Room. Why is this so scary? Twenty years ago, three people died there...and it's been bolted shut ever since. The two other suitors join him and by morning, one of them is dead. Soon the inspector (Edward Arnold) arrives and tries to figure out what happened.It's interesting that the same exact musical intro occurs in this film as "Dracula"....made by the studio two years earlier. "Swan Lake" was reused and most folks might not recognize it...and the IMDb trivia draws attention to this.So is it any good? Well, it does help that the film has some excellent actors in it, such as Lionel Atwill and Paul Lukas. He and the rest of the cast do a competent job with the story

Al Westerfield I last saw this film 30 years ago, remembering only the final chase down the innumerable underground stairs. Seeing it again I see why that's all I remembered. There is no feeling of suspense. The lighting is bright and uninteresting, the directing bland, the actors simply walking through their roles with some of them being downright amateurish. Lionel Atwill shows not a trace of evil intent, immediately removing him as a red herring. The three suitors have no chemistry with Gloria Stuart or for that matter with each other. The only actor that adds some mystery to the film is Robert Barrat as the butler. The under-appreciated Barrat could play anything believably - judge, madman, sophisticated jewel thief.A few comments about the accuracy of previous reviewers' statements. The Swan Lake title theme was used for Dracula but amended for The Mummy and as such used for Murders in the Rue Morgue and Blue Room. A short studio composed prologue was added as the faces of the pyramid rotated.No sets from The Old Dark House were used in Secret of the Blue Room. It is possible that some details such as wood paneling and stair case portions were re-used.The lowest staircase is identified as the cellar from Frankenstein. This is problematic. The Frankenstein set had a solid floor; Blue Room had flowing water. This same set with rushing water was rented for White Zombie, intimating that it was new or substantially rebuilt for an unknown Universal film subsequent to Frankenstein. Blue Room also had a stone arch in the foreground, lacking in the Frankenstein cellar.Paul Lukas was not imitating Bela Lugosi; he had an identical accent.

jonfrum2000 Considering it's age, a pretty good old dark house/castle movie The acting is a bit stilted, as one would expect for the year it was made This is a locked room mystery, in which multiple people have been/are killed in the castle 'blue room' The film starts out slow with a love quadrangle (!) and a full length song, but gets going after that, The earlier mystery that the plot is based on is never explained, and leaves us wondering at the end, Paul Lukas plays with a strange Bela Lugosi accent, which i found annoying, but i got used to it eventually, Worth watching for genre fans, but it would have been better if they waited a few years to make it