I first saw this short 'B' film when I was about 16 in 1962 at the local cinema and have never forgotten its creepy story line.I searched for it in later years but since the only thing I could remember was actor Peter Dyneley (of Thinderbirds fame) playing the baddie, I was unable to track it down.Now here I am 54 years later being reacquainted with this creepy film courtesy of Youtube.com suggestions on my computer based on my viewing habits!I made a particular note of the actors and title this time in case I want to scare myself again.In 1962 your visit at the local cinema included a cartoon, Pathe News, a 'B' feature (like "House of Mystery).Trailers, followed by the "Big Picture".Ah those were the days!The other reviewers have dealt with the plot so I won't repeat it.I awarded it 7/10 taking into account the limited budget.
15 Reviews
A Mysterious Housekeeperv reveals the history of an eerie country house to a pair of prospective buyers.
snicewanger6 June 2014
I saw this movie for the first time on Kraft Mystery Theater in the summer of 1962.I was twelve years old and it gave me a real chill.I did not see it again until November of 2013. Over the years I had tried to find House of Mystery, but was unsuccessful until it was posted on YouTube. When, after half a century, I did view it again, I found to my delight, that I still was able to experience that delicious chill of fear, that I so love when i saw the climax.
I have a great love of ghost stories. The Uninvited, The Haunting, The Innocents, and on television such fare as the Thriller episode, The Hungry Glass" are all favorites of mine and House of Mystery ranks with them.
The pace is quick and has the same feel as one of those "B" shockers from the 1940's. It also has an effective and spooky musical score to add add to the viewers goosebumps. Jane Hylton's performance particularly stands out.
If, like me, you are a fan of classic English ghost stories then I think you will enjoy House of Mystery. It's not easy to locate but it is worth the search.
I have a great love of ghost stories. The Uninvited, The Haunting, The Innocents, and on television such fare as the Thriller episode, The Hungry Glass" are all favorites of mine and House of Mystery ranks with them.
The pace is quick and has the same feel as one of those "B" shockers from the 1940's. It also has an effective and spooky musical score to add add to the viewers goosebumps. Jane Hylton's performance particularly stands out.
If, like me, you are a fan of classic English ghost stories then I think you will enjoy House of Mystery. It's not easy to locate but it is worth the search.
We're gonna rock down to the house on Electric Avenue!
Coventry16 August 2009
"House of Mystery" is an extremely obscure and unknown little film, but if you do eventually encounter a review for it on the internet left or right, it's always very positive and praising. That's the main reason why I tracked it down, actually, since I'm continuously on the lookout for hidden gems in the horror genre. Another thing motivating me to look for a copy was the name of director Vernon Sewell. Sewell definitely isn't the most prominent of British horror directors from the 1960's and 1970's, but he nevertheless made a couple of interesting hit-and-miss films, like "The Horrors of Burke & Hare", "Ghost Ship", "The Blood Beast Terror" and "The Curse of the Crimson Altar". Sadly I have to announce that "House of Mystery" honestly isn't an undiscovered masterpiece. It's a modest, compelling and moderately engaging little thriller with a few good ideas and admirably tense atmosphere, but the conclusion isn't nearly as shocking as build up towards to. With its short running time of barely 56 minutes and abrupt transitions between scenes, "House of Mystery" feels more like an episode in a supernaturally themed TV-show, like Alfred Hitchcock Presents or something. The plot is about a young couple scouting for affordable houses on the British countryside and stumbling upon one that is extremely well-priced considering its size and condition. Obviously there's a minor catch, because the curious female caretaker tells them about the house's dark past. It seems another young couple already bought the house before them and they had problems with the lamps and the TV-set, as a result of electrical impulses around the house going bonkers. The house was originally owned by an electrical engineer Mark Lemming, who discovered that his wife and her lover wanted him dead and invented a little game to get even. "House of Mystery" has a bizarre flashback within flashback narrative structure of which I don't really understand the added value. The couple listens to the story of another innocent couple's bad experiences with the house. How they hired a paranormal detective and how they witnessed a séance to discover the truth. What exactly is the point of all these extra characters? Also, the more you contemplate about the murder plot, the less sense it makes. The fiendish lovers try to kill Mark Lemming through electrocution. Hello, he's an electrical engineer!? Of course he saw through the plan. That's like wanting to kill Mike Tyson in a boxing ring. It just doesn't work. The flashback illustrating Lemming's vengeance abruptly ends without ever stating clear whatever happened to the survivors, so I really can't call it great thriller stuff even if I wanted to. The concept of domestic terror through electrical booby traps is creative and assures a few suspenseful sequences, but that still doesn't guarantee a horror sleeper hit.
HOUSE OF MYSTERY (Vernon Sewell, 1961) ***
Bunuel197623 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I had intended to watch this before the same director's GHOST SHIP (1952) but, eventually, it followed that one in quick succession; I was completely unaware (nor is it acknowledged in the "Movie Connections" section on IMDb) but the latter film proved virtually a remake of the older one! That said, it is handled far more effectively here: the length is even more compact – at a mere 53 minutes – but actually incorporates a good deal of narrative, with three plots going on simultaneously (where GHOST SHIP had only two) and flashbacks-within-flashbacks (again, one more than in Sewell's previous stab at the material)! Anyway, as the title suggests, the property for sale at a cheap price pursued by a couple of newlyweds has been changed this time around to a country-house; as in the earlier film, it is being taken care of by a mysterious person but the woman in HOUSE OF MYSTERY turns out to be somewhat more communicative, recounting its unusual history to the frankly skeptical prospective owners. Another couple (the girl is played by Nanette Newman i.e. Mrs. Bryan Forbes) who had previously lived there begin to experience strange occurrences: at first, it is nothing more supernatural than a light bulb going off and on again – so they ask an electrician to check the wiring but he can find nothing at fault. One night, however, as the light comes back on, Newman sees another man's figure in the room extending his hand to her; typically, the husband attributes this to her imagination – though he concedes to have the Police undergo a thorough search of the premises but, of course, there is no sign of a break-in – that is, until a TV program they are watching is 'interrupted' by the appearance of a face on the screen which Newman tells him is the man she saw in their living-room! Calling the TV station to ask to speak to this person, they are greeted by a baffled director stating that no such close-up was included in the show and this is corroborated by the neighbors who all claim that they experienced no trouble with their reception! Finally, they decide to seek the help of a parapsychologist – who cannot hide his enthusiasm at the prospect of communication with the afterlife through one's personal TV set (this is over 20 years before POLTERGEIST [1982] remember!). The lecture he goes into, the arrival of the elderly medium and her 'recollections' pretty much duplicate those seen in GHOST SHIP, though still done with more panache here (especially the elaborate and ingenious way in which the house's original proprietor takes revenge on his money-grubbing wife and her lover). So far so good. The denouement of the original film was relatively ordinary but, in HOUSE OF MYSTERY, this becomes its piece-de-resistance: we are not shown the woman's fate, nor do we learn how her husband/presumed killer came to be electrocuted himself later on
until – now gone back to the present day and our main narrative – the light bulb goes out of its own accord yet again, we realize that the ghosts have not been exorcised, and the housekeeper retreats wraith-like into the walls (to the shock of those present and the viewer)! Though obviously made on a tiny budget, the atmosphere throughout is more than adequate and, as an added treat, composer Stanley Black supplies a commendably Hammeresque score.
"You see. This is the room"
hwg1957-102-2657046 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
A well told ghost story. It has a flashback in a flashback structure that works well and has a fine creepy atmosphere which leaves some things to the imagination adeptly. The performances are not showy which adds to the subdued tension. I did particularly like Colin Gordon as the scientific ghost hunter Burdon and Jane Hylton as the story teller with a secret. Stanley Black provides a suitable music score. It shows what can be done with a small budget and careful creativity. Vernon Sewell the director is an under rated film maker.
A combination of direction, lighting and music create a creepy and sinister atmosphere.
jamesraeburn200325 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
A young couple (Ronald Hines and Colette Wild) visit an isolated but attractive house in the Devon countryside, which they are surprised to find is being sold for far less than it is worth. They are shown around by a mysterious old woman (Jane Hylton) who tells them about the house's sinister past. It was once owned by an electrical engineer called Mark Lemming (Peter Dyneley) who discovered his wife Stella was having an affair with his best friend Clive (John Merivale). When their attempt to kill him failed, Lemming got his revenge by trapping them in the the house that he wired up so that if they touched anything they would be electrocuted. Stella and Clive died in their attempts to escape and, some time later, Lemming killed himself during an experiment that went wrong. Ever since then, anybody who bought the house ended up selling it and moving on within a short space of time since it is haunted. The couple are disturbed and no doubt deterred from buying what they thought was a "dream house", but who is this strange elderly woman and is she connected to the place's sinister past?
This highly acclaimed b-pic was originally released as the support feature to Sidney Hayers' classic heist thriller Payroll in UK cinemas. It was writer-director Vernon Sewell's fourth attempt to film an old French grand guignol play entitled L' Angoisse, which he first made as The Medium in 1934 (his debut feature as a director). His second version was an 'A' film entitled Latin Quarter (1945), which concerned the exploits of a mad sculptor who hides his murder victims in his work and the third go was the neat 'B' film Ghost Ship (1952) about a haunted yacht. In life Sewell was a keen yachtsman and his own steam yacht, The Gelert, featured in a number of his movies including that one.
House Of Mystery deserves its reputation as a distinguished second feature and anybody who believes that good results could never be achieved in this area of British cinema will doubtlessly change their mind after seeing it. For a film that only lasts 56 minutes, it succeeds in creating a creepy and sinister atmosphere through a combination of taut direction (Vernon Sewell), music (Stanley Black), lighting (Ernest Steward), who in a rather splendid touch opts to keep the ghoulish Jane Hylton in shadow during her scenes narrating her sinister tale to the naive house hunters. The film couldn't have worked in anything but black and white. The quality of Sewell's direction makes one regret that he never got to make any more major films after the late forties as he spent the remainder of his film career making quickies. He certainly stages some entertaining shocks such as the ghost of the electrical engineer Lemming manifesting itself on a TV screen. The scenes where he traps his adulterous wife and her lover in the live sitting room manage to be suitably unsettling too. It's most spine chilling moment has to be where Stella is attempting to climb out of a window and her vengeful husband sends the voltage through her as she is suspended across the window frame. Anybody who has seen Ghost Ship (issued on DVD in 2007) will spot some glaring similarities with that film here such as the use of a medium who is employed by the owners of the property to discover the reasonings behind the hauntings. Yet, as in Ghost Ship, it is well handled and adds greatly to the atmosphere of the mysteriousness. Good acting all round too especially from Jane Hylton and Dyneley who neatly portrays a sense of rational, yet chilling menace as the mad scientist.
This highly acclaimed b-pic was originally released as the support feature to Sidney Hayers' classic heist thriller Payroll in UK cinemas. It was writer-director Vernon Sewell's fourth attempt to film an old French grand guignol play entitled L' Angoisse, which he first made as The Medium in 1934 (his debut feature as a director). His second version was an 'A' film entitled Latin Quarter (1945), which concerned the exploits of a mad sculptor who hides his murder victims in his work and the third go was the neat 'B' film Ghost Ship (1952) about a haunted yacht. In life Sewell was a keen yachtsman and his own steam yacht, The Gelert, featured in a number of his movies including that one.
House Of Mystery deserves its reputation as a distinguished second feature and anybody who believes that good results could never be achieved in this area of British cinema will doubtlessly change their mind after seeing it. For a film that only lasts 56 minutes, it succeeds in creating a creepy and sinister atmosphere through a combination of taut direction (Vernon Sewell), music (Stanley Black), lighting (Ernest Steward), who in a rather splendid touch opts to keep the ghoulish Jane Hylton in shadow during her scenes narrating her sinister tale to the naive house hunters. The film couldn't have worked in anything but black and white. The quality of Sewell's direction makes one regret that he never got to make any more major films after the late forties as he spent the remainder of his film career making quickies. He certainly stages some entertaining shocks such as the ghost of the electrical engineer Lemming manifesting itself on a TV screen. The scenes where he traps his adulterous wife and her lover in the live sitting room manage to be suitably unsettling too. It's most spine chilling moment has to be where Stella is attempting to climb out of a window and her vengeful husband sends the voltage through her as she is suspended across the window frame. Anybody who has seen Ghost Ship (issued on DVD in 2007) will spot some glaring similarities with that film here such as the use of a medium who is employed by the owners of the property to discover the reasonings behind the hauntings. Yet, as in Ghost Ship, it is well handled and adds greatly to the atmosphere of the mysteriousness. Good acting all round too especially from Jane Hylton and Dyneley who neatly portrays a sense of rational, yet chilling menace as the mad scientist.
Wah Wah Wah - Not as good as you'd think
jbar1927 June 2009
Not a bad little story. Well acted and GREAT creepy music. The story was well written and logical up to a point. The use of recursive flashbacks is pretty cool also.
But the story doesn't really resolve itself.
I think the reason people were scared by this is because of the scream and creepy stinger music at the end. But even the end is fairly predictable.
This could have been a great movie with a little more thought put into the ending. Another 20 minutes to answer more questions would have helped.
I'm sure this movie would scare the bejeesus out of younger kids who don't look too deeply into the story.
If you want a movie similar to this but vastly superior and scarier, go see 'Frailty'. It takes this idea to a much better conclusion.
But the story doesn't really resolve itself.
I think the reason people were scared by this is because of the scream and creepy stinger music at the end. But even the end is fairly predictable.
This could have been a great movie with a little more thought put into the ending. Another 20 minutes to answer more questions would have helped.
I'm sure this movie would scare the bejeesus out of younger kids who don't look too deeply into the story.
If you want a movie similar to this but vastly superior and scarier, go see 'Frailty'. It takes this idea to a much better conclusion.
Short and sweet....and scary!
mark.waltz3 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
So short and compact that this British film didn't end up on American movie streams, but rather on a TV series, and it probably would have done well as a second feature on an American Drive-In screen. The film features the mystery of a house and the couple who wants to purchase it, getting a glimpse into its past through the housekeeper who shows them around and ultimately a sound where someone in a trance reveals the complex past it has, involving murder and revenge and some very truly shocking twists. What happened before ties in what happens when the couple shows up to look at the house, being sold for a very low price, and revealing an obvious sinister presence that doesn't reveal itself until the shocking ending. Decent performances by mainly an unknown cast (only Nanette Newman was familiar to me), and the type of film where the less known the better. This definitely could have had follow-ups where more apparitions are revealed, because this isn't just a house of mystery. It is a house of many secrets and unsettled spirits.
overlooked gem
michael.will26 February 2000
I saw this movie many years ago and thought it lost, but recently it showed up on a station listed but just out of range, so it's still around somewhere. Won't one of you obscurity specialists find it and put it on the market? An hour long (and thus consigned to the late show from word go) it's the best of Vernon Sewell's numerous little ghost stories. A pair of newlyweds show up to buy a house, and a shadowy lady tells them, in flashback, of the place's history. She starts with another couple who put up with insidious supernatural events, and came to learn, in a flashback within a flashback, the nasty happenings that turned this place into what it is. The finale, though not terribly surprising, delivers in terms of campfire tale creepiness. There isn't, of course, any rules to horror and people keep seeking that elusive formula of fright, but here's a quiet little piece that, with no evident artistic effort, presses just the right buttons. This is one obscurity that won't let you down when you find it.
Well directed, with a good cast
Milk_Tray_Guy8 November 2022
Yet another UK short featuring a newlywed couple looking for a house, and finding one that seems far too cheap! In this case it's the idyllic 'Orchard Cottage'. As they're about to enter the property with the keys supplied by the estate agent, the door is opened from inside by a woman who explains that she comes by now and then to check on the place. She agrees to show them around, and when the couple wonder why such a lovely place is going for such a low price, the woman answers that it may be because of the ghost! She then tells them the story, and of the phenomena witnessed by the last couple who tried to stay there.
Directed by Vernon Sewell (The Ghosts of Berkeley Square, Ghost Ship, The Blood Beast Terror), this one again is more supernatural mystery than horror movie. Nanette Newman, Peter Dyneley (famously the voice of the "5...4...3...2...1" countdown at the start of the Thunderbirds TV show), and Colin Gordon star. Due to its running time (56 minutes), in the US this supporting feature was shown as an episode of the TV series Kraft Mystery Theatre. Generally more 'interesting' than 'chilling', this does have its moments and is worth a watch. 6/10.
Directed by Vernon Sewell (The Ghosts of Berkeley Square, Ghost Ship, The Blood Beast Terror), this one again is more supernatural mystery than horror movie. Nanette Newman, Peter Dyneley (famously the voice of the "5...4...3...2...1" countdown at the start of the Thunderbirds TV show), and Colin Gordon star. Due to its running time (56 minutes), in the US this supporting feature was shown as an episode of the TV series Kraft Mystery Theatre. Generally more 'interesting' than 'chilling', this does have its moments and is worth a watch. 6/10.
The only film I have ever seen that has sent a physical shiver down my spine.
Wilbur-1014 April 2001
This really is a cult masterpiece. With a running time of less than an hour the action takes place in Orchard Cottage where a young house-hunting couple are shown round by a mysterious housekeeper.
The narrative moves to a flashback within a flashback and is gripping viewing as the history of the cottage and its former owner, Mark Lemming, is unfolded.
'House of Mystery' isn't just a neat central idea though - the performances are all good, direction and script flawless and a genuine sense of unease and suspense is built up with a minimum of effort.
This can genuinely rival the likes of 'The Haunting' (1963) and 'The Innocents' (1961) as a ghostly horror film, whilst similar cult-efforts like 'Carnival of Souls' (1962) are more than matched by this unknown British classic.
The narrative moves to a flashback within a flashback and is gripping viewing as the history of the cottage and its former owner, Mark Lemming, is unfolded.
'House of Mystery' isn't just a neat central idea though - the performances are all good, direction and script flawless and a genuine sense of unease and suspense is built up with a minimum of effort.
This can genuinely rival the likes of 'The Haunting' (1963) and 'The Innocents' (1961) as a ghostly horror film, whilst similar cult-efforts like 'Carnival of Souls' (1962) are more than matched by this unknown British classic.
An Approval
Profess Abronsi7 February 2001
I saw this film a few years ago, and couldn't believe how frightening it is. I don't think I've seen anything that has given me the creeps quite so much. I also like the Irene Handl one-liner to her policeman husband, to the effect: "You'd better take your time going round there, so you don't get hurt". But seriously, the use of flashbacks within flashbacks, and the ending, also.
Brilliant Film That Combines Science With Ghostly Phenomena!!
kidboots30 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Wow!! I found this in a "special features" section of an Edgar Wallace
Mystery set - and it is pretty special!! Combining the scientific with
mysticism, it's the story of a haunted house and it's tenant history.
An eager young married couple feel they have found their dream house
but when they press the mysterious caretaker for an explanation as
to why the house is so cheap she tells them the history. Beginning with
the previous tenants, another bright eyed married couple Joan and
Henry Trevor (Natalie Newman was absolutely luminous - a combination
of Audrey Hepburn and Jean Simmons). The sitting room light begins
to have a life of it's own, switching on and off and then Joan sees a man
over by the windows. Henry is quite skeptical but takes a completely
British, unhysterical, systematic approach to things - by mending the
fuseboxes but all to no avail. They then both see the same man appear
on TV and after ringing the station and their neighbours and finding
the phenomena was exclusively shown to them, a TV repair man is
called!! Joan, as a last resort, brings in a "ghost buster" - a gentleman
with a number of electronic gadgets at his fingertips, he then calls in
a medium (Molly Urquhart who plays her completely straight) who
senses evilness and there is another flashback to the original tenants.
The Lemmings, a scientist (Peter Dyneley) and his bored wife (Jane
Hylton) who is having an affair!! So far there have been ghostly
caretakers, metaphysical happenings, now the science starts!! Lemming
knows about his wife's affair and he has rigged up the same sitting room
so that anything the couple touch means instant electrocution. The
scene fades to the present as they await death....
Jane Hylton was able to give her role so much depth that she grabbed your attention instantly - she was a graduate of the Rank Charm School but was more than just a pretty face. Unfortunately the film supposedly her breakout role was "It Started in Paradise" a romantic melodrama of the fashion world that just wasn't that good. The last scene in "House of Mystery" is a shocker, very scary!!
Very Recommended.
Jane Hylton was able to give her role so much depth that she grabbed your attention instantly - she was a graduate of the Rank Charm School but was more than just a pretty face. Unfortunately the film supposedly her breakout role was "It Started in Paradise" a romantic melodrama of the fashion world that just wasn't that good. The last scene in "House of Mystery" is a shocker, very scary!!
Very Recommended.
Innocuous Title Quite Misleading
jadedalex6 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The previous reviewer is correct. This is an intelligent, short movie that unfortunately sports the 'generic' title 'House of Mystery', which tells you absolutely nothing. This is the type of clever story that Rod Serling wished he could have aired on his 'Twilight Zone' hour format. I mention this because the running time is about an hour, and it struck me that this film had all of the hallmarks of a really good 'Twilight Zone', and frankly, the hour long stories in that series were 'padded'...the action was stalled often to fill up a fifty minute run time.
What you get is a screenplay that anticipates the hauntings in 'Poltergeist'. A strange woman introduced at the beginning of the film becomes an incidental 'narrator' and we are led up the garden path with a strange story of an electric engineer and his faithless wife.
I don't think this film rises to the magnificence of 'The Innocents', another very 'wise' ghost story. But frankly, the film is helped by its short length. Modern audiences won't appreciate the black and white film nor the movies 'talkiness' in parts. And the piece sports no dramatic 'special effects'. Tough. They'll just miss yet another fine film.
It was an added bonus to gaze on the young beauty of Nanette Newman at the beginning of her career. Fans of Serling's 'Twilight Zone' would much appreciate the story told here.
What you get is a screenplay that anticipates the hauntings in 'Poltergeist'. A strange woman introduced at the beginning of the film becomes an incidental 'narrator' and we are led up the garden path with a strange story of an electric engineer and his faithless wife.
I don't think this film rises to the magnificence of 'The Innocents', another very 'wise' ghost story. But frankly, the film is helped by its short length. Modern audiences won't appreciate the black and white film nor the movies 'talkiness' in parts. And the piece sports no dramatic 'special effects'. Tough. They'll just miss yet another fine film.
It was an added bonus to gaze on the young beauty of Nanette Newman at the beginning of her career. Fans of Serling's 'Twilight Zone' would much appreciate the story told here.
"Twilight Zone", British Style
GManfred1 September 2015
But Rod Serling could have done a better job with this material, since this kind of stuff was right up his alley. Good premise and good acting jobs by all concerned, and I have to say that these actresses did a better job of screaming than American women, who don't display the anguished facial expressions their British counterparts do.
My objection is that the presentation, which was billed as a horror story, was rather tame by horror movie standards. It was not genuinely scary but more of a fantastic melodrama. I thought I was in for a good, old-fashioned fright film when the story began as a newly married couple tried to buy a house, which is presumably haunted by a ghost. Mercifully, the picture is only 56 minutes long so it didn't wear out its welcome, because the scares never came.
My objection is that the presentation, which was billed as a horror story, was rather tame by horror movie standards. It was not genuinely scary but more of a fantastic melodrama. I thought I was in for a good, old-fashioned fright film when the story began as a newly married couple tried to buy a house, which is presumably haunted by a ghost. Mercifully, the picture is only 56 minutes long so it didn't wear out its welcome, because the scares never came.
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