The performances are fine, but neither of the leads sparks much beyond the basic presence, though the script doesn’t give them a lot to work with. This one has a decent cast, given the low budget, b movie nature of the material, with Dick Purcell and Ann Sheridan in the most prominent roles. The b movie vibes are decent here, the cast is solid, and while not all that original, the narrative is capable and covers the usual bases, so genre fans should be pleased there. But don’t take this to mean I think Mystery House is a bad movie, as that isn’t the case and it does have some bright spots. I would have appreciated one or two nice sharp twists to help balance out the by the numbers plot, but no such luck. So fans of “and then there were none” style mysteries should enjoy the premise, even if the twists and turns aren’t that memorable. The story is fine, with a pretty predictable, but passable murder spree. I also appreciate the brisk pace and run time that clocks in at under an hour, as that keeps interest up and ensures the film doesn’t feel drawn out. Can O’Leary crack the case in time or will no one be alive long enough to turn in the killer?Įntertainment Value: I wouldn’t call Mystery House a riveting murder mystery, but it has some fun moments and delivers on the basics. When the bank officers are assembled to allow the investigation to get started, someone else winds up dead and it seems like the guilty party is trying to tie up loose ends. She hires private detective Lance O’Leary (Dick Purcell) to get to the bottom of this mess and of course, he brings along his right hand woman, Sarah (Ann Sheridan). As this was revealed to all the bank officers and soon after, her father was dead, Gwen is certain the events are connected. After all, her father had just uncovered underhanded practices at the bank, as someone had been forging bank documents. In the ballroom, there are stained glass windows with quotes from Shakespeare, and there's a room called the Witch's Cap that's so oddly shaped it causes a weird acoustic effect akin to surround sound.Plot: An affluent banker has turned up dead in an apparent suicide, but his daughter Gwen (Anne Nagel) is convinced foul play was involved. and also had spider webs included on various window panes. She incorporated the number 13 throughout the house - 13 panes in a window, 13 steps in a staircase, etc. Those who prefer the paranormal side of things think Sarah built all these rooms and misleading passageways to confuse the ghosts who were tailing her, and whether that's true or not, she did have some unusual décor predilections. At one point, Sarah actually built over another room that she'd forgotten was there, and according to legend, she could not actually find the house's original eight rooms. It was seven stories tall and had more than 200 rooms before parts of it were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 it is currently four stories tall and has 160 rooms. ![]() Sarah didn't hire any one architect to oversee construction and added rooms and features haphazardly, so there are lots of weird elements to the house – staircases that lead to nowhere, doors that lead to nowhere, and windows that look into other rooms. Sarah's mysterious motivations for building it aside, the house is objectively nuts. Espousers of this theory believe that she made the house so large so there would be room enough for all the souls of Winchester victims she also switched bedrooms within the house so any alleged ghosts would have a more difficult time finding her. According to one legend, Sarah believed that her daughter and husband's untimely deaths were retribution for all the people killed by Winchester rifles, especially after a medium told her that her blood fortune was cursed. There are various theories as to why she continued working on the house for so long, but one of the most popular involves her interest in spiritualism. Sarah bought the property that would become the Winchester Mystery House in 1886 and continued construction on it until her death in 1922. ![]() ![]() In 2018 dollars, that equates to more than $450 million. ![]() William's father died in 1880 and William died in 1881, leaving Sarah as the heir to their $20 million rifle fortune. They had one child together, Annie, who died just over a month after she was born. Sarah Lockwood Pardee was born in 1840 in Connecticut, and in 1862, she married William Wirt Winchester, son of the owner of Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
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