Long forgotten by all but the hardiest of film fans, Before Dawn recently popped up on Turner Classic Movies. It's an extremely entertaining picture, and a well cast one, with Dorothy Wilson outstanding as Patricia, a sweet young thing whose powers of clairvoyance are offered to the police by her less than entirely honest manager and father (Dudley Digges). Sent to a creaky old mansion to help the police recover a lost million dollars, Patricia encounters a greedy Austrian doctor (Warner Oland, basically wearing his Charlie Chan costume) who has other ideas for the money. Directed by the perennially under-appreciated Irving Pichel, Before Dawn was superbly shot by Lucien Andriot, who does remarkable things with lighting, perspective, and special effects, including what I suspect is one of the first zoom shots in film history. Essential viewing for fans of pre-code cinema.
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JohnSeal14 October 2006
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A pretty clairvoyant (Dorothy Wilson), her greedy father (Dudley Digges), a shady doctor (Warner Oland), and a detective (Stuart Erwin) all look for hidden gold in a haunted house. Nice little old dark house mystery with good direction from Irving Pichel. Dorothy Wilson isn't well known today but she impresses in this role. I'm not sure why she didn't have a bigger career. She's certainly talented enough and beautiful, too. Speaking of people not well-known, Stuart Erwin had a career that last five decades but most people wouldn't know him from Adam today. He was always a solid actor, usually in comedies. But here he shows he can handle being the leading man. He was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar a few years later but didn't win. Warner Oland takes time off from being Charlie Chan to be a bespectacled villain here. He's always good. Character actor Dudley Digges is reliable as ever. Jane Darwell has a brief bit but she's good. Gertrude Hoffman is great, too. Wait until you see her final scene. Overall, a solid cast and nice direction elevates a somewhat flimsy story. Very interesting for the time in that it treats psychic phenomena as real.
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blanche-214 May 2014The dying Joe Valerie tells a psychiatrist (Warner Oland) that he has hidden a million dollars in gold from a robbery committed years before. He offers the location of the gold in exchange for the doctor ending his life.
The gold is in the house being guarded by two elderly women. One is Mrs. Marble (Jane Darwell). She reads of Valerie's death and intends to take the money and leave. But Joe's ghost appears to her and as a result, she falls down the stairs and dies.
The police aren't sure what happened. At the urging of the officer in charge of arresting fake clairvoyants (Stuart Erwin), they use Patricia, who is actually a real clairvoyant, to tell them what happened.
This was a lot of fun, with young Dorothy Wilson as the clairvoyant and Dudley Digges as her father. Stuart Erwin had a pleasant screen personality used to good advantage here, and Warner Oland, who would become one of the Charlie Chans, is quite different here.
For me the most fascinating thing about the film is that as of this writing, it's 81 years old. Everything in the world has changed, everyone in this film is long gone, and people are still watching the movie. -
tashman28 March 2002BEFORE DAWN could be a popular little cult picture if it were shown more often. A Medium (effectively played by the dependable Dudley Digges) and his extra-sensorially-gifted daughter are consulted on the frightening occurrences taking place in a, yes, old and mysterious mansion. Here's the catch, though, this is 1933, and, by golly, the daughter is played for real. I've seen dozens and dozens of television detective shows dealing with this exact subject, but those are all from the 70s-thru-current times, and I know the audience was surprised to hear they were actually utilizing ESP in a serious way. Dorothy Wilson was the attractive and intelligent ingenue raised from the ranks of the RKO secretarial pool, as legend has it. Her role might have been played by any number of marvelous actresses - Maureen O'Sullivan, Frances Dee, Jean Parker, Helen Mack - come to mind, but I'm sure glad it wasn't. Wilson is just as attractive, and yet she projects an almost Margaret Lindsay-level intelligence! She's calm and confident about her gifts, and yet she's no stranger to spook house, candle carrying fright. In addition to her old reliable father, she comes to count on detective Stu Erwin, who has learned to accept her gifts and understands the value of her assistance on the case. Veteran Jane Darwell has an effective bit, but Gertrude Hoffman (making her American film debut) impresses, adding much to the proceedings with a bitter, almost inarticulate portrayal. And stealing central focus at all times is the none-other-like-him great Warner Oland. So trustworthy, so sage, so warm as Charlie Chan, we were very fortunate that in this Post-Chan world, Oland had been given so many opportunities to use his "good" for so much marvelous, entertaining "evil." He was allowed to infuse that same trustworthy, sage warmth into a colorful array of motion picture heavies that take us unexpectedly into a darker world, as in SHANGHAI EXPRESS, DANGEROUS PARADISE, the FU MANCHU entries, and in a host of silent films. To the wise viewer, one may distrust him the moment he enters the film, but to those unsuspecting audiences who may only know his Chan films, beware! BEFORE DAWN and Warner Oland certainly keep you wondering. This is an engagingly stirring and unusual little picture!
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Back in the 1920s and 30s, Hollywood made a bunch of creepy old dark house films. This is yet another one, though it's a tad different here and there...enough so that it's worth seeing even if the plot isn't especially believable.
When the story begins, a man is dying in agony. He begs his doctor (Warner Oland) to kill him and put him out of his mercy....and the doctor agrees to do so AFTER the man tells him about a fortune in hidden gold.
Some time passes. At the home where the money is hid, the dead man's widow learns of his death. Now she no longer needs to keep the loot hidden...she wants to live in style. But when the ghost of the dead man seems to appear, she dies of fright.
Soon after this, the police constable (Stu Erwin) is investigating some psychic frauds. However, one of them seems to have genuine powers and the police decide to let her investigate the death of the lady by fright. What's really going on here and will they figure out the truth in time?
This is a decent old mystery, though I must admit that Warner Oland overacted horribly throughout the film. Additionally, who the killer is becomes rather obvious. Despite this, the film is enjoyable and fun...if also a bit antiquated. -
SnoopyStyle29 October 2020Joe Valerie is a gangster who has stashed his loot. He's suffering unbearable pains on his death bed and offers Dr. Cornelius the location for a quick end. Mrs. Marble reads about Joe's death in the newspaper and assumes ownership of the loot. Mattie disagrees. Mrs. Marble falls down the stairs dead after seeing a vision. The police recruits clairvoyant Patricia to help with the investigation.
It's a haunted house meets murder mystery. I do like the starting premise. The police using a clairvoyant is a little out there. Warner Oland who plays Dr. Cornelius made his name playing Charlie Chan. At least, he's not doing a fake Asian here. It's fun that devolves a little into Scooby Doo territories. It's fine. -
bkoganbing8 January 2020In Before Dawn you will have the opportunity to see Stu Erwin in for him was an offbeat role. Merton Of The Movies typecast Erwin in roles as the eternal schnook.
Erwin is a police detective who is looking for stolen loot and the guy who stole it died and his ghost frightened housekeeper Jane Darwell. So Erwin takes the unusual step of inviting clairvoyant Dorothy Wilson on the case as a consultant.
Enough spooky goings on in this case although we never actually see any kind of spirit. Warner Oland is also in this film as psychiatrist from, where else, Vienna who also is in on the case to expose fake mediums. Wilson's father Dudley Digges is a shady character.
Before Dawn should satisfy mystery and horror fans. -
boblipton3 June 2021Detective Stu Erwin is arresting psychics and scoops up Dorothy Wilson and her father, Dudley Diggs. It takes him about ten minutes of screen time to realize she's no phony and enlist her aid investigating the murder of Jane Darwell.
It's a movie clearly influenced by Avery Hopwood's THE BAT, with an old dark house, a hidden million dollars in gold, someone wandering around the house terrorizing anyone who might take the money. There's a lot going on for a a 60-minute movie, and Irving Pichel directs efficiently, with a cast that includes Warner Oland ad Oscar Apfel in the largest role I've ever seen him in. Erwin, who usually annoys me with his passive persona in comedies, is okay; Miss Wilson doesn't have much to do. Given the short length, this movie at a good clip. -
sol121827 September 2006**SPOILERS** Years before he created the role of the brainy and famous Oriental sleuth Charlie Chan Warner Oland played in mostly bad-guy roles like in the film "Before Dawn". Oland plays the sinister and homicidal Dr. Paul Cornelius a man obsessed with getting a stolen one million dollars hidden in this mansion owned by Mrs. Marble, Jane Darwell. Mrs. Marble was secretly married to last surviving member of the Valerie Gang Joe Valerie, Frank Reicher, who were involved in the infamous million dollar bank robbery.
Working as a doctor at a Vienna hospital Cornelius came across a dying patient Joe Valerie who didn't have long to go and begged the doc to put him out of his misery. Valerie telling Cornelius that he's the only survivor of the notorious Valerie Gang that knocked off a bank,killing a number of bank guards in the process, of one million dollars. With both his brothers caught and later executed Joe escaped and hid the money back in the USA in a mansion outside a town called Chesterford. In the mansion both his wife Mrs. Marble and her tenant Mattie, Gertrude Hoffman, are looking after the cash until he comes back to claim it. Pleading to be euthanised by the doc Frank tells him where he hid the money as Cornelius gives him the needle.
Back in the USA Dr. Cornelius plans to get his hands on the hidden cash but runs into a number of obstacles which includes both Mrs. Marble and Mattie who are anything but cooperative in helping him find the money and who he ends up murdering. There's also the psychic medium Patricia "Pat" Merrick, Dorothy Wilson, and her dad Horace, Dudles Driggs, on he case both working with the police in order to solve the case of the deceased Mrs. Marble.
Pat and Horace having been busted in a police sting for fraud because her greedy father, without her knowledge, wouldn't return the three dollars that an undercover cop gave him when Pat couldn't contact his, the undercover cop's, Aunt Minnie. Pat later prove to the police that she indeed was psychic and can contact the dead and was immediately enlisted by police inspector O'Hara, Oscar Apfel, to solve the strange and baffling death of Mrs Marble.
At the Marble house Pat picks up the vibrations of Mrs. Marble's killer who later shows, after he snuck out of the house, up as the well-heeled and sophisticated Dr. Cornelius. Cornelius claiming to have been in contact back in Vienna with the late Joe Valerie who told him that he hid the stolen bank robbery money, in a secret room inside the Marble Mansion, goes right into action looking for it.
Acting as if he wants to help Cornelius get's old Mattie alone and in tying to find out where the money is hidden Cornelius is overheard by Horace getting the info from the scared to death Mattie to where the room is. Cornelius is later tricked by Mattie who in showing him where the money is hidden instead tries to do him in only to be herself thrown, by the doc, down a bottomless pit hidden inside the house.
Horace finding the secret passage and Dr. Cornelius is then murdered by the crazed doctor who shoots him with a gun that he took from his daughter Pat feeling that she's won't be able to handle it. Pat picking up her father's ghost and now knowing that he's dead and that Corlelius murdered him tries to get out of the house as fast as she can and contact the police but is grabbed instead by the doc.Corlelius feels that Pat somehow psychically uncovered where the money is hidden, and in a life and death struggle with the desperate psycho Pat has Dr. Cornelius loses his footing and falls to his death in the deep dark and watery pit below.
The movie ends happily for Pat as her boyfriend Det. Dwight Wilson, Stuart Erwin, who at first busted her end up signing a marriage license as they then both go downtown to City Hall to tie the knot. -
Detective Stuart Erwin is unimpressed by the sign reading "Mlle. Mystera – Psychic Readings/Vocational Guidance." And when the psychic is unable to contact his deceased Aunt Minnie, he has her hauled in as a fake, along with her manager father.
Still, the young woman insists she's for real: "It's not a racket with me," she says. "I have a gift. I'm really clairvoyant. Sometimes I wish I weren't." –Dorothy Wilson is really quite good as that rare B movie character, the psychic who is neither a phony nor a nut.
Erwin and Wilson are appealing and even believable as they gradually earn each other's respect. The plot takes them both to a spooky old house that may contain hidden robber's loot, and whose elderly resident recently saw a ghost and dropped dead of fright—or was she murdered?
Warner Oland is excellent as a mysterious doctor who knows something about the treasure and whose sinister demeanor may or may not indicate his involvement in these dark doings.
An exciting climax includes a secret passage attached to a dark staircase leading down, down . This one is lots of fun. -
AlsExGal9 November 2021This old dark house film is hardly a mystery. You pretty much know who the bad guy is going to be upfront. Yet it has its charms.
After a gangster dies, his elderly widow proclaims that now she is going to cash in on his one million in gold which she has kept all of these years. But on her way to get the gold she sees the gangster's ghost and falls down the stairs and dies. Meanwhile, Stuart Erwin is a plain clothes policeman making the rounds and arresting fraudulent psychics. Patricia (Dorothy Wilson) and her father (Dudley Digges) get rounded up in the dragnet. It turns out that Patricia is a legit psychic, but her dad is dishonest and greedy. After she convinces the police of her authenticity, they decide to take Patricia to the old dark house where the gangster's money is to try and solve who this "ghost" was and where the money is. Unfortunately they bring her father along for the ride.
In spite of the villain being obvious, this one does have some very good atmosphere. And you have to wonder why such a house was built with secret passageways, secret rooms, and trap doors in the first place. Plus it is fun to see Stuart Erwin in a role where he is the forceful confident protagonist throughout rather than a human Droopy like figure as he usually is. -
davidcarniglia30 October 2020Sounds like a title for a modern-day vampire movie, but, actually, this is a pretty juice slice of the '30s old dark house recipe. As in a million bucks in gold hidden in a mansion by a dead gangster. The police enlist the service of a father-daughter clairvoyant team to locate the loot, while the gangster's doctor has his own cunning plan.
Featuring Warner Oland, Stuart Erwin, Dorothy Wilson, Dudley Digges, Gertrude Hoffman, Oscar Apfel, Frank Reicher, and June Darwell.
We start with Dr. Paul Cornelius (Oland) visiting Joe (Reicher) in the hospital. Joe tells him about the money; "it's all yours" if Paul will give him an injection to ease his pain. At the mansion, we see two elderly women , Mrs. Marble (Darwell) and her housekeeper Mattie (Hoffman) reading that Joe's died. "It's ours now...now he's dead, and we're free!" Says Marble. "Curse or no curse!" A ghostly face comes out of the darkness, down the stairs. Marble falls.
We segue to Mlle. Mystera, that is Patricia's (Wilson) 'vocational guidance' place. She's in the midst of an "astral plane" reading. Her dad, Horace (Digges) waits outside. Next thing we know, there's a police raid (the 'customer' was a detective working undercover, Dwight Wilson--Erwin); Horace pleads to the Chief Inspector (Apfel) that he can help the police. Patricia gives Dwight an impromptu reading, which proves very accurate.
"This is the battiest thing I ever let myself in for!" Says the Inspector, who, thanks to Dwight's urging, agrees to let Patricia off if she works for the police. So, Patricia starts in on their case right in the inspector's office--doesn't go so well at first, but she has predicted a murder that just happened. "All those gyp artists work with the move!" insists the Inspector. Dwight suggests another case: "How about that old housekeeper, and that nutty ghost story?"
Meaning Mattie and Mrs. Marble. Apparently, Mrs. Marble has died from her fall. Sure enough, Patricia proceeds to 'see' a lot about that house. Next, thankfully, we're at Marbles house. "There's an evil spirit in this house." Patricia disagrees; I bet it's actually Dr. Paul. Yep, he's at the door. Finally, we've got the group of usual suspects gathered in the drawing room of the old place. It's almost half way into the movie's run time.
Anyway, the doc relates the whole story about Joe's death-bed confession: the money's in the Marble house because the old woman was his wife. "We suspect murder, but we can't prove it" says the Inspector to the doc. That worthy comes up with a cunning plan--that he should stay in the house under the pretext of studying the psychics. Patricia doesn't want to hang around, but she perks up when Dwight shows up.
He's got a search warrant for the money, which is obviously stolen mob money. Strangely, Cornelius tells Mattie that he knows who killed Mrs. Marble. "I'm convinced" Horace observes, "that she knows where the money is." It sounds as though Cornelius and Horace might come to some sort of arrangement concerning the money.
It's possible that Cornelius knows, or thought he knew where the money was, because of Joe's confession--which we didn't hear. Horace tries to talk his daughter into using her skills to find the money: she refuses. Dwight takes a short cut to their room. Next we see someone sneak up on Mattie's bed: the 'ghost' of Joe warning her to lay off the money. The others converge on her.
Since she is afraid of the ghost, she won't tell the others about the money. Patricia insists that it wasn't Joe at all. The only one not present who could be pretending to be the ghost is Mrs. Marble, who's inconveniently dead. Or is she? Horace wants to talk to Dwight about Cornelius, but the cop has to leave. Now, the doc skulks into Mattie's room. He mentions a secret room.
Horace overhears this, and finds the entrance. Well, first thing he sees is the 'ghost's' mask. Cornelius hears some knocking from the corridor; it's actually Horace investigating a hiding place. He surprises Horace, and takes his gun away. Patricia gets antsy and finds Cornelius, but doesn't suspect anything of him. "Where's my father?!" He lays a trap for her, telling her that dad's down stairs. He now tells her that it's Mattie who's up to something.
He tells her that he's going to give the old bat an injection. Meanwhile, thanks to Patricia's skills, she sees her father in in a crystal-ball like glass lamp. We find out that the money is in a certain place in the cellar; well, we'll see. Mattie has to come up with something to tell the menacing Cornelius. He says he's killed Horace. Indeed, once in the secret passageway, they see the body, then get to the cellar.
In a weird way, it seems that now Mattie and Cornelius are in cahoots--no, she was trying to lure him into a deep open well. Turning the tables, he chucks her in. Patricia shows up. Thinking fast, Cornelius tells her that Mattie killed her father, and then tries to lure her into the deadly well. Dwight makes it back; hears her screams, and, with reinforcement and attempts to rescue her.
Dwight finally gets at at Cornelius, who, unsurprisingly, tumbles into the well. Now that all's well, were comfy back at the inspector's office. "What I want to know is, who gets the reward?" he asks. He has Patricia sign a waiver, which is in fact a marriage license for her and Dwight. That a boss who knows how to play winggman. The end.
This is nicely atmospheric, and the mansion certainly does all it can to help along the ghostly crime mystery. Once things start happening there, it gets interesting. Except for a couple of things: it's obvious that Oland's character is the bad guy; an undead Mrs. Marble would be the only other possibility, and that would change too much other stuff to work; and, given that, the mystery really doesn't get going until we're well into the movie.
Nonetheless this is an enjoyable way to spend an hour. The performances are really quite good. Ironically, Patricia, who has maybe the shadiest credentials, is the only one (other than the cops) who isn't acting suspicious. she's so above-board the only will accept the reward under the wink-wink sanction of sharing it with Dwight, her newly betrothed. The first part is somewhat redeemed by the quips at the police station coming from O'Hara.
Not a million bucks worth here, but Before Dawn will get the pot boiling. -
ksf-211 January 2023Warner oland (played charlie chan, so many times) is doctor cornelius, who claims to know things about the hidden money from a heist years ago, done by criminal joe valerie. "mattie" is the last living friend of valerie, who also may know where the money is hidden. Stuart erwin is officer dwight, trying to help a young clairvoyant, who may really be able to see things. Or is she just a fake? It won't be easy, since the house has no phone, no electric lights. Is there really buried treasure? And who will get it? It's pretty good, for an old heist film. A couple rough edits, but this was back in 1933. It's ninety years old already. The sound and picture are pretty good, considering its age. It's a bit of a quick, wrap up ending, but it is what it is. Directed by irving pichel. A shortie film, at just sixty minutes. From a story by edgar wallace. Not a bad way to spend an hour. Erwin and oland were pretty big, in the 1930s and 1940s.
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JohnHowardReid13 August 2017Director: IRVING PICHEL. Screenplay: Garrett Fort. Uncredited script contributors: Marian Dix, Ralph Block. Based on the short story "Death Watch" by Edgar Wallace. Photography: Lucien Andriot. Film editor: William Hamilton. Music director: Max Steiner. Art directors: Van Nest Polglase, Carroll Clark. Sound recording: Philip J. Faulkner Jr. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Shirley Burden. Executive producer: Merian C. Cooper.
Copyright 4 August 1933 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Mayfair: 16 October 1933. U.K. release: 10 February 1934. Australian release: December 1933. 6 reels. 60 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Police engage a clairvoyant to help solve the murder of an old lady in a spooky mansion.
NOTES: It looks like Frank Sully, playing the radio patrolman the first time around, but when the car returns it seems to me that a different actor is hiding beneath the uniform.
VIEWER'S GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: Wonderfully spooky, old-house melodrama, atmospherically photographed and set, effectively handled by Irving Pichel (making his solo directorial debut).
Villainous Warner Oland acquits himself most impressively in the main role, combining menace, charm, naked greed and a mad fixation in generous measure to round out his charismatic portrait of evil on the loose. Though far less experienced, young Dorothy Wilson also contributes a convincingly fascinating study of the clairvoyant in the case.
Digges is inclined to be too hammy in his early scenes, whilst Erwin is too mannered a hero for my money, but fortunately he disappears for a nice long spell. -
aprilzabeth22 April 2021I love everything about this movie. It has mystery, suspense, love, the paranormal, and hidden loot! I can't believe I hadn't heard of it earlier. One of my new favorites.
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tcchelsey22 June 2021BEFORE DAWN is an outstanding old dark house mystery, long off the small screen, and so much fun to see again.
Great cast lead by Warner Oland, who at the time was playing the very honorable CHARLIE CHAN, now portraying a very sinister doctor out to find a fortune in gold. It made good sense due to the fact that Oland played many neat villains on the screen long before Chan, notably Dr. Fu Manchu. Interestingly, the doctor here is not Asian.
The stolen bank loot was secreted by dying gangster Joe Valerie (Frank Reicher) and the dusty trail leads to a mysterious old dark house where his brooding widow, well played by Jane Darwell, is the first to get killed. Secret panels, even an enormous well (inside the house!) make for some good thrills. Stu Erwin plays the crusading good guy, piecing together the case with the assistance of a psychic, played by Dorothy Wilson. Popular actor Dudley Digges is a hoot as her promoter father.
There were a few ideas borrowed from RKO's other stellar old dark house flick, called THE PHANTOM OF CRESTWOOD (1932), such as a phosphorescent death mask floating around the house. Well directed by Irving Pichel, who also acted in films, best remembered for his over the top role as the man servant to DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (1936).
Based on the short story, "Death Watch" by Edgar Wallace and music by Max Steiner.
Must see tv for film buffs and completists and on dvd. -
backerbills15 November 2023A cancer dying bank robber offers location of the gold to his doctor in exchange for pain relieving euthanasia. DOC travels to USA ( played by the original Charlie Chan Warner Oland ) manipulating psychic & her father and a haunted house owned by 2 sisters fearing the "ghost" of the bank robber. Policemen of all ranks from Chief to car patrol drivers are both investigating many fake fortune tellers and one gifted true medium ( Star Dorothy Wilson ) milked by her greedy father. Her coStarring police detective falls in love with her believing in her abilities, gives her his pistol for protection from all who are evil seeking the gold in the "haunted house." Secret entrances lead audiences into dark passageways. I would rate the movie 10 if the romantic had ten more minutes of kissing and protecting so I give it a 9 for swift conclusions by newspaper headlines & signed documents. 3 scary murders occur by single candlelight or gas lamps in a house with no telephone or electricity.