House of Danger  (1934)

Theatrical Release Information:
House of Danger

The first of four low-grade thrillers produced by Sam Efrus and filmed on mostly rented sets around Hollywood, House of Danger emerged as an ordinary if well-photographed (by J. Henry Kruse) Poverty Row melodrama. Former Universal lead Onslow Stevens starred as Don Phillips whose friend, Ralph Nelson (James Bush), is gravely injured in a shipwreck. Ralph sends Don to impersonate him at the family estate at San Rafael, CA, where strange things are going on. Unable to fool the family lawyer, Don is unable to fool Uncle Weatherby (John Andrews), the family solicitor, and the two conspire with Ralph's fiancée (Janet Chandler) against cousin Martin (Desmond Roberts), whom they suspect killed Ralph's father. Ralph himself returns during the celebration of his birthday, just in time to prevent Martin and his co-conspirator, Gordon (Howard Lang), from murdering Don. House of Danger was directed by silent serial star Charles Hutchison, whose straightforward handling of the story was partially undermined by too obvious stock shots of the shipwreck and a car smash-up. Typically for this sort of thing, the name of producer Efrus was misspelled "Ferus" on the onscreen credits. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide