Imminently enjoyable horror-comedy based on one of the most popular haunted house stageplays that were all the rage in the 1920s. German émigré Leni gives the film an effectively expressionistic vibe and plays the scare moments straight—who isn’t weirded out by gnarled, animalistic hands emerging from behind someone’s bed or a dead body falling out of a wall? All the components are there—a group of greedy heirs in a dilapidated gothic house waiting for the 20-year-delayed reading of a will, secret passageways, an escaped lunatic, lots of shadows and cobwebs—and Leni orchestrates it with skill and wit and some grand physical comedy. (DVD)