Shock: The Secret of the Blue Room

One of my Resolutions for 2014 is to write more, to blog more. Another is to watch as many of the Universal Studios horror classics as I can- specifically those that comprised the syndicated packages for Shock Theater and Son of Shock.

So I've decided to merge the two and resurrect my old Vampire movie blog (once upon a time, I'd decided to watch 365 vampire movies- I made it to August) to document my viewing, based on the reference book Universal Horrors.

It was tempting to start with Dracula or Frankenstein, but part of the experience was not just to watch movies I loved, but to find new favorites- that's why I started with the thriller The Secret of the Blue Room.

It's Lionel Atwill and Gloria Stuart in a rather by the numbers mystery set in an old family castle- Stuart has three suitors visiting for her twenty-first birthday.    One of the three challenges the others to spend the night in the cursed Blue Room.  Soon one is vanished, another dead, and the third left to discover what's behind the deaths.

As someone who originally encountered Stuart in Titanic, I've come to admire her in the Universal movies, such as this, The Old Dark House and The Invisible Man;  I was lucky enough to find a studio picture of Stuart at a flea market a couple of years ago.  I guess I've become quite a fan.

I felt for certain I'd read somewhere that The Secret of the Blue Room was a lost movie.  So when I did a google search that turned up the entire move, I was pleasantly surprised.