In the midst of his genre-defining run as horror auteur, director James Whale reunited with his Frankenstein star Boris Karloff for a twisted tale — based on a J.B. Priestley novel — that would set the standard for blending terror and dark humor. As an eerie butler, Karloff is just one of the “uh-oh” signifiers for travelers Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Raymond Massey, Lillian Bond, and Gloria Stuart as they are stranded by a storm in a mysterious mansion somewhere in Wales. Inside, the family Femm, headed by Ernest Thesiger (later Dr. Pretorius for Whale in Bride of Frankenstein), has, er, unusual hospitality instincts…