SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM (1933)
Article #1079 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-27-2004
Posting Date: 7-26-2004
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Featuring Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Paul Lukas

In order to prove their bravery, three suitors to a beautiful woman decide to each spend a night in the blue room, which has resulted in the death of all who have stayed in it.

This movie has been remade twice; five years later as THE MISSING GUEST, and then another six years after that as MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM. My local Creature Feature must have shown all the movies at one point, because I remember being inundated by several movies about this mysterious blue room. The story itself is rather ordinary, and the solution to the mystery of how people seem to magically appear in this blue room is rather obvious, but it’s helped by a surprisingly impressive cast (Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Paul Lukas, Edward Arnold and Onslow Stevens) and an exciting ending. This being primarily a mystery with horror elements rather than a horror movie, you can safely expect the usual red herrings. Incidentally, this movie appears to be a remake itself of a German movie called GEHEIMNIS DES BLAUEN ZIMMERS.