It's not every day that we have an American for dinner.
During his introduction to William Castle's remake of The Old Dark House, TCM host Robert Osborne noted that the reason Castle had taken on the project was because he wanted to prove that he could make a successful film without having to rely on a gimmick. Produced in association with Hammer Films (which explains why it was filmed in England), it was his second film in a row to be a shot in color (although Columbia Pictures, in their wisdom, distributed it in black and white in the States) and the second to be written by Robert Dillon, who adapted the same J.B. Priestley novel (but much more loosely, I'm sure).
The Old Dark House also reunited Castle with his Zotz! star Tom Poston, who plays an American car salesman who is invited by eccentric gambler Peter Bull (with whom he shares a London flat) out to the family estate, where Poston makes the acquaintance of Bull's decidedly eccentric relatives, all of whom remain at the house because it's the only way they can hang on to their part of the inheritance. They include uncles Robert Morley (who has a sizable gun collection) and Mervyn Johns (who believes the constant rains are a sign of the second flood and has built an ark for the occasion), dotty mother Joyce Grenfell (who is an avid knitter), and cousins Janette Scott and Fenella Fielding (who compete for Poston's affections). Of course, why they choose this night of all nights -- when there's an actual witness present -- to start bumping each other off is quite beyond me, but the movie has to go somewhere.
Overall the comedy is pretty broad (Castle cuts to an exterior shot of the family flag being lowered to half-mast every time a family member is eliminated), but not quite fast-paced enough, and the original's sarcastic quips get traded in for lots of physical comedy which grows increasingly tiresome. Most of all, it doesn't help that it never seems like Poston is in any real danger, and having him be the only outsider in the house is inherently limiting. As for the others, Morley is the only one who really comes off well and that mostly has to do with the conviction he brings to his role. (It also helps that he gets most of the good lines.) Too bad Castle and Dillon don't give him anybody to go toe-to-toe with.