The Unholy Night (1929) The Midnight Movie скачать в хорошем качестве

The Unholy Night (1929) The Midnight Movie

On December 19th, 1929, the Erie winter was in full swing, and moviegoers seeking refuge from the cold gathered at the Columbia Theater on State Street. The marquee displayed a title perfectly suited for the dark, snowy nights of a Pennsylvania December: The Unholy Night. At the time, the Columbia was one of Erie’s premier destinations for the burgeoning "talking picture" craze. Seeing a film like this in 1929 was a high-tech event—audiences were still marveling at the novelty of hearing a scream or the rustle of a London fog on screen. The Atmosphere at the Columbia Walking into the Columbia that Thursday, you would have been met with: The Transition Era: The theater was still bridging the gap between vaudeville and cinema. You might have seen a short live act or a newsreel before the main feature began. A Haunting Soundscape: Because The Unholy Night was an early "talkie," the silence of the Erie night outside was replaced by the eerie, crackling audio of Lord Montague’s ancestral manor. Mystery & Suspense: Advertisements of the day often marketed the film as a "shuddering" mystery, leaning into the "Green Ghost" story by Ben Hecht. The Film Experience If you were sitting in those theater seats in Erie on that specific night, you would have witnessed: The Chilling Opening: A London street engulfed in fog so thick it mirrored the snowy Erie lakefront outside, where a mysterious killer begins strangling veterans of the Gallipoli campaign. Boris Karloff's Presence: Though he wasn't yet the household name he would become in 1931, Karloff’s performance as the mystic Abdul Mohammed Bey likely left the audience unsettled. The "Phony" Séance: One of the film's highlights is a staged séance intended to trap the killer—a scene that would have been particularly effective in the darkened, ornate interior of the Columbia. Historical Context By late December 1929, the Great Depression had begun to take hold following the October crash, but the "movie palace" remained an affordable escape for the people of Erie. The Unholy Night offered exactly the kind of escapism needed: a high-stakes, gothic mystery set in a distant land, directed by a Hollywood royal like Lionel Barrymore.