House of Mystery (1934)

Half way through this film, I felt as sure I'd seen it before as if I, too, had a crystal ball just like the guru-esque high priest who brings down the curse of Kali on poor old archaeologist "Prendergast" (Clay Clement) after he inadvertently killed a monkey. Luckily, he is rescued from a fate worse than death by belly-dancing "Chandra" (Joyzelle Joyner) and manages to escape - with some loot. Skip forward many years and the man - now calling him self "Pren" - reconvenes the team in his country house with a view dividing the proceeds - but with one small proviso: they must bide with him for one week. Easy-peasy think they, but soon the curse starts to take effect and the list of inheritors starts to dwindle... It's actually quite a fun little story, just way too derivative - you've seen it all before. The acting is pretty lethargic, the settings very stage bound and the dialogue serves little more purpose than as a tram line getting us to the inevitable conclusion. Oh - and yes, there's a big ape... but is he a man or a monkey? Passes an hour but you won't remember much afterwards.