I imagine the concept of television in 1935 was pretty futuristic and maybe even a little bit scary since probably not everyone knew exactly how it worked. This film capitalizes on that fear and shoehorns it into a murder mystery starring Bela Lugosi. Now throughout the first half of this film I kept thinking to myself this might be the worst mystery ever since if you have Lugosi in the cast you know he's got to be the murderer. Luckily they do throw a twist in for the big reveal to make it not totally predictable. This plays more like a Charlie Chan movie, there's even a Chinese butler character who quotes Chan and Confucius, than any kind of typical Lugosi haunted house flick and just like the Chan films you get a stereotypical black maid who shouts out stuff like "Oh lawdy, lawdy! I dun seen a ghost!" which will either make you chuckle or feel embarrassed depending on your silly political viewpoints.
Worth a watch if you dig the creaky classics with Lugosi and as a bonus you get a TV death-ray!
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