Technically ahead of it's time...

Not only does the MGM DVD print and soundtrack of this film have the quality of something made 20 years later, but some of the sound and editing techniques of the film itself are way ahead of their time.

Early in the film there is cross-cutting during dialog, i.e. cutting to the listener's reaction while the speaker is still speaking. Likewise there is a shot in which a line of Karloff's dialog spans two separate shots of him in his bed. This is very avant garde for 1933.

Also, at a time when films were only beginning to incorporate music into dramatic scenes, "The Ghoul" has a lot of purposeful thematic underscore going on, most of which is based on the portion of Wagner's "Götterdämmerung" ("Twilight of the Gods") featured during the funeral. Again, pretty sophisticated for 1933.

Curiously, the film becomes less innovative as it goes along, concluding way too quickly with the stereotypically truncated denouement of the period. [What does happen to the phony vicar inside the tomb? Blown-up? Burned alive? Saved by Anubis? Conveniently forgotten?]

Anyway, I tend to think of British technique as lagging behind Hollywood during the early sound period, but “The Ghoul” forces me to reconsider.