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The Uninvited is a supernatural film from 1944. Though it has garnered praise both then and now for its stunning cinematography, marvelous cast and effects work used to bring the story’s ghost to the screen, it is a film that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough, and would be very at home on anyone’s October viewing list.
Written by Dodie Smith and Frank Partos (based on a novel by Dorothy Macardle) and directed by Lewis Allen, the film follows siblings Rick (Ray Milland) and Pamela Fitzgerald (Ruth Hussey) on a seaside vacation where they happen upon an old abandoned house. They immediately fall in love with the property, and inquire about buying it. The owner, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp), is more than happy to sell and offers the house at a very low price. His granddaughter, Stella (Gail Russell), is less than thrilled about the sale. The house...
The Uninvited is a supernatural film from 1944. Though it has garnered praise both then and now for its stunning cinematography, marvelous cast and effects work used to bring the story’s ghost to the screen, it is a film that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough, and would be very at home on anyone’s October viewing list.
Written by Dodie Smith and Frank Partos (based on a novel by Dorothy Macardle) and directed by Lewis Allen, the film follows siblings Rick (Ray Milland) and Pamela Fitzgerald (Ruth Hussey) on a seaside vacation where they happen upon an old abandoned house. They immediately fall in love with the property, and inquire about buying it. The owner, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp), is more than happy to sell and offers the house at a very low price. His granddaughter, Stella (Gail Russell), is less than thrilled about the sale. The house...
- 10/22/2019
- by Emily von Seele
- DailyDead
Hollywood takes a hard look at the mundane horrors of mental asylums, and Olivia de Havilland scores another career high with her portrayal of a housewife experiencing a nervous breakdown. Some people found the show scary and a few felt it was tasteless, but Ms. de Havilland’s performance is riveting, 71 years later. Anatole Litvak’s intense direction makes good use of expressionistic visual devices, without veering into dippy Salvador Dalí psycho-surrealism.
The Snake Pit
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1948 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 108 min. / Street Date April 22, 2019 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Glenn Langan, Helen Craig, Leif Erickson, Beulah Bondi, Lee Patrick, Natalie Schafer, Ruth Donnelly, Katherine Locke, Minna Gombell, Ann Doran, Jacqueline deWit, Betsy Blair, Queenie Smith, Virginia Brissac, Marie Blake, Isabel Jewell, Celia Lovsky, Mae Marsh, Doro Merande, Mary Newton, Inez Palange, Mary Treen, Minerva Urecal.
Cinematography:...
The Snake Pit
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1948 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 108 min. / Street Date April 22, 2019 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Glenn Langan, Helen Craig, Leif Erickson, Beulah Bondi, Lee Patrick, Natalie Schafer, Ruth Donnelly, Katherine Locke, Minna Gombell, Ann Doran, Jacqueline deWit, Betsy Blair, Queenie Smith, Virginia Brissac, Marie Blake, Isabel Jewell, Celia Lovsky, Mae Marsh, Doro Merande, Mary Newton, Inez Palange, Mary Treen, Minerva Urecal.
Cinematography:...
- 6/1/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Stars: Ruth Hussey, Ray Milland, Gail Russell, Donald Crisp, Barbara Everest | Written by Frank Partos, Dodie Smith | Directed by Lewis Allen
“Be afraid. Be afraid, for heaven’s sake.” This line may have inspired Geena Davis’s famous warning from David Cronenberg’s The Fly. Indeed, this 1944 groundbreaker provides a reference point for many a horror movie since. While The Uninvited may not chill you to the bone, it is a reminder that not everything in the horror genre prior to Jack Clayton’s The Innocents relied on spooky stageplay castles and camp.
Adapted from the novel by Dorothy Macardle and directed by feature debutant Lewis Allen, the narrative is for the most part a vehicle for exposition. In that way it’s more suited to the page or the radio play format; but the plot is intriguing enough, the performances are effective, and there are some creepy images and ideas.
“Be afraid. Be afraid, for heaven’s sake.” This line may have inspired Geena Davis’s famous warning from David Cronenberg’s The Fly. Indeed, this 1944 groundbreaker provides a reference point for many a horror movie since. While The Uninvited may not chill you to the bone, it is a reminder that not everything in the horror genre prior to Jack Clayton’s The Innocents relied on spooky stageplay castles and camp.
Adapted from the novel by Dorothy Macardle and directed by feature debutant Lewis Allen, the narrative is for the most part a vehicle for exposition. In that way it’s more suited to the page or the radio play format; but the plot is intriguing enough, the performances are effective, and there are some creepy images and ideas.
- 10/12/2018
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Ghosts are famous for their flexibility, spiraling through keyholes and up from the floorboards in search of their next mark. But movies about ghosts can be flexible too. Three classics of the genre, The Uninvited, House on Haunted Hill and The Innocents, demonstrate that there’s more than one way haunt a house.
These films never appeared on any triple bill that I know of, but I’d like to think they did, somewhere in some small town with a theater manager that knew a good scare when he saw it. How could the programmer resist it? Each film is united by a beautiful black and white sheen, eerie locales and their ability to scare the bejeezus out of you. But they’re also alike in their differences, coming at their specters from distinctly different vantage points.
1944’s The Uninvited, a three-hankie haunted house tale with a dysfunctional family subplot,...
These films never appeared on any triple bill that I know of, but I’d like to think they did, somewhere in some small town with a theater manager that knew a good scare when he saw it. How could the programmer resist it? Each film is united by a beautiful black and white sheen, eerie locales and their ability to scare the bejeezus out of you. But they’re also alike in their differences, coming at their specters from distinctly different vantage points.
1944’s The Uninvited, a three-hankie haunted house tale with a dysfunctional family subplot,...
- 10/28/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
By John M. Whalen
All struggling young reporter Mike Ward (John McGuire) wants is a break. He needs money so he can move out of his crummy room in a three story boarding house, get his own place, and marry his girl, Jane (Margaret Tallichet). His break arrives when he becomes the star witness to the murder of Nick, the owner of Nick’s Coffee Pot, a neighborhood eatery right across the street from where he lives. The newspaper he works for gives him a raise and assigns him to cover the murder trial. At first he and Jane are elated about Mike’s turn of fortune, and they began planning their future. But soon Jane wonders if the young man Mike is going to testify against, a young cab driver named Briggs (Elisha Cook, Jr.), is really the killer. “He’s so young,” she says. Her attitude begins to...
All struggling young reporter Mike Ward (John McGuire) wants is a break. He needs money so he can move out of his crummy room in a three story boarding house, get his own place, and marry his girl, Jane (Margaret Tallichet). His break arrives when he becomes the star witness to the murder of Nick, the owner of Nick’s Coffee Pot, a neighborhood eatery right across the street from where he lives. The newspaper he works for gives him a raise and assigns him to cover the murder trial. At first he and Jane are elated about Mike’s turn of fortune, and they began planning their future. But soon Jane wonders if the young man Mike is going to testify against, a young cab driver named Briggs (Elisha Cook, Jr.), is really the killer. “He’s so young,” she says. Her attitude begins to...
- 8/17/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The Uninvited
Directed by Lewis Allen
Written by Dodie Smith and Frank Partos
Starring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp & Gail Russell
USA , 99 min – 1944.
“If you listen to it long enough, all your senses are sharpened. You come by strange instincts. You get to recognize a peculiar cold that is the first warning. A cold which is no mere matter of degrees Fahrenheit, but a draining of warmth from the vital centers of the living.”
The Uninvited is a supernatural film that is more mysterious than it is horrific. Spirits are taken to be a real possibility in the film, which after the success of Hitchcock & Selznick’s haunting, Rebecca (1940), must have been a necessity. The people who laugh at the notion of the supernatural are quickly proved wrong (as the early voice over suggests) and the film introduces ghosts with both kind and malicious intentions. Ultimately, The Uninvited’s...
Directed by Lewis Allen
Written by Dodie Smith and Frank Partos
Starring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp & Gail Russell
USA , 99 min – 1944.
“If you listen to it long enough, all your senses are sharpened. You come by strange instincts. You get to recognize a peculiar cold that is the first warning. A cold which is no mere matter of degrees Fahrenheit, but a draining of warmth from the vital centers of the living.”
The Uninvited is a supernatural film that is more mysterious than it is horrific. Spirits are taken to be a real possibility in the film, which after the success of Hitchcock & Selznick’s haunting, Rebecca (1940), must have been a necessity. The people who laugh at the notion of the supernatural are quickly proved wrong (as the early voice over suggests) and the film introduces ghosts with both kind and malicious intentions. Ultimately, The Uninvited’s...
- 2/5/2013
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
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