One of the greatest challenges to both watching and review older films – especially those a good many of our cultural betters have dubbed amongst the best ever – is that there’s a mountain of information out there that works to influence one’s opinion. Some even call this effect ‘unconscious bias.’
You see, I watch a lot of films. (I do mean a lot of films.) Also, I read about a great deal of film production. I listen to a great deal of audio commentaries, and I’m always conducting some level of research – big and small – with which to update SciFiHistory.Net. As such, I’m constantly being exposed to facts, figures, and opinions regarding a vast number of domestic and foreign releases; and it’s becoming increasingly easy for critical perceptions to get dripped in and dropped about along the way. Consequently, I’m always – always – being told which films are worth my time and which are not; and this sometimes does get in the way of allowing me to organically make up my own mind on a specific effort here and there. I’m human, so I do make a conscious effort to drown out as much of that noise as I can; but – more often than not – it seeps in when I’m trying to figure out what tasty little cinematic morsel I’d like to digest next.
Suffice it to say, I’ve both read and heard a lot – the vast majority of it very positive – about 1944’s The Uninvited, a feature directed by Lewis Allen from a story by Dodie Smith, Frank Partos, and Dorothy Macardle. The film stars the great Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Cornelia Otis Skinner, and Gail Russell in prominent roles. Essentially, it’s billed as a ghost story; and – superficially – I think that’s accurate. But like most productions, the script weaves other genres in there, some of it Fantastical, some of it romantic, some of it comedic, and so on and so forth. Because I’d heard so much about the feature, I’ve long watched for it to turn up in rotation on cable; and I’d even watched for the previous Criterion home video release to drop to a sale price I’d be willing to pay for what’s mostly a ‘blind buy.’
Well …
The day has come when I can finally pull one from the Bucket List as I’ve given The Uninvited a spin and come up with some initial thoughts on the effort. Mind you: while watching, I did the best I could to switch off those filters in my brain, reminding myself me that just because everyone else out there insists it’s one of the best scares to emerge from the 1940’s doesn’t necessarily make it so. It wasn’t easy in a few spots – downright difficult here and there – but I’ve finally stepped over that threshold and put my own work into figuring out what all of it meant and whether or not its reputation is deserved.
Buckle up. This might get ugly.
You see, I watch a lot of films. (I do mean a lot of films.) Also, I read about a great deal of film production. I listen to a great deal of audio commentaries, and I’m always conducting some level of research – big and small – with which to update SciFiHistory.Net. As such, I’m constantly being exposed to facts, figures, and opinions regarding a vast number of domestic and foreign releases; and it’s becoming increasingly easy for critical perceptions to get dripped in and dropped about along the way. Consequently, I’m always – always – being told which films are worth my time and which are not; and this sometimes does get in the way of allowing me to organically make up my own mind on a specific effort here and there. I’m human, so I do make a conscious effort to drown out as much of that noise as I can; but – more often than not – it seeps in when I’m trying to figure out what tasty little cinematic morsel I’d like to digest next.
Suffice it to say, I’ve both read and heard a lot – the vast majority of it very positive – about 1944’s The Uninvited, a feature directed by Lewis Allen from a story by Dodie Smith, Frank Partos, and Dorothy Macardle. The film stars the great Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Cornelia Otis Skinner, and Gail Russell in prominent roles. Essentially, it’s billed as a ghost story; and – superficially – I think that’s accurate. But like most productions, the script weaves other genres in there, some of it Fantastical, some of it romantic, some of it comedic, and so on and so forth. Because I’d heard so much about the feature, I’ve long watched for it to turn up in rotation on cable; and I’d even watched for the previous Criterion home video release to drop to a sale price I’d be willing to pay for what’s mostly a ‘blind buy.’
Well …
The day has come when I can finally pull one from the Bucket List as I’ve given The Uninvited a spin and come up with some initial thoughts on the effort. Mind you: while watching, I did the best I could to switch off those filters in my brain, reminding myself me that just because everyone else out there insists it’s one of the best scares to emerge from the 1940’s doesn’t necessarily make it so. It wasn’t easy in a few spots – downright difficult here and there – but I’ve finally stepped over that threshold and put my own work into figuring out what all of it meant and whether or not its reputation is deserved.
Buckle up. This might get ugly.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A composer and his sister discover that the reason they are able to purchase a beautiful gothic seacoast mansion very cheaply is the house's unsavory past.”
When trying to choose something casually to watch, I’ve been known to pick out something older as opposed to something fresh.
While the simple truth is that I just tend to like older films, I’ll also concede that it isn’t easy to find a choice that’s both (A) truly old and (B) truly great. Not every black-and-white can change the way films are made in the way 1941’s Citizen Kane did. Not every ‘classic’ continues to open doors in the way 1942’s Casablanca did. Yes, there’s arguably more – 1941’s The Maltese Falcon, 1948’s Key Largo, 1951’s The Day The Earth Stood Still, 1935’s G-Men, 1957’s 12 Angry Men, 1962’s To Kill A Mockingbird, etc. – and I’m always on the lookout for something that has both stood the test of time and deserves to stand side-by-side with that solid handful of theatrical greatness I’ve mentioned. The problem arises when my expectations of a certain title were led to be much richer than the finish product is.
Such is the case with The Uninvited, a rather thin and still somewhat convoluted chiller that takes far too much time meandering through its deliberate dark shadows to establish a central story that’s worth its 100-minutes running time. The film rather leisurely strolls through some curious set-up (which I’ll get to), suggesting it’s going to be one thing when it becomes something different, and it delivers a kinda/sorta double finale where one half is entirely predictable and the other half is … well … silly. (Maybe even supernaturally silly, if you can accept that.) It’s a rather steep letdown from all I’ve been told about the project and let me tell you why I think that is.
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A composer and his sister discover that the reason they are able to purchase a beautiful gothic seacoast mansion very cheaply is the house's unsavory past.”
When trying to choose something casually to watch, I’ve been known to pick out something older as opposed to something fresh.
While the simple truth is that I just tend to like older films, I’ll also concede that it isn’t easy to find a choice that’s both (A) truly old and (B) truly great. Not every black-and-white can change the way films are made in the way 1941’s Citizen Kane did. Not every ‘classic’ continues to open doors in the way 1942’s Casablanca did. Yes, there’s arguably more – 1941’s The Maltese Falcon, 1948’s Key Largo, 1951’s The Day The Earth Stood Still, 1935’s G-Men, 1957’s 12 Angry Men, 1962’s To Kill A Mockingbird, etc. – and I’m always on the lookout for something that has both stood the test of time and deserves to stand side-by-side with that solid handful of theatrical greatness I’ve mentioned. The problem arises when my expectations of a certain title were led to be much richer than the finish product is.
Such is the case with The Uninvited, a rather thin and still somewhat convoluted chiller that takes far too much time meandering through its deliberate dark shadows to establish a central story that’s worth its 100-minutes running time. The film rather leisurely strolls through some curious set-up (which I’ll get to), suggesting it’s going to be one thing when it becomes something different, and it delivers a kinda/sorta double finale where one half is entirely predictable and the other half is … well … silly. (Maybe even supernaturally silly, if you can accept that.) It’s a rather steep letdown from all I’ve been told about the project and let me tell you why I think that is.
Roderick ‘Rick’ Fitzgerald (played by Ray Milland) and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) are Americans on the hunt for some new digs in the English countryside when they stumble upon Windward House, a seemingly abandoned manor set atop a cliff with the roaring seas visible from the front porch. Wandering inside, they slowly begin to fall in love with the place, so much so that Roderick decides to make an inquiry as to whether or not its on the market. Commander Beech (Donald Crisp) – its present owner – is curiously willing to part with the estate for an extremely low price, though the sale looks to bring about a bit of disappointment from the man’s granddaughter Stella (Gail Russell). Once the Fitzgeralds have taken up residence, however, young Stella is slowly won over by the Americans; and she accepts the invitation to join them one evening for dinner.
What’s become increasingly clear to all involved is that Windward House was never truly alone: a spectral entity appears to have long inhabited the place, and it definitely ‘takes a shine’ to the youthful Stella whenever she’s around. Before you know it, the young woman is a bit possessed; and she runs through the front door in an attempt to throw herself from the cliff to the rocks below, only to be snatched safely by Rick – who’s also smitten with the girl – at the last second. The town physician – Dr. Scott (Alan Napier) – is called to the home, and it’s at this juncture that everyone begins to learn that there’s definitely a backstory to the place involving Stella and her parents which suggests spirits are alive (dead?) and well at the manor.
Now, there’s more – a bit more involving some arguments between the Fitzgeralds and Commander Beech, along with a séance staged to free the house of spectral influences – but it’s all delivered, sadly, with little more than the usual 1940’s Hollywood melodrama, meaning everything goes down forcefully with plenty of grains of salt. Rick and Stella’s emerging courtship is the kind of thing that Tinseltown never really handled well artistically in that age, suggesting that men and women knew at an instant when they were head-over-heels in love with one another. Given that Milland was nearly old enough to be Russell’s father at the time of filming, their courtship never quite shakes the level of creepiness that comes with such couplings. This isn’t to suggest in any way that young and old can’t both fall in love and mature respectfully over time: it’s just that there was no real wooing – just a chance conversation or two – and voila! Ain’t love grand?
What’s become increasingly clear to all involved is that Windward House was never truly alone: a spectral entity appears to have long inhabited the place, and it definitely ‘takes a shine’ to the youthful Stella whenever she’s around. Before you know it, the young woman is a bit possessed; and she runs through the front door in an attempt to throw herself from the cliff to the rocks below, only to be snatched safely by Rick – who’s also smitten with the girl – at the last second. The town physician – Dr. Scott (Alan Napier) – is called to the home, and it’s at this juncture that everyone begins to learn that there’s definitely a backstory to the place involving Stella and her parents which suggests spirits are alive (dead?) and well at the manor.
Now, there’s more – a bit more involving some arguments between the Fitzgeralds and Commander Beech, along with a séance staged to free the house of spectral influences – but it’s all delivered, sadly, with little more than the usual 1940’s Hollywood melodrama, meaning everything goes down forcefully with plenty of grains of salt. Rick and Stella’s emerging courtship is the kind of thing that Tinseltown never really handled well artistically in that age, suggesting that men and women knew at an instant when they were head-over-heels in love with one another. Given that Milland was nearly old enough to be Russell’s father at the time of filming, their courtship never quite shakes the level of creepiness that comes with such couplings. This isn’t to suggest in any way that young and old can’t both fall in love and mature respectfully over time: it’s just that there was no real wooing – just a chance conversation or two – and voila! Ain’t love grand?
Furthermore, there’s a good deal of background involving Stella’s parents – who they were, what happened to them, etc. – which only gets explored via exposition. Rather than showing us – the audience – what transpired, we’re given several small speeches – with one or two revisions as the plot unfolds – and, in the process, it becomes a bit hard to follow if not downright uninteresting. Today’s storytellers accomplish much of the same with flashbacks; and I think that technique might’ve helped alleviate a bit of the resulting confusion had director Allen opted to use it. When we’re not truly told what took place until the last reel – when necessity rears its head so that the ghosts’ identities make sense – it grow tiresome keeping up with the shifting narrative. Frankly, I’m not exactly certain the involvement of nearby psychiatric ward headmistress Miss Holloway (Cornelia Otis Skinner) makes perfect sense; while the actress puts in an interesting performance, the only thing missing from her face is a handlebar mustache I expected her to be evilly twirling – while laughing devilishly – in her last scene.
So far as I see it, the problem here was that I was never truly invited to care about these characters. While their respective acting is perfectly fine, the script asks me to accept some conventions that could’ve benefitted from more substance. For example, why are brother and sister at the ripe ages still not only living together but also searching for new property to own jointly? It isn’t as if there’s still a mother around that they’re forced to continue caring about; and given the fact that Rick is rather quick to think about settling down with Stella I can’t see any rational explanation for the family pairing. Was she homeless? Was he indigent? Also, in no time flat, Pam appears ready, willing, and able to move along with dear old Dr. Scott – it’s a last reel development, too – so … help me out here? What were the two doing sharing a house in the first place? Did they not know it’s wartime England?
Structurally, The Uninvited also poses a challenge for how the storytellers truly wanted this yarn to unfurl. The film’s opening includes a voice-over narration from Milland (in character, of course), giving one the impression that what you’re about to see is unfolding entirely as a flashback from Rick’s perspective. Granted, it really only amounts to setting the stage, but in my experience voice-overs like this are deliberate choices made either by the director, the studio, or the writer. However, they usually have a greater purpose; and yet this one doesn’t. It’s just there, and then the technique completely vanishes from the picture. While I kept waiting for Rick to pop in and give me more, he never did, leaving me a bit confused as to why he even spoke up in the first place.
So far as I see it, the problem here was that I was never truly invited to care about these characters. While their respective acting is perfectly fine, the script asks me to accept some conventions that could’ve benefitted from more substance. For example, why are brother and sister at the ripe ages still not only living together but also searching for new property to own jointly? It isn’t as if there’s still a mother around that they’re forced to continue caring about; and given the fact that Rick is rather quick to think about settling down with Stella I can’t see any rational explanation for the family pairing. Was she homeless? Was he indigent? Also, in no time flat, Pam appears ready, willing, and able to move along with dear old Dr. Scott – it’s a last reel development, too – so … help me out here? What were the two doing sharing a house in the first place? Did they not know it’s wartime England?
Structurally, The Uninvited also poses a challenge for how the storytellers truly wanted this yarn to unfurl. The film’s opening includes a voice-over narration from Milland (in character, of course), giving one the impression that what you’re about to see is unfolding entirely as a flashback from Rick’s perspective. Granted, it really only amounts to setting the stage, but in my experience voice-overs like this are deliberate choices made either by the director, the studio, or the writer. However, they usually have a greater purpose; and yet this one doesn’t. It’s just there, and then the technique completely vanishes from the picture. While I kept waiting for Rick to pop in and give me more, he never did, leaving me a bit confused as to why he even spoke up in the first place.
Now, what works extremely well in The Uninvited involves some solid production detail, along with one of the screen’s earliest depictions of ghosts or spirits appearing ethereal if at all. Director Allen goes to pretty good lengths to use effects that are suggestive of something dire rather than rushed and demanding of time and space. There’s a great sequence of picked flowers aging almost instantly in the presence of some spectral entity. There’s solid use of sounds – moans and laughter, chiefly – which help to establish the film’s heady atmosphere of dread. Lastly, there’s a wonderful bit of the ghost(s) itself that rendered just out-of-focus in a way that understandably has the players and the audience questioning what it is we’re seeing; and that, too, goes a long way toward establishing ample ‘spook factor’ that deserves some of the praise that the film has received over the years.
Still, The Uninvited stumbles a bit in the final reel when it goes for not one but two big finishes. First, Stella nearly falls to her death – it’s that dreaded cliff again, someone really should’ve put up a fence! – and the sequence is strong, effective, and makes the kind of startling punch the story needed. But after this the ensemble gathers into the manor for the purposes of revisiting the story, settling on the identity of the big phantom baddie, and watches in horror as the ghoul shows its unfocused face yet again! While this could’ve been used to effectively give Stella the chance to say goodbye (it’ll make sense when you see it), the screenwriters instead chose to give Rick some heroic last scene where he scolds the ghost in mano a mano style to just leave them all alone.
Sigh.
Where’s a Ghostbuster when you need one?
And cross the streams while you’re at it!
Still, The Uninvited stumbles a bit in the final reel when it goes for not one but two big finishes. First, Stella nearly falls to her death – it’s that dreaded cliff again, someone really should’ve put up a fence! – and the sequence is strong, effective, and makes the kind of startling punch the story needed. But after this the ensemble gathers into the manor for the purposes of revisiting the story, settling on the identity of the big phantom baddie, and watches in horror as the ghoul shows its unfocused face yet again! While this could’ve been used to effectively give Stella the chance to say goodbye (it’ll make sense when you see it), the screenwriters instead chose to give Rick some heroic last scene where he scolds the ghost in mano a mano style to just leave them all alone.
Sigh.
Where’s a Ghostbuster when you need one?
And cross the streams while you’re at it!
The Uninvited (1944) was produced by Paramount Pictures. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Criterion. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I still found the provided sights and sounds to be pretty damn exceptional across the entire film. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? The packaging asserts that this is a new 2K film restoration, and the disc includes two radio adaptations of the original story. The theatrical trailer is also available, and there’s a collector’s booklet with an essay and interview to consider.
Alas … only Mildly Recommended.
More melodrama than major chiller, The Uninvited (1944) really only works for me when it gives way to the possibilities of ghosts and ghouls engaging in shenanigans on our side of reality … and that’s far too few instances to really get excited about. Though the cast is good, the script relies on far too many storytelling conventions of the day for this one to stand alongside many of the vastly greater and more effective thrillers – especially what Universal Studios was doing with their early forays into Horror. Though I’ll not call it a complete disappointment, that doesn’t escape the fact that I’m really gobsmacked to have been assured that this was one of the great films to emerge from the 1940’s – indeed, it was a box office sensation the year of its original release – with so unmoving a central story.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one for this review of The Uninvited (1944) as I purchased a copy for my collection on my own dime.
-- EZ
Alas … only Mildly Recommended.
More melodrama than major chiller, The Uninvited (1944) really only works for me when it gives way to the possibilities of ghosts and ghouls engaging in shenanigans on our side of reality … and that’s far too few instances to really get excited about. Though the cast is good, the script relies on far too many storytelling conventions of the day for this one to stand alongside many of the vastly greater and more effective thrillers – especially what Universal Studios was doing with their early forays into Horror. Though I’ll not call it a complete disappointment, that doesn’t escape the fact that I’m really gobsmacked to have been assured that this was one of the great films to emerge from the 1940’s – indeed, it was a box office sensation the year of its original release – with so unmoving a central story.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one for this review of The Uninvited (1944) as I purchased a copy for my collection on my own dime.
-- EZ
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