OVP: The Uninvited (1944)

Film: The Uninvited (1944)

Stars: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Gail Russell

Director: Lewis Allen

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Cinematography)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

This month we are devoting all of our classic film reviews to Golden Age Horror films that I saw for the first time this year.  If you want to take a look at past titles (from this and other seasons of this series), look at the bottom of the page for links.

We are going to move briefly away from the Universal Monster movies of the month (don't worry, we've got six left before we finish off October with two late horror films from this era) to go into a classic horror movie that I had never seen before, but has enjoyed a strong reputation in the decades since its release.  The Uninvited was part of a series of supernatural-films that happened toward the end of World War II, when the studios were coming up with "elevated" horror content (a trend we're also seeing in today's movie market with pictures like The Conjuring and Hereditary).  It was a hit in 1944 at the box office for Paramount (who was already enjoying a solid year with Going My Way and Double Indemnity keeping the coffers full), and its champions have kept it alive in the decades that followed, leading it to be considered one of the best horror films of its era by modern audiences, even getting a Criterion Collection edition.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is a bit confusing on its surface, but I'll try to ground it for you here.  Wealthy brother-and-sister Rick (Milland) and Pamela (Hussey) Fitzgerald decide to move into a palatial estate called the Windward House, sold to them by Commander Beech (Crisp), despite the protestations of Beech's granddaughter Stella (Russell).  It turns out that Beech's daughter (and Stella's mother) threw herself to her death 17 years earlier from the cliff near Windward House.  Despite the orders to avoid the Fitzgeralds, Stella becomes infatuated with Rick & visits the home.  It turns out that Windward House is haunted by the ghost of Mary, who stays behind because it wasn't suicide but murder that kept her in the house...we are initially told that Mary was killed by her husband's lover Carmel, a Spanish gypsy who pushed her from the cliff.  What we later understand is that Carmel is in fact also haunting the house, both because she was the one who was actually murdered (by Mary's friend Miss Holloway, played by Skinner), but also because she is Stella's mother, and gave birth to her before she died.  Both spirits leave the house upon this news, leaving Stella & Rick to a presumed happily ever after.

The Uninvited is fascinating for a variety of reasons, so let's get into the two things that don't work first before we jump to the remainder, as overall Uninvited is a winner.  The film miscast Gail Russell in this role.  Russell ended up having a relatively successful career though a troubled personal life would cause her premature death at the age of only 36 (she died as the result of chronic alcoholism)-her best film is the 1948 classic Moonrise.  So early in her career, she's miscast as Stella, feeling too much like a little girl to be believable as Milland's love interest, and based on on-set stories, this was a troubling shoot for the actress.  You need someone with a little bit more mystery to play her, particularly against an actress as good as Ruth Hussey.

The ending is also a miss for me in The Uninvited.  I think having the story end more ambiguously rather than explicitly underlining whether or not the house is haunted might have been the way to go, or at the very least not trying to shovel the ghost of Mary out so quickly would've worked.  As it is, it feels too rushed in the final moments to confirm everything with a tidy ribbon, when some looseness in the story would've behooved all involved.  That said, the rest of The Uninvited is marvelous, and weirdly untouched by time.  This is a genuinely spooky picture, not in the buckets-of-blood style horrors you might associate with the genre today, but instead the bump-in-the-night thrills.  With the exception of Russell, all of the actors are great, particularly Skinner as the haunted (probably lesbian, let's be real here) "devoted to Mary" nurse who kills Carmel.  It's a good picture, and one that I suggest watching at night as it has that kind of ambiance.

The movie was nominated for one Oscar, and it earned it-the Cinematography is moody & fascinating, using some of the shady silhouettes to great effect.  I don't love the way I saw it (it was an older print), so before we get to 1944 in the OVP (someday), I'll likely purchase this from Criterion to make sure I give it its proper due, but even in a lesser-quality print, this is something special.

Past Horror Month Reviews (Listed Chronologically): The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Mad Love, The Raven, Werewolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Mummy's Hand, The Invisible Woman, The Wolf Man, Cat People, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, Son of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob, The Masque of the Red Death