THE UNINVITED (1944)

 

(Director: Lewis Allen. Screenplay by Dodie Smith and Frank Partos, based on Dorothy Macardle’s 1941 novel Uneasy Freehold, published stateside as The Uninvited in 1942.)

Storyline

Two siblings move into an oceanside house, unaware that it’s haunted by a supernatural presence.

 

Review

Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald, brother and sister, purchase the gothic Windward House in Cornwall, England in 1937. Its owner, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp, DR.JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, 1941), sells it to them for a low price, prompting questions as to why. It’s revealed that the mansion is said to be haunted by the spirit of the Commander’s daughter (Mary Meredith) who fell off a nearby cliff seventeen years ago. Not only that, Mary’s twenty-year-old daughter, Stella (Gail Russell, NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, 1948)─who shares a mutual attraction to Roderick─is fascinated by the house in an unhealthy way.

Almost immediately, the Fitzgeralds sense something off about Windward House. In the artist’s loft, a brief cold spot, accompanied by a lingering smell of mimosa─a scent associated with Mary Meredith─encompasses the siblings. Talks with the Commander and other locals follows, as spectral things, spine-shivery events occur within and around the spooky, shadowy abode: a woman’s laughter, more cold spots, wind where there shouldn’t be, etc. It seems Windward House wants young Stella, and she, it. Can those around her save her before it claims her like it did her mother?

This hugely successful and popular film is by turns spooky, light and funny (in a quiet way), emotionally intriguing, a mystery, and an all-around deftly made film, a high point in the haunted house genre. Its behind-the-scenes talent is top-notch. Lewis Allen (THE UNSEEN, 1945) directed the film in a leave a lot to viewers’ imagination style, effectively paced by Doane Harrison’s editing─one element is present within the film against Allen’s wishes: the FX shots of an uncredited Elizabeth Russell (THE SEVENTH VICTIM, 1943) as “The Ghost of Mary Meredith,” inserted by producers who did not share Allen’s Val Lewton-esque less is more outlook.

UNINVITED‘s crew also includes: cinematographer Charles Lang, billed as Charles Lang Jr. (THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, 1947); visual effects artists Farciot Edouart (DR.CYCLOPS, 1940); an uncredited Gordon Jennings (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, 1953); art directors Hans Dreier (DOUBLE INDEMNITY, 1944) and Ernst Fegté (I MARRIED A WITCH, 1942); set director Stephen Seymour; and legendary costume designer Edith Head.

UNINVITED’s players match their excellence. Ray Milland (THE UNCANNY, 1977) and Ruth Hussey (ANOTHER THIN MAN, 1939) are great as the Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald, siblings whose familial bond is infused with unspoken affection, understanding and humor. Alan Napier (BATMAN, 1966-8) played Dr. Scott, a friend of the Fitzgeralds’, who helps them solve the mystery surrounding Mary and Stella Meredith. Cornelia Otis Skinner (THE SWIMMER, 1968) is sharp and striking as Miss Holloway, Stella’s doctor. And Betty Farrington’s voice is eerily effective as the voice of “Carmel’s Ghost.”

UNINVITED is one of my all-time favorite ghost house movies, worth watching and owning─provided you’re a fan of relatively quiet, mainstream, atmospheric and light-on-visual-effects flicks.