THE RED HOUSE

This 1947 film is a psychological drama which would like to think it is scarier than it is.

Never mind, it’s well enough put together to hold my attention (just) although a bit of pruning here and there from screenwriter Dudley Nichols wouldn’t have gone amiss, just to cut out some repetition and make it tauter.

Edward G Robinson and Judith Anderson play Pete and Ellen, a brother and sister who live on an isolated farm, with teenage Meg who they have adopted.

Meg's parents supposedly left the area when she was a baby and then subsequently died.  Around the same time, Pete had an accident whereby he fell into a nearby quarry, losing a leg in the process. 

It’s no great surprise when eventually we learn that there is a sinister explanation for the disappearance of Meg's parents.  

But let’s not run ahead of ourselves.

The film starts gently enough with Pete and Ellen taking on a teenage lad Nath to help out on the farm in the evenings. Meg is sweet on Nath but he only has eyes for Tibby (played by the singer Julie London in an early role).

Pete foolishly makes a big deal out of warning Nath from going home via the nearby Oxhead Woods, and mentions ‘The Red House’ as somewhere especially dangerous.

This only has the effect of making Nath and Meg very curious, so they then spend all their spare time from school trying to find the Red House.

Nath and Meg being together so much makes Tibby jealous, although she herself has caught the eye of a mysterious local good-for-nothing character called Teller.  He doesn’t seem to do anything much other than loiter near the Woods, the explanation for which is that Pete is employing him to keep people away (although the legalistic stickler in me wondered whether Pete had any right to do this).

Nath and Meg rooting around in the Woods greatly troubles Pete, to the point where clearly his mind is becoming unbalanced, so much so that he starts calling Meg 'Jeannie', which was her mother’s name.

Inevitably there is a melodramatic conclusion which has to take place at night (of course it does) which involves Ellen being accidentally shot dead by Teller, then Pete trying to kill Meg (hallucinating that she is her mother), before killing himself.

It turns out that Pete loved Jeannie, and in a confrontation with her he accidentally or maybe  deliberately killed her, and then her husband, before throwing himself into the quarry in an unsuccessful attempt to kill himself.

The Red House is simply the farmhouse where Meg's parents lived and where their bodies have been lying hidden all these years.

There is a happy ending of sorts in that Nath finally sees sense and realises that Meg is the girl for him.

The performances are all very good.  Seven years after her memorable performance as the sinister housekeeper in 'Rebecca' it was good to see Judith Anderson in a much more sympathetic role.  

Allene Roberts is very well cast as gentle, sweet Meg, six years after she won an "America's Most Charming Child" contest.

Delmer Daves directs competently, especially in an effective early sequence when Nath is lost at night in those dratted Woods, and Miklós Rózsa contributes a decent score.

RATING: ✓ Cheers