"The Uninvited" (1944) is based on the Dorothy Macardle novel "Uneasy Freehold," first published in 1942 and set in pre- WW II England, circa 1937 or 1938. The motion picture is faithful to the book, which may explain why this screenplay is the only such credit for writer Jack Partos; his job was, in large part, completed for him before he picked up his pen. Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland) and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) have left London for a long weekend of house-hunting in Devon, some 200 miles or more west of London, where Roderick works as a writer and critic, greatly thwarted in his efforts to complete a book of his own on censorship. In the film, he's a music critic who seeks to compose. This insignificant digression has left the legacy of Roderick's "composition," the standard "Stella by Starlight." Both brother and sister are recovering from the agonizing six year terminal suffering of their father. A shared home of their own would help the formerly bouyant and wise-cracking Pamela to recover her old self, and provide a shelter for Roderick to pursue his composition. As if by chance, thry happen upon a beautiful but neglected two-storey stone house overlooking the bay. Upon investigation, they find the house is for sale - at an unbelievable (to them) bargain price. Here they have to deal with the seller, Commander Beech, a retired sea captain (Donald Crisp); and they meet his orphaned granddaughter, Stella Meredith (Gail Russell in her first film role). Local whispered gossip suggests that the new owners of Cliff End got such a bargain because the house has experienced "disturbances," which forced previous owners to leave. There also appears to be a strong power drawing Stella Meredith back to the house where she was raised as a child by the Commander's "sainted" daughter, Mary Meredith; her sometimes-present father, a rootless artist; and at times by a Spanish nanny who at one time posed for her father. First Pamela, who has settled in, then Roderick experience disturbances: an eerie chill in the upstairs "study" (which should have been the warmest room in the place; eerrie, sensual and deep sobbing emanating from downstairs just before sunrise; and the overwhelming, then fleeting scent of mimosa. It becomes evident that there are "forces" (plural) at work here; and they seem to be fighting over Stella. Against the Commander's wishes, Pamela and Roderick invite the impressionable Stella to their home, where Dr. Scott (Alan Napier, later of "Batman" fame,), the Commander's long-time family physician, is also in attendance. The furious Commander sends Stella to a "nursing home," run by his late daughter's friend, Nurse Holloway (Cornelia Otis Skinner). This turns out not to have been his best course of action. While the Commander knows much that he's not revealing, there's as much he doesn't know, which is more significant. This film is a gem in all respects: a how-to text in the effective and affective delivery of a ghost story, true to the "less is more" school of filmmaking. The "effects" are marvelous, both for 1944 and the present. Victor Young's score is beautiful. There are a few scenes in which the Roderick character is used for comic relief: a sailing incident, and a "Fright" scene upon his first exposure to the sobbing. These bring nothing positive to the tale and are the sole weaknesses working to detract from he film's overall excellence. "The Uninvited" is a must for any serious fan of filmmaking. I'd love to see it remade; but I fear that there would be too much temptation to bury the suggested horror in a rubble of ghastly special effects. Perhaps it's best to leave some things alone.
Review of The Uninvited
