IMDb > The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)

The House on Telegraph Hill (1951) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.0/10   519 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 125% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Robert Wise
Writers:
Dana Lyon (novel) and
Elick Moll (writer)
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Contact:
View company contact information for The House on Telegraph Hill on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
27 August 1951 (Sweden) more
Genre:
Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller | Drama more
Tagline:
This is the house forbidden to every woman with a conscience, forbidden to every man with honor! more
Plot:
Concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder when she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. more
NewsDesk:
Dunaway to Star as Duchess of Windsor
 (From Studio Briefing - Film News. 13 February 2003)
User Comments:
Disappointing, given the subject and cast more (16 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Richard Basehart ... Alan Spender
Valentina Cortese ... Victoria Kowelska (as Valentina Cortesa)
William Lundigan ... Major Marc Bennett
Fay Baker ... Margaret
Gordon Gebert ... Christopher
Steven Geray ... Dr. Burkhardt
Herbert Butterfield ... Joseph C. Callahan
Kei Thin Chung ... Kei - Houseboy
John Burton ... Mr. Whitmore
Katherine Meskill ... Mrs. Whitmore
Mario Siletti ... Tony, the Grocer
Charles Wagenheim ... Man At Accident

David Clarke ... Mechanic
Tamara Schee ... Maria
Natasha Lytess ... Karin Dernakova
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
93 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)
Certification:
Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15
Filming Locations:
Coit Tower, San Francisco, California, USA more
Company:
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Other actors considered for the Richard Basehart role include James Mason, Hugh Marlowe, Richard Widmark, Dana Andrews, John Lund, and Richard Conte/ more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: In the establishing shot of the house at the beginning, the fact that the water in the bay in the background never moves indicates is it a matte painting. more
Quotes:
Alan Spender: You think it's easy to kill somebody? It takes time and patience and a strong stomach. more
Soundtrack:
Blue Moon more

FAQ

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
4 out of 10 people found the following comment useful.
Disappointing, given the subject and cast, 2 January 2008
6/10
Author: David (Handlinghandel) from NY, NY

This is a women's picture masquerading as a film noir. It does have dark overtones but in many ways it resembles standard fare of earlier decades. Some significant miscasting is partly at fault.

Valentina Cortese was one of the most glorious stars to come to Hollywood from Europe. Clearly this is a vehicle for her. Yet, she can't salvage the routine screenplay.

We meet her at Bergen Belsen. This was a daring way to start a film that was going to have nothing to do with the War or Nazis. She isn't convincing as a Pole, but that isn't the film's main problem.

She comes to San Francisco, to another woman's family. (We see her exchange identities with another ex-prisoner at the start.) Richard Basehart does his best as the dark character she finds herself marrying. William Lundigan is fine as a family friend.

At the center of the film is an actress I'd never before heard of: Fay Baker. She has a very important role in the film and, I'm sorry to say, this actress was not up to it. She has an anodyne quality that nudges the movie further into soap opera.

Robert Wise directed. I'd love to know the story of how he went from Orson Welles's editor and a Val Lewton director to helmsman of down and dirty noir like "Born to Kill" -- and then to "The Sound of Music" and his other big-budget musicals of that later period.

Here he does a very decent job. It's beautifully photographed by Lucien Ballard, too. But it left little impression on me -- even though it's a movie I'd long wanted to catch up with.

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