The House on Carroll Street (1988)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Peter Yates

Writer:

Walter Bernstein (written by)

Release Date:

4 March 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

Emily Crane is fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee,...

Plot Keywords:

FBI | McCarthyism | Nazi | 1950s | War Criminal

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Kelly McGillis	...	Emily
Jeff Daniels	...	Cochran
Mandy Patinkin	...	Salwen
Jessica Tandy	...	Miss Venable
Jonathan Hogan	...	Alan
Remak Ramsay	...	Senator Byington
Kenneth Welsh	...	Hackett (as Ken Welsh)
Christopher Buchholz	...	Stefan (as Christopher Rhode)
Charles McCaughan	...	Salwen Aide 1
Randle Mell	...	Salwen Aide 2
Michael Flanagan	...	Senator
Paul Sparer	...	Randolph Slote
Brian Davies	...	Warren
Mary Diveny	...	Maid
Bill Moor	...	Teperson

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | UK:PG | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Cherry Lane Theatre - 38 Commerce Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Orion Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In one scene, Emily overhears The Women in the House character (who is off-screen) speaking to one of the Russians through an interpreter. The Woman is telling the Russian that they will leave for Chicago "tomorrow." The interpreter mistakenly says "tomorrow" in English and then corrects himself mid-word to the correct Russian word "zaftra."

Quotes:

Emily: We're oil and water, Cochran.
Cochran: Not last night we weren't.

Soundtrack:

Excerpts from 'A WOMAN CALLED FANCY'

Forgettable film with McCarthy era intrigue.

When I checked this one out of the library, I thought it might be an early 50's film-noir about spy smuggling but it turns out to be a 1988 effort to reconstruct an era circa 1951 when World War II memories were fresh and looking for Reds was becoming a national pastime.

Unfortunately, the reconstruction of 50's scenes comes off a whole lot better than the picture. Jeff Daniels does a nice little job as the government agent with a heart but the story has more holes than McCarthy's logic.

Kelly McGinniss spends the movie being pursued--in libraries, on roof tops, in train stations, you name it, but there's something lacking--I think it's called a plot.

They would have been better off chucking the Nazi bad guy stuff and straying with the McCarthy smear of our heroine. Do it in black and white and build the picture of the sinister democracy it could have been.