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The House on Carroll Street More at IMDbPro »

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21 reviews in total

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14 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
The McCarthy Era with Style, 6 August 1998

Author: Michael P. Rogers from Falls Church, Virginia USA

This is a wonderfully Hitchcockian, quite realistic, but also nostalgic return to the time when some people were looking for Communists under every bed, as well as in Hollywood and =Life= magazine. Kelly McGillis is terrific as the idealistic civil liberties type who discovers Nazis in the garden and her own personal SS man in a Senator's office. Mandy Patinkin is really convincing as the Senate staffer who hounds McGillis from her job. He even looks a little like a famous politician with the initials RMN. For a bang-up thriller without any shooting, car chases or explosions, this is one of the best videos around.

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15 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Nazis on Main Street, 23 January 2006

Author: sol1218 from brooklyn NY

**SPOILERS** Beautifully photographed period piece, New York City circa 1951,about a young women asst. photo editor Emily Crane, Kelly McGillis, who's let go by her employer Life Magazine for refusing to give or name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Getting a job as a reader for an old women Miss. Venable ,Jessica Tandy, Emily one afternoon notices this young man Alan ,Jonathan Hogan, across the way in the house on Carroll Street through the window talking to Ray Salwen, Mandy Patinkin,the man who interrogated her at the HUAC hearings. Becoming obsessed with the young man Emily follows him on the subway to Rockaway Queens and finds that he spends his time going to mostly Jewish cemeteries taking down the names of those recently departed? Not knowing what she's getting into Emily uncovers a secret plan to smuggle ex-Nazi scientist's into the US, giving them Jewish name and identities as a cover! These ex-Nazis are to be use by the US Government in their expertise in the fight against the Red Menace, or International Communism.

This secret government operation is headed by the aforementioned anti-Communist fanatic and borderline psycho HUAC investigator Ray Salwen. It was Salwen who later shows how unstable he is by pouring an entire bottle of ketchup, his way of emphasizing the Red Manace, over a clean white table-cloth in order to impress and show a shocked Emily in how the menace of Communisum has spread over the globe!

Emily feels guilty when Alan, who put his trust in her , is murdered before he can talk to G-Man Cochran, Jeff Daniels, who became romantically involved with her. Salwen who's involved with the Nazis being smuggled into the country has his goons try to murder Emily. This before she let's the cat out of the bag about the US Government being allied with high ranking members of the defunct Adolf Hitler's Germany. Salwen ends up on the losing end when he makes a fatal miss-step on the roof of Grand Central Station and takes the fall for what his superiors have been doing since the end of WWII: secretly aiding ex-Nazis in the war against Commnisum.

P.S the movie "The House on Carroll Street" is not as far fetched as one might think with President Turman passing the secret order Project, or Operation, Paper-Clip in September 1946 having the US Immigration Department allow hundreds of ex-Nazi scientists, which many of Truman's supporters and admirers say that he didn't know about, into the US. This was done in order to help in developing rockets and other military hardware in fighting the Communists Menace overseas in far away places like Korea and Vietnam.

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10 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Hitchcock style movie, 21 August 1999

Author: Kevin (slim402003@aol.com)

This movie had its moments, but i actually enjoyed it. Hitchcock style film with an interesting plot. If you like hitchcock, you will like this. The cast is good with Kelly McGillis and Jeff Daniels very well casted and Mandy Patinkin is excellent in a rare role.

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12 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Kelly McGillis for Miss Girl Scout 1951!, 13 July 2006

Author: manuel-pestalozzi from Zurich, Switzerland

Watching beautiful women sneaking around, playing cops and robbers is one of the most delightful guilty pleasures the medium film lets me enjoy. So The House on Carroll Street was not entirely a waste of time, although the story is contrived and the screenplay uninspired and somewhat irritating.

There are many allusions to different Hitchcock pictures, not least the choice of Kelly McGillis in the starring role. She is dressed up as Grace Kelly, and she is not far off the mark. Not at all. But her character is not convincing. The way she is introduced to the audience, she should be someone with political convictions and a purpose in life. After all the movie deals with a clearly defined time period, true events and a specific issue. But the story degenerates within the first minutes into a sorry run-off-the-mill crime story with unbelievable coincidences, high predictability and a set of two dimensional characters. This is all the more regrettable, as the performances of the actors are good, as are the photography and the set design.

The finale in Central Station, New York is breath taking. It starts in the subterranean section and then moves up to the roof. The movie can be praised for its good use of architecture.

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Comments on the film rather than its subject, 1 February 2003
Author: holt-4 from Bolton, England

The film has good pace, and excellent photography, and is very much in the style of Hitchcock even to the music which, at times, one feels was almost written by Bernard Herrmann. A simple story perfectly developed, with an economical and sharp script.

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
"I have nothing to tell you", 2 March 2000

Author: TRULEIGH from copenhagen, denmark

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Well, I have.

This is one of the last non-ironic, non-twisted thrillerplots of the mainstream movie industry of the past century. Afterwards, most thriller movies either turned "Die Hard" (nonsensical action) or "Seven" (near nonsensical twist).

The thrillerplot is also serving as a shadowplay of the subplot - the failed relationship between Daniels and McGillis.

The McGillis character is of course crucial. Two scenes underline her search for personal insight and freedom, where Daniels for his part gives up. One is where she is portrayed in the dark windows of the neighbourhouse, before breaking the glass. Two is her lone fight with the villain at the central train station, where Daniels is as passive as any antihero of movie history.

She did kill the boy of course, and she is still waiting for that man. Is she wrong or is she right? She is she.

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7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
An engaging, good-spirited thriller thanks to the two appealing leads and the influence of Alfred Hitchcock, 3 February 2008

Author: Terrell-4 from San Antonio, Texas

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Emily Crane, a photo editor at Life Magazine, refuses to turn over to a Senate committee the names and files of a civil rights organization she's associated with, she doesn't realize she'll soon be out of a job and probably the cause of a young German being stabbed to death. That's not the least of it. Soon she'll be refusing a great hamburger while a senior Senate committee staff man uses catsup on a white dining clothe to illustrate the red menace. And finally, she'll find herself clambering over the interior catwalk of New York's Grand Central Station dome, high above the floor, while killers try to insure she trips. To my mind, The House on Carroll Street is a solid and talented, if not exceptional, child of Hitchcock.

The year is 1951 and anti-Communism hysteria is in full bloom. Congressional demagogues, black-listing and secret FBI files abound. When Emily (Kelly McGillis) loses her job, we learn she's under FBI surveillance. Agent Cochrane (Jeff Daniels) has been assigned to take secret photographs of her, find out who she talks to and to follow her about New York. He observes when, in need of a job, she is interviewed by Miss Venable (Jessica Tandy) to read to the old lady. And one afternoon, relaxing in the townhouse garden of Miss Venable's home, she overhears part of a conversation in German coming from the next house. Naturally nosy, she moves closer through the bushes, glimpses the face of a young German fellow she accidentally met a day or two before on the street...and then sees the face of the Senate staff head, Ray Salwen (Mandy Patinkin). Salwen was responsible for hauling her before the committee. Something is not right. A few days later she follows the German to a Jewish cemetery and finds him writing down the names of dead Jews. He seems scared. Before long, she is helping him escape from the house on Carroll Street, only to see him stabbed death in front of her. By now, FBI agent Cochrane not only realizes something is very off, he realizes Emily Crane has nice legs, is quite likable and may be in danger. He's puzzled when he is warned off by his superiors and then taken off her case. In solid Hitchcockian style, we have been following this nice and nosy woman while she slowly discovers skullduggery and then realizes that she has placed herself at great risk. And in equally solid Hitchcockian style, we have met the man in agent Cochrane who with persistence and humor will attempt to keep her from danger while joining her in uncovering a plot that deals with German war criminals and powerful men in high places.

The movie has well-directed set pieces, ranging from a covert meeting in a huge, dim Greenwich Village book store to a spooky breaking-and-entering into the now abandoned house on Carroll Street (where Emily meets a man with a knife) to the exploration of the tunnels below and the girders high above the Grand Central main station. Most of all, it has two instantly appealing main characters in McGillis and Daniels. Both are completely natural in their portrayals. They have guileless faces. We immediately like both of them. Daniels in particular shows the kind of open-faced honesty that makes the movie so satisfying. The caveat I have is Mandy Patinkin. He is a forceful, intense actor. Patinkin makes Salwen a creature of such supreme self-confidence, such repellent humor that Salwen doesn't just stand for the evils of the period, he disgusts us. Patinkin's self-serving, power-justifying Salwen, full of phony patriotism and contemptuous high spirits, in my opinion very nearly overbalances the movie. Patinkin is just an inch away from becoming a caricature. Added to that are two speeches that Patinkin is given to justify his actions. Unfortunately, they move over into manipulated melodrama. The speeches are so over-the-top they tend to place the movie on hold while Patinkin gives them. However, the screenwriter is Walter Bernstein, a talented man who was black-listed for years. I'm more than willing to cut him some slack.

I think The House on Carroll Street is a well-crafted semi-romantic thriller which doesn't use explosives (well, there's one), cynicism or cumbersome back stories. It has two attractive and likable leads, a plot with a message or two which keeps moving along and a bit of humor. It also has a happy ending which, in one regard, may be unexpected.

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9 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Government shenanigans, 25 March 2008

Author: lastliberal from United States

Many of us are too young to remember the McCarthy era, but that doesn't mean we should not be aware of it because many of the actions occurring during that time have been going on the last seven years.

Kelly McGillis, who did a great job in Witness with Harrison Ford, is Emily, a woman caught up in the witch hunt that occurred during that era. Quite by accident, she stumbles on a plot by these same people in power to smuggle Nazi war criminals into the country, using the names of dead Jews, if you can believe that.

Mandy Patinkin plays a great evildoer in the government, and he even looks like the former President that made his reputation during this time.

Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale , Good Night and Good Luck) is very good a a farm-boy turned FBI agent who falls for Emily and helps her uncover the plot.

In the absence of CGI and FX, it was great acting that really made this an enjoyable movie.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Hitchcock's baby, 24 May 2010

Author: Benoit Vanhees from Belgium

Excellent and entertaining movie in many regards. The 1950's atmosphere is caught very well: elegant clothing, superb cars, leafy New York streets, New York's Grand Central Station and a cameo role for the shiny Chicago Express. The OST by George Delarue too is worth while listening to. It does more than just underpin the action in the movie, it stands perfectly well on its own legs.

I've noticed some reviewers made a link between the looks of Ray Salwen (Mandy Patinkin) and a young Richard Nixon, who was heading the House on Un- American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early fifties. I'd rather compare the smug Salwen figure with Roy Cohn, McCarthy's right hand and ax man. (Patinkin would have been a perfect choice for the main role of "Citizen Cohn" in 1992, although James Woods too did a nice job) As other reviewers have pointed out, there are indeed some similarities with Hitchcock movies from the 1950's. All shots show clean streets, nice looking people, shiny cars… You won't see any hoodlums, hobo's, mean looking motorcycle gang members. There's not even the page of a newspaper pushed around by the wind in the New York streets. Even the bad guys that kill the German young man with a knife are dressed up as if they come from the horses or some fancy restaurant. The romance between McGillis and FBI man Cochran (Daniels) too is treated in a very 1950's way. To many viewers, this will be seen as a lack of chemistry between the two main characters. However, to my h.o. an all too steamy relationship would have somehow spoiled this elegant movie, and especially slowed down the pace considerably.

OK, there are a number of weak points in the scenario: it's highly improbable that a hush hush operation of smuggling Nazi's into the US would have used such an "unsafe safe-house" as the one in Carroll Street. ID papers would have been arranged for, while those war criminals were still in Europe, to reduce as much as possible the risks. And it's rather silly seeing a Senator's aide going as far as entering into Emily's bathroom. Very intimidating, OK, but I'd rather think this kind of a job would have been left to some low ranking goons. And finally, what the heck is he doing on the roof of New York's Grand Central Station ??? Still, nobody complains about similar weaknesses in let's say "North by Northwest", or "Sabotage". Indeed, this movie doesn't pretend being a semi-documentary, like De Niro's "Guilty by suspicion" (1991) or Citizen Cohn are. And as pure entertainment, House on Carroll Street does a nice job. I'd rate it 8/10

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An unlikely couple thwarts a government attempt to import Nazis, 4 April 2012

Author: msroz from United States

This movie is best in the final sequence in Penn Station, but it still doesn't hold a candle to Hitchcock's comparable closings in high places. It's a modest and earnest movie, matched by the earnestness of its lead players.

It's not a bad movie. It is enjoyable. It's reasonably well done, even if it is not excellent. The disappointment lies in what it could have been if the script and direction had been more inventive. As it stands, there were simply not enough good taut sequences, and in what there were the direction was not tight enough or creative enough to create significant ongoing tension or mysteriousness to raise the movie to above-average heights.

The principal antagonist was unlikeable from the get-go, but that is not enough to make the portrayal memorable. His lines after awhile were repetitive. The heroes had pretty much fixed expressions. It seemed that the whole movie was toned down. The range of acting was kept limited and bounded. It was pretty much white bread but yet had elements and scenes that held their own even if not fulfilling the promise of more.

The recreation of the era was excellent. That, the good settings, and the driving curiosity of Ms. McGillis in the lead were what sustained the film and made it most worthwhile. The film did hold one's attention and draw one in.

It's a kind of throwback to spy movies of the 1940s, which means modern gimmicks and language are absent. It's a good matinée movie.

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