An old man (Edward G Robinson) and his sister (Judith Anderson) are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter called Meg (Allene Roberts) . The fostered girl is attracted to a young man of the village called Nath Storm (Lon McCallister) . Meg starts falling in love with Nath , but his sweetheart Tibby (Julie London) has other plans for him . She then brings home the suitor and the old man attempts to keep everyone out of mysterious red house located on his ownership . The elderly farmer unsuccessfully attempts to bury the horrid past . Curious , Meg and Nath ignore dangers and begin exploring beyond the following warning : ¨No trespass at your own risk¨ . Meantime , they all get closer to real risk and the horrible truth about the property . At the end , the terrible secret concerning a hidden abandon farmhouse and located deep in the woods bursts out , as leaving a grand ending the resolution of the mystery .
This first-rate but slow-paced picture draws its riveting tale and power from the interaction of finely drawn roles as well as drama and emotion . Rare film Noir about troubled relationships , being based on the novel by Agnew Chamberlain and screen-written by the same director and by notorious and black-listed Albert Maltz . It has a good realization , an original script , haunting atmosphere , intriguing events ; for that reason madness and murder prevail . Exciting as well as strange film , possessing a mysterious and fascinating blend of rural serenity , baroque suspense in which especially stands out the magnificent musical score by Miklos Rozsa . This is pure cinema from the first to the last shot, where there's nothing left and each image has its sense and meaning . Very good acting by Edward G. Robinson on the character of an old crippled farmer "Pete Morgan", who lives with his sister in a secluded farm in front of an eerie forest . He does an excellent job and proves once again he is one of the best players in the history of cinema . Support cast is frankly well such as Judith Anderson of Rebeca as Ellen Morgan , Rory Calhoun as Teller , Allene Roberts as Meg , Julie London as Tibby , Ona Munson as Mrs. Storm , Pat Flatherty as cop and Harry Shannon . Dark cinematography plenty of lights and shades by Bert Glennon . The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely and usually badly edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duplicated from second- or third-generation or more copies of the film.
The motion picture produced in low budget by Sol Lesser was well directed by Delmer Daves . Nice work by Delmer Daves in demonstrating his skill at all areas : as technical , using all kind of resources for illustrating the interesting as well as dramatic story with an engaging screenplay , adding great actors filmmaking and enjoyable narration . Daves was a Western expert , including his characteristic use of landscape , for the reason he lived a long time of his boyhood with the Navajo and Hopi Indian tribes as he realized the notorious trail-blazing ¨Broken arrow¨ the first movie for many years not treat the Indians as cannon-fodder for the cavalry , which made the picture unpopular in some quarters . He went on directing the suspenseful ¨3:10 to Yuma¨, other pro-Indian as ¨The last wagon¨ and about Modoc Indians as ¨Drum beat¨ , the Shakespearian style of ¨Jubal¨ , ¨Return of the Texan¨ and ¨Cowboy¨ which a fairly spectacle about a long cattle drive . From 1959 Delmer Daves becomes embroiled for the remainder of his career with teenage love epics and very popular at the Box-office as ¨A summer place¨, ¨Parrish¨, ¨Susan Slade¨, and ¨Rome adventure¨, among others . And of course , he realized Noir films such as ¨Dark passage¨ and this ¨The red House¨ that is absolutely recommended .
This first-rate but slow-paced picture draws its riveting tale and power from the interaction of finely drawn roles as well as drama and emotion . Rare film Noir about troubled relationships , being based on the novel by Agnew Chamberlain and screen-written by the same director and by notorious and black-listed Albert Maltz . It has a good realization , an original script , haunting atmosphere , intriguing events ; for that reason madness and murder prevail . Exciting as well as strange film , possessing a mysterious and fascinating blend of rural serenity , baroque suspense in which especially stands out the magnificent musical score by Miklos Rozsa . This is pure cinema from the first to the last shot, where there's nothing left and each image has its sense and meaning . Very good acting by Edward G. Robinson on the character of an old crippled farmer "Pete Morgan", who lives with his sister in a secluded farm in front of an eerie forest . He does an excellent job and proves once again he is one of the best players in the history of cinema . Support cast is frankly well such as Judith Anderson of Rebeca as Ellen Morgan , Rory Calhoun as Teller , Allene Roberts as Meg , Julie London as Tibby , Ona Munson as Mrs. Storm , Pat Flatherty as cop and Harry Shannon . Dark cinematography plenty of lights and shades by Bert Glennon . The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely and usually badly edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duplicated from second- or third-generation or more copies of the film.
The motion picture produced in low budget by Sol Lesser was well directed by Delmer Daves . Nice work by Delmer Daves in demonstrating his skill at all areas : as technical , using all kind of resources for illustrating the interesting as well as dramatic story with an engaging screenplay , adding great actors filmmaking and enjoyable narration . Daves was a Western expert , including his characteristic use of landscape , for the reason he lived a long time of his boyhood with the Navajo and Hopi Indian tribes as he realized the notorious trail-blazing ¨Broken arrow¨ the first movie for many years not treat the Indians as cannon-fodder for the cavalry , which made the picture unpopular in some quarters . He went on directing the suspenseful ¨3:10 to Yuma¨, other pro-Indian as ¨The last wagon¨ and about Modoc Indians as ¨Drum beat¨ , the Shakespearian style of ¨Jubal¨ , ¨Return of the Texan¨ and ¨Cowboy¨ which a fairly spectacle about a long cattle drive . From 1959 Delmer Daves becomes embroiled for the remainder of his career with teenage love epics and very popular at the Box-office as ¨A summer place¨, ¨Parrish¨, ¨Susan Slade¨, and ¨Rome adventure¨, among others . And of course , he realized Noir films such as ¨Dark passage¨ and this ¨The red House¨ that is absolutely recommended .