The Uninvited (Allen, 1944): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 2.30pm
This film is part of the In Dreams are Monsters season at BFI Southbank. Full details here.
In the post-Rebecca cinematic landscape, Lewis Allen’s homoerotic, fabulously eerie ghost story emerged from the glut of imitators as one of the enduring classics of the genre ...
Time Out review:
Set in a distinctly Hollywoodian but nevertheless persuasive Cornwall, this is an impressive supernatural thriller, not unlike Rebecca
in its use of an eerily atmospheric house and a sense of morbid
brooding about the troubled past. Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey are the siblings
who buy the old house, only to find it haunted and exerting a sinister
influence over the previous owner's granddaughter (Russell). Lewis Allen's
direction tightens the screws of tension to genuinely frightening
effect, aided by an intense performance from Gail Russell as the girl who
believes herself haunted by the malevolent ghost of her mother, and by
beautiful camerawork in the noir style from Charles Lang. The
real strength of the film, though, is its atypical stance part way
between psychology and the supernatural, achieving a disturbingly
serious effect.
Geoff Andrew
Here (and above) is the trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment