The Red House
Based on the poster featuring a sexy dame and an ominous house, I thought this Edward G. Robinson film from 1949 would be a noir with Gothic elements, or possibly the other way around. It did have parts that were Gothic and parts that were noir. It had a lot more parts of a lot more genres too. In fact, it was about nine different genres tossed in pieces into a bucket, then shaken vigorously.
It started out with a nicely ominous score by Miklos Rocza and Gothic-like photography. It then instantly dove into a pastoral family drama with Edward G. Robinson as Pete, a grumpy salt of the earth farmer with one leg, his pleasant salt of the earth sister (who I thought was his wife for about half the movie), their 18-year-old niece/adopted daughter Meg, and the high school boy she's dating who is inexplicably named Nath (rhymes with lath), having an extremely awkward dinner.
The genre abruptly switches back to Gothic, as Nath declares that he'll take a shortcut through the woods and Robinson tells him that no one who goes through the woods ever returns!!!
Nath says, "A tree's a tree."
In my favorite bit of the entire movie, Robinson says, "You won't save yourself from the screams in the night! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS FOR A SCREAM TO FOLLOW YOU?!"
Naturally, Nath takes this as a challenge and marches into the woods. There are indeed screams.... or are they just the wind? He gets lost over and over... but it's night. There's a house somewhere in the woods, which he can't seem to find and which Robinson implied was cursed. Are Meg's supposedly dead parents imprisoned in it, or actually dead and haunting it??? This part, a nicely directed and scored "supernatural or not" Gothic was my favorite genre of the movie, and I kind of wish it had stuck with it.
Spoilers! ( Read more... )
I can't say this was actually good but it was entertaining. All that stuff happened in an hour and forty minutes!
The Red House[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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It started out with a nicely ominous score by Miklos Rocza and Gothic-like photography. It then instantly dove into a pastoral family drama with Edward G. Robinson as Pete, a grumpy salt of the earth farmer with one leg, his pleasant salt of the earth sister (who I thought was his wife for about half the movie), their 18-year-old niece/adopted daughter Meg, and the high school boy she's dating who is inexplicably named Nath (rhymes with lath), having an extremely awkward dinner.
The genre abruptly switches back to Gothic, as Nath declares that he'll take a shortcut through the woods and Robinson tells him that no one who goes through the woods ever returns!!!
Nath says, "A tree's a tree."
In my favorite bit of the entire movie, Robinson says, "You won't save yourself from the screams in the night! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS FOR A SCREAM TO FOLLOW YOU?!"
Naturally, Nath takes this as a challenge and marches into the woods. There are indeed screams.... or are they just the wind? He gets lost over and over... but it's night. There's a house somewhere in the woods, which he can't seem to find and which Robinson implied was cursed. Are Meg's supposedly dead parents imprisoned in it, or actually dead and haunting it??? This part, a nicely directed and scored "supernatural or not" Gothic was my favorite genre of the movie, and I kind of wish it had stuck with it.
Spoilers! ( Read more... )
I can't say this was actually good but it was entertaining. All that stuff happened in an hour and forty minutes!
The Red House[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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