Waste of time

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Absolutely brilliant

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

An atmospheric haunted-house yarn nestled on the coast of Cornwall, Broadway workman Lewis Allen's directorial feature debut THE UNINVITED is not a spine-tingling scare-fest one might expect it to be, but a decorous melodrama seeking out the truth about a past tragedy tinged with a tint of Gothic spookiness owing to Charles Lang's stupendous Oscar-worthy camera work through minimal torchlight and candlelight in the mansion where the London siblings Rick (Milland) and Pamela (Hussey) Fitzgerald dwell. The mansion is called Windward House, which the siblings buy from Commander Beech (a lumpen Crisp) for a knockdown price. The Commander is very cagey about the history of the house and whose only intention is to get the pecuniary profit to secure the future for his 20-year-old granddaughter Stella Meredith (Russell), he brazenly makes it clear that they don't want anything to do with the Fitzgeralds after the deal is cut and dried, intriguing, isn't it? It is not every day someone is offering to buy a jinxed house. But an impressionable and spontaneous Stella takes a liking for the debonair but expansive Rick, confides in him that she feels a strong yet strange connection toward the house where she has been forbidden to set her foot since she was three, when her mother fell to her death from the escarpment in front. So, apparently it is the apparition of Mary, Stella's mother who torments the new residents with the nightly wailing, chilling draft and pungent scent of mimosa (a clever olfactory indicator as we have to take the characters at their word), but the plot thickens when more details are disclosed: Stella's father had a gypsy mistress Carmel, and the rumor says that it is her who murdered Stella's mother then died of illness afterward. At this step, the ghosts become plural, the rub is whether it is Mary's benevolent calling or Carmel's malignant hex that draws Stella back to the place? Or, as we are all fully aware, there would be a final reveal to overturn all the previous presumptions, after the fuss of a seance and the intervention of a formal nurse, Mary's best friend Miss Holloway (Skinner), there is something fishy about Stella's real identity. Not quite often a pair of siblings is put in the center of a household, Milland and Hussey make do with their rivalry-free interaction and instill a patina of sangfroid which doesn't seem to be congruent with the mystical happenings, and willfully gives the movie a jocund vibe, if they are not spooked, how can we, armchair rubberneckers, be startled through vicariousness? Forever remembered by Victor Young's theme strain STELLA BY STARLIGHT, a fresh-faced Gail Russell is pleasant to behold, but couldn't be bothered to register a convincing reaction after receiving the bolt from the blue, which mars this otherwise fairly sustained suspense (along with Rick's half- hearted final smack-down with Mary's misty specter). In fact, the best part comes from a scrumptiously scenery-chewing Cornelia Otis Skinner, flagrantly furnishes the story with the requisite venom which one cannot get enough in the genre of uncanny mysteries, which, if really is your cuppa, bearing in mind that Jack Clayton's THE INNOCENTS (1961) is a far superior achievement to be amazed, transfixed and awe-struck.

Considered the First Real Haunted House Movie, that isn't Played for Laughs. Horror Film Historians can Trace the Lineage Back to this Well Received and Popular Ghost Story and Sight this as the Archetype, complete with Flickering Candles, Swirling Etherical Entities, and Ouija Board Encounters.The Atmospheric Lensing of Charles Lang was Nominated for an Oscar. Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, and Gail Russell Headline, but are Supported with a Great Cast of Character Actors that Bring to Life some Creepy and Eccentric Odd-Balls.Donald Crisp as "Grandfather", Cornelia Otis Skinner as a "Spiritualist" and Off-Her-Rocker New Age Type (that most read Lesbian), and Charles Napier as a "Country Doctor" who lends an Atypical 'Open Mind" to the Paranormal.It is also Against Type for Hollywood to give Credence to the Intervention of the After-Life that isn't Completely Judaeo-Christian Dogma. With all of that, it is a Film of Importance.The Story is Intellectually Complicated and one Needs to Pay Attention to get all of the Ramifications of the Plot and for a Clear Understanding of the Third Act.The Movie does have its Detractors that say it is too Comedic and Aloof at times, and Fails to Scare. But these, mostly Modern Oriented Folks, are in the Minority. It Holds Up quite well and has its Share of Spooky Scenes. The Dark Frame is Consistently Foreboding and Gail Russell's "Far Away Eyes" are something to Behold.

Oddly referential entry, Rebecca in all but name - same locale, Cornwall, same centre of focus, a large house, same plot focus, the house is 'haunted' by its former mistress, same villainess figure, in one a housekeeper, in the other a nurse, both of whom contrive to drive the leading character to suicide, the only difference is that unlike Rebecca the heroine of this entry, Stella, was not married to the leading man. There are also several unanswered questions the main one being how come two people as attractive and charming as Ray Milland and Ruth Hussy have no partners in their lives and indeed for that matter, no friends or social life they can't abandon on a moments notice to move three hundred miles in a matter of weeks. As the film that gave us Victor Young's Stella By Starlight it can't be all bad and it's well performed by Milland, Hussy, Donald Crisp whilst Gail Russell is luminous but it's little more than mildly entertaining.

Not exactly a horror film. It starts off as a slightly mysterious and creepy romantic comedy. It is one of those films with strange and ambiguous relationships between the characters.A brother-sister duo (Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey) is impressed by a large mansion while on a trip to a seaside town. They are surprised when its owner agrees to sell it to them for a very cheap price. But once they move in, they realize that there is some sort of entity in the house. The strange behavior of the owner and his granddaughter also arouses suspicion.The two protagonists are unusual - they are a chummy brother sister duo who live together. The relationship between the mansion's owner and his granddaughter is also quite strange. He seems to be excessively possessive about her. There is another relationship which hints at lesbianism.The film begins with a great long shot of the turbulent sea that is almost monstrous. It was very affecting. The indoor scenes are characterized by a lot of shadows and candle light which gives a Gothic and at times even Noirish feel to the film. The séance scene was very interesting.Ray Miland's charming presence and his backslapping relationship with Ruth Hussey prevents this film from becoming a creepy horror film.You might enjoy it if you liked The Birds or Marnie. It is not a bad film for a rainy night. And Ruth Hussey is very nice to look at.(6/10)