I love this movie so much

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Most mysteries in the 2000s lack either atmosphere or good writing. This film lacked only good writing. Hard to believe Raymond Chandler could write a turkey, and even more unbelievable that John Houseman, a true giant in film, could have been the producer. Joel McCrea never made a bad movie as far as I know; but this one is certainly near the bottom of his accomplishments,One of the problems of the films is its pacing; the movie moves at a snail's pace for an hour or so, and then does the hundred yard dash to tie up all the loose ends in the last ten minutes. I will not mention the ending, but it was rather unsatisfying. Interesting to see McCrea and Herbert Marshall (one of Bette Davis's favorite leading men in a film together. A watchable film, but killed by the annoying children, and having a haunted house next to a mansion. Please.

Gail Russell was beautiful and sensitive and may have had a long, happy life if she had not become a movie star. She was contentedly working toward a career as a commercial artist when she was discovered at high school and given a Paramount contract. By the time of "The Unseen" she was already developing a drinking habit which was the only thing that could steady her nerves before the cameras. "The Unseen" was obviously designed to be a follow up to her big hit of the year before, "The Uninvited".The sad, soulful eyes of Gail Russell are put to good use as she plays Elizabeth Howard, who finds a job as a governess in the Fielding household. The blurb on the back of my DVD seems to be the plot for a completely different movie as there is no mention (in the movie) that husband Dave Fielding (Joel McCrea) is suspected of causing his wife's death. Also the oft repeated comment that this movie was a poor relation of "The Uninvited" is simply not true. Based on a story by the popular Ethel Lina White (her "The Wheel Spins" became "The Lady Vanishes" and "Some Must Watch" became "The Spiral Staircase") and with the help of Raymond Chandler on the screenplay, it meshed "The Turn of the Screw" with "Gaslight" to produce an eerie mystery. It didn't have "The Uninvited"'s production values and it didn't have the haunting theme of "Stella By Starlight" but it was still a very creepy thriller.Elizabeth finds the children distant - Ellen has a scrapbook containing accounts of the Salem Alley murder, a recent sensational crime that has gripped the neighbourhood and Barney (Richard Lyon, adopted son of Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, gives an excellent performance) has strange phone conversations with "unseen" people. Both children need an understanding friend. Shadows of "The Turn of the Screw" as Elizabeth fights the influence of a governess who was dismissed for being a bad influence on the children. Barney not only collects money off persons unknown, he also communicates with a mysterious stranger who comes and goes from the house at will - thanks to an open door courtesy of Barney. It turns out to be Maxine (Phyllis Brooks) the old governess and boy, is she a toughie!!! It doesn't take Barney long to realise he has been loyal to the wrong person. Another interwoven plot (ala "Gaslight") concerns the boarded up house next door that was the scene of a murder 12 years before and now seems to have night wanderers!!As another reviewer remarked, it is pretty clear who the murderer is - it was never going to be Joel McCrea!! There are several characters who pop up - kindly doctor (Herbert Marshall), Isobel Elsom as the woman who owns the house next door, her husband had been the murder victim Elizabeth Risdon as the sour housekeeper and Tom Tully as a red herring. The movie ends abruptly - within 60 seconds of a showdown in the library, the murderer is caught and there is still time for a clinch and jokes on the stairs. It's like the director is saying "We have 60 seconds to finish this movie guys so sharp's the word"!!!Recommended.

This film was clearly based on a rather feeble story about an empty house, mysterious lights in the cellar, vicious murders committed by a shadow in an alley, and so on, and although Raymond Chandler was brought in as a screenwriter to try to give it some muscle, that effort failed. The direction by Lewis Allen is clearly hopeless. All the cast look ill at ease, as if they had no idea what the director expected of them, and they found the story unconvincing. Herbert Marshall is stiff, and we can see him thinking: 'I'm getting too old for this kind of thing,' and his body language suggests he is resenting the weak direction. It is tragic to see the soulful, velvety-eyed 21 year-old Gail Russell looking so sad and so lost in this film. As for Joel McCrea, not only was he miscast as the grumpy widower whom Russell is meant to fall for, he looks even more lost than Gail Russell does, and flounders around not knowing how to behave. Lewis Allen had the previous year directed the delightful OUR HEARTS WERE YOUNG AND GAY (1944), where Gail Russell played the young Cornelia Otis Skinner with charm and conviction. And it was only two years later that Russell made what was probably her finest film, ANGEL AND THE BADMAN (1947, see my review), which is one of the greatest classics of the screen and captures all of her magical charm. So what went wrong this time? How did the rapport between Russell and Allen collapse? Why does everyone look so uncomfortable? Russell died of alcoholism at the age of only 36 in 1961. By 1950, her drinking was already so serious that she was becoming unemployable. But surely she cannot have become an alcoholic already by the age of 21, in 1945, so that cannot be the cause of the malaise seen in this picture. We know that Russell received a lot of moral support from John Wayne in ANGEL AND THE BADMAN, so that would have pulled her through. In this earlier film, the lack of even the most rudimentary chemistry between her and Joel McCrea is palpable, and it must have thrown her into a depression that she could not relate to him at all, and he refused to relate to her. And, as already noted, Herbert Marshall was 'getting too old for this kind of thing' and probably did not have the energy to try to prop up Russell as he might have done when younger. The two children in this film do very well, and Phyllis Brooks is excellent as the venomous, scheming Maxine. Maybe it could have worked. But it didn't.

In an older London neighborhood beset with strange deaths and a spooky, abandoned house with boarded-up windows, Gail Russell arrives via Boston to accept job as governess to widower Joel McCrea's two precocious kids; quickly, she begins to realize McCrea's little boy is in-cahoots with the previous nanny and may be covering up a dangerous plot which ties in with the old house--and also with McCrea, whose mysterious comings and goings spell trouble. Over-plotted and yet ultimately slim-seeming co-feature from Paramount, stiffly directed and not very exciting. Heavy-lidded Russell, fresh off her triumph in "The Univited", was never an exceptional actress, but here she gives hint she may have become a very good one, and her terse exchanges with McCrea show a much more confident performer than in "The Univited". The screenplay, adapted from Ethel Lina White's novel "Her Heart in Her Throat", falls rather early into a disparaging rut, what with Russell continually reporting peculiar happenings to people who don't believe or listen to her, and that final clinch nearly comes out of nowhere. However, for fans of 1940s potboilers like the not-dissimilar "Gaslight", this provides minor enjoyment. ** from ****