Dreadfully Boring

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This is one you don't want to miss. I waited a long time for this movie to be available on DVD, and it was well worth the wait. The only other black and white haunted house movie that even comes close is House on Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price. For a more contemporary haunted house movie I recommend The Woman in Black, starring Daniel Radcliff. Scary !

Taking a leaflet out of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca to permeate its frames with a disquieting chill, The Uninvited is a finely crafted horror mystery that manages to be captivating for the most part and implements the traditional horror aspects in an effective manner but the decision to give the picture a lighthearted touch every now n then isn't something that works out in its favour.The Uninvited tells the story of a brother & sister who move into an abandoned seaside mansion after purchasing it at an unusually low price. But their fascination with the house dissipates once they learn about its dark past and experience unnatural activities during the night. Compelled to solver the mystery, the two attempt to find a reasonable explanation behind the place's haunted nature.Directed by Lewis Allen in what's his directorial debut, the film opens with a brief monologue that acquaints the viewers with the place where most of its events unfold. All its characters have well- defined arcs, and a sense of foreboding is palpable in nearly every scene that takes place inside the mansion. Allen handles the horror aspect of the story with skill but is unable to juggle it well with elements of comedy.The mansion is gorgeously photographed and appears to have a life of its own, with both a dark past & concealed secrets. Cinematography is a highlight in itself, for the smooth manoeuvring of the camera, precision use of lighting n shadows & controlled zooms encapsulate the story with a Gothic, foreboding ambiance. Its 99 minutes runtime is finely paced, Editing is unable to properly balance its shifting tones while the background score adds subtle enhancements of its own.Coming to the performances, Ray Milland & Ruth Hussey play the siblings and their chemistry with each other has a familial feel to it, not to mention that their individual input is just as good. Gail Russell takes the role of Milland's love interest but her part plays a far more vital role in the final outcome, Alan Napier is in as the local doctor and performs with gentleman-like professionalism while Cornelia Otis Skinner almost steals the limelight from the rest and delivers an enigmatic performance.On an overall scale, The Uninvited is a well-made haunted house horror that utilises its resources quite well to keep the audience's interest alive but it's not scary, or maybe time has diminished its scare factor by a great deal. It's still creepy though, in bits n pieces, but its ill-timed humour really undermines its moments of horror, for you can picture an unsettling haunted house tale if only the film had toned down its melodramatic & lighthearted approach. Failing to match its reputation yet providing a sufficiently thrilling experience, The Uninvited is worth at least one shot.

I have always admired the sumptuous look of this film. These days, with the special effects available, the ghosts in the story would be awesome, but this 70-year old film didn't really need all that, it works just fine on every level.The film has a haunting quality, but that also has a lot to do with the stars, all of them gone now.Rick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland) and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) buy a large house on a clifftop in Cornwall. They soon discover that it is haunted, and it's all to do with the previous owners, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp) and his granddaughter Stella Meredith (Gail Russell). In fact Stella is the focus of all the ghostly intentions, and in the end we find out why.The story is set in 1937 in Cornwall, but it was made in Hollywood at the height of WW2. It was created on sound stages married with location footage along the Californian coast. Its slightly unreal look adds to the atmosphere.The film has fascinating stars including Gail Russell in her third film. She was one the most tragic stars of them all. She died at 36, the same age as Marilyn Monroe. She had a look that captivated audiences from the moment she hit the screen and when you see how luminous she is in this film, its hard to believe her life had already begun its downward spiral caused by paralysing stage fright, depression and alcoholism.The tragedy of her life has haunted more than one writer, and in the most recent biography, "Fallen Star", author Glen Ochoa details her lifelong fear of facing crowds and the unblinking eye of the movie camera. Knowing this gives an insight into her performance in "The Uninvited", which was edited together from short takes. In a way, her hesitancy underlined the vulnerability of Stella Meredith.Another fascinating actor was the striking Cornelius Otis Skinner as Miss Holloway whose obsessive devotion to Stella's dead mother had subtext written all over it."The Uninvited" is a testimony to the talents of Paramount's art department; I love those scenes of the house sitting on the headland with the crashing waves below. Along with moody black and white photography, Victor Young contributed a rich score with a famous main theme."The Uninvited' is still scary, but also has touches of wit with an ending that rivals the "The Sixth Sense" for surprise value.

This film worked a lot better for me as a mystery than the purported scary ghost story it was set up to be by Turner Classic Movie host Ben Mankiewicz when I watched it this morning. The story holds one's attention level well enough, but I never got the impression that there was something really ominous about to happen. Roderick 'Rick' Fitzgerald (Ray Milland) sort of dropped that ball when he ducked under the covers like a grown up scaredy cat.Probably the scariest aspect of the film turned out to be old Miss Holloway (Cornelia Otis Skinner, even that name sounds scary) as the proprietor of the Mary Meredith retreat - 'Health Through Harmony' - that was a good one. It was more than a little fitting that the biddy went a little bit crackers of her own after sending Stella Meredith (Gail Russell) on her way back to the Windward homestead. And speaking of Stella, didn't it seem like she wasn't even the slightest bit astonished when she found out that her mother wasn't her mother, but that she was the daughter of the gypsy mistress? I think that would have freaked me out just a little bit if it happened to me.Say, you know, and I don't know why stuff like this intrigues me, but how do you think the film makers got the squirrel to act squirrelly enough to pull off the scene with Bobby the pooch. The rodent hit his marks perfectly across the floors and up the chimney, just like a real pro. I mean, you can't teach or direct a squirrel to do what you want them to do like a dog, so I'm just a bit puzzled by it all. As well as Rick sticking his hand under the dresser to find the animal, geez, what a dumb move that was.Well, I may sound a little flippant here with my review but I actually liked the picture well enough to recommend it for classic movie fans. Once again, the horror or scary aspects of the film are not what drives it, but the odd, almost sinister motivations of characters like Commander Beech (Donald Crisp) and the aforementioned Miss Holloway. The Commander was actually quite a creep when you get right down to it, at one point he even stated that his granddaughter Stella wasn't as beautiful as her mother. In retrospect, I wonder who he was talking about?