Crow Hollow

This was made in the day when men were rational and women were either hysterical or dotty. For example, the part of Doctor Robert Amour played by Donald Houston is portrayed as the rational, sane and logical man, against his wife, the irrational hysterical, weak woman. Similarly the doctor's aunts are portrayed as dotty eccentrics with unusual hobbies.

Of course these are women's stereotypes, which through the medium of cinema helped to shape attitudes toward women in the public's mind. This is the power of cinema.

In the end though the film illustrates that the doctor's wife was indeed perfectly rational and sane, with a lot of guts in a dangerous situation. Everything turns out...... well let's not spoil it.

Overall a nice mystery film with a fabulous old house feel. It's full of suspense albeit played through the idea of women stereotypes. Nevertheless it's worth a look for fans of mystery and suspense.

You have to hand it to British audiences and producers in the 40's, 50's and 60's, they loved their murder mysteries, some were terrible, some iconic, fortunately for a whodunnit addict like myself there are still so many gems to discover.

Today I found Crow Hollow, and it is partly what you'd expect from a 1950's British mystery, The House is creaky, the characters are eccentric, everyone is in the exact place you'd expect them to be for the time, with the exception of Esma Cannon, Aunt Judith, who's a spider loving crazy Aunt, an actress I've always adored in comedy, she's fun to watch as always.

It's generally well acted, engaging, and certainly an entertaining watch. I wouldn't call it a classic, but I really enjoyed, 8/10

Why did he even marry her? That's the question that soon comes to mind as you watch "Crow Hollow". After all, after a whirlwind courtship, Dr. Armour marries Ann and then barely shows her any attention at all and completely dismisses her concerns--and she has plenty! It's obvious this is no match made in heaven. So why did the Doctor marry her and exactly what is going on in this weird mansion filled with his strange aunts and that lousy maid? And, could someone really be attempting to kill her?

This is a pretty good mystery/suspense picture. Not a must-see by any stretch but exciting and with a nice ending. Worth seeing with nice performances all around and a well written story. And, one more reason why you should NEVER marry someone after knowing them only one week!!

By the way, at one point in the film Ann has a tarantula dropped on her. They then say she could have died and that the bug was poisonous. Well, tarantulas are mildly poisonous (like a bee sting) and you will not die from its bite. This is just bad writing and I've heard this repeated several times in films (such as "Dr. No").

Crow Hollow is home to a somewhat dotty and eccentric family -that belonging to a Doctor who takes his newlywed bride to live there.The home is largely occupied by his Aunts ,an outwardly genial but really rather peculiar breed.One is a devoted spider collector ,having several large poisonous specimens around the house ,another busies herself with "good works"and one is a home maker with an obsessive interest in order and tidiness.

Soon the new bride begins to feel unwelcome -not surprising given she has a close encounter with a venomous spider and is fed poisoned drinks .It seems the old dears want rid of her and to see her replaced by a nubile young woman named Willow The acting is okay but the script is too talky and rambling and the direction is slack.Watchable as B movie on a wet afternoon but nothing special

Not exactly good, but the photography by Robert LaPresle helps compensate for the cheap sets while papering over the cracks in Michael McCarthy's wildly inconsistent direction of this adaptation of Dorothy Eden's 1950 Gothic novel populated largely by women, in what resembles a very low budget rehash of 'The Three Weird Sisters' (1948), with Natasha Parry in the role played by Nova Pilbeam in the original.

Both are lured from London to an old dark house in the middle of nowhere occupied by three wacky old aunts; including Esma Cannon as an expert on spiders!