House of Strangers

In New York, after seven years in prison, the lawyer Max Monetti (Richard Conte) goes to the bank of his brothers Joe (Luther Adler), Tony (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and Pietro Monetti (Paul Valentine) and promises revenge to them. Then he visits his lover Irene Bennett (Susan Hayward) that asks him to forget the past and start a new life.

Max recalls the early 30's, when he is the favorite son of his father Gino Monetti (Edward G. Robinson), who has a bank in the East Side. Gino is a tyrannical and egocentric self-made man that raises his family in an environment of hatred and Max is a competent lawyer engaged with Maria Domenico (Debra Paget). When Max meets the confident Irene, he has a troubled love affair with her. In 1933, with the new Banking Act reaches Gino for misapplication of funds. Max plots a plan to help his father but is betrayed by his brothers.

Now Max will see his brothers that have also being raised under the motto "Never Forgive, Never Forget".

"House of Strangers" is a magnificent film-noir by Joseph L. Mankiewicz with a great story of hatred and forgiveness. Edward G. Robinson has one of his best performances (if not the best) and wins the Best Actor award in the 1949 Cannes Film Festival. Richard Conte has one of his best roles (if not the best) in his well-succeeded career. Susan Hayward is very beautiful and elegant and performs a strong female character. My vote is ten.

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This movie is just superb. I can't believe I had not even heard of it, hopefully this DVD release will help it find a new audience and some deserved critical acclaim. It's billed as film noir, but it really isn't; it's more an extremely complex, suspenseful family drama. But that doesn't even do it justice. The screenplay is terrific, subtle, thoughtful, and at the same time, razor sharp. Some of the exchanges between Conte and Hayward in particular are electrifying. Talk about two 'tough cookies' that ignite when they get together. And you really begin to care deeply about what happens to them. (All of the acting is top notch, across the board.) And then there is the direction by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The movie is so beautifully crafted and feels as if it could have been made yesterday, it's gritty and urban and fresh. The composition in the movie has deep meaning in just about every shot, and is gorgeous to behold besides. Watch this movie.

"House of Strangers" features three of my all-time favorite actors--Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward and Richard Conte--all at the very top of their form, as well as moody, almost noirish direction by the great Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in moody black and white. Those ingredients alone should indicate that a fine work is in store for the viewer, and such, happily, is the case here. The tale is told mainly in flashback, in which we learn how the four sons of Lower East Side banker Edward G. became enemies after their Pop got into some legal trouble. Susan Hayward, never more beautiful, plays a high-class dame who becomes involved with lawyer Conte, despite Conte's engagement to a proper Italian girl from "the old country." The relationship between Hayward and Conte is very adult for the restrictive late '40s. By the film's end, we really come to care about these two and hope that they can survive as a couple. As usual, Edward G. gives a bravura performance, this time as the domineering patriarch of his Italian clan. I believe his performance received a well-deserved award at Cannes that year. Conte and Hayward, both of whose careers are ripe for reevaluation and rediscovery, match him every step of the way. Luther Adler is fine also, in his role as Conte's elder brother, who feels he never got the respect he deserved. Deborah Paget, in one of her earliest parts, looks fine in a decorative role. For me, though, the main lure of this picture is the triumvirate of superb acting by the three leads. What a pleasure it is to watch these three great talents do justice to the well-written script here. I just love this movie, and suspect that a real treat is in store for the first-time viewer. Check it out, by all means!

"House of Strangers" clearly is a film noir drama and crime story. But more than anything else, it's a showcase for the talent of Edward G. Robinson. This is a great performance by a great actor who never got so much as a nomination from any of the major groups in the film world. It always strikes me as a bit strange - maybe even a picture of a hypocritical and belatedly humiliated and humbled Hollywood, when it gives an honorary award for someone "who achieved greatness as a player, a patron of the arts, and a dedicated citizen, etc." But the person was never great enough to even be nominated once? Especially, when there's a list of outstanding films that he or she appeared in, either in a leading role or in a major supporting role.

Well, Mr. Robinson got his honorary Oscar in 1973. The fact that this took place at the March 27 Academy Awards ceremony -- two months and one day after Robinson died, further suggests the idea that the moguls of Hollywood (actors, directors and producers) were a little shame-faced and trying to save face. For posterity, the records would show that they did indeed honor this great actor. The albeit is that it was with a guilty conscience and almost in hindsight after he had died.

Edward G. Robinson has played a crook, a conman, a cop, a comic, and a crime boss. He was the consummate tough guy whether in a gangster movie, a war film, or a caper comedy.. Whatever role he had, Robinson was a fine actor and entertainer.

In this movie, Robinson plays Gino Monetti, an Italian immigrant who has made good. The uneducated tough guy worked hard to get where he is. Now he has a significant financial operation in a tough neighborhood of New York City. Many people rely on Monetti and his bank to help them in crises and their small businesses The trouble is, Gino doesn't know the rules - or the law and the regulations governing banking. So, he operates on the basis of handshakes, oral agreements and hand-scribbled notes. We see him as a kind-hearted guy helping out a widow who needs train fare for a dying relative. And, we see him taking a big cut of a loan to a street merchant who needs to buy a new horse to pull his wagon.

But the main story is about his family,. He has four sons. It's a very dysfunctional family. He treats three of the sons like dirt while favoring one of the younger of the two, Max, who has become a lawyer. The others are lackeys working as window clerks and guards in the bank.

All of this will lead to family disputes and conflicts that tear the family apart. As the matron of the family says, when times were tough and they had a barbershop they were a family and happy. But now they have nothing in the midst of plenty. After Gino dies, she says she no longer has four sons. The plot in which all of this comes about is noir and high grade drama.

Besides Robinson's central role, Richard Conte shares the limelight as Max. And, after he meets Susan Hayward's Irene Bennett, sparks of a sort fly hither and thither. Max and Irene have a running feud of words that are put-downs, insults, jabs and dismissals. So, naturally, they fall in love. Indeed, it isn't natural and it's the hardest subplot of this film to swallow. While such a relationship between two such personalities surely does happen sometimes, it would have to be extremely rare. Their spatting dialog maybe was intended to put some spice and wit into this film, but I think it's mostly a deviation from the Monetti family collapse.

Those who enjoy noir films should go for this one in a big way. Those who don't care for the sub-genre should probably skip it entirely. For other fans, it depends on what else may be appealing or not so - family dysfunction, tyrannical family head, very disrespectful treatment of a woman, etc. My eight stars are for the acting - not only by Robinson, but by most of the rest of the cast as well.

Here are a couple of the better lines in this film.

Joe Monetti, "A man who throws away money is a big worry. A big problem."

Max Monetti, "Vengeance is a rare wine, a joy divine, says the Arab."

This is one of those well-crafted films from Twentieth-Century Fox when that studio employed some extraordinary talents both before and behind the cameras. Although he wasn't a Fox contractee, Edward G. Robinson gives a great performance as a wealthy Italian family's patriarch and he is well-matched by everyone else in the cast, especially Richard Conte, Luther Adler, and Susan Hayward, looking terrifically classy. The script bears some obvious signs of being polished by the director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and the technical credits are absolutely top-drawer.

Remade as a Western in CinemaScope and Color by DeLuxe in 1954, entitled "Broken Lance" with Spencer Tracy cast as the domineering father, the direction by Edward Dmytryk was not up to the standard of this earlier film with its then contemporary setting. This one is available on video (and seems to be very rarely exhumed on TV now) and is definitely worth a look.