Guest in the House

A psychiatrist bring his fianceé -- a former patient -- back to his family house, and she proceeds with a plan of homewrecking. Anne Baxter, several years before ALL ABOUT EVE, is great as another manipulative, conniving and more than a little unstable femme fatale. There is a significantly longer version of this film, but getting the shorter one was probably for the best. The first two acts are a bit sluggish and repetitive, but things really ramp up for the finale. Brahm brings the same Gothic gloom as he did in his period noirs THE LODGER and HANGOVER SQUARE, as the residence gets more and more claustrophobic and ruled by shadows. There's some wonderful framing technique at play, often emphasizing Baxter's control over the household. Supporting performances are generally quite good, with especially good turns from Aline MacMahon and Marie McDonald (like Marilyn, a bombshell blonde with a knack for comedy, but a tragic life ending in a bottle of pills). The film could use some higher stakes and a little more zip, but it has some mighty fine elements.

Six years before entering film history in the title role of All About Eve – as duplicitous, back-stabbing ingenue Eve Harrington – Ann Baxter took a trial run in John Brahm's Guest in the House. Her character proves to be even more spiteful, that of a malingering but controlling waif in whose mouth a pat of butter would stay as hard and cold as her supposedly bum ticker.

Under the care of her young and smitten doctor, Ann arrives in the home of his extended family somewhere on the New England coast (high cliffs, crashing waves) for a recuperative summer. Once settled in the guest room, she takes to her bed and her phonograph on which she plays – shades again of All About Eve – `Liebestraum' over and over. She also sends her doting doctor packing, having set her snood for his older, married artist brother Ralph Bellamy. And then she calculatedly proceeds to tyrannize the entire household, sending away seriatim the domestic help (Margaret Hamilton and Percy Kilbride), Bellamy's live-in model, and, ultimately, Bellamy's wife (Ruth Warrick) and young daughter.

Of course, Baxter's illness afflicts not so much her heart as her mind. Along with her luggage she unpacks a lovingly tended collection of phobias (the one to birds proves pivotal) and a high-maintenance Borderline Personality Disorder. And, again of course, summer turns into a cold, forbidding fall before any member of the household picks up on the clues and holds her responsible for the dysfunction she has unleashed on the household. But at long last the worms begins to turn....

Guest in the House is really a parlor melodrama from a script by Ketti Frings, who would go on to write half a dozen or so noir screenplays. This one starts off slowly but once it gets underway it holds interest (it's a full two-hour movie, too). John Brahm, another emigre director from Europe who could be counted upon to produce craftsmanlike if not inspired work, stays in his element here, barely moving from the claustrophobic confines of the big old house and pulling out all the stops on the gothic organ: thunder and lightning, hurricane lamps, the sweeping beam of a lighthouse flooding the rooms then vanishing.

The cast acquits itself admirably as well. Though Bellamy's bumbling male seems a bit at odds with his supposedly artistic temperament, Ruth Warrick (the first Mrs. Charles Foster Kane) adroitly underplays, letting second-string players like Hamilton and Kilbride ham it up; another shrewd underplayer is Aline McMahon, as spinsterish Aunt Martha, who hides her light under a bushel until finally letting it flare. That leaves Baxter as the central character, onto whom we tumble early by virtue of having seen the way she works as Eve Harrington (an advantage they didn't have in 1944). Guest in the House strains our credulity a bit but stays a surprisingly effective and moody melodrama.

An apparently friendly young woman named Evelyn (Anne Baxter) is invited to stay in the family home of her doctor and boyfriend named Proctor(Scott McKay). The female patient Evelyn is really a selfish young , a manipulating babe who hates the birds and with malignant objectives . The-not-so-innocent girl becomes at the beginning an enjoyable guest but she ruthlessly uses everyone in his goals. She skillfully tries to break the familiar harmony. Then , Evelyne falls in love with Douglas Procter (Ralph Bellamy) . He's a good man married Ann(Ruth Warrick) and with a daughter, Douglas dedicates artistic labors painting his model Miriam (Marie McDonald).

The pictures features exceptional work by Anne Baxter , she's magnificently hateful as the insidious Evelyne who attempts to dissect the harmonious group . Her acting result to be a phenomenal precedent to the character she played in ¨All about Eva¨ by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Special mention to Margaret Hamilton , the famous witch from ¨The wizard of Oz¨ as a snooper maid and of course Aline MacMahon as the spinster aunt Martha , she's also worthy in a razor-sharp performance. Furthermore, a beautifully cinematography in subdued black and white by Lee Garmes, Atmospheric and appropriate musical score by Werner Janssen.

The motion picture is well directed by John Brahm (1893-1982). He was a German-born director who worked in the theatre for nearly 20 years before attempting his hand at movies. Later on, he had an initial work in England and after that he went to Hollywood where Brahm converted himself an efficient filmmaker of variety of routine mid-budget movies until 1944/45 when he directed two magnificent suspense movies with Laird Cregar : ¨The Lodger¨and ¨Hangover square¨ and a splendid drama ¨Guest in the house¨, the three full of atmosphere, intrigue and a sense of imminent tension. Later on he continued working almost entirely in TV but never again finding his previous inspiration .Rating : Better than average , worthwhile seeing.

I saw GUEST IN THE HOUSE one late night and I was surprised by how good this forgotten film was. The story is classic story of a stranger entering the lives of a family or closely knit group living under one roof and how their lives are changed by the ways of this newcomer. TEOREMA is a modern example of such a story. In GITH, Evelyn is the new guest who nearly destroys the idyllic existence of a group's mundane lives, including a married couple and their precocious girl. Evelyn specifically has eyes on the husband, who happens to be the brother of her boyfriend, a man she doesn't really love but who helped when she had a nervous breakdown. Evelyn is, needless to say, neurotic with a capital N. She also has a bizarre phobia of birds. Eventually the people living in the house slowly realize what's going on and how Evelyn is manipulating everyone, which leads to a truly memorable and tragic ending.

Some have criticized GITH for the cast of characters being so blind to Evelyn's ways but for me it's the opposite. The film or script's slow methodical built-up was very mature and not over-the-top melodramatic as most films were in those days. I'm not saying the film is not melodramatic. It is but I enjoyed seeing the way everything slowly unraveled. During a big chunk of the film, Evelyn is not even present. In other words, the film is not just an "Evelyn the Neurotic Bitch" show but an ensemble cast, with Evelyn being the most memorable character.

What's really great about GUEST IN THE HOUSE is that it's filmed like a fevered dream: the low ceilings, the tight quarters of the house, the claustrophobic quality of the direction, the way Evelyn reads her diary, the atmospheric cinematography and music, all add to an entertaining quasi-Gothic film.

The actors are all excellent, including Anne Baxter, whom I usually do not like, and one of the reasons why I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this film. What's also striking about her role in GUEST IN THE HOUSE is that it's oddly identical to the Eve Harrington character Anne played 7 years later in ALL ABOUT EVE. In my opinion, Anne is much better here and creates a truly memorable character. In ALL ABOUT EVE, Anne was too robotic and monotonous, she lacked the passion and strive she displayed in GUEST OF THE HOUSE. As Evelyn, Anne shamelessly overacts and slithers about like a panther but always staying in character of a neurotic woman, which, thankfully, is never played to the point of being politically incorrect.

All in all, I highly recommend this hidden gem. Because the film is in public domain, finding a good DVD transfer is almost impossible. But even the terrible version I viewed didn't diminish its entertaining qualities.

Hadn't seen this one before and was pleasantly surprised. It is longer than almost all the others in the DVD collection but is well worth the time.

A nutty woman is brought to the family home to recuperate from a breakdown of some sort and is plainly unfit to be released into normal society. She then proceeds to wreak havoc on all concerned and nearly succeeds in wrecking the host family.

But you have to assume a great deal and swallow a lot of credibility to make it work. She is unbalanced and no one notices or doesn't care; the male lead cavorts with his artist model for prolonged periods and no one raises an eyebrow, so laden with integrity is he; she persuades her fiancée/doctor to leave town to hasten her recovery(!); and so on.

All concerned turn in good performances. Dependable Ralph Bellamy is just that, and Aline McMahon is a cut above the rest. The pivotal character is Anne Baxter's and I don't agree with the majority that she was over-the-top - she is playing a neurotic which justifies her unsettling, oblong portrayal. How else to illustrate that she doesn't fit in? A good picture - albeit stagebound - that does not warrant all the complaints and criticisms. Give it a chance.