La maison des étrangers

Joseph L. Mankiewicz had an amazing run in Hollywood during the late 1940s and into the 50s. Aside from his HUGE misfire later in life ("Cleopatra"), he had an incredible string of successes--one brilliant film after another. Just think about it--he directed "A Letter to Three Wives", "House of Strangers", "No Way Out", "All About Eve" and "People Will Talk" all one after the other! Any one of these films would make a director proud--and yet Mank also wrote these films! Wow.

"House of Strangers" is unusual for me because I rarely watch a movie more than once (this could explain part of how I've reviewed so many movies). But, because I loved it so much the first time, I thought I'd watch it again. The film was remade only a few years later as "Broken Lance"--also a good film but not in the same league as "House of Strangers". It was also remade only a few years after that as "The Big Show". Obviously, it was an awfully good script.

The film begins with one son (Richard Conte) arriving at his huge family home. It seems he'd just completed a stretch in prison. Why he went to prison and what's happened in this family unfolds slowly through the course of the film. I really like this style. Instead of telling a straight sequential narrative, this approach increases the suspense greatly.

As for the rest of the cast, the film is filled with some great talents. Edward G. Robinson is at his best as a manipulative and dictatorial family patriarch--and proves he was much more than a one-note actor who played gangsters. Luther Adler, Susan Hayward and even a young Efrem Zimbalist Jr. are on hand to round out the cast. And, although I mentioned him earlier, Conte is great--and it's one of his best roles (along with the highly underrated "Thieves' Highway").

The bottom line is like the best of Mankiewicz's films, it's all about PEOPLE and ACTING. You don't watch a Mankiewicz film for spectacle or action (thus the failure of "Cleopatra") but for dynamite acting, great characters and dialog--fantastic, fantastic dialog. For example, watch the scene where Hayward and Conte first meet--it's brilliant and memorable. Also, the ending is just great--very tense and very brutal--sort of like a 'family noir' picture!

House of Strangers is directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and adapted to screenplay by Phillip Yordan from Jerome Weidman's novel I'll Never Go There Any More. It stars Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Luther Adler, Paul Valentine and Efrem Zimbalist. Plot finds Robinson as Gino Monetti, an Italian American banker who whilst building up the family business has ostracised three of his four sons. When things go belly up for Gino and the bank, the three sons turn against their father, the other, Max (Conte), stays loyal but finds himself set up for a prison stretch. Untimely since he's started to fall in love with tough cookie Irene Bennett (Hayward).

Jerome Weidman's novel has proved to be a popular source for film adaptation, after this 20th Century Fox produced picture came the Western version with Broken Lance in 1954 (Yordan again adapting), and then Circus set for The Big Show in 1961. While its influence can be felt in many other, more notable, crime dramas along the way. The divided clan narrative provides good basis for drama and lets the better actors shine on the screen with such material. Such is the case with House of Strangers, which while hardly shaking the roots of film noir technically, does thematically play out as an engrossing, character rich, melodrama.

Propelled by a revenge core peppered with hate motives instead of love; and dabbling in moral ethics et al, Mankiewicz spins it out in flashback structure. The primary focus is on Max and Gino, with both given excellent portrayals by Conte and Robinson. Gino is a driven man, very dismissive towards three of his boys (Adler standing out as Joe) who he finds easy to find fault with. But Max is spared the tough love, Gino admires him and sees him very much as an equal, which naturally irks the other brothers something rotten. This all comes to a head for the final quarter where the pace picks up and the tale comes to its prickly, if not completely satisfactory, ending.

In the mix of family strife we have been privy to Max's burgeoning relationship with Irene (Hayward sassy), which positively simmers with sexual tension, or maybe even frustration? This in spite of the fact he is engaged to be married to the homely innocent Maria (Debra Paget). So with dad Gino proving to be, well, something of an ungrateful bastard, and Max cheating on his intended, clearly this is not a film about good old family values coming to the fore! Then there's the small matter of brother betrayal and the case of the foolish decision making process, all elements that keep the viewer hooked till the last. 7/10

"House of Strangers" has done me a great service. Richard Conte has always been in my mind as the sadistic husband in "I"ll Cry Tomorrow" - the chap who trips Susan Hayward up so people will think she is drunk, the one who doesn't call her up when he says, so, (he hopes) she will start drinking again. I have seen him in other films but none was able to erase that memory.

So seeing him and Susan Hayward in "House of Strangers" as a fiery but decent couple has softened him in my eyes.

The story is told in flashback as Max (Richard Conte) goes to the bank, after years in prison, to have revenge on his family. Later at the family home he thinks over past events.

Edward G. Robinson plays Gino Monetti a powerful banker whose sons have to do his bidding. Richard Conte plays Max, who is an attorney, instead of following his brothers into the bank. He is also the only son who is treated with respect by the father and the other brothers resent it.

He also begins a tempestuous affair with Susan Hayward while his fiancée (Debra Paget) sits meekly by. The father is bought to trial for "cooking the books" and Max goes to jail for 7 years for trying to bribe a member of the jury. From his cell he is inundated with letters from his father filling him with hatred for his brothers.

The last 15 minutes are a real shock and brings the film up a few notches. Susan Hayward is her typically fiesty self and does a lot more with the character than is written. Edward G. Robinson over-acts as the larger than life Italian banker.

"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."

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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