House by the River (1950)

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Mel Dinelli (writer)
A.P. Herbert (novel)

Release Date:

25 March 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Horror

Tagline:

WOMEN SPOKE OF HER with Scorn...MEN THOUGHT OF HER with Longing!

Plot:

A deranged writer murders a maid after she resists his advances. The writer engages his brother's help in hiding the body...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Louis Hayward	...	Stephen Byrne
Jane Wyatt	...	Marjorie Byrne
Lee Bowman	...	John Byrne
Dorothy Patrick	...	Emily Gaunt
Ann Shoemaker	...	Mrs. Ambrose
Jody Gilbert	...	Miss Bantam
Sarah Padden	...	Mrs. Beach
Peter Brocco	...	Harry, the coroner
Howland Chamberlain	...	District Attorney
Leslie Kimmell	...	Mr. Gaunt
Effie Laird	...	Mrs. Gaunt
Will Wright	...	Inspector Sarten
Kathleen Freeman	...	Effie, young, heavyset woman at party
Margaret Seddon	...	Older, heavyset woman at party
Alex Gerry	...	Miller, bookseller

Also Known As:

Floodtide (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #14101) | Sweden:15

Company:

Fidelity Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Fritz Lang originally wanted a black woman to play the role of Emily Gaunt but the producers refused.

A dank and brooding Gothic from Fritz Lang

House by the River is something of an anomaly; it's more of an old-dark-house Gothic than the grittier dramas, from Fury to Beyond A Reasonable Doubt, which Fritz Lang made in his American period. (The location of this house is a worrisome and amateurism anomaly, too; the conventions, milieu and some of the accents suggests that it's an English country estate, but much else argues that the film takes place in the U.S.) Would-be writer Louis Hayward, getting flirtatious with the maid in the absence of his wife (Jane Wyatt), accidently strangles her when she resists his advances. His brother (Lee Bowman) reluctantly agrees to cover up for him and help sink the body in the sinister, ever-present river that runs by the edge of the property; the resulting scandal of the disappeared servant bolsters the writer's flagging career. When suspicion begans to gather around his innocent brother, Hayward, by now seriously demented, couldn't be more pleased. But then Wyatt comes across a hidden manuscript; Hayward (you see), flushed by his phoney success, resolves to write "what he knows...."

Edward Cronjager's heavily shaded cinematography and Georges Anthiel's brooding score help fill out Lang's dark, clammy vision, making the river -- forever disgorging its flotsam and jetsam -- a principal character in the action. House by the River is a good old-fashioned thriller, particularly in its Gothic closing scenes, but it's not in a class with Lang's films at the top of his American form, like Scarlet Street, The Big Heat or Human Desire.