The Red House
100 minutes / B & W / 1947
When The
Red House was released in 1947, critics called it the “sleeper hit” of the
year. The excellent casting makes the movie worth seeing. Edward G. Robinson plays a
farmer, which is long way from the urban crooks and canny investigators he
often had to play. GI pin-up girl Julie
London plays to perfection the little town flirt who tantalizes both the good
boy, Lon McCallister, and bad boy, Rory Calhoun. Calhoun’s looks – dark Irish
meets Cherokee – fit the part of woodsman who dabbles in trouble. Allene
Roberts, with her sensitive eyes, slender build, and gentle manner, plays the
troubled orphan. Judith Anderson puts in a believable performance as the
farmer’s too devoted sister.
Things change on an isolated farm when
Robinson’s disabled farmer hires McCallister as a hand. Robinson warns the nice boy and vulnerable orphan to stay out
of the woods and the tumble-down red house it surrounds.
But the teenagers naturally ignore the warning. Although the bad boy
guards the woods with a gun – we wonder if moonshining is going on – the boy, the orphan, and the flirt explore the mystery of the woods.
Gradually revealed is a grisly family secret.
The movie handles smoothly the theme of the outcomes of violence and the hold
guilt and secrecy exert. Edward G. Robinson gives a restrained performance as a
man with a burden. His high level of acting is approached by the three younger actors.
McCallister, a kid actor, was a seasoned vet, but Allene Roberts and Julie
London are good beyond their age and experience.
The DVD I saw this movie had lousy sound. But it’s not every day we can enjoy the unusual genre of
“country noir.”
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