The Red House (1947)
Director – Delmar Daves
The Plot
Pete Morgan (Edward G. Robinson) is keeping secrets: his farm and his family have long been kept behind a veil of mystery. When his adopted daughter brings a young male friend to help on the farm the past begins to creep toward the present.
Film Notes
Farm Noir
Film Noir most always means shadowy cities, but The Red House strays off the beaten track for the dark country. Its pastoral setting somehow gives it a twisted strangeness as the sinister woods play substitute for the usual solitary streets and back alleys of the genre.
There's something hidden deep in the woods, and the trail to it is filled with horror and tragedy that stretches from the past to the present. This obscure gem of a film conjures up a dying bit of what Greil Marcus calls Old Weird America.
Future Farmers of America
Edward G. Robinson's one-legged farmer, and a number of the basic elements and tone foreshadow Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize winning play Buried Child. Robinson provides a rich, psychologically precise performance in this underrated film, one of many "little" films he added his immense talents and intellect to in the late 40s and early 50s. (Check out more Robinson performances in other Alameda TV classic film offerings – The Stranger and Scarlet Street.
Local Boy Makes Good Movies
San Francisco native Delmer Daves served a long apprenticeship as a screenwriter in the 1920s and 30s before taking the directorial helm of Cary Grant's submarine war thriller – Destination Tokyo.
The Red House was his fourth directing effort. He also wrote the screenplay, and he uses his double-barreled talents to create a winning cocktail of film noir and Southern Gothic.
In an almost 40 year career, Daves moved easily among westerns, period pieces, Biblical epics, World War II dramas and soapy melodramas.
A Foggy Day in Julie London Town
Though her acting career in films was never as successful as her torch singing records, Julie London actually starred in movies before she ever sang a note. In The Red House she plays a sexy teenager that more than hints at her smoldering image to come.
Red Hot Trivia
- Composer Miklos Rozsa was nominated 16 times for an Academy Award and won three (A Double Life, Spellbound and Ben Hur).
- Rory Calhoun starred in the first film directed by Sergio Leon – The Colossus of Rhodes.
- Dame Judith Anderson was knighted in 1960; her finest work was on stage not screen.
-- Ed Schneider
Cast & Production Credits
| Edward G. Robinson | Pete Morgan |
| Lon McCallister | Nath Storm |
| Judith Anderson | Ellen Morgan |
| Allene Roberts | Meg Morgan |
| Julie London | Tibby |
| Rory Calhoun | Teller |
| Harry Shannon | Dr. Byrne |
| Arthur Space | The Sheriff |
| Walter Sande | Don Brent |
| Ona Munson | Mrs. Storm |
| Pat Flaherty | Cop |
| Produced by United Artists | |
| Delmer Daves | Director / Screenwriter |
| Sol Lesser | Producer |
| George Agnew Chamberlain | Book Author |
| Else Jerusalem | Book Author |
| Bert Glennon | Cinematographer |
| Miklos Rozsa | Composer (Music Score) |
| Merrill White | Editor |
| McClure Capps | Art Director |
| C. Frank Beetson, Jr. | Costume Designer |
| Irving Berns | Makeup |
