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Released by: Film Detective
Released on: March 29th, 2016.
Director: Delmer Daves
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Lon McCallister, Julie London
Year: 1947
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The Movie:
Delmer Daves' 1947 noir thriller The Red House stars Edward G. Robinson as Peter Morgan, a one legged man working his way through life but unable to really look after his farm on his own. He needs some help to get the farm able to support his sister Ellen (Judith Anderson) and their adopted child Meg (Allene Roberts). When Meg crushes on Nath Storm (Lon McCallister), much to the dismay of the other girl in his life, Tibby (Julie London), she convinces Peter to give him a job on the farm.
Near the home are some dark woods which the elder man warns Nath in no uncertain terms to stay out of, but one day when he finds himself short for time, he cuts through them. Peter warns Nath further about the red house that's buried in those woods, but he's not buying the older man's superstitions despite the stories of terrible screams emanating from the hold home late at night. Curious as to what the secret of the old red house really is, Nath talks Meg into helping him figure it all out…
The Red House doesn't start off as a particularly engrossing picture but stick with it, as it's a film that builds really nicely to a more than satisfying conclusion. The only thing close to a horror picture that director Delmer Daves ever made it meanders a bit in the first third but eventually finds its pace and pulls us along for the legitimately thrilling conclusion. The score by composer Miklos Roza helps quite a bit here, helping to set the mood and complimenting the beautifully dark black and white cinematography fairly perfectly. Theramin fans take note, Roza's work with the instrument on this film really stands out.
Performance wise, all three of the principals do excellent work here. Robinson shows some serious range as an actor and somehow manages to go from completely calm and almost peaceful to completely pissed off in a split second without breaking character and without ever chewing through the scenery. He's excellent in his part and makes a great contrast to McCallister's increasingly bizarre but wholly effective turn as Storm. By the time the end of the film comes around, both actors manage to make quite an impact on the viewer, while both Julie London and Allene Roberts do fine with their respective supporting roles. Judith Anderson is also quite good, playing the sweet wife to Robinson's hotheaded farmer very effectively.
If the plot twists are a little predictable, obvious even, by the standards of the modern day it's still easy to appreciate the skill on display here both in front of and behind the camera. The Red House is a very well shot movie that benefits from some great performances, loads of atmosphere, and a remarkably tense finale - definitely well worth seeing.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Red House arrives on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer from 35mm film elements that were in less than perfect condition on a 25GB disc with the feature taking up almost 24GBs of space on that disc. Unlike the previous Blu-ray release from Film Chest from 2012, this edition is not slathered in DNR and for that reason alone it would stand to reason that it would be a better transfer - and it is. Detail is still less than amazing and contrast tends to bloom a bit. Black levels are uneven and sometimes lean towards dark grey but things are vastly improved over past releases of this public domain staple. Texture, depth and detail do surpass what we've seen before and while there's a fair bit of print damage here and there, this is quite watchable indeed.
The DTS-HD 2.0 Mono mix on the disc is also an improvement over the previous release. It's still not perfect but it is cleaner, fuller and better sounding. There's a bit of hiss here and there but it's minor while dialogue stays clean and properly balanced in the mix. Optional English closed captioning is also provided.
There are no extras, just a static menu.
The Final Word:
The Red House is a solid movie, mixing up a great noir style and sensibility with the more traditional elements associated with your standard thriller with great results. Definitely a movie well worth seeing, this Blu-ray release from The Film Detective might be a bare bones affair, but it presents the movie in the best condition we've seen on the format yet.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
