1945 Directed by Lewis Allen
David Fielding, who has recently lost his wife, moves into a new neighborhood under a cloud of suspicion. Many feel that his wife's death in a car crash was no accident. Elizabeth Howard, the governess he hires to look after his children, makes it her mission to find out the truth. When other murders seem to be following David to his new town, Elizabeth investigates with the help of David's son Barnaby.
Il fantasma, Der Tod wohnt nebenan, Medo Que Domina, 藏匿
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The Podcast Macabre 2022 Horror Challenge
Film 23/52
12. From the 1940s you have not seen before
Die Gouvernante Elizabeth Howard wird von einem eigenbrötlerischen Witwer eingestellt, um für seine beiden Kinder zu sorgen. Während dem Mädchen sehr an einem harmonischen Umgang gelegen ist, wirkt der mysteriöse Telefonate führende Junge störrisch und abwesend. Welchen Geheimaufträgen geht er nächtens nach? Was führt Joel McCrea im Schilde und wo hält er eigentlich sein Western-Outfit versteckt, womöglich im unbewohnten Brownstone nebenan?
Der deutsche Titel Der Tod wohnt nebenan kommt eine Spur zu komisch, doch das ist Ansichtssache, wie so vieles. Die Ungesehenen ist feinstes Noir-Kino aus dem Hause Allen (für Paramount) und wiederum ist Gail Russell mit von der Partie. Als Stella Meredith…
La petite histoire (et désolée pour les gens de Goodreads qui m'ont lue sur le livre, ce commentaire va vous spoiler quelque chose), c'est que j'ai lu La Montre d'or/The Gold Watch de Paul Halter récemment, et qu'un des mystères du livre, c'est qu'un des personnages centraux, André, est hanté par la bande-annonce d'un vieux film hollywoodien de détective qu'il a vu sur la télé de son meilleur ami lorsqu'il avait 10 ans, film qu'il n'avait pas pu voir à l'époque et qu'il recherche activement depuis. Avec l'aide d'un psychanalyste (?), ils finissent par réduire les possibilités à Sorry, Wrong Number, The Spiral Staircase et The Unseen. En ayant moi-même un mystère du genre dans ma vie (pour un jeu…
“I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die in a cellar full of rats.”
It’s a little hard to say based on the muddy print of The Unseen that I watched at archive.org, but it’s a pretty good-looking, quite Expressionist picture.
I came for Gail Russell, who I added late to my 2020 Female Star Project, but wanted to get her on my top 20 wall, to insure it, I needed at least six films with her. Here, she appears as new governess to two young children belonging to widower Joel McCrea. He’s a rather haunted fellow himself, and mystery lingers about the last nanny, the mother’s death, and the boarded-up house next door.
Most unusually, images of specific…
I always feel sad watching a Gail Russell movie knowing she had such high anxiety and took to drinking to cope while on set. I wish she had received help before essentially drinking herself to death at 36. She always shows vulnerability in her roles. Oddly, in this movie when she's offered a cocktail she replies she doesn't drink.
Anyway, the atmosphere was very good as was Russell with the kids. The little girl was precious. I didn't really like Joel McCrea in this one. He was too much of a curmudgeon. The biggest weakness for me was the lack of character development.
A young boy sees a woman being murdered, and gets her watch. His father doesn't tell the police because of ill-feeling after the death of his wife. A new governess comes to their home and gets caught up in very suspicious events which look as if she and others will be in great danger.
It was all very unlikely, and the identity of the baddie was very easy to work out, but I enjoyed this story - it was the kind of murder mystery they'd have shown on TV when I was a girl and I'd have thought it a rather scary old film. This gets 8/10 for nostalgia!
A little mid 40s chiller directed by Lewis Allen in that half Hitchcock, half Universal manner that was very usual in the period. It is all very ordinary, but the above average cast helps keep things afloat.
HoopTober 9 film 28/34
Decades 9/8 (1940s)
A young woman takes a job as a governess of two children whose previous governess left abruptly. The house is in the city but next door to a creepy abandoned house, boarded up for years. The same night a light is seen in the abandoned house, a woman is murdered in a nearby alley. The children, especially the slightly older brother, behave in strange and secretive ways. The film manages urban gothic vibes with a decent mystery. Unfortunately, there’s a dash of unearned romance as well but the tension and suspense more than makes up for this shortcoming.
While very predictable, there weren't exactly many suspects to choose from, The Unseen (1945) was a fine little screamer. Two leading gentlemen in Joel McCrea & Herbert Marshall and a young lady Gail Russell with a serial killer loose in the back alley. Simple and effective.
Atmospheric suspenser makes up for in style and performances what it lacks in cohesive sense.
This was pretty interesting till its very visible drops in momentum, especially after the climax. Gail Russell really carried the well with her performance, though. And Joel, as he himself once said, has always been more of a "one note" actor playing a lot of vanilla good guys, so it was nice to see him in a role that's not completely morally white. And the children's performances were surprising good too!
There is a chilling undertone to some of the scenes with the children , too deeply involved in sinister adult things. The plot works and the camera loves Gail Russell.
Even the skills of Raymond Chandler as co-writer cannot make much of this story, despite its fairly interesting premise. A new governess discovers that secret goings on haunt the abandoned house next door to her employer's, and even his children seem involved with whatever nefarious the s are going on. Gail Russell is warm and tender as the governess and does a fine job, but Joel McCrea's natural warmth is largely dispensed with in his role as the brusque and stolid employer. The mystery itself, while intriguing constructed, falls flat in the denouement, and everything wraps up in a hurried and convenient manner. The picture does little service to anyone involved, except perhaps to burnish the small but very real glow of the beautiful Miss Russell.
