gail russell

image host

There is this thing that certain movies do where a character will have a vision or be foretold the future in some way. The future is usually bad for them; they’ll die or someone close to them will be murdered. The visions will include several very specific, yet strange details. The characters will spend the rest of the movie trying to stop the inevitable. At first, they will probably not believe in the visions, but as those specific, yet strange details all come true, there will be a mad rush to stop the horrific thing from becoming reality.

I don’t know if Night Has a Thousand Eyes was the first film to do this thing, probably it wasn’t. But I believe it is the earliest version of it that I’ve seen (or maybe not, I’m sure I’ll remember an earlier one once I hit Post.

Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of this trope, probably because it is a trope. Whenever this sort of thing happens, you know the prophecy (or whatever) will come true. A prophecy that doesn’t come true in a movie (or is narrowly averted) would be boring.

John Triton (Edward G. Robinson) used to be a charlatan. He had an act where he pretended he was psychic. He was good at it, too. Then one day, he discovered he really could see the future. But the things he could see were always terrible events, mostly people getting killed. The thing he pretended to do for money has now become a curse.

The film begins with Jean Courtland (Gail Russell), an heiress, attempting to kill herself by jumping in front of a train. Her boyfriend, Elliott Carson (John Lund), saves her in the nick of time. When she asks him how he knew where she was, he takes her to a bar where Triton is waiting for them.

Lund is skeptical of Triton’s psychic abilities, but Jean is a firm believer. Triton then tells the whole sordid deal of how he came to know Jean and how she found herself about to commit suicide. We see this in flashbacks.

Basically, Triton had a vision that Jean’s father was going to die in a plane crash. He tries to warn her, but is unsuccessful in saving him. They begin to talk, and Triton has another vision, foreseeing Jean’s death under the stars, in a few days.

Jean can’t take the pressure and decides it isn’t worth living, knowing she’ll be dead soon anyway. But after Lund rescues her, she decides to try for life. Lund calls the cops, and a whole bunch of people try to make sure the prophecy doesn’t come true. The prophesy has some of those pesky details I was telling you about and as they come true everybody is freaking out.

I won’t spoil it all for you, but you can probably guess most of it. I will say it does something at the end that’s pretty interesting, but most of it is rather pat.

Edward G. Robinson is great, though. He’s always great, and he plays the tormented psychic pretty well.

image host

The Uninvited was not the first ghost story to ever make it on film, but it was one of the first movies to take them seriously. Prior to this, ghosts were used for comic relief, or there were natural or psychological reasons for them to “exist.” They were explained away in some fashion. In The Uninvited, they are quite real and quite terrifying.

Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland) and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) are holidaying on the coast of Cornwall. They fall in love with an abandoned seaside manor. When they inquire into whether or not it is for sale, they are at first told by Stella Meredith (Gail Russell) that it is off the market, but her grandfather, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp), immediately agrees to sell it for a low price.

Later, they’ll learn that Stella is quite attached to the house as it was her mother’s house, and where she died under mysterious circumstances when Stella was quite young. Roderick and Stella form an instant bond and the beginnings of a romance, but Commander Beech forbids it and for Stella to even set foot inside the house.

There are rumors around the village that the house is haunted, and sure enough, our heroes begin experiencing strange occurrences. Their pets refuse to go up the stairs. They periodically smell mimosa wafting from somewhere, though there isn’t any on the premises. And in the wee hours of the morning, they sometimes hear a woman sobbing.

At first, Roderick is skeptical, but Pamela wants to believe, and Stella is a firm believer and is fascinated. She believes her mother haunts the place. At times, she seems possessed by her.

One lonely evening, she runs out of the house in a trance and nearly falls off a cliff next to where her mother did that very thing. They hold a fake seance (to try and convince Stella to stay away from the house) and see a real ghost.

The film isn’t really scary. Not by the gore-filled, jump scare standards of today. But it is full of a wonderfully creepy atmosphere. It isn’t quite gothic, but it was certainly influenced by the genre with the big, creepy house and the various mysterious characters.

The main cast is all terrific, and while the story didn’t quite enthrall me, it did keep me fully interested and entertained. It is a perfect Saturday night movie to watch in the wee hours of the night during a thunderstorm.