Guest in the House (1944) User Reviews (50)

A mean young attempts to break a good family to get her egoistic aims

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 11 August 2009]

An apparently friendly young woman named Evelyn (Anne Baxter) is invited to stay in the family home of her doctor and boyfriend named Proctor(Scott McKay). The female patient Evelyn is really a selfish young , a manipulating babe who hates the birds and with malignant objectives . The-not-so-innocent girl becomes at the beginning an enjoyable guest but she ruthlessly uses everyone in his goals. She skillfully tries to break the familiar harmony. Then , Evelyne falls in love with Douglas Procter (Ralph Bellamy) . He's a good man married Ann(Ruth Warrick) and with a daughter, Douglas dedicates artistic labors painting his model Miriam (Marie McDonald).

The pictures features exceptional work by Anne Baxter , she's magnificently hateful as the insidious Evelyne who attempts to dissect the harmonious group . Her acting result to be a phenomenal precedent to the character she played in ¨All about Eva¨ by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Special mention to Margaret Hamilton , the famous witch from ¨The wizard of Oz¨ as a snooper maid and of course Aline MacMahon as the spinster aunt Martha , she's also worthy in a razor-sharp performance. Furthermore, a beautifully cinematography in subdued black and white by Lee Garmes, Atmospheric and appropriate musical score by Werner Janssen.

The motion picture is well directed by John Brahm (1893-1982). He was a German-born director who worked in the theatre for nearly 20 years before attempting his hand at movies. Later on, he had an initial work in England and after that he went to Hollywood where Brahm converted himself an efficient filmmaker of variety of routine mid-budget movies until 1944/45 when he directed two magnificent suspense movies with Laird Cregar : ¨The Lodger¨and ¨Hangover square¨ and a splendid drama ¨Guest in the house¨, the three full of atmosphere, intrigue and a sense of imminent tension. Later on he continued working almost entirely in TV but never again finding his previous inspiration .Rating : Better than average , worthwhile seeing.

A forgotten gem

[Maciste_Brother · 7/10 · 4 June 2008]

I saw GUEST IN THE HOUSE one late night and I was surprised by how good this forgotten film was. The story is classic story of a stranger entering the lives of a family or closely knit group living under one roof and how their lives are changed by the ways of this newcomer. TEOREMA is a modern example of such a story. In GITH, Evelyn is the new guest who nearly destroys the idyllic existence of a group's mundane lives, including a married couple and their precocious girl. Evelyn specifically has eyes on the husband, who happens to be the brother of her boyfriend, a man she doesn't really love but who helped when she had a nervous breakdown. Evelyn is, needless to say, neurotic with a capital N. She also has a bizarre phobia of birds. Eventually the people living in the house slowly realize what's going on and how Evelyn is manipulating everyone, which leads to a truly memorable and tragic ending.

Some have criticized GITH for the cast of characters being so blind to Evelyn's ways but for me it's the opposite. The film or script's slow methodical built-up was very mature and not over-the-top melodramatic as most films were in those days. I'm not saying the film is not melodramatic. It is but I enjoyed seeing the way everything slowly unraveled. During a big chunk of the film, Evelyn is not even present. In other words, the film is not just an "Evelyn the Neurotic Bitch" show but an ensemble cast, with Evelyn being the most memorable character.

What's really great about GUEST IN THE HOUSE is that it's filmed like a fevered dream: the low ceilings, the tight quarters of the house, the claustrophobic quality of the direction, the way Evelyn reads her diary, the atmospheric cinematography and music, all add to an entertaining quasi-Gothic film.

The actors are all excellent, including Anne Baxter, whom I usually do not like, and one of the reasons why I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this film. What's also striking about her role in GUEST IN THE HOUSE is that it's oddly identical to the Eve Harrington character Anne played 7 years later in ALL ABOUT EVE. In my opinion, Anne is much better here and creates a truly memorable character. In ALL ABOUT EVE, Anne was too robotic and monotonous, she lacked the passion and strive she displayed in GUEST OF THE HOUSE. As Evelyn, Anne shamelessly overacts and slithers about like a panther but always staying in character of a neurotic woman, which, thankfully, is never played to the point of being politically incorrect.

All in all, I highly recommend this hidden gem. Because the film is in public domain, finding a good DVD transfer is almost impossible. But even the terrible version I viewed didn't diminish its entertaining qualities.

An unhinged house-guest from Hell

[melvelvit-1 · 7/10 · 11 June 2007]

A naive psychiatrist brings his former patient, Evelyn Heath (Anne Baxter), to his cliff-side country home to meet the family before they tie the knot. The good doctor's Aunt Martha (Aline MacMahon), his artist brother, Douglas (Ralph Bellamy), Douglas' wife (Ruth Warrick) and daughter do everything they can to make the mentally unstable Evelyn feel at home but underneath her fragile exterior lurks a manipulative minx who wants the home for herself. Evelyn sets her romantically obsessive sights on Douglas, running off his model (Marie McDonald) and taking her place before tearing the household apart until one member takes matters into their own hands...

Told in flashback (with brief voice-over narration) this slightly stagy Hunt Stromberg-produced "domestic noir" was one of the first of a spate of films reflecting the era's budding fascination with psychiatry. Adapted from a hit Broadway play and directed with style by German-born John Brahm, there's a claustrophobic mansion, thunderstorms, a crashing sea below, and ever-present shadows all moodily photographed by Lee Garmes to an Oscar-nominated score. Anne Baxter, in a forerunner to ALL ABOUT EVE, is effective as a pathologically neurotic snake-in-the-grass with solid support from character actors Margaret "Wizard Of Oz" Hamilton and Percy "Pa Kettle" Kilbride as the household help. There's also a bit of wartime-liness as the story can be seen as metaphor for "fighting fire with fire" when an enemy threatens hearth and home. Director John Brahm, who fled Nazi Germany in 1937, helmed this film for United Artists between his two 20th Century Fox Period Noirs, THE LODGER (1944) and HANGOVER SQUARE (1945). Sexy Marie McDonald got her nickname "The Body" during production and eventually killed herself. GUEST IN THE HOUSE, with its dark and rather drastic ending, is a little seen and rarely discussed early noir that should be more accessible.

Noirometer: Although only semi-satisfying for some reason, this moody melodrama boasts a deceptively destructive femme fatale, some unhinged histrionics, a German-trained director, daytime shadows on restricted wartime sets, poetic retribution, and a bit of Freud. A house-guest-from-Hell plot line was later given another workout in Nicolas Ray's camp-noir BORN TO BE BAD (1950). 7/10

Publicity:

The Boldest Love Story Ever Told!

From the daring Broadway stage hit... Hunt Stromberg has made a daring picture

The story of a lovely girl driven by strange desires... and the emotions she unleashes in the lives of gay and charming people

Excellent cast in a bucolic film noir

[Handlinghandel · 7/10 · 5 February 2008]

This is "Shadow of a Doubt" meets "The Women." It's as if it had been produced by Val Lewton, particularly in the early, ambiguous scenes. And it does feature two of Orson Welles's players: Anne Baxter as the title character and Ruth Warrick as her hostess.

Warrick and husband Ralph Bellamy agree to give some country air to a troubled young woman. Bellamy is a painter. Marie McDonald is his model. Without giving too much away, Baxter reacts to her with the fiery prudishness of a Jack the Ripper. She's shocked; she's appalled.

That marvelous character actress Aline MacMahon is the family aunt. She gets third billing and plays a central role. And she is superb --often framed between other characters, looking out wisely. Her face could register pain and restfulness at the same time.

The film was beautifully shot by the great Lee Garmes. It's directed well by John Brahm.

At times, it grows overheated. But for the most part it is subtle and unnerving.

House Guest Wears Out Welcome

[GManfred · 10 June 2009]

Hadn't seen this one before and was pleasantly surprised. It is longer than almost all the others in the DVD collection but is well worth the time.

A nutty woman is brought to the family home to recuperate from a breakdown of some sort and is plainly unfit to be released into normal society. She then proceeds to wreak havoc on all concerned and nearly succeeds in wrecking the host family.

But you have to assume a great deal and swallow a lot of credibility to make it work. She is unbalanced and no one notices or doesn't care; the male lead cavorts with his artist model for prolonged periods and no one raises an eyebrow, so laden with integrity is he; she persuades her fiancée/doctor to leave town to hasten her recovery(!); and so on.

All concerned turn in good performances. Dependable Ralph Bellamy is just that, and Aline McMahon is a cut above the rest. The pivotal character is Anne Baxter's and I don't agree with the majority that she was over-the-top - she is playing a neurotic which justifies her unsettling, oblong portrayal. How else to illustrate that she doesn't fit in? A good picture - albeit stagebound - that does not warrant all the complaints and criticisms. Give it a chance.

A Triumph of Mental Hygiene

[AlexanderAnubis · 6/10 · 31 March 2016]

Guest in the House (1944) aka Satan in Skirts

CONTAINS SPOILERS

I have never understood the appeal of Anne Baxter. Her acting abilities, affect and range of expression always seem false and put me in mind of the first line of Flannery O'Connor's short story, Good Country People:

"Besides the neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings."

Therefore it was with some surprise that she seemed to be perfectly cast in Guest in the House. She portrays a conniving, manipulative and malicious addition to a small community of reasonably happy, well meaning but almost uniformly rock stupid people. As her character's character is concealed behind a facade of sticky sweetness, the other folks don't realize her true nature for quite awhile although they become somewhat tired of the fact she constantly plays Liszt's Liebestraum on her phonograph.

No doubt this will sound very familiar to anyone who has seen All About Eve (1950) and one wonders if her performance here, in 1944, germinated into the idea in someone's mind of planting her opposite Bette Davis six years later. As in All About Eve, or Jung's four stages of dream, this introduction moves via Baxter's machinations, to a thickening of the plot, proceeding to crisis and followed by a resolution, of sorts.

I don't quite know if this is a good or bad movie, but I found it a bizarre combination of almost pre-code candor (in isolated spots), generic Hollywood and something harder to define. The resolution, if one can call it that, at the very end was so unexpected that I simply didn't understand what had happened until I watched the finale twice. What had appeared to be Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or some similarly unpleasant, chronic mental illness for the majority of the film, is neatly disposed of as if it was a case of evil instead - shades of The Bad Seed (1956) with a bird phobia substituted for the lightning. However, Baxter's character doesn't actually kill anyone, (that we're aware of), so her finish may have been a bit of preventative maintenance rather than retribution. All in all, a far more satisfying - albeit less sophisticated - close than in All About Eve.

This is a weird little film.

Remark: Guest in the House (which was nominated for an Academy Award for score) was dramatized in episode 27 of the radio program Academy Award Theater on September 25, 1946 with Anita Louise in Anne Baxter's role, and Kirk Douglas in Ralph Bellamy's. It plays much better as 26 minute audio drama - especially since it begins with the announcer solemnly intoning, "This is the story of a diseased personality..." And amazingly, even though Smith, Kline & French's prototype antipsychotic (& LSD antagonist) drug Thorazine (chlorpromazine) was still four or five years or so away, the program's sponsor was Squibb Pharmaceuticals.

XYZ

"I told you this morning that somethin' was cookin' around here".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 10 July 2011]

Whoa!, chalk one up for Aunt Martha - she sends poor old Evelyn over the edge (really, right over) with the missing bird trick there at the finale in a stunning conclusion that leaves an empty guest room at the Proctor's. Hitchcock would have done it with an entire flock of black ravens, but here director John Brahm simply simulates the flapping of wings in the mind of Evelyn Heath (Anne Baxter). Up till then I thought she might have been the one to kill young Lee's pet bird Skipper, but I'm glad I was wrong. This made for a much more fitting conclusion.

Not that we didn't see some kind of tragic ending coming, just not this one. Throughout, Anne Baxter takes her manipulative and quite mentally unstable character through the paces of turning the Proctor home upside down. But even if she had never arrived, I have to believe Doug Proctor (Ralph Bellamy) and wife Ann (Ruth Warrick) were already inviting trouble with a live-in model (Marie McDonald) occupying still another room upstairs. How did the wife ever go along with that little arrangement? And if that wasn't enough, how could she stand that weird bathrobe with the over-sized polka dots? If this was in color, I think I would have gone blind.

Well even 'Liebetraum' gets a bad rap in this picture, as daughter Lee (Connie Laird) starts turning into an invalid after Evelyn puts ideas into her head. Give the kid credit, she tried to size up the situation on her own and didn't like the studio arrangement between Dad and Miriam either. There was enough going on here for a double feature when you come right down to it. I'm glad nothing bad happened to the kid.

Like little Lee, I'll go out on a limb of my own and say I'd recommend this one for it's psychological angle and the way Baxter sets up everyone in the story for a dramatic conclusion. Maybe she's not as ambitious here as Eve Harrington (1950 - "All About Eve"), but when she sets a goal, she sticks to it. Just don't talk to her about birds.

Inroducing one of the screen's most memorable sociopaths.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 15 February 2014]

It is obvious to the audience, if not the characters in the film, that from the moment Anne Baxter steps on screen, she's going to be trouble. The way she fawns over everybody in this large household, from handsome Ralph Bellamy to his worried wife Ruth Warrick to aunt Aline MacMahon, Bellamy and Warrick's daughter, Connie Laird, and even the family servants, Percy Kilbride and Margaret Hamilton is so gooey-sweet that something is obviously amiss. That becomes certain when she goes cuckoo over a tiny bird and screams in fear over seeing tree leaves fluttering outside her window, claiming they look like birds which she is deathly afraid of. She utilizes the work relationship between painter Bellamy and his model Marie "the body" MacDonald to put tension in his marriage to Warrick and ultimately sets her sights on Bellamy herself. MacDonald has a wonderful drunken scene that is the acting highlight of the film.

While Bette Davis had played the epitome of the sociopath in her lavish soap opera "In This Our Life", her character was obvious from the get-go, and it is ironic that the future "Eve Harrington" would play a very similar character who doesn't at all seem like a vicious schemer out to destroy everything she touches. This ain't no guest you want lingering around longer than necessary even if the build-up to the revelation of what she's up to takes time in developing. Margaret Hamilton has some wonderful moments as the loyal, if sometimes gossipy housekeeper, especially when she's confronted by Warrick for snooping. Moody photography and haunting music help build the tension, and the result is a psychological drama that is sometimes gripping even if ultimately it is somewhat predictable.

Guest in the House (1944)

[MartinTeller · 7/10 · 3 January 2012]

A psychiatrist bring his fianceé -- a former patient -- back to his family house, and she proceeds with a plan of homewrecking. Anne Baxter, several years before ALL ABOUT EVE, is great as another manipulative, conniving and more than a little unstable femme fatale. There is a significantly longer version of this film, but getting the shorter one was probably for the best. The first two acts are a bit sluggish and repetitive, but things really ramp up for the finale. Brahm brings the same Gothic gloom as he did in his period noirs THE LODGER and HANGOVER SQUARE, as the residence gets more and more claustrophobic and ruled by shadows. There's some wonderful framing technique at play, often emphasizing Baxter's control over the household. Supporting performances are generally quite good, with especially good turns from Aline MacMahon and Marie McDonald (like Marilyn, a bombshell blonde with a knack for comedy, but a tragic life ending in a bottle of pills). The film could use some higher stakes and a little more zip, but it has some mighty fine elements.

Anne Baxter comes for a visit

[mstomaso · 6/10 · 30 March 2010]

Many IMDb luminaries have written very good analyses of this movie and its relationship to Ms. Baxter's Oscar-Winning performance in All About Eve. And surely, at least in hindsight, Guest in the House is one of the vehicles that delivered Baxter to what many consider to be her masterwork. Since I am not an expert on Ms. Baxter or All About Eve, I do not wish to contribute either negatively or positively to that discussion. Instead, I will review Guest in the House (AKA Satan in Skirts) as an example of what it historically was - a disturbing, suspenseful and unusual film noir.

Baxter's character - Evelyn Heath - is, of course, the central element in this single-set piece. Ms Heath is a pretty young thing whose grace, beauty and charm thinly mask the truth. In fact, Ms. Heath is a manipulative, emotionally unbalanced sociopath. Unlike most noir film's the nature of the protagonist is revealed to the audience in the first few scenes as she enters the House Proctor with Fiancé Doctor Dan (Scott McKay) and immediately sets her sights on the older, married, artist and head of the household - Douglas (Ralph Bellamy). Evelyn allegedly has a heart condition and is engaged to Dan - a hard working doctor. Dan has set her up in the family home to rest and recuperate. So it's not hard to imagine why the rest of the family does not expect a thing, even after Evelyn encourages Dan to depart for the remainder of the summer and begins subtly sowing the seeds of suspicion and jealousy around her prey.

The Proctor family begins unraveling with the puritanical servants (nicely played by Margaret Hamilton and Percy Kilbride) and young Lee (Connie Laird) - who are the most vulnerable characters. As the accusations begin, each character falls under Evelyn's diabolical enchantment - with the exception of Aunt Martha (Alice MacMahon), Douglas's world-weary spinster of a sister.

If this all sounds atypical for noir - it should. John Brahm's parlor play A Guest in The House, is not a run-of-the-mill noir in most respects. The film is dark only in the figurative sense, most of the plot is transparent, the lines of good and evil are clearly defined, and there is neither a car nor a murder weapon anywhere in sight. Perhaps most remarkable is the fact that the entire film takes place in one set - a large house on the rocky coast of New England. But in intensity, fatalism and theme, A Guest in the House is entirely film noir. There are two significant noir ingredients which also appear, but I won't given them away so that I can avoid presenting a spoiler.

Journeyman Director John (or Hans) Brahm is probably best known to American audiences for having directed the well-regarded Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last". His long and modestly prolific career (35 years and somewhat fewer features) could be characterized as wandering or - more positively - diverse. He dabbled in religion (Our The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima), Psychological Horror (The Lodger), pulp action (Hotrods to Hell) and even Westerns (Face to Face), yet managed to bring a respectable quality to all of his efforts. That quality is present in A Guest in the House. And the director deserves some praise for pulling off a film which successfully challenges the experimental boundaries of what was, at the time of its production, a very popular genre.

The cast is superb and the casting is perfect. The film is well- directed, although at times the pace is a little difficult. And the story-line is interesting but disturbing enough to put off many if not most. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for its good, though not very memorable, score.

Despite my respect for this film, however, I can only modestly promote it. Most audiences will not have the patience to endure the entire film and will fail to recognize the transparency of the plot as an important departure from its genre. Keep this warning in mind if you decide to give it a go. The ending is well worth the wait and may not be what you expect.

John Brahm directs early Ann Baxter in effective noirish melodrama

[bmacv · 8/10 · 7 April 2002]

Six years before entering film history in the title role of All About Eve – as duplicitous, back-stabbing ingenue Eve Harrington – Ann Baxter took a trial run in John Brahm's Guest in the House. Her character proves to be even more spiteful, that of a malingering but controlling waif in whose mouth a pat of butter would stay as hard and cold as her supposedly bum ticker.

Under the care of her young and smitten doctor, Ann arrives in the home of his extended family somewhere on the New England coast (high cliffs, crashing waves) for a recuperative summer. Once settled in the guest room, she takes to her bed and her phonograph on which she plays – shades again of All About Eve – `Liebestraum' over and over. She also sends her doting doctor packing, having set her snood for his older, married artist brother Ralph Bellamy. And then she calculatedly proceeds to tyrannize the entire household, sending away seriatim the domestic help (Margaret Hamilton and Percy Kilbride), Bellamy's live-in model, and, ultimately, Bellamy's wife (Ruth Warrick) and young daughter.

Of course, Baxter's illness afflicts not so much her heart as her mind. Along with her luggage she unpacks a lovingly tended collection of phobias (the one to birds proves pivotal) and a high-maintenance Borderline Personality Disorder. And, again of course, summer turns into a cold, forbidding fall before any member of the household picks up on the clues and holds her responsible for the dysfunction she has unleashed on the household. But at long last the worms begins to turn....

Guest in the House is really a parlor melodrama from a script by Ketti Frings, who would go on to write half a dozen or so noir screenplays. This one starts off slowly but once it gets underway it holds interest (it's a full two-hour movie, too). John Brahm, another emigre director from Europe who could be counted upon to produce craftsmanlike if not inspired work, stays in his element here, barely moving from the claustrophobic confines of the big old house and pulling out all the stops on the gothic organ: thunder and lightning, hurricane lamps, the sweeping beam of a lighthouse flooding the rooms then vanishing.

The cast acquits itself admirably as well. Though Bellamy's bumbling male seems a bit at odds with his supposedly artistic temperament, Ruth Warrick (the first Mrs. Charles Foster Kane) adroitly underplays, letting second-string players like Hamilton and Kilbride ham it up; another shrewd underplayer is Aline McMahon, as spinsterish Aunt Martha, who hides her light under a bushel until finally letting it flare. That leaves Baxter as the central character, onto whom we tumble early by virtue of having seen the way she works as Eve Harrington (an advantage they didn't have in 1944). Guest in the House strains our credulity a bit but stays a surprisingly effective and moody melodrama.

cross it off any 'noir' list

[christopher-underwood · 6/10 · 16 January 2010]

I bought this as part of a 'Film Noir' collection, to which it most certainly does not rightly belong. This is melodrama with Gothic overtones and unfortunately has a very slow and boring first third. Things begin to get going and eventually the film is moving the way it should have from the start. The dialogue is average, there are far too many characters and only Anne Baxter shines. I'm not a fan of Ralph Bellamy and the 'dope' that he invariably seems to play. Strangely enough at the start of this when everyone is dull, he is fine but gradually he gets around to playing the dumb guy once again. In the end this is not without interest and all Baxter fans should see it, if only for her most her devilish performance. Non aficionados may wish to avoid, or at least cross it off any 'noir' list.

Baxter as bad as "Eve"

[billyweeds · 2/10 · 31 October 2008]

Anne Baxter is one of the most unsubtle and--why mince words?--worst actresses ever to gain fame in Hollywood. Her performance in "All About Eve" ranks as one of the most overrated on record. An Oscar nomination for making the supposedly convincingly sweet Eve as obviously dangerous as a cobra? The same problem exists in "Guest in the House." The moment Baxter's Evelyn (almost the same name as "Eve") appears, we know she's bad bad bad. Baxter is so transparent as to be laughable.

Add the constant "Liebestraum" on the soundtrack and the fact that Evelyn comes on to Ruth Warrick's husband Ralph Bellamy (read: Bette Davis and Gary Merrill) and you have a perfect trial balloon for "Eve." In many people's opinion, Baxter improved by the time she played Eve in 1950. For me, it's "been there done that" all over again.

Someone else has alluded to the ending being unsatisfying. I'll echo that. Evelyn does rotten things, but she's a very mentally disturbed person. Aline MacMahon's character deliberately drives her to fall off a cliff. This is considered the right thing to do. Huh? We've come a long way since then.

Must add that Warrick and Bellamy are aces. Their relationship--complete with typical 1940's denial of Bellamy's alcoholism--makes the movie almost worth watching.

My favorite moment: Bellamy and Marie McDonald return home after hours of drinking themselves blind. Warrick asks what's been going on. Bellamy answers, "We took a drive to sober up." Warrick doesn't bat an eye. Unbelievable.

Tweety's Revenge

[dougdoepke · 25 July 2010]

It's not until the last 20 minutes with the storm that the movie really takes off. To that point, the pace is leisurely as we watch the manipulative Evelyn burrow her way through the happy household, leaving it a shambles. But, once the storm starts, catch that great cameo shot of an exultant Evelyn (Baxter) at the window as her rival Ann (Warwick) departs, the lightning flashes punctuating her wicked triumph. From then on, it's high Gothic drama and director John Brahm reveling in his atmospheric element-- the crashing waves, the expressive lighting, the heavy emotions. Meanwhile, add this movie to his other two masterpieces of fevered derangement, The Lodger (1944), and Hangover Square (1945).

If ever there was a textbook example of theatrical emoting its Ann Baxter. You can just about see the wheels turning behind that expressive face. Here, however, that tendency to emote works in the character's favor. After all, it's by faking emotions that Evelyn is able to manipulate others. So we see those wheels turning at the same time her victims do not, heightening our involvement. Still, I'm not sure I buy Douglas' (Bellamy) rather obtuse character. He seems a little slow to catch on to situations. But then if he weren't, there wouldn't be much of a story.

Come to think of it-- does the movie end right at the point of a crime being committed? If so, then how did an unpunished crime get past the rules of the Production Code. Anyway, it's an occasionally gripping tale of Gothic madness, thanks to some fine ensemble acting (e.g. the joyous breakfast scene) and director Brahm's real feel for the material.

(In passing—the gorgeous Marie Mc Donald {Miriam} was something of a Lindsey Lohan of her day. One stunt in late 1956 got national notoriety when she faked her kidnapping by turning up in the desert near Palm Springs in a nightgown, claiming she'd been grabbed by two men. Later the episode was exposed as a publicity stunt, but not before ever- enterprising Hollywood types turned the notoriety into a Jane Russell movie, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown {1957}! Too bad Mc Donald later committed suicide; I think she does quite well in this movie.)

Anne Baxter warms up for her "Eve Harrington" role...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 24 March 2007]

GUEST IN THE HOUSE is the sort of psychological Gothic melodrama Hollywood discovered in the early '40s, usually films based on equally melodramatic stage plays. (Think "The Two Mrs. Carrolls" or "Uncle Harry" or "Ladies in Retirement"). But it's a very stage-bound version of a talky Broadway play and ANNE BAXTER had not yet refined her acting technique, in the role of a psychotic who enjoyed manipulating the lives of everyone around her.

Her phobia to birds is rather effectively done, but it's hard to understand why the household members don't catch on to her deceitful ways a bit sooner. RALPH BELLAMY is in good form as the man she has designs on, for once a leading man and not "the other guy" and RUTH WARRICK is effective as his understanding wife.

The other performances range from incompetent to hammy--as essayed by MARGARET HAMILTON, PERCY KILBRIDE and MARIE ("The Body") McDONALD, a glamor girl out of her depth in a pivotal role.

Overall, it's a nice try at maintaining interest throughout two hours of running time, but somewhere along the way credibility is stretched to the max and Baxter's overwrought performance doesn't help.

The background score by Werner Janssen won an Oscar nomination, curiously enough.

Nefertiri meets Randolph Duke meets the Wicked Witch of the West

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 4 November 2023]

In the past few years I've made an effort to see a number of lesser-known movies that received Academy Award nominations. One of them is John Brahm's "Guest in the House" (nominated for the musical score).

Anne Baxter plays a character similar to her later role in "All About Eve", as she ingratiates herself into her fiance's family's life. Sure enough, her aims are less than noble. Despite the household's wholesome appearance, some intense things are going to arise.

With most of the setting indoors, the movie has a claustrophobic feeling. It's as if at any moment, everything's going to come crashing down. I suspect that it was like that for a reason. This is one movie where the setting and cinematography do as much to tell the story as does the cast. Not a masterpiece, but worth seeing.

Little Saint Cecilia!

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 2 December 2018]

Guest in the House is directed by John Brahm and adapted to screen by Ketti Frings from the play written by Hagar Wilde, Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert. It stars Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, Aline MacMahon, Ruth Warrick and Scott McKay. Music is by Werner Janssen and cinematography by Lee Garmes.

The Proctor family take on more than they bargained for when Evelyn Heath (Baxter) comes to stay with them.

Given the quality of cast and with the strength of Brahm and Garmes on the camera side of things, this really should have been a top tier psychological thriller. Sadly, in spite of much to keep it above average, it ends up as a melodramatic pot boiler that never quite comes to the boil.

Essentially the pic is framed around Baxter's troubled Evelyn, who is up to no good, where mischief making is the order of the day. Her motives are sketchy and her neurotic kinks are never fully formed except to give us some closure at pic's denouement. Things aren't helped by the fact Evelyn is just not a character to either sympathise with, or to even feel unnerved by since her shenanigans are not gripping and even come off as a little daft.

The male leads are poorly written, chauvinistic leanings boorish in the grand scheme of "outing" Evelyn as the sexual aggressor. While some of the histrionics on show from Baxter are hard to buy into. On the plus side the pic looks great, with Garmes (Nightmare Alley) managing to create moody ambiance in what is a stage bound play, and although I found Janssens' music score to be too jaunty at times, there's no denying the quality of arrangement (Oscar Nominated).

You have to look to the supporting players for quality (MacMahon and Warrick), and admire some technical craft for comfort. But ultimately it's a missed opportunity for potency, whilst some of the contrivances and character portrayals date the story badly. 6/10

The Devil in Paradise

[Uriah43 · 6/10 · 1 June 2020]

This film begins with a young physician named "Dr. Dan Proctor" (Scott McKay) bringing his fiancé "Evelyn Heath" (Anne Baxter) to the home of his brother "Douglas Proctor" (Ralph Bellamy) where she can recover from a terrible ordeal. Along with his wife "Ann Proctor" (Ruth Warrick) there are several other people who reside with Douglas to include his daughter "Lee Proctor" (Connie Laird), his aunt "Martha Proctor" (Aline MacMahon) and several members of the household staff. Additionally, since Douglas makes a living sketching models for various magazines like Cosmopolitan there is a very attractive young woman by the name of "Miriam" (Marie McDonald) staying there as well. In all, it's a lively home where everybody gets along well with each other-and then Evelyn arrives. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an interesting film which encompassed solid actors and a story that builds upon itself to inevitably reach its rather dramatic conclusion. The problem is that the plot moves a bit too slowly at first and the character development could have also used some improvement. Bet that as it may, I enjoyed the film for the most part and for that reason have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Mrs. Baxter does her Cotten role in a petty bourgeois fears—exploitation

[Cristi_Ciopron · 6/10 · 2 August 2010]

GUEST IN THE HOUSE, a superior B movie as craft, made with assuredness and gusto, is one of those '40s melodramas oozing with the miasmas of the insanity, of mental shakiness, where everyone except the decomposing mind is exasperatingly nice and wholesome, which thing unavoidably makes the sane viewer to take the insane character's side.

That's no way to win people on the sanity's side. Throw an insane character into a peaceful family. The smart viewers, unable to like the quiet family or even to approve of its existence, will side with the scheming insane person.

The situation explored by movies like GUEST IN THE HOUSE has something of an experiment or of a reality—show: take a small world—a family—a sunny, placid one—and place a subversive pawn in it. These scripts bet on a handful of primeval fears—the fear of the stranger ('the guest'), the fear of the woman—the stranger, the (insane) woman (or man: see Grant, Cotten) are dangerous. Here, the healthy people like sports, they play tennis, while the insane woman likes music, she keeps a diary, she has an inner life—she's so unlike the others, she comes with her demons—the neurotic woman is the new witch. In a thriller made by Hitchcock in the '40s, Cotten had a part not unlike the one made by Mrs. Baxter here. The neurotics' place is not among healthy, bovine people.

What a small—mindedness: against strangers, against women, against neurotics …. It teaches people to fear. It glamorizes imbecility. Such a world-view can't have my sympathy. I hate to be taught such lessons, I am humanist, I can't stand such a petty bourgeois fare. A large part of the American popular culture teaches distrust; and not only distrusting hitchhikers or vagabonds—but categories such as those mentioned—the neurotic, the woman, the stranger. It stultifies. It deepens neurotic fears, it transforms privacy into an illness. One almost comes to wish that Mrs. Baxter blows away this family of boring philistines. There are a few Hitchcock thrillers reverting this ingrate treatment and taking the situation towards a happy resolution (the Bergman& Peck thriller, the Novak& Stewart one …).

The script is the quite sophisticated treatment of a pretty sleazy theme: that of the feminine intruder into the life of a (quiet) family; the Shannon Tweed thriller SCORNED puts the same scheming broad into a dysfunctional, creaking family, where she'll seduce husband, wife and son, gratifying sexually everybody, while making some collateral victims too. Well, SCORNED took a sleazy view of the subject, GUEST IN THE HOUSE makes use of the '40—'50s preoccupation with mental illness. Anyway, the fear of the woman looms large in these stories.

The leisurely paced GUEST IN THE HOUSE, with its fears of the feminine and the insanity, the menace of the strangers and the misfits, has nonetheless a fine level of suspense to go with a somewhat loose storyline. The girl in the lead wasn't, I believe, a very good choice for the role—she's merely a plump, a bit perverse face (at least if compared to the perfidious Cotten and Shannon Tweed); the script reminds a bit, as basic situation only, of that Hitchcock thriller that she and Cotten were in, there she was the victim, here she has taken over Cotten's part—the mischievous intruder. Anyway, her role doesn't seem very well written.

Now all these aside, GUEST IN THE HOUSE, with its psycho—Gothic, has what it takes to be a classic of the '40s perfidy/ sickness thrillers; the directing is very able, much better than the script, the cast is average (Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy), so I would recommend it as a lesser classic that deserves a following, and deserves to be a cult—movie. The imperfections don't exclude being a classic, a cult—movie and having a following.

So, what did you think about this movie? What did it make you think?

A Dress Rehearsal for "All About Eve"

[kidboots · 6/10 · 2 April 2008]

Ann Baxter had been making films for a few years before appearing in "Guest in the House". She appeared in some prestigious productions - Orson Welles' magnificent "The Magnificent Ambersons". She also starred opposite John Barrymore in "The Great Profile" - the film was not a hit but starring opposite the great actor so early in her career would have been invaluable experience for her.

In this moody thriller she stars as Evelyn, a neurotic girl, with a supposed heart condition (that is only mentioned once at the start). Her doctor, who is also her fiancée, sends her to stay with his family to recuperate. She has deeper problems - she has a phobia about birds, (that is also never explained) and keeps a diary where she writes down her very intense thoughts. She also begins to fall in love with Douglas, so she starts to cause trouble within the family. By a few idle rumours, Ann, his wife, starts to believe there is an affair going on between Doug and Miriam (Marie MacDonald), a girl who lives in the house and also works as Doug's model. As the weeks go on she almost succeeds in turning Doug and Ann's daughter Lee into a neurotic version of herself.

It is a good film although originally at 121 minutes then cut to 100 minutes (that is what I read) maybe the heart condition and the bird phobia would have been explained more thoroughly.

Anne Baxter is in very good company. Ralph Bellamy was a very dependable actor who excelled at playing "nice guys" which he does here as Doug. Aline MacMahon was a veteran character actress whose credits included "Five Star Final"(1931) and "Gold Diggers of 1933", played Aunt Martha. Ruth Warwick made her film debut in "Citizen Kane", and is very good as Ann whose security is rocked by Evelyn. Marie MacDonald played Miriam and showed off her "body" to advantage. Jerome Cowan seemed to be in every other film made in the 1940s - he plays Mr. Hackett, a visitor who has reservations about Evelyn from the start. Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch from "The Wizard of Oz" is the maid and Percy Kilbride from Ma and Pa Kettle fame is the butler.

Perhaps the cut and mangled 97 minute version, instead of 121 minutes, is a blessing in disguise

[Terrell-4 · 5/10 · 8 April 2008]

Evelyn Heath (Anne Baxter) is the house-guest from hell. More precisely, she's the house- guest from the mental ward. She's under the care of young, handsome Dr. Dan Proctor...and they are in love. Watch out. Dan brings her to stay for a while with the family of his older brother, the artist Douglas Proctor (Ralph Bellamy), his wife, Ann (Ruth Warwick), their little daughter, and the aunt (Aline MacMahon). There's also the live-in model and the housekeeping couple. The picture perfect home sits perched on a cliff above the sea. The sky is blue, the clouds are fluffy and there are no old newspapers on the floor. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed.

It's not long before this seemingly sweet young thing with a heart condition transfers her affections to Douglas and sets out to ruin everyone's lives so that she can have him, and the house, all to herself. Evelyn is not physically sick, but, oh boy, is she a mental case...filled with phobias, dreams and guile. And, oh boy, does Anne Baxter chew the scenery. We're in for two hours of sneaky manipulation, lies and innuendo, all delivered with a sweetness as unsubtle as Diet Coke. Baxter is not as off-puttingly earnest as she would be emoting in The Razor's Edge (for which she won an Academy Award for best supporting actress), but she's still giving us acting with a capital A.

Guest in the House, however, has a fine, nasty premise and a wonderful performance by Ruth Warrick. She turns Ann Proctor into a woman who gradually realizes something is wrong, but who finally refuses to play the game by Evelyn's rules. It's first-rate acting because Warrick accomplishes this with a character that is underwritten to be nothing more than the bland, loyal wife. Warwick also understands how effective it can be to underplay. When at last there is a confrontation between Evelyn and Ann toward the conclusion of the film, I found myself watching Warrick with admiration.

The movie, in my opinion, becomes phony Hollywood melodrama because there's not a speck of nuance or suspense to be found in it, only the observation of what Evelyn will do next. We know just about all we need to know about Evelyn Heath - that she's really bad news - from the minute she walks in the door of the Proctor's home and Anne Baxter gives her a smile you'd trust as much as you'd trust your dentist saying, "This won't hurt." Baxter, for me, is very much a product of the overly sincere, overly earnest school of Hollywood film acting. She lays the "acting" on with a trowel here, and the only result is that we have to ask ourselves, "If we can tell so easily that she's bad news, why doesn't anyone in the Proctor family catch on?" There's no good answer...so we slump back and observe the movie rather than being caught up in it. Ralph Bellamy doesn't help. Bellamy was a capable, solid actor who gave you exactly what you saw. As dependable as he always was, he was seldom interesting. With Guest in the House, his Douglas Proctor is one of the most wholesome, obtuse and unsuspecting lead characters you'll come across. The two of them - Baxter and Bellamy - simply wring out any sense of dread or suspicious delight the plot might once have held.

Guest in the House is a movie idea that had a lot of potential. A better director and a subtler lead actress might have given us a memorable study in icky psychopathia. In my view, it tried but it largely missed.

Anne Baxter totally convincing as too clever a psychopath for her own good

[clanciai · 10/10 · 12 May 2019]

This is a rare film unlike all others in its very carefully studied psychology, made almost like a documentary, but at the same time it is a thriller which constantly grows more exciting and has a dramatic climax for a finale with the unexpected reappearance of the bird problem, which is what finally gets the better of the intelligent and expertly manipulative Anne Baxter in one of her most typical and horrible roles, and she is too good at it. Ralph Bellamy as a perfectly frank and honest artist, always speaking his mind freely and acting spontaneously, is her counterpart, falling for her tricks to begin with but always realizing his mistakes. The one film that this reminds of is Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" of the same year, also an intricate study in the mechanisms of a manipulative mind too clever for his own kin. The one scene that sticks the strongest to my mind is when Evelyn Heath (Anne Baxter) opens the window to let in the storm and at the same time spy the departure of Ann Proctor with vicious triumph. It's a great film, it can't be denied, a chamber and family domestic drama, but in curiously extremely romantic stage settings by the sea in Maine enhanced by the expertly suggestive music, adding depth to every scene of dramatic impact. The most shocking scenes are always with the girl, how Anne Baxter infernally starts using her for her schemes and then stops at nothing. It is actually a horror thriller of high psychological documentary value, with a warning for all times, to beware and never recognize a psychopath too late.

okay love triangle with so many big names

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 11 July 2018]

Pretty choppy sound, picture, and editing in this oldie from United Artists. Some big names in here, too. Anne Baxter will be best known for All about Eve; Aline MacMahon was always the mother or kind old aunt. Percy Kilbride was Pa Kettle. of course, Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch!) is in here as the maid. Ralph Bellamy and Ruth Warrick were hollywood regulars. In the story, Evelyn (Baxter) moves in with a couple to recuperate, and completely disrupts the house. One odd thing.. during the opening credits, and through-out the film, there are bright lights then darkness at the windows... do they live on a corner or something, where the car headlights were shining in ? and later, one of the women keeps flicking the light on and off...what the ?? and four directors listed, although only one was credited. that can't be good. and it's pretty long, at 121 minutes. kind of goes on and on. All those big names, and it never really gels. no chemistry. Looks like some of it was filmed at the Providencia Ranch lots, which itself had an interesting history. Another fun connection to All About Eve... Anne Baxter is also the star of that, and in that film, they ALSO keep playing Liebestraum at Margo's cocktail party. The best performances here come from Kilbride and Hamilton, the butler and the maid!! script needed tightening up or something. Very similar plot to Harriet Craig, and that one is so much better.

Low score due to low combined IQ of characters...

[cluciano63 · 4/10 · 17 September 2012]

OMG, could Ralph Bellamy's character be any more stupid? I know men are infamously dumb where women are concerned, but this is ridiculous.His character almost makes this film impossible to stay with. Anne Baxter is as scary as it gets...

Overall the film could be suspenseful, but is spoiled by the blindness of so many of the characters; this woman showed herself as a nut job, at the very least, upon arrival.

Oh the wife...she kind of sickens me at the end. But then this is the era when wives must forgive anything and not only that, smile about it. Also, deception is always the answer, as they plan to invent a story for the poor befuddled shrink in love with the psycho. But of course, he is just another ignorant male, so nothing matters as long as his tiny brain believes that the lunatic loves him.

This could have been a real "Fatal Attraction" if not so ridiculous. In the last few minutes, while trying to figure out what to do with psycho, hubby and wife smooch and flirt...makes perfect sense, no? Only moments earlier, he was never going to forgive her for distrusting Evelyn, and she was leaving him, child in tow. Now they are lovey-dovey, with psycho still in the house, and they are willing to go into "hock" to keep her in a sanitarium for the rest of her life.

And of course the child's bird plays a pivotal role, even from his grave. That was a given. There is very little in this movie that is not predictable, from the first few minutes.

The ending is anti-climatic, in a dramatic sort of way, if that is possible. You knew that she couldn't be allowed to go on, to continue her path of destruction and having her recover would be even less credible.

My favorite character was Miriam the model, in all of this. She was the only one who seemed to have her brain still functioning, without an agenda of any kind. She doesn't mind being accused of fooling around with husbands, but not when she isn't.

Overall a disappointment, in what could have been a much more entertaining movie. Can't put the blame on the code for such a dumb script-the code didn't state that male characters had to have a double-digit IQ, which is the thing that ruined the movie the most for me. The forgiving wife was a given from the start.