THE UNINVITED,

1944

Classic Ghost Story

DVD CASE WITH COVER

The Uninvited is one of the RARE Hollywood ghost stories that does not cop out with a "logical" ending. In fact, the film has more in common with British ghost tales of the period, in that the characters calmly accept spectral visitations as though they were everyday occurrences. Roderick Fitzgerald ( Ray Milland ) and his sister, Pamela ( Ruth Hussey ), buy a house on the Cornish seacoast, never suspecting that it is a "bad" house, subject to haunting.  Their terrier dog Bobby sees the blasted things and tries to warn them.  Before long, Roderick and Pamela are visited by Stella Meredith ( Gail Russell ), whose late mother, it is said, is the house ghost. It is further supposed that the ghost means to do Stella harm.

Stella's grandfather Commander Beech ( Donald Crisp ) is close-mouthed on the issue, but it is clear he knows something that he isn't telling. Sure enough, there is a secret to the manor: it is inhabited by not one but two ghosts, one of whom is merely trying to shield Stella from harm. Once the film's deep dark secret is revealed (courtesy of a virtuoso "mad speech" by supporting actress Cornelia Otis Skinner ), Roderick is able to single-handedly exorcise the estate and claim Stella as his bride. Based on the novel by Dorothy Macardle (with a few uncredited "lifts" from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca), The Uninvited remains one of the spookiest "old dark house" films ever made, even after years of inundation by computer-generated special effects.

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