The Uninvited

The Uninvited is a classic ghost story that remains surprisingly timeless due to some well crafted and properly utilized special effects. A man and his sister stumble upon a beautiful abandoned house on a cliff while out for a walk and decide to buy it despite warnings and some peculiar behavior from the house’s current owner. Of course the house is haunted by a restless spirit which makes life uncomfortable for both brother and sister until they figure out what the spirit wants and set it to rest. The Uninvited is a straightforward suspense film that excels because it is so well executed.

The story is not unfamiliar but it is rarely done with the wit and deft touch seen in The Uninvited. The film relies solely on the performances of three actors to make the story believable. There is the sceptic, played by Ray Milland, the convert, played by Ruth Hussey, and the mysterious survivor played by Gail Russell. These three waltz around a lovely old English house unraveling a twenty year old mystery.

Ray Milland may be a poor studio’s Cary Grant but he performs admirably here as Roderick Fitzgerald a composer and occasional music critic who takes the practical approach to dealing with the apparent haunting of his new investment. Of course don’t let the Cary Grant comment fool you, Milland was a full star in his own right. That includes winning the best actor Oscar shortly after this film in 1946 for The Lost Weekend, a feat that escaped Grant his entire life. Ruth Hussey, better known for her turn as Elizabeth Imbrie in The Philadelphia Story, plays Roderick’s sister Pamela who believes entirely in the strange activities in the house and promotes some of the more traditional spook detection like Ouija boards and seances.

The pivotal and revealing performance is from lovely newcomer Gail Russell in her first major role. Russell plays the otherworldly Stella Meredith who was born in the house in question and who seems to have a strange connection with the house. Her overprotective grandfather, played by veteran Donald Crisp, keeps her at his home and won’t allow her into the house by the cliff; which seems suitable since when her friendly new neighbors inviter her over the first thing she does is nearly run right off the cliff to her death. Of course the sad thing is that Russell herself was not exactly cutout for the Hollywood spotlight, having had little acting training, and though starring in a number of vehicles after her breakout role, drank herself to death less than 15 years after this film.

This film makes its presence known by focusing on the basics of hauntings with great success. First are the scary noises in the night: disembodied weeping, laughing, wailing. Second are the mysterious changes in lights, candles going out for no reason, or lights glowing where there is no reason for a light to be. Third are the animals, which always seem to be smarter than the humans in stories such as these. In this case, none of the pets will go up the elaborate staircase because the ghostly energy may or may not reside in the studio at the top of the stairs. These things seem so basic and pedestrian but used sparingly, and at the right times, they are instrumental in building the eerie mood.

The film then changes into whodunit mode. As with Rebecca there is something in the past that must be discovered. Of course in The Uninvited all of the direct participants in the activities are dead so it makes it much harder to discern the truth. Through interviews of the help, questions of the neighbors, and a medical log, bits of the mystery are tantalizingly unfurled. There is even a sycophant as in Rebecca, here a Miss Holloway played by writer Cornelia Otis Skinner, who worships the deceased and serves to further obscure the truth.

There is something about old black and white films that lends a level of class and also serves to set the mysterious mood more easily than today’s colorful and busy films. Maybe it is that the men always wear suits and the women always wear dresses and heels. Perhaps the difference is that there are less edits and the filmmakers take their time with each shot. Or maybe it is just that black and white film lends an air of absolutes that allows all of the grays to stand out in sharper contrast. Whatever the case it is interesting that some of the greatest suspense films ever made are those from the golden years of Hollywood. Alfred Hitchcock even went back to black and white for his masterpiece Psycho when he had been working in color for many years. Whatever the case The Uninvited is a stellar piece with a well constructed plot and a magnificent cast. The suspense and yet the refinement of the film stand as a hallmark to the best in eerie atmosphere and beauty that the studio era produced.