Death lives next door

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Death lives next door
Original title The Unseen
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1945
length 81 minutes
Rod
Director Lewis Allen
script Hagar Wilde
Raymond Chandler
production John Houseman
music Ernst Toch
camera John F. Seitz
cut Doane Harrison
occupation

Death Lives Next Door is a 1945 American crime film directed by Lewis Allen and starring Joel McCrea and Gail Russell . The film is based on the novel Midnight House by Ethel Lina White .

action

New Bristol, a small town in New England, USA. Barnaby Fielding, about 10 years old at 10 Crescent Drive, witnessed a murder during a rainy night. From his bedroom window he can see the shadow of an old lady, the housekeeper Alberta, across the street, in front of No. 11, seeing light flicker from the basement of this house. A little later, a stranger kills Alberta in the side street, Salem Alley. Barnaby then goes down into the street and takes Alberta's gold watch. The bloody act has not yet been resolved when the young Elizabeth Howard arrives at the Fieldings' house shortly afterwards to take on the position of the new governess Barnabys and his sister Ellen. Barnaby is in a strange way completely under the spell of his former governess Maxine and receives Elizabeth accordingly hypothermic. It was Maxine who once urged Barnaby to keep watch over his bedroom window night after night and put his stuffed toy elephant in the window. Elizabeth, from whose room one has a good view of the dark garden of the still dark and barricaded building No. 11, finds in her dressing table the golden clock Alberta which Barnaby has taken and gives it to Barnaby's father David. However, he does not go to the police because David Fielding has had a severely disturbed relationship with the state power since he was suspected of murder himself some time ago. His wife was killed in a car accident two years ago and David has not wanted to have anything to do with the police since then.

The widow Marian Tygarth, who once lived with her husband at No. 11, comes to town to sell the house that she has been barring up since her husband's death and which is said to have not been in since that time. When Barnaby comes home from the cinema one evening, he obeys Maxine's order and leads Elizabeth to Salem Alley, where Alberta had to die. In this small side street, the new governess is almost approached by the murderer. A little later, Elizabeth claims to David that someone was on the doorstep at night, but Barnaby's father doesn't believe her. Elizabeth is starting to get scared in this strange house where everyone is acting very strangely. In order to better understand these peculiarities, she visits David's older neighbor and friend, the very trustworthy Dr. Charles Evans, but he can't really help her either. He only advises her not to go to the police with her observations because of David's bad experience with them. Then Elizabeth makes a strange discovery: Apparently little Barnaby is being paid not to lock Fielding's front door at night. When the alleged murderer of Alberta approaches the front door at number 11 one night, Elizabeth is able to prevent worse things at the last moment by locking the front door. Elizabeth learns from Barnaby's sister Ellen that the brother is only acting on Maxine's instructions. Again, David doesn't seem to take Elizabeth's concerns too seriously.

The next day the lightly disguised Maxine arrives at the house and pretends to be the new maid. Barnaby confides in the former governess that he saw the man from No. 11, who apparently murdered Alberta that night. Maxine is very upset about it and gives Barnaby a slap in the face, whereupon he begins to doubt Maxine for the first time. Events soon tumble: David, who of course recognizes Maxine immediately, asks her to leave the house. A little later, Elizabeth finds the murdered Maxine lying in the entrance area of ​​No. 11 and immediately runs to Dr. Evans, whom she is most likely to trust. When David Fielding suddenly disappears without a trace, the police are finally informed. An Inspector Sullivan appears, who immediately mistakes David for the murderer of Alberta and Maxine. Elizabeth is now all alone in the house with the two minors. Suddenly the owner of the house opposite appears. Marian Tygarth explains to Elizabeth that her husband was once murdered in No. 11 and that she has since made the house inaccessible to everyone. She is sure that the perpetrator has returned to the scene of the crime several times to remove the last traces, which coincides with Elizabeth's suspicions. Mrs. Tygarth claims she wants to notify the police, but in truth she is sneaking into her old property to intercept the killer and personally kill him.

Barnaby, who feels abused and deceived by Maxine, wants to go to No. 11 across the street to give the great stranger his reward for not locking his own front door. When Marian comes across the killer a little later and sees how he tries to remove dried blood stains, she becomes his next victim. Elizabeth creeps in fear that David, whom she has fallen in love with, may be the No. 11 killer. She saves Barnaby from the mysterious stranger and immediately hurries across the street to find refuge in the Fieldings' house at No. 10. A little later, David and Dr. Evans a. Now everything becomes clear: David accuses his old friend, the doctor, of murdering Marian as well, because Evans once helped Marian get rid of her husband. As an unwelcome witness to what was going on at 11 Crescent Drive, Alberta had to believe in it too. It is finally clear when Barnaby approaches the armed Dr. Evans and wants to give back the money he received. David disarms the killer in a brief scuffle. Inspector Sullivan appears looking for David. Now that the case has been resolved, David and Elizabeth confess their love and discuss marriage plans.

Production notes

Death lives next door was written in the late stages of World War II , between early May and early July 1944, and premiered on May 12, 1945 in New York City. The German premiere took place on November 20, 1986 in the third program of the WDR .

Loren L. Ryder received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound in 1946 .

Hans Dreier and Earl Hedrick were responsible for the film construction, Dorothy O'Hara for the costumes. Wally Westmore was a makeup artist.

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
David Fielding Joel McCrea Christian Rode
Elizabeth Howard Gail Russell Ulrike Möckel
Dr. Charles Evans Herbert Marshall Norbert Gescher
Maxine Phyllis Brooks Evelyn Marron
Marian Tygarth Isobel Elsom Bettina Schön
Chester Michael Rasumny Klaus Jepsen
Sullivan Tom Tully Gerd Holtenau

Reviews

The reviews pointed out several times that the same director had shot the horror fairy tale The uncanny guest , also with Gail Russell in one of the leading roles, and that The Unseen was obviously "inspired" by the previous production.

The Movie & Video Guide found that the haunted film was "haunted by a very weak ending".

Halliwell's Film Guide stated: "Thriller from the time with a good atmosphere but poor content."

In the lexicon of the international film it says: "Atmospherically coherent crime film with some horror film elements, set in a house with shady staff and a threatening past."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death lives next door in the German dubbing index
  2. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1397
  3. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 1071
  4. ↑ Death lives next door. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 9, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

Web links