The Eerie Guest (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The creepy guest |
| Original title | The Uninvited |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1944 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lewis Allen |
| script | Frank Partos , Dodie Smith |
| production | Charles Brackett |
| music | Victor Young |
| camera | Charles Lang |
| cut | Doane Harrison |
| occupation | |
| |
The uncanny guest (Original title: The Uninvited ) is a horror film from 1944, which is based on the novella Uneasy Freehold by Dorothy Macardle . Directed by Lewis Allen .
content
At the end of their vacation in remote Devonshire, siblings Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald follow their squirrel-hunting dog to an old, abandoned property. Since it reminds them of the house of their childhood, they decide without further ado to throw all their savings together and buy it. The owner is the old Commander Beech. While they wait for him, his granddaughter Stella Meredith keeps them company. At first she chats nicely with the siblings from London, but as soon as she learns that they want to buy the property - the Winward House - she becomes very dismissive and explains that it is not for sale. Your grandfather, who then met, sells anyway and even at an unusually low price. However, he points out that the previous residents had strange experiences there and ultimately fled without even paying the rent; if the sale is perfect, he will not undo it. But the Fitzgeralds, especially Roderick, are modern city dwellers who don't believe in ghosts, so they buy the Winward House.
The next day, Roderick meets Stella, who apologizes for her rude behavior: she had spent the first three years of her life there because it was the house of her wonderful mother Mary. When she fell to her death on a nearby cliff, her father moved to France and she was taken in by her grandfather. Roderick and Stella become friends and go sailing together, trying to convince them to let the past rest. At the end of the excursion, the two decide to keep in touch; during his three-week absence from London she wants to help Pamela with the furnishing of the house.
When he returns from London, Pamela receives him a little cautiously. The dog is missing, he ran away. The housekeeper Lizzie Flynn has arrived with her cat for this. Strangely enough, the cat doesn't want to go up the stairs at all. While Roderick admires the facility, he wonders that Stella did not help with the set-up - at Pamela's invitation, the commander only gave a refusal, stating that Stella was too sick to come upstairs. Before going to bed Pamela wants to say something to her brother, but then she postpones it until the next day. Roderick is awakened by a strange wail on his first night at the property. He gets up to see which of the two women is missing something, but it turns out that it was neither from one nor the other. Pamela explains to him that it can occasionally be heard shortly before the first sunlight. While Roderick believes in a natural explanation, Pamela is no longer so sure.
The next day, Roderick drives to Commander Beech, because he wants to track down the whining. The commander behaves strangely: First he points out the contract, but then, when Roderick persists, he even offers to buy it back. After Roderick convinces him that he doesn't believe in ghosts and just wants to turn off the whining, Beech explains that there was no whining in his time and that of his daughter, but the fleeting tenants had told them about it. Roderick concludes that it must have started after the death of Mary Meredith - Beech reacts again indignantly: Even the suggestion that the death of his daughter could have something to do with it is a cheek. When Roderick asks about Stella, Beech is gruff: Stella won't come to Winward House. Roderick later meets Stella and drives her to church. She couldn't come because her grandfather was sick. The two nevertheless decide to see each other further. Stella is supposed to come to dinner on the same day.
In the evening she admires the interior, something is said about her parents - Stella's father was a painter who portrayed her mother wonderfully - and Roderick plays a self-composed song for her. Stella is completely carried away, but suddenly the mood changes and both seem sad for no reason. Stella is shocked to have laughed in this house. A short time later, Stella rushes out of the house and almost threw herself off the cliff from which Mary fell. Roderick can just barely hold it. The summoned doctor, Dr. Scott diagnoses shock and orders her to rest - she should stay at the property for the night.
Roderick later brings her back. He doesn't want her to come back to the house - but he would like to go away with her. Stella, on the other hand, wants to keep visiting the house because her mother demands it of her. Roderick consults with Pamela and Dr. Scott how to help Stella. Pamela seriously proposes a séance, Roderick and Dr. Scott decide to manipulate them so that the mother tells Stella to let go of the past. The séance goes as planned at the beginning - the mother is present because of Stella. However, when the men asked whether Stella should leave the house and tried to manipulate a yes, the glass nevertheless turned to no. Stella discovers that the men are holding the glass and asks them to let go. The two women discover that the spirit is watching over Stella. Suddenly the glass is whirled against the wall by an invisible hand and an invisible presence seems to take hold of Stella. Then the excited Commander Beech storms into the room and takes Stella home with him.
The next day, Beech calls his old friend Miss Holloway - she should cure Stella. She agrees he should have placed Stella in her care years ago. He also dismisses Dr. Scott - neither he nor Stella would continue to consult him. Meanwhile, Roderick and Pamela learn more from a neighbor about what happened back then. Mary Meredith and her husband lived at Winward House. He had a model, a Spaniard named Carmen. That evening he heard a child cry that Mary fell off the cliff. Carmen would have been cared for by the nurse Miss Holloway, but died shortly afterwards of pneumonia.
The Fitzgeralds decide to go to Holloway, which is now a sanatorium. She tells her visitors that Carmen was a thoroughly bad person. When Mr. Meredith decided to send her away, she wanted to kill Mary - and she did. Then the Spaniard ran away, but later died of pneumonia despite her care. On the way home, the Fitzgeralds wonder about a slip of the tongue from Holloway: First, she said that Mary had brought Carmen the news that she had to leave. Roderick later visits Dr. Scott, together you look up his predecessor's old patient book. They discover that he secretly accused Miss Holloway of killing Carmen. When Dr. Scott is suddenly called to Commander Beech, he gives Roderick the patient book for further study. With his patient, Dr. Scott that Stella was sent to Miss Holloway's sanatorium. While Dr. When Scott and the Fitzgeralds drive to the sanatorium, Holloway asks Stella for a chat. She suggests that she go back to Winward House, as Mary wants it. Some time later, the Fitzgeralds and the Doctor arrive. Holloway triumphantly reveals to them that she has sent Stella to the mansion and thus brought Mary's affair to an end. As their speech becomes more and more confused, the three leave the former nurse in the care of their employees and race back towards Winward House.
Meanwhile, Stella arrives there and hears a weak voice when she calls - it is her grandfather who has dragged himself into the house. While she is still wondering what to do, an eerie force drives her back onto the cliff. Roderick can save her again at the last moment.
Everyone in the house sits down together and uses the patient book to reconstruct what happened back then: Mr. Meredith had an affair with his model Carmen. When he was pregnant, the two of them and his wife Mary drove to Paris, where the child Stella was born. Since Mary refused to have a pregnancy of her own, the couple pretend to be their own child and take them to Devonshire, Carmen is left behind. When she returns three years later to see her child, there is a conflict: Mary wants to push the unloved bastard child off the cliff, Carmen prevents this and in the scramble, Mary falls to her death. Carmen fled first, but then returned sick. Meredith has since left and Stella has come to see grandfather, Holloway, who adores Mary, is nursing Carmen to death. This knowledge frees Stella from the pressure of being as perfect as her fake mother Mary - this knowledge in turn frees Carmen's mind. Roderick now faces Mary's ghost and tells her that they now know the truth. And the laughter that she so despises will now always be heard in the house. This prospect drives Mary's spirit away. Now Miss Flynn's cat climbs the stairs - the house is free.
German synchronization
The information on the German voice actors comes from synchrondatenbank.de
The dubbed version is from 1982
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Roderick Fitzgerald | Ray Milland | Christian Rode |
| Commander Beech | Donald Crisp | Hans Paetsch |
| Dr. Scott | Alan Napier | Manfred Schott |
| Miss Holloway | Cornelia Otis Skinner | Rosemarie Fendel |
| Housemaid | Helena Grant | Monika John |
criticism
"Well-played horror film that gets entangled in rumor-of-the-art beliefs and ghosts, not least because it takes itself far too seriously."
backgrounds
The film was nominated in 1945 for an Oscar in the category "Best Cinematography in a Black and White Film".
The theme melody for the film Stella by Starlight was recorded by its composer Victor Young and his orchestra. In one scene of the film, Roderick plays the melody for Stella on a piano and says that he just composed this serenade , Stella by Starlight , for her. In 1946, songwriter Ned Washington also wrote lyrics to the melody. Later performers included u. a. Frank Sinatra .
The film was shown on German television under the title The Uninvited Guest .
Web links
- The eerie guest at the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The eerie guest at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 27, 2014
- ↑ The eerie guest. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
