Love triangles are at the center of countless films, but how many are about love triangles from beyond the grave? The Uninvited, an unlikely hit from Paramount in 1944, is about a love triangle with ghosts and the living who are unwittingly caught in the web.
The Uninvited begins precisely on May 10, 1937, with siblings Roderick (Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend) and Pamela (Ruth Hussey, The Philadelphia Story) Fitzgerald on holiday at the cliffs of Cornwall. Their dog leads them into the abandoned Windward House and they instantly fall in love with it. They discover that it is for sale and Roderick offers Commander Beech (Donald Crisp, How Green Was My Valley) what he thinks is a silly cheap sum. Surprisingly, Beech accepts. Why was he so willing to let the house go so cheaply? Why did his granddaughter Stella Meredith (Gail Russell, Angel and the Badman) try to convince Beech not to sell it? It turns out that the crying they hear on the first night may be the answer, but it's only the start.
It turns out that Stella's late father (whose death is never explained because...well, it doesn't matter to the story) lived at Windward with two women – his art model and mistress, a beautiful Spanish woman named Carmel and his wife, Mary. While Rod and Pam initially believe the house is only haunted by Mary, they soon learn that there are indeed two ghosts pulling Stella to Windward. The spirits of Carmel and Mary, who haunts the entire movie like its own Rebecca, are both living in Windward. Their causes of death are mysterious – did Carmel kill Mary or did Mary fall off the cliff while trying to kill Carmel? What will it take to get these spirits to leave and will it destroy Stella?
The Uninvited is one of those films that could only be made during the Golden Age system. Thanks to limitations of technology and censors, director Lewis Allen conveys horror through visual tricks with the help of master cinematographer Charles Lang Jr. (If the film feels a bit like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, it should – Lang shot that as well.) The two use light and shadow to help the audience and their in-film counterparts (the Fitzgerald siblings) feel as if ghosts are walking among us. The mere suggestion – along with the flickering of candles, flowers wilting and a cat who refuses to walk up the steps – can strike fear into the viewer. It's a bit sad then, that Lewis was forced to show the ghosts towards the end.
Aside from camera tricks, The Uninvited works because it takes its haunted subject seriously. Based on a novel by Dorothy Macardle, screenwriters Dodie Smith and Frank Partos bring humor only in the dialogue, which just expresses how uneasy Rod and Pam are about dealing with ghosts. They never include some kind of cop-out. In the world of The Uninvited, spirits are real, not just some ploy from con men or a joke to be played on Abbott & Costello.
Smith and Partos' brand of humor also isn't going to work without Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey. Milland was a unique actor who could deliver witty dialogue as well as Cary Grant, but at the same time flip on the dramatic switch with ease. That makes this the perfect film for him to test out his talents. He turns on the charm in his scenes with Gail Russell and becomes a joking brother around Hussey. Speaking of Hussey, she's perfect here, relaxed and funny most of the time, but she too gets some ominous dialogue.
Even with ghosts around, the scariest aspect of the film is really Russell. Once you know about her sad, short life, it makes the film feel even spookier and morbid. Russell, who was only 19 when filming began, was a nervous wreck and started drinking. She died in 1961 at age 36 from liver damage. With that in mind, it takes her performance to a new level. Once seen as just a pretty face on the silver screen, we can see how the nerves she brings to life as Stella aren't fake. She's really that afraid of what's going to happen. When she's under a spell at the séance in the latter portion of the film, mumbling Spanish, the camera suddenly turns her into a ghostly figure. But this is balanced with the scenes earlier in the film, when Milland is falling in love with her.
While The Uninvited does have a lot of upside, the film does have a few problems. The plot gets a bit convoluted as we get closer to the end and it's not really clear why Beech suddenly dies. We also have uptight Cornelia Otis Skinner doing a corny impression of Judith Anderson in Rebecca, as she plays Miss Holloway, the woman desperately trying to keep Mary alive in death. Perhaps if we got even a short flashback sequence while Miss Holloway gives her side of the story, it might have been easier to follow the plot. (Surely, younger audiences who aren't used to visualizing story points themselves might have a tricky time following along.)
Is The Uninvited a first-rate horror film? By the standards of classic Hollywood, it is. Allen brings the Gothic mystery to a more modern setting and drags the chills and darkness along with him. There are scenes of genuine spookiness. Not every scene makes you jump, but it does make you question the possibility of spirits passing judgment on the living. The Uninvited isn't about debunking ghost stories or laughing at ghosts. It accepts them as fact and if we can for just 99 minutes, The Uninvited holds up as one of Hollywood's great spooky tales.
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