'The Red House' pulls the viewer into a world where love and landscape collide in a constant state of flux, negotiation, and mystery.

The Red House is one of the first rural noirs. Some casual noir fans may be surprised that so many noir stories take place outside the rain-soaked dark alleys of the city. "Rural noir" has been happening since the beginning of the noir movement with Albert Dekker crawling out of a abandoned mansion in the swamp in Among the Living. It continued on with some truly great films like the atmospheric greats Moonrise and On Dangerous Ground (that one at least starts in the mean streets of the city). And as Gary notes at NoirWorthWatching, Rural noir is as big as it ever was. The Red House is perhaps the most well known of the bunch due to it being in the public domain. And --like Too Late for Tears -- was available in nearly every bargain film noir DVD collections released. Every collection had the same copy. It looks like the movie was fished out of Edward G. Robinson's sunken car after the movie wrapped. (As I mention below, that's not necessarily a bad thing.) This year, along with many other noir, it was re-released on DVD in great shape. Unfortunately, this isn't the best Rural noir or Edward G. Robinson film noir. But it is worth a look again thanks to the films strangeness. First, the teenagers in the film. All the actors seem to be the right age except for the second billed Lon McCallister. His crow's feet and receding hair line made me think he should probabl…

I fought fate 15 years ago and I lost. The Red House is directed by Delmer Daves who also adapts the screenplay from the novel written by George Agnew Chamberlain. It stars Edward G. Robinson, Judith Anderson, Lon McCallister, Rory Calhoun, Allene Roberts and Julie London. Music is scored by Miklós Rózsa and cinematography by Bert Glennon. Pete Morgan (Robinson) and his sister Ellen (Anderson) struggle to conceal the secret of the red house in the woods from Meg (Roberts), their adopted teenage daughter... What lurks in the darkness? Part horror thriller, part noirish fairytale, The Red House is very much hard to clearly define. Which is actually OK. Over the years it has built up a good reputation with film noir critics whilst struggling to convince a new age public viewing it courtesy of naff public domain prints. Now newly remastered on DVD and Blu-ray (truth be told nothing is gained from the Blu-ray print, the DVD print is pretty much the same quality), Delmer Daves' film can be seen in all its atmospheric glory. Things start off brightly, a splendid countryside, a burgeoning teenage love and the chirp of mother nature. Then we get introduced to Pete Morgan, in an off kilter shot, and from there on in everything else is either unhealthy in the present or troubled by the past. Any relationship not involving Meg, who is curious and "finding her sexuality", doesn't sit…

This is one of those films where the sum of the parts - Edward G. Robinson ("Pete"); Judith Anderson ("Ellen"); the lighting; the cracking score from Miklós Rózsa alongside the newbies in Lon McCallister ("Nath") and Allene Roberts ("Meg") all combine to give us a really taut, tense thriller that really does keep you interested all the way through. Rory Calhoun features in a slightly distracting sub-plot, but otherwise we are never quite sure why "Pete" is obsessed with keeping "Meg" from their local woods - where she thinks she hears screaming. The tension builds as their idyllic family relationship starts to crack as she takes a bit of a shine to their newly hired helper "Nath" and he starts to encourage her to act and think for herself. Robinson is great in this, particularly juggling the roles of affectionate father with someone who clearly has some sort of terrible secret to keep; and as ever Anderson thrives in the less-is-more style of performance, I was slightly disappointed with the ending, but the pace of the story augmented with some great, eery lighting and sound effects makes for a good watch.