"The Red House" 1947 Video Movie Review - Don't go into those woods!!!

[IanPatrickMovieReviews]

Tonight's spooky review is one that TopBilled and I both decided to watch and review! "The Red House" is a must watch around Halloween time. If the woods scare you, then this movie will give you goosebumps! I forgot to mention in the review how great the score by Miklos Rozsa is! I also want to mention that not many people have checked out my "Carnival of Souls" review...you don't need to watch the review, but please see that movie! It was so well done and super creepy! 

 

Remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and you'll always know when my reviews come out! Also, leave comments because I love interacting with my viewers! 

 

[TopBilled]

Edward G. Robinson previously played a rural character in MGM's family film OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES (as a Scandinavian father). 

 

Julie London was married to Jack Webb for awhile. Later in her career, she became known for playing a nurse on the 70s TV show Emergency!, which Webb produced.

 

The images of the countryside in this film are very well photographed. Great cinematography. 

 

I am glad you did not give too much of the plot away, because the viewers need to be surprised by the ending. 

 

Did you give THE RED HOUSE a rating...? I did not see a rating.

[IanPatrickMovieReviews]

Edward G. Robinson previously played a rural character in MGM's family film OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES (as a Scandinavian father). 

 

Julie London was married to Jack Webb for awhile. Later in her career, she became known for playing a nurse on the 70s TV show Emergency!, which Webb produced.

 

The images of the countryside in this film are very well photographed. Great cinematography. 

 

I am glad you did not give too much of the plot away, because the viewers need to be surprised by the ending. 

 

Did you give THE RED HOUSE a rating...? I did not see a rating.

I've never seen that Edward G. Robinson movie, sounds interesting. I'm definitely working on not giving too much away in my reviews. I don't give a star rating in my horror movies...however, if you're curious what I gave the movie in my personal notebook I gave it a 2 1/2 LOL I knew you wouldn't like that! It may have been because I watched it late one night when I was really sleepy. I'd probably give it a 3 now. 

[TopBilled]

I've never seen that Edward G. Robinson movie, sounds interesting. I'm definitely working on not giving too much away in my reviews. I don't give a star rating in my horror movies...however, if you're curious what I gave the movie in my personal notebook I gave it a 2 1/2 LOL I knew you wouldn't like that! It may have been because I watched it late one night when I was really sleepy. I'd probably give it a 3 now. 

It's okay if you gave it a 2.5...we all have different opinions on movies. LOL

 

For me, THE RED HOUSE is a solid 3. I wanted to give it a 3.5, but as you pointed out, it does run a bit long. I think if they had trimmed about ten minutes out of it and made the story a bit tighter...but I can see why Delmer Daves took his time with it-- he wanted to set the characters up for the final sequence at the abandoned house, and to get the kind of payoff he wanted for the audience, he had to make sure we understood all the characters.

 

One subplot that maybe could have been eliminated and saved a bit of time might have been the one where Lon McCallister's mother married the man in town and moved away. They could have just started the movie with her already moving away and he needed to take the job with Robinson so he had somewhere to live and could finish high school in the community where he grew up.

[mrroberts]

I don't believe I have ever seen THE RED HOUSE aired on any tv station, but I do have it on a dvd. The dvd  picture quality is on the level of those copies of TOO LATE FOR TEARS, really dark and hard to watch. But its a very good film (Its Edward G Robinson, what else can you expect)  And Judith (Mrs Danvers) Anderson is in it as well.  I hope to one day see this film in a decent print, maybe a restoration to some degree can be done.

[IanPatrickMovieReviews]

I don't believe I have ever seen THE RED HOUSE aired on any tv station, but I do have it on a dvd. The dvd  picture quality is on the level of those copies of TOO LATE FOR TEARS, really dark and hard to watch. But its a very good film (Its Edward G Robinson, what else can you expect)  And Judith (Mrs Danvers) Anderson is in it as well.  I hope to one day see this film in a decent print, maybe a restoration to some degree can be done.

I totally agree! I have it on DVD that came in one of those sets with several other classics, and the quality is pretty bad. It would be awesome to see it restored. It would make it so much more enjoyable to watch.

[TopBilled]

I don't believe I have ever seen THE RED HOUSE aired on any tv station, but I do have it on a dvd. The dvd  picture quality is on the level of those copies of TOO LATE FOR TEARS, really dark and hard to watch. But its a very good film (Its Edward G Robinson, what else can you expect)  And Judith (Mrs Danvers) Anderson is in it as well.  I hope to one day see this film in a decent print, maybe a restoration to some degree can be done.

There is a beautifully restored print on Hulu. The restored print can be purchased very reasonably on DVD at Amazon for under ten U.S. dollars. It's the remastered version by HD Cinema Classics. There is no reason to watch the public domain print of this great film...go for the good stuff, this film needs to be seen as audiences first saw it-- so you can appreciate all those stunning visuals.

[IanPatrickMovieReviews]

There is a beautifully restored print on Hulu. The restored print can be purchased very reasonably on DVD at Amazon for under ten U.S. dollars. It's the remastered version by HD Cinema Classics. There is no reason to watch the public domain print of this great film...go for the good stuff, this film needs to be seen as audiences first saw it-- so you can appreciate all those stunning visuals.

It's even on Blu-ray which is pretty cool! I see it on Amazon. 

[TopBilled]

It's even on Blu-ray which is pretty cool! I see it on Amazon. 

If you watch the restored version and can see how stunning the visuals are, plus the score, I am sure you will raise your rating to a 3.

[Natalie Webb]

It's okay if you gave it a 2.5...we all have different opinions on movies. LOL

 

For me, THE RED HOUSE is a solid 3. I wanted to give it a 3.5, but as you pointed out, it does run a bit long. I think if they had trimmed about ten minutes out of it and made the story a bit tighter...but I can see why Delmer Daves took his time with it-- he wanted to set the characters up for the final sequence at the abandoned house, and to get the kind of payoff he wanted for the audience, he had to make sure we understood all the characters.

 

One subplot that maybe could have been eliminated and saved a bit of time might have been the one where Lon McCallister's mother married the man in town and moved away. They could have just started the movie with her already moving away and he needed to take the job with Robinson so he had somewhere to live and could finish high school in the community where he grew up.

I don't know, if it started out with the mother leaving, I feel that it would almost be too easy. Like they were just getting rid of the character too obviously. I also think that his interaction with his mother helped develop is character and sort of endeared him to the audience; it showed that he was a caring person as opposed to Julie London and Rory Calhoun's characters. I do agree that something could be cut out, maybe they could take out some of the scenes between Lon McCallister and Julie London. It was a very good movie though, I was very intrigued and couldn't wait to see what the Red House meant! The character of Meg was very likeable and of course Edward G. Robinson is always fun to watch on screen.