Retro Raunch Revisit: February 2019

THE UNINVITED (1944)
Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Gail Russell, Donald Crisp, Alan Napier, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Barbara Everest
Directed by Lewis Allen
Released February 10, 1944 (Happy 75th Anniversary)
May 10, 1937. Rick Fitzgerald is a composer & music critic vacationing with his assertive sister, Pamela. The Londonite siblings buy a neglected 18th Century cliff-top home called Windward House on the Cornish seacoast in Devonshire at an incredibly low price. It's a bargain too good to pass up and the owner, Commander Beech, is only too willing to get rid of it. At first tight-lipped, he tells the duo of the house's unsavory past involving his daughter, Mary, who fell to her death from the cliff in 1920, having committed suicide (but rumored in the village as murder). Equally maternal as he is morbid for his unhealthy fixation on Mary's memory, Beech's shy/child-like/insecure granddaughter, Stella, objects to the sale and is displeased that she's been forbidden to enter but she cannot stay away, and Rick (who is already a protective man) grows sweet on her and will later write a piano song entitled 'Stella by Starlight'. The Fitzgeralds move in and the charm of their new manor soon evaporates when they find an unlocked room at the top of the house, an artist's studio. The history of the house also comes furnished with strange incidents such as inconsolable sobbing & moaning, cold chills, the wafting fragrance of flowers, and bumps in the dead of night. When the superstitious Irish housekeeper also senses the heebie-jeebies, it becomes apparent the manor is haunted by a hostile spirit supposedly being Stella's late mother Mary, who seems to mean her own daughter harm even though Stella idolizes her. Stella is deeply affected and in one abrupt moment, runs to the edge of the dangerous cliff and is caught by Rick just in time.

Another edge is the verge of a nervous breakdown for Stella which is not far off. Despite Rick's initial cynicism, he conducts a séance which backfires resulting in Stella being temporarily possessed, and bringing on another discovery: the house being inhabited by a 2nd ghost which looks to protect Stella. With these spectral visitations, the assistance of a local doctor helps in Stella being sent to a sanitorium run by Mary's friend, the cold & repressive Miss Holloway. The 2nd spirit is that of Carmel, a Spanish gypsy & model whom Stella's painter father, Llewellyn, was having an affair. When Mary found out, she took Carmel to Paris and dumped her there. But Carmel came back to Britain and in revenge, stole infant Stella, pushed Mary off the cliff during an argument, and later died from pneumonia. When the Fitzgeralds visit Stella still under medical treatment, Miss Holloway tells them that after the scandal, she nursed Carmel but the siblings find the doctor's journal which suggests she may have been responsible for the despondent woman's death. With Beech now in failing health and told by a doctor of his granddaughter's deteriorated situation, Miss Holloway deceptively sends Stella back to Windward House. Stella finds her grandfather in the studio and is again begged to leave but she stays at his side. One ghost makes an appearance and Beech suffers a fatal heart attack. The Fitzgeralds return as Stella makes another dash to the cliff where again she is saved. Back in the house, the group are drawn to the doctor's journal revealing the truth about the 2 tragic women; a dark secret that leads Rick to a confrontation in a dramatic ghostly showdown.

THE UNINVITED is a gothic, multilayered Hollywood classic and groundbreaking for being considered the first film ever to treat the haunted house genre with seriousness and intelligence. Whereas previously, ghosts in such yarns had always been depicted in a comedic tomfoolery-fashion such as slapstick trotted out by the likes of Abbott & Costello, or as costumed capers to cover-up crime much like in Scooby Doo. Adapted from the 1941 book 'Uneasy Freehold' by Dorothy Macardle, the movie is rich in spooky atmosphere, is very similar to mysteries of the period, and it's elegance (soft and almost poetic) is equally effective for not only the clever love-triangle at the heart of the story, but in how the characters treat the apparitions with real curiousness as to why their manifestations are taking place. This is further underpinned with relationships having been fraught with power struggles, sexual frustration and latent lesbian overtones. With comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA, the Fitzgerald's could be mistaken for a married couple but otherwise, here they are perfectly nuanced with lighting, cinematography, sound and film score -- all of which help build up our imagination that stands in for the deliberately unseen. And what we do see in the few instances is in misty/wispy form, which is handled with restraint. There's a subdued understatement in the ethereal materializations but the eerie mood & tone, and especially great performances enhance the overall air of creepiness. Subtle and superb, this vintage spine-chiller should not be missed.

In memoriam of Gale Sandra Klinetsky (or last name Leonardi) aka GLORIA LEONARD

Today is the 5th anniversary of Gloria passing away (2014). Born in Aug 1940, she was a hotel waitress, copywriter for Elektra Records, Wall Street broker, an employee of PR firms, men's magazine publisher, film director, pioneer of nude celebrity photos and phone-sex lines, board member of the Adult Video Association (and President of the AVA's successor, the Free Speech Coalition), a fierce feminist debater appearing on several talk shows, and an outspoken advocate for the adult industry. She was a member of both the XRCO (X-Rated Critics Organization) and AVN (Adult Video News) Halls of Fame. Gloria died after suffering a massive stroke a few days earlier in her Hawaii home and was left with brain damage. R.I.P.