You don't have much time to even put your hand into your popcorn when all of a sudden, murder pops up. It's all sudden, out of nowhere, an obvious accident, yet cruelly hidden. Louis Hayward strangles the maid he's anxious to bed while simply trying to keep her quiet so a nosy neighbor passing by won't hear her screams. Then, when he realizes what he's done, he's using his crippled brother (Lee Bowman) to help him get rid of the corpse simply by flinging the poor maiden into the river which is conveniently located outside Hayward's back door. But no bad deed goes unpunished, the girl's absence does not go unnoticed, and as you had already seen in those low-budget Tod Slaughter British horror movies of the late 30's and early 40's, the corpse comes home. Will the suspicious wife (Jane Wyatt) be the next to pay or will a little ghostly visit by the deceased make the piper be paid?
Like the house in "Rebecca", the moors in "Wuthering Heights" and the land in "Gone With the Wind", the river acts like a character, one without dialog, but definitely living and breathing, watching the evil occurring with baited breath and waiting for the right time to strike. The funny thing is that all along, you really begin to think that the villain actually might get away with it, and it is brilliant fun to watch everything fall into place. Fritz Lang, another "master of suspense", keeps every moment gripping, and after misfiring with his "Secret Beyond the Door", scores with his "House By the River".
The supporting cast has some great moments, particularly Anne Shoemaker as the pesky next door neighbor who shows up at the most inauspicious times to annoy Hayward, and Jody Gilbert (in probably her biggest part) as the maid. I began to notice this portly character actress only recently in so many films I've seen many times before, and unlike other character actors of the time, she seems like people you may have known in your neighborhood as a child or encountered at work. (Other character actors usually seem so much larger than life or have a look that is far too unique to be common.) In fact, the day I watched this movie, Ms. Gilbert popped up in another film I had just seen ("Are You With It?"), not surprising in the fact that she appeared in over 100 films and TV shows. Dorothy Patrick, as the poor maid dispatched by Hayward, reminded me of Angela Lansbury in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with her pathetic creature one of those frail maidens you can tell from the very beginning who was destined to be exploited, used, and tossed aside. This is the type of film to watch in total darkness for the full effect.
Like the house in "Rebecca", the moors in "Wuthering Heights" and the land in "Gone With the Wind", the river acts like a character, one without dialog, but definitely living and breathing, watching the evil occurring with baited breath and waiting for the right time to strike. The funny thing is that all along, you really begin to think that the villain actually might get away with it, and it is brilliant fun to watch everything fall into place. Fritz Lang, another "master of suspense", keeps every moment gripping, and after misfiring with his "Secret Beyond the Door", scores with his "House By the River".
The supporting cast has some great moments, particularly Anne Shoemaker as the pesky next door neighbor who shows up at the most inauspicious times to annoy Hayward, and Jody Gilbert (in probably her biggest part) as the maid. I began to notice this portly character actress only recently in so many films I've seen many times before, and unlike other character actors of the time, she seems like people you may have known in your neighborhood as a child or encountered at work. (Other character actors usually seem so much larger than life or have a look that is far too unique to be common.) In fact, the day I watched this movie, Ms. Gilbert popped up in another film I had just seen ("Are You With It?"), not surprising in the fact that she appeared in over 100 films and TV shows. Dorothy Patrick, as the poor maid dispatched by Hayward, reminded me of Angela Lansbury in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with her pathetic creature one of those frail maidens you can tell from the very beginning who was destined to be exploited, used, and tossed aside. This is the type of film to watch in total darkness for the full effect.