The Red House

1947 MysteryThriller 100 minutes Directed by Delmer Daves

Open in new tab

About The Red House

Pete Morgan and his sister Ellen have raised Meg on a lonely farm and forbidden the woods, where an abandoned red house stands. Meg hires her classmate Nath Storm to help with the work, and his searches pull in his girlfriend Tibby and the local hand Teller. Pete's ban comes from an old crime: he killed Meg's mother Jeannie and Jeannie's husband, then kept the child. Ellen dies trying to burn the house, and Pete, raving, tries to kill Meg before he drives into the ice-house pond. Nath and Meg burn the red house and plan to leave together.

Cast & crew

More about The Red House

Delmer Daves directed and adapted George Agnew Chamberlain's 1945 novel, which had run in The Saturday Evening Post. Albert Maltz worked on the script without credit. Sol Lesser produced it for Sol Lesser Productions and Thalia Productions, United Artists released it, and principal photography was in the spring of 1946.

Themes

  • A forbidden house in the woods
  • An adoptive father's old murder
  • Meg learning who she is
  • The house burned at the end
  • Pete Morgan
  • Meg
  • red house
  • Nath Storm
  • Teller
  • Tibby
  • ice-house pond
  • Sonora

Reviews

A. H. Weiler, in The New York Times, wrote of a uniformly good cast and of mounting tension.

Look

Bert Glennon photographed the Sonora locations, including the Sierra foothill roads that stand in for the forbidden woods.

Music

Miklós Rózsa composed the score and used a theremin, as he had in Spellbound (1945).

Preservation

Thalia Productions did not renew the copyright, so the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Notes

  • Edward G. Robinson plays Pete, a farmer with a handicap. Judith Anderson is Ellen, Allene Roberts is Meg, Lon McCallister is Nath, Rory Calhoun is Teller, and Julie London is Tibby.
  • Ona Munson plays Mrs. Storm, Harry Shannon plays Dr. Jonathan Byrne, and Arthur Space plays the sheriff.
  • Julie London, already working as a singer, has one of her first substantial acting roles here.
  • In 2019 Paste named it the best horror film of 1947.

Scenes

  • Pete warns Nath and Meg off the path that leads to the red house.
  • Ellen dies while she is trying to set the house on fire.
  • Pete drives into the ice-house pond, and Nath and Meg burn the house.

Influenced by

  • George Agnew Chamberlain's 1945 novel The Red House

Also available

  • Internet Archive (TheRedHouse)
  • Wikimedia Commons (The Red House (1947) by Delmer Daves.webm)