London based music critic Rick (Ray Milland) and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) are on holiday in the English coastal town of Biddlecombe (a made up town that reminded me of Cornwall) on a hike along the sea facing cliffs. When their dog runs off into an abandoned house chasing after a squirrel the pair follow to retrieve the pooch. Once inside Pamela is enthralled by the beautiful house, in surprisingly good shape for being uninhabited. As the pair continue to explore the house Pamela falls in love with it and persuades her brother that pooling their money together to buy the house and leave their London flat will make for a bright future. Never mind about that one upstairs room with the locked door.
Back in town they track down the owner, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp) and call on him. Invited in by Beech's lovely grand daughter Stella Meredith (Gail Russell) to await Beech's return home, the three chat. Stella insists the house is not for sale but is contradicted by her grand father when he arrives. Not only is the house for sale, it is offered up at a bargain price. Beech does mention that the locals say it is haunted but he'll have none of that nonsense.
After purchasing the house Pamela stays on to fix it up and make it presentable while Rick returns to London to deal with the flat, send on the furniture and pick up their Irish house keeper Lizzie (O! that Oirish brogue of hers). Returning to Biddlecombe a few weeks later, Rick finds that Pamela has done a marvelous job of getting the house ready. That night Rick is awoken by the cries of a woman. Entering the hallway from his bedroom to check on his sister and Lizzie to see what is wrong, he's joined by Pamela who relates that she has heard the crying woman since staying at the house and investigated it but was never able to pin down the source of the ghostly noise. Rick and Pamela delve into the mystery which leads them to meet with the local doctor (Alan 'Alfred' Napier) who shares Rick's skepticism of ghosts, Miss Holloway who has unorthodox methods of curing the mentally ill and a fascination with Stella's deceased mother and finally the unsavory truth.
Exalted by many, The Uninvited has received the Criterion treatment, it has all the familiar haunted house tropes; the locked door that leads to a gloomy room, cold chills manifesting out of nowhere, spectral apparitions (nicely done optical effects), pets who refuse to enter certain parts of the house and a mystery to be solved. I was never scared by the film, perhaps due to its age and old dark house conventions that are now worn thin, but it does build tension in a few scenes as the plot comes to a boil. Ignoring that the two leads have more of a Mid Atlantic accent and the film was shot on sound stages in California (which is understandable seeing how dangerous a trip to the U.K. at the time would have been) I do have an issue with the film's usage of comedy. Ray Milland cracks wise throughout the entire film, including during the climax. Tension would have been far more enveloping without the jokes. But perhaps the film makers thought it necessary for the cinema audience of the day.
Overall it's a good looking B&W film with solid direction, engaging performances and a nicely done ghost tale.
*** out of ****
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