Thursday, February 4, 2010

It's my party

Tonight's TCM selection is the interesting ghost story The Uninvited, at 8:00 PM ET.

Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey star as a brother and sister from London on vacation in a small town on the Cornwall coast. They find an empty house and fall in love with it, especially when they find out that it's on sale for a surprisingly good price. So, they buy the place, only to find out just why it was such a "bargain": the house is haunted! Not only that, but the ghosts seem to know and desire one of the local girls. That girl (Gail Russell) just happens to be the granddaughter of the man who sold them the house (Donald Crisp). She's begun to fall in love with Milland, much to the chagrin of Crisp, who senses danger for his granddaughter from the ghosts. Indeed, it seems as though every time she visits the house and the ghosts show up, they're trying to lure her to the cliff overlooking the sea in the back yard. What are two young lovers to do?

Well, old man Crisp knows what he wants to do, which is forbid his granddaughter from going to the old haunted house, and, if possible, buy back the place from the newcomers. When that doesn't work, he gets the idea of sending the young girl away to a sanatorium, where she can either recover while everybody figures out what to do with the ghosts, or else stay there much longer. That having been said, the lady running the sanatorium seems to have some secrets of her own: she knew the young girl's mother, and apparently has a pretty good idea of just why the house is being haunted. And she might not be so good for young Miss Russell, either!

That's about all of the plot I'll give away, as I don't want to say how the movie ends. That having been said, it's a well-made movie, and one worth watching; despite its dealing with ghosts, it's really not very frightening at all (although not as light as, say, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir). Also, it doesn't seem to be available on DVD, so you'll have to catch the TCM showing.

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