The Unseen

Wealthy widower "Fielding" (Joel McCrae) hires "Miss Howard" (a rather bland Gail Russell) to be the governess to this children - the rather obnoxious "Barnaby" (Richard Lyon) and the rather more benign "Ellen" (Nona Griffith). The young boy likes to wind her up, he has secret telephone conversations and those, coupled with stories about a mysteriously empty house next door, set the scene for a rather torrid time for the young woman who is gradually falling - "Jane Eyre" style - for her boss. He is friendly with a local doctor (Herbert Marshall) and she is befriended by "Marian" (Isobel Elsom) but can either of them help to assuage her incrementally increasing fears as she is certain that something terrible has happened - and may be about to happen again! McCrae doesn't actually feature so much here and when he does he isn't quite the character he needed to be to make this rather ordinary story deliver. The young Lyon is probably the stand-out actor - he really does manage to get under the finger nails, but otherwise it's all rather too easily guessable with performances that are very much join-the-dots. Eighty minutes felt quite long, and though it's not dreadful, it's just all a bit routine with shades of "Gaslight" (1944) to it.

Unlike what some sites say, "The Unseen" has nothing to do with "The Uninvited," which also starred Gail Russell. I suspect Paramount was just trying to get more traction out of the success of that movie. The Unseen also stars Joel McCrea, Herbert Marshall, Isobel Elsom, and Norman Lloyd.

Russell plays Elizabeth, the new governess for the two young children of a widower (David Fielding). The film begins with a murder being committed outside their house, and the victim drops her watch. When Elizabeth arrives, the murder has made the front page of the paper, and people are nervous.

Odd things go on, mostly having to do with the young boy, Barnaby, who makes mysterious phone calls, seems to have more money than he should, and also unlocks the door for someone every night. Meanwhile the house next door has been boarded up for 12 years, adding to a tense and mysterious atmosphere.

This movie is disjointed, with zero character development and rather surprising things not questioned or pursued, almost as if parts of the script was missing.

It's hard to watch the beautiful Gail Russell and realize the downward turn her life was already taking. Lots of sad Hollywood stories, but I'd put hers, Susan Peter's, and Sharon Tate's on top. Unlike Tate and Peters, though, Russell never intended to be an actress. Her beauty didn't go unnoticed once her family arrived in California, and they desperately needed the money a contract would bring. She was too nervous and fragile, and by the age of 36, she was dead from acute alcoholism.

Russell is much stronger as an actress that she was in The Uninvited - it's also a more forceful kind of role. However, it's obvious she's grown from experience after doing several films. McCrea is rather stiff (it's just that kind of role). He probably had to take the role to fulfill his contract.

I saw a bad print so the end was like watching a black screen, but I had the goings-on figured out - too many years of watching this type of film.

This picture has been on TV but I hadn't seen it before. I disagree with some reviewers and I thought it was a first-rate mystery but which was marred by a confusing ending. There was a rush to explain motivations and circumstances, all of which left me further in the dark than before.

The cast was just fine and the tragic Gail Russell was lovely to look at, although lacking some depth as an actress. The dependable Herbert Marshall lends strong support and Joel McCrea is his usual stalwart self. There is a lot to like here until you get to the last 5 minutes; hasty contrivances and omitted rationale are always annoying. Shown at Capitolfest, Rome, NY, 8/19.

******* 7/10 - Website no longer prints my star rating.

The Unseen is directed by Lewis Allen and collectively written by Hagar Wilde, Ken Englund and Raymond Chandler. It's adapted from Ethel Lina White's novel "Her Heart in Her Throat". It stars Joel McCrea, Gail Russell, Herbert Marshall, Phyllis Brooks and Isobel Elsom. Music is by Ernst Toch and cinematography by John F. Seitz.

Elizabeth Howard (Russell) is hired as a governess for David Fielding's (McCrea) two children. With David being secretive and strange occurrences happening, she begins to unravel the mystery of the empty house next door.

Foolishly seen as a follow up to the far superior "The Uninvited (1944)", The Unseen is efficient without really rising to thrilling heights. Taken as a mood piece it scores favourably, lots of shadows, cobbled streets, darkened rooms and plenty of suspicious goings on, but as a mystery it falls flat. It gets off to a mixed start, with a grisly murder bogged down by a clumsy narration, from there we are on board with Russell's governess who gets more than she bargained for in her new employment. A number of characters drift in and out of proceedings, but the villain of the piece is evident from the get go, and it builds to a disappointingly flat finale.

A sort of weak companion piece to "Gaslight" (original and remake) and "The Innocents", it's not recommended with any great confidence. Those looking for better and similar tonal fare from Lewis Allen are advised to seek out the aforementioned "The Uninvited" and "So Evil My Love (1948)". 5/10

Despite having a bunch of notable credits (novelist Ethel Lina White, screenwriters Raymond Chandler and Hagar Wilde, associate producer John Houseman, actors Joel McCrea, Herbert Marshall, Norman Lloyd and Tom Tully) and an excellent prototype in one of Hollywood's finest ghost stories, THE UNINVITED (1944) – not to mention reuniting director Lewis Allen and tragic star Gail Russell from that same film – it is no surprise to me now that THE UNSEEN has remained unseen {sic} for so long. In fact, I only managed to score a hazy-looking, VHS-sourced copy of it which does the film's only true trump card – the atmospheric lighting – no favors at all. At any rate, despite being hurriedly put into production following the success of that earlier Ray Milland classic, there are no ghosts to be seen or heard anywhere this time around; instead we have a surprisingly unsatisfying combination of "The Turn Of The Screw" (typified by the obnoxious antics of McCrea's elder son to scare newly-installed governess Russell away) and GASLIGHT (1944; by way of the mysterious comings-and-goings in the supposedly abandoned house next door). Marshall is the outwardly benign family doctor who openly despises prospective property purchaser Lloyd, Phyliis Brooks is the dishy former governess who still exercises a strange hold over McCrea's boy and, as a mere red herring, Isobel Elsom is the inquisitive sister of the suspiciously-deceased inhabitant of the house next door!! Apart from the fact that, for the most part, there are no scares or even thrills to be had here, the film also commits the cardinal sin of making its male lead (a hot-tempered Joel McCrea!) unsympathetic for the duration but, then, have him predictably fall for the doe-eyed governess at the very end.