A Chill in the Air - Part II

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtU3r4ymgl3c8HqG62HGScsDStDOlTRKLT1xWLYuZ_C6vqTScNwOQOGFjsxgyO0T1ncSqFrS_VMQJJ9RLUkTDq8aqW95T2VHnTPjLULXtZtoWeAasJTtgNPcQOFN9bC47_ERKS1d9tBw3V/s1600/uninvited+and+eerie+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtU3r4ymgl3c8HqG62HGScsDStDOlTRKLT1xWLYuZ_C6vqTScNwOQOGFjsxgyO0T1ncSqFrS_VMQJJ9RLUkTDq8aqW95T2VHnTPjLULXtZtoWeAasJTtgNPcQOFN9bC47_ERKS1d9tBw3V/s1600/uninvited+and+eerie+2.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">For a few years now, Turner Classic Movies has traditionally aired <i>The Uninvited </i>(1944) during Halloween season. A gothic mystery/romance with a lighter heart than <i>Rebecca </i>(1940), <i>The Uninvited </i>is another of my cold night favorites.</span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Though lacking any gun or knife, let alone even a drop of blood or a hint of gore, <i>The Uninvited</i> can subtly spook the unsuspecting viewer. The action begins jauntily enough as a pair of vacationing Londoners, brother and sister, hike the cliffs of Devon and Cornwall and find, fall in love with and purchase a long-empty mansion overlooking the sea. The two later come to the realization that their new home is haunted and that their new friend, the former owner's lovely granddaughter, is a target of the malevolent apparition who inhabits the house. This is a phantom whose arrival, sometimes partially materialized, brings with it a penetrating chill that terrorizes all who encounter it...including the family pets. And there is the sudden overpowering scent of mimosa that signals an unseen presence as it fills a room. Heightening these spine-tickling proceedings is a rapturous score by Victor Young with a haunting motif that later became the popular standard, <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/10/haunting-melody-of-uninvited-1944.html" style="color: #990000;">"Stella by Starlight."</a> The film was directed by Lewis Allen and photographed by cinematographer Charles Lang (<i>Midnight</i>, <i>A Foreign Affair</i>, <i>The Magnificent Seven</i>, <i>Charade</i>) who was Oscar-nominated for <i>The Uninvited</i>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>The Uninvited</i> stars Ray Milland, one of Paramount's most charming and enduring players, and Ruth Hussey as the brother and sister duo. Donald Crisp is the former owner of 'Windward House,' and Gail Russell appears in her first film role as his granddaughter, Stella. Cornelia Otis Skinner portrays one Miss Holloway, a sinister creature reminiscent of <i>Rebecca</i>'s Mrs. Danvers - and any number of characters played by Gale Sondergaard...</span><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ow1eaETb9ec" width="420"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Cornelia Otis Skinner as Miss Holloway</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This year in tandem with watching <i>The Uninvited</i>, I read the book on which it was based. Irish author Dorothy Macardle's novel was first published in 1942, four years after du Maurier's smashing success, <u>Rebecca</u>, appeared in print and two years after the enormously popular Hitchcock/Selznick 'picturization' was released. It, too, is of the modern gothic genre with roots reaching back to Bronte's <u>Jane Eyre</u>.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG5j1JbwhG1Whyk2nFJwPFImfzyMOWsnyuIKShgGsEhq3oREaVGFpsqWLJxBhHtwK1XDSXIHFrkpnpkkdg_aRC5AFDwoHr97EfZK6KzoLpvrAOdnIZvZuSeV7-sn8eGuSoP0LdGFfeU1lk/s1600/uninvited+and+eerie+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Macardle's book is engaging, lively and, though not equal to du Maurier's classic in any sense, it entertainingly transports today's reader to a time, place and world view now several decades gone. Macardle could weave a tale and hold one's attention, telling her spooky story of warring spirits from the first person perspective of the protagonist, Roderick Fitzgerald, a London journalist whose move to the seaside brings with it hair-raising adventure, a new turn in his writing career and new love.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1JP6_f-avQBkD-8cIFS4NDcjzyl0QWZRW2VTuo8eWP6o-WQG1MDpNDJsKSP5LdmjlSppfl86QU1_wnxP4bM-QODeWIB9PhfiWZ9ozA0I5VFNE7dwH6OA88rp2euYVMOFJzK4aK_1n4vy_/s1600/dorothy+macardle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1JP6_f-avQBkD-8cIFS4NDcjzyl0QWZRW2VTuo8eWP6o-WQG1MDpNDJsKSP5LdmjlSppfl86QU1_wnxP4bM-QODeWIB9PhfiWZ9ozA0I5VFNE7dwH6OA88rp2euYVMOFJzK4aK_1n4vy_/s1600/dorothy+macardle.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dorothy Macardle</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Author Dorothy Macardle, I discovered, was involved in far more than writing novels during her 69 years (1889 - 1958). Born in Ireland into a well-heeled brewing family, she taught after graduating from college but was soon involved in political and social activism. She gained an international reputation as an Irish nationalist writer and was an intimate associate of Eamon de Valera, a leader in Ireland's fight for independence and president of country from 1959 to 1973. Macardle is best known today for her historical opus, the nearly 1,000 page <u>The Irish Republic</u>, an account of Ireland's struggle for freedom between 1916 and 1923. Quite amazing that the woman could also write a plausible ghost story in her spare time...</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The adaptation from novel to screen is largely faithful. The book is peopled by a greater variety of characters and the back story of each principal is more detailed. On screen, the haunted mansion's name changed from 'Cliff's End' to 'Windward House,' Roderick Fitzgerald is referred to as 'Rick' rather than 'Rod' and Miss Holloway's role is expanded. Fitzgerald's profession was changed from writer to composer - perhaps in order to ease giving Victor Young's "Stella by Starlight" its center-stage moment in the film.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Young's theme for <i>The Uninvited</i> enhances the film's romantic and mysterious story. By comparison, Franz Waxman's score for <i>Rebecca</i>, though also dramatic and powerful, seems to me, at times, overwhelming. I knew Bernard Herrmann had, when he was with CBS Radio, scored an earlier radio presentation of <i>Rebecca </i>and I found this intriguing given his later association with Hitchcock.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> In December 1938 Orson Welles' <i>Campbell Playhouse </i>(formerly the <i>Mercury Theatre on the Air</i>) premiered and featured the first radio adaptation of <i>Rebecca</i>; it starred Margaret Sullavan as the second Mrs. de Winter, Welles as Maxim de Winter and Mildred Natwick as Mrs Danvers. Bernard Herrmann provided the score:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GU__UqhFxw4" width="420"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the end, the music Herrmann scored for <i>Rebecca </i>eventually made its way to the screen; much of it was used in <i>Jane Eyre</i> (1943<i>) </i>starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByIvTf6IL3nqBRw2XDAGGLrxEp-0MqzyVOSJuqcVPhkENJnqyJ53LSGWZ184xlZ-ILQTVbYwpFxJAomDjnn15tMmXMpua91xHT_xZt5ZPZd9iUCCuMscgAc0VH4v-73veOHfFJK1YOrw2/s1600/gail+russell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByIvTf6IL3nqBRw2XDAGGLrxEp-0MqzyVOSJuqcVPhkENJnqyJ53LSGWZ184xlZ-ILQTVbYwpFxJAomDjnn15tMmXMpua91xHT_xZt5ZPZd9iUCCuMscgAc0VH4v-73veOHfFJK1YOrw2/s200/gail+russell.jpg" width="164" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gail Russell</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">19-year-old Gail Russell, in her screen debut </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">as Stella Meredith, is another high point in <i>The Uninvited</i>. Fresh-faced, with dark, tousled hair and long, thick lashes, Russell projects a fetching mixture of fragility and intensity as a young girl faced with a deadly threat just as she experiences first love. Russell followed <i>The Uninvited </i>with a role in <i>Our Hearts Were Young and Gay</i> - coincidentally, she portrayed Cornelia Otis Skinner in the film (she played Skinner again in <i>Our Hearts Were Growing Up</i>). In 1945 Russell was cast in a quasi-sequel to <i>The Uninvited </i>called <i>The Unseen</i> (with Joel McCrea), and she made a number of films co-starring with John Wayne, who befriended her when they made <i>Angel and the Badman </i>in 1947. But Russell's life and career were blighted by serious personal demons. A beautiful teenager who'd been embarrassed by the nickname "The Hedy Lamarr of Santa Monica High," she had long suffered from crippling shyness. When Paramount Pictures came calling she agreed to pursue a movie career; her mother had insisted, the family needed money.  Russell</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> developed a habit early on of drinking before she faced the cameras - it helped steady her nerves</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">. This habit developed into a deadly addiction that shortened her life; she died in 1961 at age 36.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The characters of Stella Meredith in <i>The Uninvited </i>and <i>Rebecca</i>'s second Mrs. de Winter are fairly similar - both are young, inexperienced and in need of  protection and guidance. But one character evolves more than the other. Throughout <i>The Uninvited</i>, Stella remains a maiden in need of rescue by older, wiser Roderick Fitzgerald. In <i>Rebecca</i>, the second Mrs. de Winter begins as an awkward, coltish young lady utterly intimidated by all that her new status as bride of an aristocrat brings. But when Maxim de Winter confesses his role in Rebecca's death and reveals his vulnerability, her transformation into a more confident, assured woman begins. Fontaine's portrayal of this maturing is seamless.</span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNy4tu5RO4fx93ddtDfAYMbRMugP4_94b5alb8jnOtWB4AfBTqDJ5AJgaiS5khnu-m7uaxmXZ1HiZswpnKGxT9Q8lUWNne8mhKQaqJHpEBvMrGeimjy4XjKcf5JiqbIcfy3zn6gdaYpyZy/s1600/joan+fontaine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNy4tu5RO4fx93ddtDfAYMbRMugP4_94b5alb8jnOtWB4AfBTqDJ5AJgaiS5khnu-m7uaxmXZ1HiZswpnKGxT9Q8lUWNne8mhKQaqJHpEBvMrGeimjy4XjKcf5JiqbIcfy3zn6gdaYpyZy/s200/joan+fontaine.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. de Winter</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Joan Fontaine, who became a star with <i>Rebecca</i>, enjoyed continued success. Cast again by Hitchcock in 1941's <i>Suspicion</i>, with Cary Grant, she won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Other noteworthy films include <i>Jane Eyre</i> in 1943 with Orson Welles and Max Ophuls' stunning <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2010/11/max-ophuls-letter-from-unknown-woman.html" style="color: #990000;"><i>Letter From an Unknown Woman </i></a>(1948). She continued to work in film and on TV until the mid-1990s and just recently celebrated her 94th birthday; she and her older sister Olivia de Havilland, however, remain estranged...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My meanderings through <i>Rebecca </i>and <i>The Uninvited </i>on page and screen began as I sought enjoyable ways to spend the crisp, dark evenings that come with the late months of the year. This quest brought several cozy nights charged with chills, thrills and romance and now I'm tempted to continue...perhaps with another foray into the realm of the gothic  -  once defined as the Cinderella story gone very wrong...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the meantime, I've been trying out different hot drink confections to help fend off the chill. My latest experiments involve a <i>healthier</i> cocoa mix called 'WonderCocoa' and a new twist on the hot toddy called 'The Laureate.' <a href="http://evesreellife.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/something-warm-to-drink-on-a-cold-dark-night/" style="color: #990000;">Click here </a><u></u>for ideas on what to sip to stay warm on a cold, dark night...</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i></i> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXE92X596NryYmPGGlzQf77k9Bt5MRg-nnuRUXxOdw-tzGwie_TLjNBaT-U7xQpyJ7SB5fMaR5-66OhoQZhltdl5PdK1cRT9bf32PYj893vYMc49foVyRPP2Hy9XDXYbL9mAc_cgOGTfY9/s1600/cat+by+the+fire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXE92X596NryYmPGGlzQf77k9Bt5MRg-nnuRUXxOdw-tzGwie_TLjNBaT-U7xQpyJ7SB5fMaR5-66OhoQZhltdl5PdK1cRT9bf32PYj893vYMc49foVyRPP2Hy9XDXYbL9mAc_cgOGTfY9/s400/cat+by+the+fire.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>

Cornelia Otis Skinner Daphne du Maurier Donald Crisp Dorothy Macardle Gail Russell Joan Fontaine Ray Milland Rebecca Ruth Hussey The Lady Eve (author) The Uninvited Victor Young A Chill in the Air - Part II

For a few years now, Turner Classic Movies has traditionally aired The Uninvited (1944) during Halloween season. A gothic mystery/romance wi...

Read more »