Review of House by the River (1950) by Matt G — 14 Jan 2009

A novelist, played by Louis Hayward, murders his young housekeeper in a fit of lustful rage, then, with the reluctant aid of his older brother (Lee Bowman) tosses the body into the river that runs behind his palatial estate.

Relegated to working at cheapie-studio Republic Pictures, director Fritz Lang once again proves that he can create extraordinary mood and suspense (with the aid of cinematographer Edward Cronjager's absolutely stunning images of stark shadows and light) with or without a budget. The picture is more concerned with latent and suppressed eroticism (and, if Lang had had his way, interracial lust, for the director had originally envisioned the role of the murdered maid to be played by an African-American actress until the studio brass nixed that idea) than the more obvious themes of guilt or morality; and Lang's running visual motifs (running water and flowing curtains that resemble the dead girl's hair) and hints of revenge from beyond the grave are very reminiscent of Italian director Mario Bava's great neglected Gothic melodrama The Whip and the Body.