Rent Guest in the House (1944)

Curious Melodrama. - Guest in the House review by Steve

This is usually labelled film noir, but can also be regarded as the middle of German émigré John Brahms' melodrama trilogy which begins with The Lodger in 1944 and concludes with Hangover Square a year later. While those are gaslight melodramas, this is contemporary and draws on the '40s vogue for Freudian motives in thrillers.

But we still get the imposing house of shadows, the intrusion of madness and the grand climactic thunderstorm. Anne Baxter is discharged from a mental hospital and takes up residence in the family of her fiancée's brother. Then seeks to establish control through psychotic manipulation, while eliminating all her rivals.

Now, this looks very much like a prototype for the '90s cycle of yuppie nightmare thrillers. A bad seed is allowed to germinate in the heart of an ocean facing domestic paradise. Another point of interest is how good is Ralph Bellamy as the head of the household, a darker role than his usual affable buffoon.

Maybe the blend of genres is due to production difficulties; four directors were used. It lacks suspense and it's disappointing there isn't more of a period noir look. But Baxter is creepy as the malevolent threat and we get to see plenty of why Marie McDonald's studio nickname was 'the body'. It's an interesting oddball.