The House in the
Woods
Director: Maxwell Munden
Year: 1957
Rating: 5.5
This only runs 60-minutes and has
the production values of a British TV show but it is an effective tale of
suspense with basically only three characters. It could easily have been
a play. All solid actors - Michael Gough, Patricia Roc and Ronald Howard
(son of Leslie Howard). The blurb about the film says that an author
with writer's block takes his wife to an isolated house in the country in
hopes that he can start writing again. Hmmm. Not quite The Shining. The couple
begin to wonder about their landlord. I would have guessed that Gough would
play the landlord as he played his share of oddball creepy characters (as
well as Alfred in four Batman films when he was older) while Howard played
Sherlock Holmes on a TV series. But it is the other way around. Gough is
the easily irritated writer who can't stand being around people in London
- and his neighbors are driving him nuts.
They see an advert in the paper about letting
an isolated cottage five miles away from anyone. Perfect. No phone. Maybe
not so perfect. The owner of the house seems a fine fellow with his cat on
his shoulder, pleasant manners and a bohemian beard. He only wants 2 pounds
a week but will have to stay with them for a few days. "You didn't tell anyone
where you were going did you?", should have been a dead giveaway. But he
seems so nice. What could go wrong? But as the husband begins to write his
new book, he starts to add up little things about the owner that feel off.
And possibly deadly. This works quite well as it slowly creates reveals.
Black and white. Good performances all around.
