Ray Milland, Gail Russell and Ruth Hussey Challenge The Uninvited

           Offering one of filmdom’s classiest forays into the supernatural realm, Paramount Picture’s 1944’s The Uninvited provides a highly atmosphere entry into the haunted house genre, with first-time director Lewis Allen adeptly maintaining an ominous flavor as events unfold at the seaside “Windward House” in England, wherein much of the action takes place. Allen, aided by a first-rate cast and ace cinematographer Charles Lang Jr.’s terrific, moody black and white cinematography, keeps audiences enthralled as the mystery intensifies, while Victor Young’s sublime score sets an appropriately gothic and, in the case of the lush theme song, “Stella by Starlight,” romantic tone. Favoring understated chills over more blatant shocks throughout the brisk 99-minute running time, The Uninvited provides a satisfying excursion into a ghostly world of suspense and mystery.

                The studio clearly had faith in the production, ensuring top talent across the board was enlisted to create one of the Paramount’s best 1944 offerings, including that enduring Young score and impeccable Lang lensing that helps set a dreamy ambiance throughout the film. Allen does a nice job proficiently maintaining a calm-yet-eerie mood as the story unfolds, allowing the focus to shift adeptly from the mystery at hand to the more overt supernatural elements seen at the Windward manor. The plot may appear far-fetched at times, but a deft script by Dodie Smith and Frank Partos (based on the novel Uneasy Freehold by Dorothy Macardle) nicely blends dramatic, comic, romantic and spectral elements, engrossing the viewer from the film’s outset up until the finale, wherein the mystery is at last resolved.

         By 1944 Ray Milland had established himself as a reliable, amiable leading man in both comedies and dramas, and the success of The Uninvited would nicely set up the star for his against-type, bravura performance in the following year’s The Lost Weekend. Although today Milland is best known for his harsh, committed work in his career role, in Uninvited and other top roles, he often uncannily meshed a lighter style into his playing, alongside more serious undertones (see his sly work in Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial “M” for Murder for another top example of this ambivalent persona Milland brought off so well). As Rick Fitzgerald, a young composer who gets more than he bargained for when he and his sister purchase Windward on a whim, Milland’s easy manner on-screen allows Rick to uphold an air of playfulness and likeability that has a modern feel nearly seventy years on, helping to anchor the film in reality as Rick faces several otherworldly dimensions at Windward.

                After starting the decade off in tremendous fashion with Oscar-nominated work in The Philadelphia Story, Ruth Hussey became well-known as a reliable pro in films, television and on stage, with The Uninvited providing one of her best screen opportunities post-Philadelphia. As Pamela, Rick’s impulsive sister who insists on their purchasing Windward upon sight, Hussey and her sensible, alert playing does a great job in making what could be an irresponsible character come across as intelligent and grounded. Audiences can buy into the premise that it would make sense for Rick and Pamela to completely pull up stakes, leave their previous lives behind and move to Windward largely based on the confidence Hussey displays as Pamela; in her hands, the risky switch appears to be exactly the right thing to do, instead of a very costly mistake.

                Making possibly the greatest impression in the film, nineteen-year-old Gail Russell beautifully fills the role of Stella Meredith, the ethereal young girl who has an unworldly attachment to Windward, based on its ties to her life there as a very young child, wherein tragedy struck. Gail had no formal training as an actor, but her beauty was such that in high school she had already gained attention as “The Hedy Lamarr of Santa Monica,” thereby making a career in films unavoidable to the Southern California native, what with Hollywood beckoning right next door. Russell was reportedly never comfortable filming during her career, turning to drink as a means of calming her fears on set, which lead to much heartache and personal setbacks. However, on-screen she radiates a natural glow and enchanting presence that make her work hard to forget as one of the more soulful, fragile female leads of the period. As Stella, she performs with a simple, beguiling earnestness that draws viewers to her and, aided by Young’s bewitching theme music and incredible, sad eyes equipped to break the heart of movie-goers everywhere, establishes herself as one of the more romantic and touching figures found in 1940’s cinema.

                Among the rest of the impressive cast, Donald Crisp scores yet another top film credit in his remarkable career as Commander Beech, Stella’s wary grandfather, who does everything he can to keep Stella away from Windward and Rick. With his stoic demeanor and gruff voice Crisp is appropriately commanding in the role, and adeptly illustrates the conflicts Beech is facing in regard to the mystery surrounding Windward. Taking a cue from Judith Anderson’s acidic “Mrs. Danvers” in Rebecca and Gail Sondergaard in just about any role of this period, Cornelia Otis Skinner (who bears a curiously strong resemblance to Sondergaard) also makes an impact as the sedate-yet-odious Miss Holloway, who bears as much interest concerning the history behind Windward as the commander and Stella do, and for good reason. Interestingly, Skinner was also a top author, who at the time was in the mist of adapting her bestselling (with Emily Kimbrough) Our Hearts Were Young and Gay for the screen, which would provide Gail Russell with another success in her burgeoning young career. Finally, Alan Napier lends a charming sophistication and geniality to his role of Dr. Scott, who aides in unraveling key plot points, while also taking a keen interest in the available Pamela.

                The Uninvited proved a major success upon its release in February of 1944, allowing for one of many Paramount hits in a banner year for the studio during the prosperous WWII period, and providing (after a few small parts) Gail Russell a vivid introduction to film audiences, leading to her place among Paramount’s top leading ladies through the rest of the decade. Lang’s faultless, noir-tinted photography gained the film’s sole Oscar nomination, but Young’s worthy score and “Stella by Starlight” have gained in stature over the years, with the unforgettable strains of “Stella” becoming a standard for many top jazz artists and vocalists, and turning up again in other key Paramount films, most memorably in Jerry Lewis’ masterwork, 1963’s The Nutty Professor. For contemporary viewers, the film provides a nice, subtle change-of-pace from the explicit, horrific content normally found in today’s movies of a similar ilk, while also serving as a key representation from the suspense genre during the classic Hollywood studio era, as well as a fitting reminder of the uniquely sensitive screen presence of one of the cinema’s loveliest ingénues, the extraordinarily beautiful Gail Russell.