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By
NICK ZEGARAC
Robert Wise's House on
Telegraph Hill (1951) is a superb A-list
melodramatic suspense thriller with B actors who
are remarkably adept and convincing in their
roles. The film stars Valentina Cortesa as
Victoria Kowelska -- an immigrant of Polish
extraction who is tortured to near death in a Nazi
concentration camp during the last days of WWII.
There she befriends another victim of the
holocaust, Karin (Natasha Lytess), who is not as
fortunate. Learning of Karin's wealth, in the last
days before liberation Karin dies and Victoria --
desperate to eschew her own miserable existence --
assumes Karin's identity. She immigrates to the
United States where she hopes to meet up with
Karin's philanthropic wealthy dowager aunt.
Unfortunately, the aunt has died (or has she been
murdered?) leaving the entire estate to Karin's
young son, Chris (Gordon Gebert) and his trustee,
Alan Spender (Richard Basehart). Chris and Alan
reside in the gothic house on Telegraph Hill along
with Chris's tutor, Margaret (Fay Baker). At first
skeptical, Alan eventually recognizes Victoria as
Chris's mother and marries her. But the
picturesque life Victoria has envisioned for
herself slowly begins to deteriorate after she
discovers that Chris's playhouse was destroyed in
an 'accidental' fire that might have killed him.
Worse, her new husband appears to be involved with
Margaret, and Margaret, much more than merely a
governess to Chris. Into this fray enters Major
Major Marc Bennett (William Lundigan). He's in
love with Victoria -- even going so far as to keep
her real identity a secret. But he cannot believe
that Alan would be plotting to murder her and
Chris, something Victoria is all too certain of.
Director Wise's handling of all these taut
tensions never waivers. He layers the story with
so much subtext and shock that the tale remains
one of the highlights of his career and certainly
one of the best thrillers to emerge from this
vintage in American film. As the doomed/conflicted
heroine, the Italian actress, Valentina Cortesa is
most becoming, engaging and, above all else,
convincing as Victoria/Karin. The rest of the cast
(whom I must confess, I never thought much of in
other movies) all deliver convincingly perverse
'star' turns that equally thrill and captivate.
Truly, this is one great film!
Fox has chosen to include this movie as part of
their 'noir series.' Though House on Telegraph
Hill has noir elements scattered throughout, the
exclusion of detectives, femme fatales and a
tangible murder to pin the plot on lead this
reviewer to suggest that the film is more
suspense/thriller than genuine noir.
Fox Home Video has done a fair job of transferring
the film to DVD. But the transfer is not without
its shortcomings. To start, there are several
glaring examples of digital mis-registration,
resulting in a shimmering of fine details in
certain scenes and a considerable amount of
distracting edge enhancement in others. The
frustrating circumstance of these is that certain
scenes seem to open with long shots riddled with
such problems, only to move into medium shots and
close ups which are virtually free of their
distraction. For the rest, the grayscale has been
impeccably rendered with very deep blacks and
almost clean whites. Film grain, dirt and
scratches are present throughout the presentation,
but are very minimal and will not distract. Extras
include a rather satisfying audio commentary by
Eddie Muller, production stills and the film's
original theatrical trailer. Bottom line: this is
a must have disc for anyone who enjoys a good
solid story told expertly and with exemplary
visual flair -- a must have! |
