The Unseen

Plot synopsis:
After a hotel reservation mix up, two sisters Karen and Jennifer, and their friend Vicki Thompson, meet a friendly, but shady character named Ernest Keller who is the owner of a small town museum. Ernest convinces the three women into accepting an invitation for cheap room and board at his large farmhouse outside of town where his wife Virginia also lives. Once there, Jennifer and Karen leave for the holiday parade fair which Jennifer, a news reporter, is reporting on. At the festival, Jennifer is met by her soon to be ex-boyfriend, Tony, who gets her to stay behind to talk about their relationship.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Vicki prepares to take a nap in her room, but is attacked by an unseen figure. The unseen eventually begins to pull Vicki into a floor vent when she tries to escape. The grate of the vent slams down on her neck, killing her. At the parade, Karen leaves Jennifer and Tony to talk, and makes her way back to the house alone—where she too is then attacked and killed by the unseen, as it attempts to pull her by her scarf through a vent into the basement. Virginia, who had been in the barn slaughtering a chicken, soon after comes inside to find the bodies of both Vicki and Karen.
When Ernest arrives back at the house, he finds Virginia in shock. At this point, it is revealed through flashbacks that Virginia and Ernest are, in fact, brother and sister, and that Ernest had murdered his own sadistic father over 20 years ago in order to maintain the unnatural relationship. It is also revealed that they have an incestual son named 'Junior' who has been kept locked up in the basement; the viewer also learns that Junior is often viciously beaten by Ernest. Ernest then convinces the subservient Virginia, who the viewer now realizes is taken advantage of by Ernest, that Jennifer must be killed upon her return, in order to keep everything under cover.
When Jennifer gets back that evening, she is lured into the basement by Ernest, who then locks her inside. She wanders around looking for a way out, only to stumble upon Karen and Vicki's dead bodies. In a panic, she is confronted by Junior, who turns out to be a mentally retarded and infantile grown man; at this point, it becomes clear that in all likelihood the Junior did not actually mean to kill Karen and Vicki. Ernest comes into the basement to finish off Jennifer, but Virginia, having had a change of heart, attempts to stop him. Ernest begins attacking Virginia, but Junior, enraged by the sight, intervenes to protect his mother. A fight breaks out between Junior and Ernest, while Jennifer escapes. The fight ends with Ernest gaining advantage over Junior, and knocking him in the head with a broken board containing a sharp, exposed nail, which causes Junior to collapse and die.
Ernest then makes his way outside to hunt down and kill Jennifer with a hatchet. Just as she is about to be attacked, Tony pulls-up in his car, sees the commotion, and runs to help her, but trips and falls due to an existing leg injury. However, at the last possible moment, Ernest is shot in the chest from afar by Virginia and died. The film ends with Virginia in the basement cradling the dead body of Junior.

Tags: plot twist

Review:
Salem Alley Shenanigans..
The Unseen is directed by Lewis Allen and collectively written by Hagar Wilde, Ken Englund and Raymond Chandler.
It's adapted from Ethel Lina White's novel "Her Heart in Her Throat".
It stars Joel McCrea, Gail Russell, Herbert Marshall, Phyllis Brooks and Isobel Elsom.
Music is by Ernst Toch and cinematography by John F.
Seitz.Elizabeth Howard (Russell) is hired as a governess for David Fielding's (McCrea) two children.
With David being secretive and strange occurrences happening, she begins to unravel the mystery of the empty house next door.Foolishly seen as a follow up to the far superior The Uninvited (1944), The Unseen is efficient without really rising to thrilling heights.
Taken as a mood piece it scores favourably, lots of shadows, cobbled streets, darkened rooms and plenty of suspicious goings on, but as a mystery it falls flat.
It gets off to a mixed start, with a grisly murder bogged down by a clumsy narration, from there we are on board with Russell's governess who gets more than she bargained for in her new employment.
A number of characters drift in and out of proceedings, but the villain of the piece is evident from the get go, and it builds to a disappointingly flat finale.A sort of weak companion piece to Gaslight (original and remake) and The Innocents, it's not recommended with any great confidence.
Those looking for better and similar tonal fare from Lewis Allen are advised to seek out the aforementioned The Uninvited and So Evil My Love (1948).
Shades of "Gaslight"....
In an older London neighborhood beset with strange deaths and a spooky, abandoned house with boarded-up windows, Gail Russell arrives via Boston to accept job as governess to widower Joel McCrea's two precocious kids; quickly, she begins to realize McCrea's little boy is in-cahoots with the previous nanny and may be covering up a dangerous plot which ties in with the old house--and also with McCrea, whose mysterious comings and goings spell trouble.
Over-plotted and yet ultimately slim-seeming co-feature from Paramount, stiffly directed and not very exciting.
Heavy-lidded Russell, fresh off her triumph in "The Univited", was never an exceptional actress, but here she gives hint she may have become a very good one, and her terse exchanges with McCrea show a much more confident performer than in "The Univited".
The screenplay, adapted from Ethel Lina White's novel "Her Heart in Her Throat", falls rather early into a disparaging rut, what with Russell continually reporting peculiar happenings to people who don't believe or listen to her, and that final clinch nearly comes out of nowhere.
However, for fans of 1940s potboilers like the not-dissimilar "Gaslight", this provides minor enjoyment.
THE UNSEEN (Lewis Allen, 1945) **.
Despite having a bunch of notable credits (novelist Ethel Lina White, screenwriters Raymond Chandler and Hagar Wilde, associate producer John Houseman, actors Joel McCrea, Herbert Marshall, Norman Lloyd and Tom Tully) and an excellent prototype in one of Hollywood's finest ghost stories, THE UNINVITED (1944) – not to mention reuniting director Lewis Allen and tragic star Gail Russell from that same film – it is no surprise to me now that THE UNSEEN has remained unseen {sic} for so long.
In fact, I only managed to score a hazy-looking, VHS-sourced copy of it which does the film's only true trump card – the atmospheric lighting – no favors at all.
At any rate, despite being hurriedly put into production following the success of that earlier Ray Milland classic, there are no ghosts to be seen or heard anywhere this time around; instead we have a surprisingly unsatisfying combination of "The Turn Of The Screw" (typified by the obnoxious antics of McCrea's elder son to scare newly-installed governess Russell away) and GASLIGHT (1944; by way of the mysterious comings-and-goings in the supposedly abandoned house next door).
Marshall is the outwardly benign family doctor who openly despises prospective property purchaser Lloyd, Phyliis Brooks is the dishy former governess who still exercises a strange hold over McCrea's boy and, as a mere red herring, Isobel Elsom is the inquisitive sister of the suspiciously-deceased inhabitant of the house next door!!
Apart from the fact that, for the most part, there are no scares or even thrills to be had here, the film also commits the cardinal sin of making its male lead (a hot-tempered Joel McCrea!) unsympathetic for the duration but, then, have him predictably fall for the doe-eyed governess at the very end..
Feeble mystery film, cast wasted, Gail Russell looks lost.
This film was clearly based on a rather feeble story about an empty house, mysterious lights in the cellar, vicious murders committed by a shadow in an alley, and so on, and although Raymond Chandler was brought in as a screenwriter to try to give it some muscle, that effort failed.
The direction by Lewis Allen is clearly hopeless.
All the cast look ill at ease, as if they had no idea what the director expected of them, and they found the story unconvincing.
Herbert Marshall is stiff, and we can see him thinking: 'I'm getting too old for this kind of thing,' and his body language suggests he is resenting the weak direction.
It is tragic to see the soulful, velvety-eyed 21 year-old Gail Russell looking so sad and so lost in this film.
As for Joel McCrea, not only was he miscast as the grumpy widower whom Russell is meant to fall for, he looks even more lost than Gail Russell does, and flounders around not knowing how to behave.
Lewis Allen had the previous year directed the delightful OUR HEARTS WERE YOUNG AND GAY (1944), where Gail Russell played the young Cornelia Otis Skinner with charm and conviction.
And it was only two years later that Russell made what was probably her finest film, ANGEL AND THE BADMAN (1947, see my review), which is one of the greatest classics of the screen and captures all of her magical charm.
So what went wrong this time?
How did the rapport between Russell and Allen collapse?
Why does everyone look so uncomfortable?
Russell died of alcoholism at the age of only 36 in 1961.
By 1950, her drinking was already so serious that she was becoming unemployable.
But surely she cannot have become an alcoholic already by the age of 21, in 1945, so that cannot be the cause of the malaise seen in this picture.
We know that Russell received a lot of moral support from John Wayne in ANGEL AND THE BADMAN, so that would have pulled her through.
In this earlier film, the lack of even the most rudimentary chemistry between her and Joel McCrea is palpable, and it must have thrown her into a depression that she could not relate to him at all, and he refused to relate to her.
And, as already noted, Herbert Marshall was 'getting too old for this kind of thing' and probably did not have the energy to try to prop up Russell as he might have done when younger.
The two children in this film do very well, and Phyllis Brooks is excellent as the venomous, scheming Maxine.
Maybe it could have worked.
Spooky lights in a deserted house raises suspicions.
Joel McCrea needs a new governess since they all don't want to stay very long, like also the cooks and the maids, since there are strange goings-on in the house next door, which is all closed up and derelict after a murder committed there many years ago; but Joel's two children, who the governess is for, have some interest in the fishy business, the boy even getting rewarded for letting an unknown stranger into the house at night.
Gail Russell as the poor young innocent governess doesn't quite know which way to turn, as she gets more and more involved in a mysterious unpleasantness, but Herbert Marshall is a doctor a few houses away who seems to be a safe terminal; while the sour Joel McCrea is constantly out of his humour, stingy and difficult.
The governess with the two children gives you immediate associations to Henry James "The Turn of the Screw", but this is actually no ghost story and nothing like that.
It's a logical criminal mystery, which could have been made more of, but as it is it's at least good and interesting entertainment..
Half a Loaf is Better Than None.
Most mysteries in the 2000s lack either atmosphere or good writing.
This film lacked only good writing.
Hard to believe Raymond Chandler could write a turkey, and even more unbelievable that John Houseman, a true giant in film, could have been the producer.
Joel McCrea never made a bad movie as far as I know; but this one is certainly near the bottom of his accomplishments,One of the problems of the films is its pacing; the movie moves at a snail's pace for an hour or so, and then does the hundred yard dash to tie up all the loose ends in the last ten minutes.
I will not mention the ending, but it was rather unsatisfying.
Interesting to see McCrea and Herbert Marshall (one of Bette Davis's favorite leading men in a film together.
A watchable film, but killed by the annoying children, and having a haunted house next to a mansion.
The Sad, Soulful Eyes of Gail Russell.
Gail Russell was beautiful and sensitive and may have had a long, happy life if she had not become a movie star.
She was contentedly working toward a career as a commercial artist when she was discovered at high school and given a Paramount contract.
By the time of "The Unseen" she was already developing a drinking habit which was the only thing that could steady her nerves before the cameras.
"The Unseen" was obviously designed to be a follow up to her big hit of the year before, "The Uninvited".The sad, soulful eyes of Gail Russell are put to good use as she plays Elizabeth Howard, who finds a job as a governess in the Fielding household.
The blurb on the back of my DVD seems to be the plot for a completely different movie as there is no mention (in the movie) that husband Dave Fielding (Joel McCrea) is suspected of causing his wife's death.
Also the oft repeated comment that this movie was a poor relation of "The Uninvited" is simply not true.
Based on a story by the popular Ethel Lina White (her "The Wheel Spins" became "The Lady Vanishes" and "Some Must Watch" became "The Spiral Staircase") and with the help of Raymond Chandler on the screenplay, it meshed "The Turn of the Screw" with "Gaslight" to produce an eerie mystery.
It didn't have "The Uninvited"'s production values and it didn't have the haunting theme of "Stella By Starlight" but it was still a very creepy thriller.Elizabeth finds the children distant - Ellen has a scrapbook containing accounts of the Salem Alley murder, a recent sensational crime that has gripped the neighbourhood and Barney (Richard Lyon, adopted son of Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, gives an excellent performance) has strange phone conversations with "unseen" people.
Both children need an understanding friend.
Shadows of "The Turn of the Screw" as Elizabeth fights the influence of a governess who was dismissed for being a bad influence on the children.
Barney not only collects money off persons unknown, he also communicates with a mysterious stranger who comes and goes from the house at will - thanks to an open door courtesy of Barney.
It turns out to be Maxine (Phyllis Brooks) the old governess and boy, is she a toughie!!!
It doesn't take Barney long to realise he has been loyal to the wrong person.
Another interwoven plot (ala "Gaslight") concerns the boarded up house next door that was the scene of a murder 12 years before and now seems to have night wanderers!!As another reviewer remarked, it is pretty clear who the murderer is - it was never going to be Joel McCrea!!
There are several characters who pop up - kindly doctor (Herbert Marshall), Isobel Elsom as the woman who owns the house next door, her husband had been the murder victim Elizabeth Risdon as the sour housekeeper and Tom Tully as a red herring.
The movie ends abruptly - within 60 seconds of a showdown in the library, the murderer is caught and there is still time for a clinch and jokes on the stairs.
It's like the director is saying "We have 60 seconds to finish this movie guys so sharp's the word"!!!Recommended..
interesting mystery.
Very interesting mystery with Joel Mcrea as a man you just can't understand.Gail Russell gives a great performance as the governess of Mcrea's children and Herbert Marshall is the "friendly" doctor you would never suspect..
When is a ghost story the same as mystery suspense?.
Although he had been under contract for a number of years, Raymond Chandler still hadn't found his "write" niche at his home studio, Paramount.
True, his assignment to "The Unseen" (1945), seemed ideal - at least on paper.
Based on a book by Ethel Lina White (who wrote the original novels for both Hitchcock's Lady Vanishes and Siodmak's Spiral Staircase), the movie somehow ended up as more of a lightweight ghost story than mystery-suspense.
Spooks were not Chandler's forte, but he was brought into the picture to give the supernatural proceedings a bit of rationality.
Chandler did his best, but complained to all who'd listen that it was time the studio used his talents in the right direction.
Finally, the contractee's voice was heard by studio management.
Given the go-ahead for an original suspense thriller, Chandler set to work on "The Blue Dahlia" (1946).It's tempting to write that "The Unseen" was unseen, but that would not be true.
The movie was reasonably successful.
Not big money, mind you, but enough to keep the wheels turning!.
An uninvited followup, both convoluted and unnecessary..
Starting off on all the right notes, this mediocre reunion of director Lewis Allen and leading lady Gail Russell from "The Uninvited" is a frustrating misfire.
Russell is hired by brooding widower Joel McCrea to look after his two rather bizarre children.
There's a boarded up house next door where a nasty old man lived years before, leading to a bunch of strange goings on and ending up in murder.
The film just gets odder as it goes on, bringing in a whole bunch of seemingly suspicious characters, causing nothing but more confusion.
This is the type of script that seems pike a bunch of words on paper and no cohesive plot to tie everything together.
Some of the characters have no real reason for being there in the first place, wasting such talented character players as Herbert Marshall, Elisabeth Risdon and Isobel Elsom, who should have been more involved in the structure of the plot, being the widow of the man who owned the abandoned house next door.
What becomes clear right off is that the only thing that is unseen is a plot line, making this one of the true misfires of Hollywood in the 1940's, and perhaps the worst film of 1945..
Unseen, but ordinary.
Although The Unseen received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound it is a major disappointment as it was sold by Paramount as a followup to their hit from the year before, The Uninvited.
Even the presence of Gail Russell who got her breakthrough role in the previous film, in The Unseen that guaranteed nothing.I also have to say that my copy of this film in fact had bad sound in it and I attribute that to the manufacturer of this bootleg.
It was shocking to read here that The Unseen got an Oscar nomination in of all categories, sound.Joel McCrea has moved back to the family estate with his two children, both of whom have some issues.
Especially son Richard Lyon who seems to have a lot more money than his allowance would warrant.
The house next door is boarded up since a murder took place a decade earlier.
Gail is hired by a strangely brooding McCrea who is going into territory inhabited by Orson Welles as Mr. Rochester or Laurence Olivier as Maxim DeWinter.
It's unlike anything McCrea ever did before or since.
Gail is to be governess to the kids.
But she's drawn into all the mystery, especially after a couple of other murders occur in and around that boarded up house.Such players as Herbert Marshall, Tom Tully, Isobel Elsom, and Elizabeth Risdon add to the creepiness of the film.But I can't speak for all who will see it, but I was terribly let down in the ending.
No other worldly beings doing deviltry to humans, just some very ordinary humans for very ordinary human motives are responsible for all the dirty work.Joel McCrea decided to concentrate on westerns after this and he did the rest of his career with one exception.
It probably was a wise decision.