Guest in the House

Little Saint Cecilia!

Guest in the House is directed by John Brahm and adapted to screen by Ketti Frings from the play written by Hagar Wilde, Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert. It stars Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, Aline MacMahon, Ruth Warrick and Scott McKay. Music is by Werner Janssen and cinematography by Lee Garmes.

The Proctor family take on more than they bargained for when Evelyn Heath (Baxter) comes to stay with them.

Given the quality of cast and with the strength of Brahm and Garmes on the camera side of things, this really should have been a top tier psychological thriller. Sadly, in spite of much to keep it above average, it ends up as a melodramatic pot boiler that never quite comes to the boil.

Essentially the pic i...

Anne Baxter is at the top of her game here imbuing her Evelyn character with quite a bit of toxicity. Shes not a well woman and so is kindly invited to live with her boyfriend doctor Dan (Scott McKay) and his family. These folks are broadly welcoming of their new arrival, but it soon becomes quite clear that shes not a very nice person and is at her most contented when she is playing with other peoples emotions. Firstly, she starts to make a move on his married brother Douglas (Ralph Bellamy) and is soon manoeuvring herself into his affections whilst simultaneously destroying the fabric of the others in this household. Fortunately, the sagely aunt Martha (Aline MacMahon) has been to the Judith Anderson school of careful counter-plotting and...