HOUSE OF STRANGERS is another classic from the Noir vaults of 20th Century Fox and is one of their very best. Under the guiding hand of the brilliant director Joseph L. Mankiewicz the film emerged in 1949 and remains to this day a remarkable piece of cinema! All credit must go to the excellent screenplay by Philip Yordan, the masterful low key black & white cinematography of Milton Krasner and the atmospheric score by the Russian composer Daniele Amfitheatrof.
The stellar cast is headed by the great Edward G. Robinson. Fresh from his wonderful Johnny Rocco in Houston's "Key Largo" Robinson plays Gino Monetti, the Italian immigrant who runs the bank he founded in New York's lower east side. He runs it with an iron fist as he does his family of four sons who work for him. Three of whom are resentful of him because of the poor wages he pays them and the domineering way he treats them. Robinson's Gino Monetti is a deftly crafted and skillful piece of acting and with just the right Italian accent the actor once again demonstrates that he was one of the finest players in American cinema. Watching him here one can't help but think what a fine Corleone he would have made had he been around (he died in 1972 the year "The Godfather" was released)
Richard Conte, in one of his best parts, plays the loyal and favoured son Max Monetti with his trademark serious look and in his best oppressed hero style. The other siblings are played by Luther Adler as the oldest and meanest, Efrem Zimbalist as the ladies man and Paul Valentine excellent as a slow witted amateur pugilist. Romantic interest is supplied by the ever lovely and vivacious Susan Hayward whose star at this time was about to start its rise. But it is Robinson's movie from the moment he comes into it - you simply cannot take your eyes of him!
Five years later the studio re-fashioned Yordan's screenplay (itself loosely based on Shakespeare's "King Lear") and turned it into a splendid western called "Broken Lance" with Spencer Tracy. This fact is strangely omitted from any text on the DVD?
A curious footnote: At the end of the picture we don't hear Amfithetrof's finale music! What we get instead is the end title from Alfred Newman's score for "The Razor's Edge" (1946). Why and how this should be is anybody's guess! Apart from this sloppy denouement it is still a fine movie in a fine package which has a commentary,a trailer and a good behind the scenes still gallery.
Classic line from "House Of Strangers".......... When one of Robinson's errant sons declines to help his father during his trial - "I'm sorry pop I don't want to stick my neck out" to which Robinson wryly inquires "Why - what's so good about your neck".
The stellar cast is headed by the great Edward G. Robinson. Fresh from his wonderful Johnny Rocco in Houston's "Key Largo" Robinson plays Gino Monetti, the Italian immigrant who runs the bank he founded in New York's lower east side. He runs it with an iron fist as he does his family of four sons who work for him. Three of whom are resentful of him because of the poor wages he pays them and the domineering way he treats them. Robinson's Gino Monetti is a deftly crafted and skillful piece of acting and with just the right Italian accent the actor once again demonstrates that he was one of the finest players in American cinema. Watching him here one can't help but think what a fine Corleone he would have made had he been around (he died in 1972 the year "The Godfather" was released)
Richard Conte, in one of his best parts, plays the loyal and favoured son Max Monetti with his trademark serious look and in his best oppressed hero style. The other siblings are played by Luther Adler as the oldest and meanest, Efrem Zimbalist as the ladies man and Paul Valentine excellent as a slow witted amateur pugilist. Romantic interest is supplied by the ever lovely and vivacious Susan Hayward whose star at this time was about to start its rise. But it is Robinson's movie from the moment he comes into it - you simply cannot take your eyes of him!
Five years later the studio re-fashioned Yordan's screenplay (itself loosely based on Shakespeare's "King Lear") and turned it into a splendid western called "Broken Lance" with Spencer Tracy. This fact is strangely omitted from any text on the DVD?
A curious footnote: At the end of the picture we don't hear Amfithetrof's finale music! What we get instead is the end title from Alfred Newman's score for "The Razor's Edge" (1946). Why and how this should be is anybody's guess! Apart from this sloppy denouement it is still a fine movie in a fine package which has a commentary,a trailer and a good behind the scenes still gallery.
Classic line from "House Of Strangers".......... When one of Robinson's errant sons declines to help his father during his trial - "I'm sorry pop I don't want to stick my neck out" to which Robinson wryly inquires "Why - what's so good about your neck".