Evelyn Heath (Anne Baxter) is the house-guest from hell. More precisely, she's the house- guest from the mental ward. She's under the care of young, handsome Dr. Dan Proctor...and they are in love. Watch out. Dan brings her to stay for a while with the family of his older brother, the artist Douglas Proctor (Ralph Bellamy), his wife, Ann (Ruth Warwick), their little daughter, and the aunt (Aline MacMahon). There's also the live-in model and the housekeeping couple. The picture perfect home sits perched on a cliff above the sea. The sky is blue, the clouds are fluffy and there are no old newspapers on the floor. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed.
It's not long before this seemingly sweet young thing with a heart condition transfers her affections to Douglas and sets out to ruin everyone's lives so that she can have him, and the house, all to herself. Evelyn is not physically sick, but, oh boy, is she a mental case...filled with phobias, dreams and guile. And, oh boy, does Anne Baxter chew the scenery. We're in for two hours of sneaky manipulation, lies and innuendo, all delivered with a sweetness as unsubtle as Diet Coke. Baxter is not as off-puttingly earnest as she would be emoting in The Razor's Edge (for which she won an Academy Award for best supporting actress), but she's still giving us acting with a capital A.
Guest in the House, however, has a fine, nasty premise and a wonderful performance by Ruth Warrick. She turns Ann Proctor into a woman who gradually realizes something is wrong, but who finally refuses to play the game by Evelyn's rules. It's first-rate acting because Warrick accomplishes this with a character that is underwritten to be nothing more than the bland, loyal wife. Warwick also understands how effective it can be to underplay. When at last there is a confrontation between Evelyn and Ann toward the conclusion of the film, I found myself watching Warrick with admiration.
The movie, in my opinion, becomes phony Hollywood melodrama because there's not a speck of nuance or suspense to be found in it, only the observation of what Evelyn will do next. We know just about all we need to know about Evelyn Heath - that she's really bad news - from the minute she walks in the door of the Proctor's home and Anne Baxter gives her a smile you'd trust as much as you'd trust your dentist saying, "This won't hurt." Baxter, for me, is very much a product of the overly sincere, overly earnest school of Hollywood film acting. She lays the "acting" on with a trowel here, and the only result is that we have to ask ourselves, "If we can tell so easily that she's bad news, why doesn't anyone in the Proctor family catch on?" There's no good answer...so we slump back and observe the movie rather than being caught up in it. Ralph Bellamy doesn't help. Bellamy was a capable, solid actor who gave you exactly what you saw. As dependable as he always was, he was seldom interesting. With Guest in the House, his Douglas Proctor is one of the most wholesome, obtuse and unsuspecting lead characters you'll come across. The two of them - Baxter and Bellamy - simply wring out any sense of dread or suspicious delight the plot might once have held.
Guest in the House is a movie idea that had a lot of potential. A better director and a subtler lead actress might have given us a memorable study in icky psychopathia. In my view, it tried but it largely missed.
It's not long before this seemingly sweet young thing with a heart condition transfers her affections to Douglas and sets out to ruin everyone's lives so that she can have him, and the house, all to herself. Evelyn is not physically sick, but, oh boy, is she a mental case...filled with phobias, dreams and guile. And, oh boy, does Anne Baxter chew the scenery. We're in for two hours of sneaky manipulation, lies and innuendo, all delivered with a sweetness as unsubtle as Diet Coke. Baxter is not as off-puttingly earnest as she would be emoting in The Razor's Edge (for which she won an Academy Award for best supporting actress), but she's still giving us acting with a capital A.
Guest in the House, however, has a fine, nasty premise and a wonderful performance by Ruth Warrick. She turns Ann Proctor into a woman who gradually realizes something is wrong, but who finally refuses to play the game by Evelyn's rules. It's first-rate acting because Warrick accomplishes this with a character that is underwritten to be nothing more than the bland, loyal wife. Warwick also understands how effective it can be to underplay. When at last there is a confrontation between Evelyn and Ann toward the conclusion of the film, I found myself watching Warrick with admiration.
The movie, in my opinion, becomes phony Hollywood melodrama because there's not a speck of nuance or suspense to be found in it, only the observation of what Evelyn will do next. We know just about all we need to know about Evelyn Heath - that she's really bad news - from the minute she walks in the door of the Proctor's home and Anne Baxter gives her a smile you'd trust as much as you'd trust your dentist saying, "This won't hurt." Baxter, for me, is very much a product of the overly sincere, overly earnest school of Hollywood film acting. She lays the "acting" on with a trowel here, and the only result is that we have to ask ourselves, "If we can tell so easily that she's bad news, why doesn't anyone in the Proctor family catch on?" There's no good answer...so we slump back and observe the movie rather than being caught up in it. Ralph Bellamy doesn't help. Bellamy was a capable, solid actor who gave you exactly what you saw. As dependable as he always was, he was seldom interesting. With Guest in the House, his Douglas Proctor is one of the most wholesome, obtuse and unsuspecting lead characters you'll come across. The two of them - Baxter and Bellamy - simply wring out any sense of dread or suspicious delight the plot might once have held.
Guest in the House is a movie idea that had a lot of potential. A better director and a subtler lead actress might have given us a memorable study in icky psychopathia. In my view, it tried but it largely missed.