The House On Telegraph Hill is both the title of this film and the goal of refugee Valentina Cortese. As a survivor from a concentration camp she wants out of Europe and life in America. So she takes the identity of a friend who died there who happened to be Polish nobility and who married into a wealthy American family from San Francisco.
When she arrives in America who is to greet her but a cousin-in-law and guardian to her 'son' Gordon Gebbert. Richard Basehart is in that role and after some hesitation puts the moves on Cortese and they marry. That should cinch her citizenship in America.
Things don't seem right for Cortese and not just the fact she's not who she says she is. There's a housekeeper played by Fay Baker who takes an intense dislike to her and also the fact that she's obsessed with Gebbert almost regarding him as her own. Basehart starts acting strange as well. Her only friend is William Lundigan who was a major in the army and whom she dealt with coincidentally, a little too coincidentally for my taste in the displaced persons camp after World War II.
That and the fact that an incredibly stupid error on one of the protagonists parts trips up the scheme are what bars The House On Telegraph Hill. Making up for that are good performances from Cortese and Basehart who overcome story and script deficiencies. The film did get an Oscar nomination for Black and White Art&Set Direction and that is the film's other asset.
The film seems to have been earmarked for Ingrid Bergman, but she was in Italian exile when The House On Telegraph Hill was being made. In any event it was a gain for Valentina Cortese who made the most of a performance in this film.
When she arrives in America who is to greet her but a cousin-in-law and guardian to her 'son' Gordon Gebbert. Richard Basehart is in that role and after some hesitation puts the moves on Cortese and they marry. That should cinch her citizenship in America.
Things don't seem right for Cortese and not just the fact she's not who she says she is. There's a housekeeper played by Fay Baker who takes an intense dislike to her and also the fact that she's obsessed with Gebbert almost regarding him as her own. Basehart starts acting strange as well. Her only friend is William Lundigan who was a major in the army and whom she dealt with coincidentally, a little too coincidentally for my taste in the displaced persons camp after World War II.
That and the fact that an incredibly stupid error on one of the protagonists parts trips up the scheme are what bars The House On Telegraph Hill. Making up for that are good performances from Cortese and Basehart who overcome story and script deficiencies. The film did get an Oscar nomination for Black and White Art&Set Direction and that is the film's other asset.
The film seems to have been earmarked for Ingrid Bergman, but she was in Italian exile when The House On Telegraph Hill was being made. In any event it was a gain for Valentina Cortese who made the most of a performance in this film.