House by the River
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Fritz Lang
Louis Hayward
Jane Wyatt
Lee Bowman
Dorothy Patrick
Ann Shoemaker
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the 1890s, in the back garden of his elegant Victorian house on the banks of a river, unsuccessful novelist Stephen Byrne struggles with his latest manuscript. When the maid, Emily Gaunt, asks Stephen for permission to use the upstairs bath, he blithely agrees as his wife Marjorie has gone out. Emily finishes her bath, borrows one of Marjorie's bathrobes and begins down the dark stairwell. From his place in the shadows, Stephen suddenly emerges and begins kissing Emily. When Emily begins to scream, Stephen notices that his gossipy neighbor, Mrs. Ambrose, has wandered close to the front door. Fearing a scandal, Stephen grabs Emily's throat to prevent her from screaming, but strangles her instead. A few minutes later, Stephen's lame brother John arrives, and Stephen begs him for help. Together, they wrap the body in an old wood sack and dump it into the flood-prone river. That evening, at a party hosted by socialite Mrs. Whittaker, John watches with disgust as Stephen amuses the guests with his drunken merriment. By the time Stephen and Marjorie, who is pregnant, return from the party, their housekeeper, Mrs. Beach, has already informed the police of Emily's disappearance. To create suspicion against Emily, Stephen hides a pair of Marjorie's earrings and she later reports them missing. Weeks later, John's housekeeper, Flora Bantam, repeats the rumor that Emily stole the earrings before quitting and leaving town. In town, John sees a display in a bookstore window featuring Stephen's new novel, Night Laughter , a thinly veiled account of Emily's murder. Later, Mrs. Bantam phones John at the office and asks him to retrieve the wood sack that he lent to Stephen. Realizing that she is referring to the sack in which they wrapped Emily's body, John gives her an excuse. Then Mrs. Bantam tells John that before he lent the sack to Stephen, she had his name stenciled on it. Sometime later, after Mrs. Ambrose spots the sack floating in the river, Stephen frantically boards his rowboat and chases after it. The sack floats away, however, and the next day, when police inspector Sarten visits his house holding the sack in his hand, Stephen tells him that it was stolen from his shed. When the case goes to court, Marjorie testifies that around the time of Emily's disappearance, she noticed that a pair of earrings had been taken. The next witness, Mrs. Bantam, testifies that after Emily's disappearance, John became so irritable that she was forced to leave his employment. Later, because of the evidence mounting against him, Marjorie fears that John may try to commit suicide. She begs Stephen to speak with him, and the brothers meet at the boat launch. There, Stephen tells John that the notoriety of Emily's murder has turned his novel into a bestseller. Fearing that his brother will reveal their secret, Stephen beats John with a section of heavy chain link, dumps his unconscious body into the river and returns home to begin work on Death in the River . When Stephen calmly tells Marjorie that he was unable to prevent John's suicide, she realizes that her own life is in danger. Just then, John arrives, still dripping water from the river, and Stephen believes that he is seeing John's ghost. Stephen is so terrified that he becomes tangled in a heavy curtain at the top of the stairs and falls to his death below.
Director
Fritz Lang
Cast
Louis Hayward
Jane Wyatt
Lee Bowman
Dorothy Patrick
Ann Shoemaker
Jody Gilbert
Peter Brocco
Howland Chamberlin
Margaret Seddon
Sarah Padden
Kathleen Freeman
Will Wright
Leslie Kimmell
Effie Laird
George Taylor
Alex Gerry
Watson Downs
Frank Dae
Carl "alfalfa" Switzer
William Fawcett
Candy Mcdowell
Judy Sochor
Edgar Caldwell
Ethel Greenwood
Edythe Elliott
Frank Jacquet
Edward Clark
Crew
George Antheil
R. Dale Butts
Edward Cronjager
Henry Cronjager
Joe Dill
Mel Dinelli
Tad Gillum
Peggy Gray
John Grubbs
Arthur D. Hilton
Louise Landmeir
Boris Leven
Howard Lydecker
Theodore Lydecker
Bob Mark
Nels Mathias
John Mccarthy Jr.
Adele Palmer
Robert Peters
Arthur Roberts
Howard Smit
Sid Swaney
Charles Thompson
Dick Tyler
Howard Welsch
Howard Wilson
Dorothy Yutzi
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
'Fritz Lang' originally wanted a black woman to play the role of Emily Gaunt but the producers refused.
Notes
The working title of this film was Floodtide. Although Arthur Hilton is credited onscreen as editor, Hollywood Reporter production charts list Arthur Roberts as the editor.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1950
Released in United States May 1990
Shown at Cannes Film Festival (Fritz Lang Tribute) May 10-21, 1990.
Released in United States May 1990 (Shown at Cannes Film Festival (Fritz Lang Tribute) May 10-21, 1990.)
Released in United States 1950
