While The House By the River still suffers from a banal screenplay, under production, and depressing dialogue, the film is still pock-marked with simple, dark, elegant sequences in the director's style. The film is probably best know for its murder sequence - which is still effective in its combination of perversion, eroticism, and symbolism. Although the plot is boilerplate, it's fascinating to see the director slow the story down for the protagonist to flick a bug off his manuscript, make a hand mirror something ominous, or put actor Louis Hayward through a Mabuse-like crawl of terror. It's evident that although Lang was making films on the cheap, he was still trying to make them stark, effective, clever, and entertaining.
Kino has uncovered a suitable print from the National Film and Television Archive in London for this release - certainly better than the film has looked in previous prints since the dawn of video. Although the print used here, likely an intermediate positive print, is banged up at the typical reel end/beginning points, it's in overall great shape, with decent blacks and soft grays free of major wear. This DVD release includes a photo gallery of mostly lobby cards, and an interesting though too brief 5 minute interview with noted film historian Pierre Rissient created by Variety film critic Todd McCarthy.
The DVD packaging lists the copyright for the film as Repix Inc., and the DVD lists the following: "Motion Picture based on the novel "House By the River" by AP Herbert. Underlying literary rights reverted to AP Herbert 1959. Literary rights licensed exclusively to Pierre Rissient 1966" indicating both Rissient's long love and involvement with the film and his apparent interest in remake rights.
For more information about The House By the River, visit Kino International. To order The House By the River, go to TCM Shopping.
by Richard Steiner
