Guest in the House

Baxter is a over-the-top as the pretty psychopath, but enjoyable nonetheless, and Bellamy, Warrick, AMacMahon, Cowan, Kilbride, Hamilton and Marie ("The Body") McDonald make a fine supporting cast. The ending is silly, and seems tacked-on, but there are a lot of good atmospheric shots of shadows and moonlight, storms and the roiling oceans. Pity the movie hasn't been restored. so we could see them as they were intended to be seen--photographer Garmes and Brahm both being good at such things.

This should be good, the writing seems fine and the plot, while not particularly original, is intriguing enough and Baxter's performance is rather enjoyable, but it never gets into gear. The rest of the women are bland, and the men even more so, and so everything just plods alone. And the ending is absurd, and not in a fun way.

Baxter, several years before ALL ABOUT EVE, is great as another manipulative, conniving and unstable femme fatale. The first two acts are a bit sluggish, but things really ramp up for the finale, as the residence gets more claustrophobic and ruled by shadows. There's some wonderful framing technique, emphasizing Baxter's control over the household. Supporting performances are generally quite good. The film could use some higher stakes and a little more zip, but it has some mighty fine elements.

Psychological drama which was interesting on paper, but didn't translate to the gripping drama it's supposed to be on screen. Something about uneven tone of everything, almost transmitting the wrong impressions during it's key scenes. Just about the only one that worked effectively was the end, but even that felt rushed and a bit too much compared to the tone of the rest of the movie. At least they tried.