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The Red House
Time out says, release details.
- Duration: 100 mins
Cast and crew
- Director: Delmer Daves
- Screenwriter: Delmer Daves
- Edward G Robinson
- Lon McCallister
- Allene Roberts
- Judith Anderson
- Rory Calhoun
- Julie London
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The Red House
An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods. An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods. An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods.
- Delmer Daves
- George Agnew Chamberlain
- Albert Maltz
- Edward G. Robinson
- Lon McCallister
- Judith Anderson
- 113 User reviews
- 48 Critic reviews
- 1 nomination
Top cast 11
- Pete Morgan
- Ellen Morgan
- Tibby Rinton
- The Sheriff
- Motorcycle Cop
- (uncredited)
- Albert Maltz (uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
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Did you know
- Trivia The novel upon which this movie is based was serialized in "The Saturday Evening Post" from 10 March 1945 to 7 April 1945. It was first published in book form in 1943.
- Goofs Nath arrives home in a yellow school bus marked UNION HIGH SCHOOL. Yet, he wears a varsity sweater with an 'S' on it rather than a 'U'. However, the 'S' could stand for the name of the school mascot (e.g., "SPARTANS"), rather than the school's name. Also, some schools are organized under a regional Union School district, but retain their local identity for sports and other extracurricular activities.
Nath Storm : She's like an ornery heifer sometimes, hard to hold down.
- Connections Featured in Century of Cinema: A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)
User reviews 113
- Aug 22, 2004
- How long is The Red House? Powered by Alexa
- July 4, 1947 (Mexico)
- United States
- La casa roja
- Sonora, California, USA
- Sol Lesser Productions
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Technical specs
- Runtime 1 hour 40 minutes
- Black and White
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The red house.
Directed by Delmer Daves
OF THIS MAN...AND THE GIRL WHO LIVED IN "THE RED HOUSE"...people spoke only in whispers
An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods.
Edward G. Robinson Lon McCallister Judith Anderson Rory Calhoun Allene Roberts Julie London Ona Munson Harry Shannon Arthur Space Pat Flaherty Walter Sande
Director Director
Delmer Daves
Producers Producers
Sol Lesser Clem Beauchamp
Writers Writers
Delmer Daves Albert Maltz
Original Writer Original Writer
George Agnew Chamberlain
Editor Editor
Merrill G. White
Cinematography Cinematography
Bert Glennon
Assistant Director Asst. Director
Robert Stillman
Additional Photography Add. Photography
Eddie Fitzgerald
Art Direction Art Direction
McClure Capps
Set Decoration Set Decoration
Dorcy Howard
Visual Effects Visual Effects
Warren Lynch
Composers Composers
Miklós Rózsa William A. Wilmarth
Sound Sound
Frank McWhorter Joseph I. Kane Eddie Nelson Jack Noyes
Costume Design Costume Design
Frank Beetson Jr.
Makeup Makeup
Irving Berns
Sol Lesser Productions United Artists
Releases by Date
04 feb 1947, 16 mar 1947, 19 may 2008, releases by country, netherlands.
- Physical 12 DVD
- Theatrical (Rated A)
- Theatrical NR
100 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page
Popular reviews
Review by theriverjordan ★★★½ 19
A threat without form or face terrorizes the lives of a rural American family in “The Red House.” Unexplained and unknown - all the guilt that has ever gone unspoken becomes its teeth, as the mystery of Oxhead Woods gnashes its jaws down on normality.
Directed by multi-genre pro Delmer Daves, “Red House” also should boast the extensive experience of its screenwriter, Albert Maltz, a man who rivalled only Daves for his breadth of output across: noir, Westerns, and melodrama.
“Red House,” however, does not boast of Maltz’s vast experience. His name does not appear on the film at all. It goes unspoken, unwritten, and unacknowledged. That is because, “Red House” released the exact year that Maltz refused to testify…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
The past manifests as property in this proto-Lynchian thriller. Doo-wop hijinks shattered by nature and isolation. It's icky and all sorts of awkward; Noir to an extreme but smoothed off with a teenage surface. A little long but worth seeing for the jarring final scene alone.
Review by theironcupcake ★★★★★ 4
"If you love someone, you'll do anything for 'em." "That works both ways."
Spooky Season #2
Before Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, there was The Red House. Strange. Surreal. Psychosexual. A don't go in the woods flavor of rural noir with eerie winds howling warnings to anyone who dares enter the territory. What secret is Edward G. Robinson hiding in a cabin out in the forest next to his farm? What taboo truths are he and sister Judith Anderson keeping from their adopted teen daughter, Allene Roberts? What will all-American boy next door Lon McCallister (one of the many gay actors who had to stay closeted to maintain a career back then) discover when he goes exploring? And how about…
Review by D Rock ★★
So much time and so much effort spent getting the tension and mood and mystery off the ground about supposedly cursed woods in back of Edward G. Robinson's farm, but The Red House never really lifts off and in the end it just kind of crashes nose first into the melodramatic muck and swamp at the end of the runway.
And yet the blueprint of this southern country noir looks pretty good, on the blueprint paper anyways. You have Ed Robinson as Pete, you have Judith Anderson as the concerned looking matron (always a 50-50 chance she's good or evil, which is kind of fun) for pete's sake! (literally, since she's Pete's devoted sister who's unexplainedly sacrificed her whole life…
Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★
Noir-November Challenge! Movie #5
The mystery is revealed far too soon! If you go in knowing this in advance you can enjoy the film for what it does have to offer! It is well acted and is more of a psychological study of a man who has lost more than just his mind!
The scene with the young man in the woods for the first time at night was genuinely scary! It indeed looked like there were supernatural elements going on in this film! Not too far into the film this notion is quickly dispelled unfortunately!
Review by Elwira Hasselblad ★★★★½ 2
A great mysterious yet cozy thriller that I’ve never heard about before! But also, I’m loving the nature, the woods, the countryside… it makes me wonder how’d it looked here at my place, back then :,)
This is highly recommended, in case you haven’t seen or heard about this gem before <3
Review by Scout ★★★★
While The Red House is cheesy and predictable, it has a very comforting atmosphere. A necessary watch for a stormy night.
Review by Peter Labuza ★★★
Really, really Lynchian for an hour (Lon McCallister looks and talks like he's Jeffrey Beaumont), and then starts explaining things and using plot devices, before going really off the deep end for a great finale. Also the final shot recalls the iconic shot of True Lies . One other perfect shot: two lovers flirt on a back of a bus, but Daves frames it as a three shot with a stern woman. Our eyes are drawn to her, and thus into the real narrative.
Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★½
The truth shouldn't scare anybody, man or boy. -Pete Morgan
If your adoptive parents are Edward G. Robinson and his sister, chances are something's up. The fact that he has a wooden leg and is constantly losing his shit every time someone mentions their going into the woods certainly doesn't quell suspicions either.
The gist of the mystery will be obvious quick as the plot is missing that film-noir convolutedness that I'll admit I'm a sucker for, but the performances throughout the movie more then make up for anything that might feel predictable.
Watching Edward G. Robinson slowly unravel is always entertaining and here he comes with an incredibly creepy twist on top of that. The rest of the roles…
Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★
Haunted house as femme fatale? Return of the repressed: when your impossible desire just won't die
There's an irreducible divide here between a fun/creepy story about a bunch of kids trying to go to a haunted house cuz they ain't no yellow coward! and a more genuinely unsettling story about a man desperately trying to escape the haunting events of his past. The former is mediocre, featuring an unconvincing teen romance; the latter is fantastic, featuring Edward G. Robinson in his prime. I just wish they had found a better first half to tie the second onto.
I will say though, the narrative relies heavily on visual storytelling and the ominous score to carry its momentum forward, and that's something…
Review by Ali ★★★ 2
“Did you ever run away from a scream? You can’t! It will follow you through the woods! It will follow you all your life!”
This 1940s thriller starts off with a bright and cheery look at the schoolchildren in a rural farming community. On the bus ride home one day, Meg invites Nath to her house to see her father Pete, who offers him a good-paying job doing chores on the farm. That evening, Nath joins the family for supper, who we learn are the frequent target of small-town gossip. Pete and his unmarried sister live together, raising Meg as their adopted daughter on a farm that is considered overly self-sufficient and isolated from the rest of the town. As…
Review by Raphael Georg Klopper ★★★★
A Southern psychological horror that turns into a Noir for the tangling morality of its characters, and its done so well right. With the forever underrated Delmer Daves helming everything carrying an unease feel from the get go, with every single character interaction seemingly having something hidden behind their eyes, words, and their surrounding area of the farm country, the small town and the mysterious woods and the relation with the character of Pete Morgan ( Edward G. Robinson ) and his relation with the so called Red House .
Early evoking ghost like vibe giving a real haunted personality to its main mystery that reaches head-scratching level already by its first minutes, but it soon reveals to be something far deeper than…
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The Red House
Editor's ranking, average user rating, your watchlist.
- 100 minutes
- United Artists, Sol Lesser Productions
Cast + Crew
Within a cycle of films that made a standard character out of dark city streets, Delmer Daves’ The Red House stands out as one of only a few American noirs of the 1940’s set exclusively in a rural setting: all the action takes place on a farm and its surrounding land with a few ventures onto a school bus. Edward G. Robinson stars in an unusual role as Pete Morgan, a tormented farmer with a bum leg and a terrible secret that compels him to hire a local good-for-nothing (Rory Calhoun) to patrol the surrounding woods and scare off any trespassers with his rifle (“ There’s a curse on these woods!”) When Pete’s adopted daughter Meg (Allene Roberts) arranges for her handsome classmate Nath Storm (Lon McCallister) to take a job on the farm, Nath takes an interest in the woods and recruits Meg to help him find the mysterious red house rumored to exist. Judith Anderson plays Pete’s sister Ellen, a spinster who helps manage the farm and is the only other soul who knows about the violent crimes and betrayals that color Pete’s history. Director Daves combines elements of noir and horror, especially when Nath first walks home through the howling winds of Oxhead Woods (“Did you ever run away from a scream? You can’t!”) while veering momentarily into adventure territory for the final sequence in which Pete drives through rough, wooded terrain for his final confrontation at the ice house.
By Michael Bayer
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The Red House (1947)
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The Red House (1947) - Blu-ray Review
{2jtab: Movie Review}
 Writer/Director Delmer Dave’s eerie classic from 1947, The Red House , finally gets its just reward. Long listed as a favorite film from many critics (but not often seen by the public), the suspense contained inside one abandoned farmhouse is murderously clever and highly enjoyable. It also proves the point that forests at night are to be avoided. Always. Starring Edward G. Robinson and a young Julie London, there’s no kidding the absolute black-and-white risk this film took with content and subject matter. The Red House is quite the quiet stunner. Farmer Pete Morgan (a somewhat restrained Robinson) and sister Ellen (Judith Anderson) live quietly away some distance from the nearest town. Their teenage stepdaughter Meg (Allene Roberts) hears all the rumors the kids at school say about her family and their ant-social ways. It’s all trash; rubbish and hushed whispers anyway. A local teenage boy (who Meg fancies) Nath (Lon McCallister) finds himself working part-time for Morgan and is warned about the traveling the nearby woods at night. Screams follow a traveler. Intrigued by this warning, Nath goes out of his way to prove Morgan wrong. He can’t. Screams really do follow you; at least something does. Stay away from the mysterious red house that Morgan says is in the forest. Another mysterious warning and the plot dives a bit deeper. It’s a house no one has found. When Nath’s girlfriend, the deliciously curved London), and a dark-haired neighbor named Keller (Rory Calhoun) stumble into the pastoral narrative, things get twisted rather quickly. Alliances are revealed and truths are uncovered and all happens under Morgan’s frothy mug. Written by Daves and produced by Sol Lesser, The Red House might be a little long in the tooth for today’s audiences, but it’s bite is certainly memorable. The staggering mood of The Red House is a thick tangle of roots and limbs that gets more interesting the longer you gaze into it. Branches reveal the picture that been there all along nestled in the forest of warning. You just didn’t know it. Atmospheric and full of danger, the thick and hearty woods – aptly named Ox Head Woods – are cleverly revealed in the dynamic use of light and shadow from Dave’s camera. Already established as a great director of mood and mayhem with minor classics like 3:10 To Yuma and Dark Passage , Dave adds a bit of tortured family dynamic and dysfunction to the robust film noir genre and creates a unique statement without dipping into stereotype. Plotting right next to it is the wonderful score of Miklós Rózsa who, as composer for Double Indemnity and Spellbound , is no stranger to mood and mystery. Turn the sound up, but don’t cover your eyes. It might be buried deep in the woods, but The Red House and all its secrets are not easily missed…or forgotten. {2jtab: Film Details}  Synopsis : Pete and Ellen have reared Meg as their own, ever since she was a baby and her parents took off. Now a teen, Meg convinces her friend Nath to come help with chores on the farm: Pete isn't getting around on his wooden leg like he used to. When Nath insists on using a short cut home through the woods, Pete gets quite agitated and warns him of screams in the night, of terrors associated with the red house. Curious, Meg and Nath ignore his warnings and begin exploring. Meg begins falling in love with Nath, but his girlfriend Tibby has other plans for him. Meanwhile they all get closer to real danger and the dark secret of the red house. {2jtab: Blu-ray Review} 
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COMMENTS
Meg (Allene Roberts) lives with her adoptive parents, Pete (Edward G. Robinson) and Ellen Morgan (Judith Anderson). When Nath (Lon McCallister), a classmate of Meg's, comes to help on their farm ...
The Red House is a 1947 American thriller film noir [1] [3] directed by Delmer Daves, and starring Edward G. Robinson, Lon McCallister, Judith Anderson, Rory Calhoun, Allene Roberts, and Julie London.Its plot follows a young woman raised by a brother and sister who are concealing a secret involving an abandoned farmhouse located deep in the woods on their sprawling property.
7/10. off kilter, effective thriller. blanche-2 20 August 2007. Edward G. Robinson doesn't want his adopted daughter to go near "The Red House" in this 1947 film which also stars Judith Anderson, Lon McAllister, Allene Roberts, Julie London and Rory Calhoun.
Warped relationships are the norm in his weird but hardly wonderful world, and indeed even the film itself boasts a perverse pedigree: it's a pastoral, noir -inflected psychodrama with ...
Writer/Director Delmer Dave's eerie classic from 1947, The Red House, finally gets its just reward. Long listed as a favorite film from many critics (but not often seen by the public), the suspense contained inside one abandoned farmhouse is murderously clever and highly enjoyable. It also proves the point that forests at night are to be avoided.
The Red House: Directed by Delmer Daves. With Edward G. Robinson, Lon McCallister, Judith Anderson, Rory Calhoun. An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods.
The Red HouseSavant Blu-ray + DVD Review. The Red House. Starring Edward G. Robinson, Lon McCallister, Judith Anderson, Rory Calhoun, Allene Roberts, Julie London, Ona Munson, Walter Sande . The crows in Dumbo might have been predicting a major theme for the 1940s when they prescribed a new approach to problem solving: "Cology!
The Red House is one of the first rural noirs. Some casual noir fans may be surprised that so many noir stories take place outside the rain-soaked dark alleys of the city. "Rural noir" has been happening since the beginning of the noir movement with Albert Dekker crawling out of a abandoned mansion in the swamp in Among the Living.
The cinematography is perfection, with some scenes in the woods that give an impression of entering a magical, undiscovered realm. The film really has everything you could be looking for in a mystery. It's beautiful and gentle when required but deeply unsettling as it goes further along.
Creepy noir that slowly works its way under your skin. At first it seems rather plain and wholesome, but the mysterious references to "the red house", uncovering of dark secrets and disturbing sexual undertones build a hypnotic tension. Lon McCallister comes off as too earnest, but the other performances are very strong.
A threat without form or face terrorizes the lives of a rural American family in "The Red House.". Unexplained and unknown - all the guilt that has ever gone unspoken becomes its teeth, as the mystery of Oxhead Woods gnashes its jaws down on normality. Directed by multi-genre pro Delmer Daves, "Red House" also should boast the extensive ...
Nath (Lon McCalllister), inquisitive at dinner after his first afternoon working at the Morgan farm, hired at the urging of Meg (Allene Roberts), with her adoptive father Pete (Edward G. Robinson) and his sister (Judith Anderson), events taking a sudden dark turn, early in. A man hides a dangerous secret from his adopted daughter.
Within a cycle of films that made a standard character out of dark city streets, Delmer Daves' The Red House stands out as one of only a few American noirs of the 1940's set exclusively in a rural setting: all the action takes place on a farm and its surrounding land with a few ventures onto a school bus. Edward G. Robinson stars in an unusual role as Pete Morgan, a tormented farmer with a ...
Visit the movie page for 'The Red House' on Moviefone. Discover the movie's synopsis, cast details and release date. Watch trailers, exclusive interviews, and movie review. Your guide to this ...
Peter Morgan's (Edward G. Robinson) fake leg has made their future uncertain, and so sister Ellen (Judith Anderson) and their adopted teenage daughter Meg (Allene Roberts) convince him to take on a hired hand. Meg is sweet on a boy at school, the rather oblivious Nath (Lon McCallister), who agrees to show up for an impromptu interview despite ...
Writer/Director Delmer Dave's eerie classic from 1947, The Red House, finally gets its just reward. Long listed as a favorite film from many critics (but not often seen by the public), the suspense contained inside one abandoned farmhouse is murderously clever and highly enjoyable. It also proves the point that forests at night are to be avoided.
The Red House Reviews. 1947. 1 hr 40 mins. Drama. NR. Watchlist. Where to Watch. A farmer, who has raised a girl as his own, keeps a secret that only his wife knows. In this taut chiller, Robinson ...
A tad gamey but nevertheless entertaining, The Red House is an entertaining rediscovery for fans of its notable director and cast members, in this (more or less) offbeat noir. Full Review ...
The Red House is an interesting psychological thriller [based on the novel by George Agnew Chamberlain], with its mood satisfactorily sustained throughout the pic. Film, however, has too slow a ...
Combustible Celluloid Review - The Red House (1947), written by Delmer Daves, based on a novel by George Agnew Chamberlain, directed by Delmer Daves, and with Edward G. Robinson, Lon McCallister, Judith Anderson, Rory Calhoun, Allene Roberts, Julie London, Ona Munson, Harry Shannon, Arthur Space
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz. The Gothic thriller The Red House is based on the novel by George Agnew Chamberlain and it's written and directed by Delmer Daves. It's a moody atmospheric melodrama with a clumsily drawn Freudian framework, as a guilt-ridden farmer, Pete Morgan (Edward G. Robinson), is obsessed with a red house in the woods ...
Movie Review of The Red House (1947) starring Edward G. Robinson
GREEN SPRING - The House of the Setting Sun, the haunted house in Green Spring, is rolling out the red carpet for a new experience this year: 'a night at the movies.' "We're a community coming together and we build it, we create it, and we're doing something with the kids. I'm all for ...