Dec 21, 2018
House Of Darkness (1948)
"The only reason you're in favour of my taking a holiday is so that you can play the master while I'm away!"
"I can assure you, I'm much more interested in playing the piano."
#house of darkness#1948#british cinema#drama film#melodrama#films i done watched#oswald mitchell#john gilling#laurence harvey#lesley osmond#alexander archdale#john teed#grace arnold#john stuart#lesley brook#george melachrino#sidney monckton#pauline winter#henry oscar#charles paton#for the most part this is an overbaked melodrama full of simmering resentments and barely concealed hysteria#it's lifted from mediocrity by a quite brilliant performance from harvey in his very first film role#he's a little over eager in some scenes and his romance with lesley osmond isn't entirely convincing#but in his scenes with archdale and teed he's fantastic. a wickedly witty manipulator#there are scenes in which he quite openly bullies both men but in such a way that his words seem inoffensive to others around them#it's an astonishingly confident and mature performance. he was just 20!#the supernatural elements that come in half way through aren't really necessary. the film works just as well as a simple study of#harvey's monstrous tyrant. the framework is curious too. a story within a story told by the real life composer for the film#george melachrino who equips himself very well as composer and slightly less well as an actor