UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Philippa
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Francene Odetta
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
JohnHowardReid
Despite its other defects, at least the costumes in "Hearts in Bondage" were much as we might expect people to wear in the period. The same cannot be said for the clothes worn by Susan Hayward, Debra Paget, Richard Conte and company in "House of Strangers" (1949). It comes as quite a shock halfway through the film to realize a gin mill is actually a speakeasy and that the film is actually set in 1932. You'd never know it from the 1949 wardrobes that are on display throughout the movie's entire running time from 1932 to 1939! Aside from this numbing anachronism, this is a solidly atmospheric noir with Richard Conte in one of his most dramatic and well-rounded roles, and receiving great support from gowned-to-the-hilt Susan Hayward, vitriolic Edward G. Robinson, sleazy Luther Adler and dumb-head, Paul Valentine. Stylishly directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (who has also supplied some neat ripostes and additional dialogue), this film has worn well. In fact it seemed more engrossing on Fox's 10/10 DVD than my recollection of its quality when I saw it on original release.
lasttimeisaw
In 1949, the soon-to-be Hollywood dignitary Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who would win 4 Oscars within two consecutive years (2 for directing and 2 for writing), knocks out two features, while A LETTER TO THREE WIVES takes all the spotlight in January (and the paycheck is Mr. Mankiewicz's first two Oscars, a full-year after), HOUSE OF STRANGERS, released five months later after its debut in Cannes, is ill-fatedly pigeonholed and regarded as a trou normand before the advent of his unqualified pièce de résistance ALL ABOUT EVE (1950), garnering another 2 naked golden statuettes for the champ. Based on Phillip Yordan's novel I'LL NEVER GO THERE ANY MORE, the film is a studio-bound feud within the Monetti family, the patriarch Gino (Robinson) is an Italian banker in the East Side of New York, who starts his enterprise from scratch, begets four sons and his druthers is the second-born Max (Conte), who is a lawyer by vocation, whereas the other three work for the family bank. The film starts on the day Max is released from prison after a 7-year stint, bays for blood after an altercation with his brothers and rebuffs the proposition to start anew in San Francisco with his old flame Irene Bennett (Hayward), at that point Gino has already been pushing up daisies. Then the flashback prompts to dwell on the familial tension from its initial stage, how Gino's preferential disposition detrimentally splinters his family into the titular "house of strangers" and causes deep rift when the family bank clashes with government investigation, and the story cogently flags up the capitalistic avarice, posits Gino as an usurious tyrant squeezing pecuniary gain out of the have-nots. Max is the only son who is spoiling for extricating Gino from the legal mire, but he is hoisted by his own petard when he tries to bribe a juror while his eldest brother Joe (Adler) has already secretly shopped him, that costs him a good 7-year and now he is back for vendetta, implanted by a vengeful Gino before his demise, can the ominous fratricide be averted in the eleventh hour? Edward G. Robinson meritoriously won the BEST ACTOR trophy in Cannes and here his pompous mien writs large through the most compelling register, his Gino is an unrepentant egoist, a terrible father, paternalistic and uncouth, sticks to the value of family and tradition but has no clue that poison has already been interjecting into his progeny through their upbringing: the wicked, the spoiled, the dumb and the craven, here is the Monetti Quartet. Max, played by a shifty-looking Richard Conte, is at first, nothing less repugnant than his magisterial father (both have the dastardly proclivity for laying their hands on women when confronted, can Mr. Robinson vanquishes a towering Hope Emerson in real life? The odds are not good on him!), but he is bestowed with a redeeming factor that he is the most upstanding one among the offspring to deserve a brighter future, but bemusing still, Max's final change-of-mind is cavalierly oversimplified. Susan Hayward, whose star was rising at then, channels a femme-fatale mystique on top of Irene's lonesome dame cliché, and Luther Adler, nearly upstages the rest with his fiendishly self-seeking turn as the nefarious Joe.Honestly, HOUSE OF STRANGERS is a gripping tale at large under Mr. Mankiewicz's proficient supervision, on the technical level, it is as good as any top-drawer monochromatic studio fare of that time, only the shady nuts-and-bolts of the doctrinaire story take the shine off the outstanding teamwork.
rickv404
The movie needed more development. Robinson wasn't menacing enough to provoke such disdain from his sons. Even his wife seems cold to the point of death. Was he that bad? You don't get that impression. Robinson's character was fairly likable, in fact. Susan Hayward is kinda wasted in her part, but she's nice to look at. The movie isn't much in the way of 'film noir'. Not really suspenseful at all, except a little at the end. Not a bad film. It just needed about 15 more minutes of drama, making Robinson's character a bit more believable as a tyrant and more interplay of conflict between Conte's character and his brothers. Maybe a little more of Hayward too.
Spikeopath
House of Strangers is directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and adapted to screenplay by Phillip Yordan from Jerome Weidman's novel I'll Never Go There Any More. It stars Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Luther Adler, Paul Valentine and Efrem Zimbalist. Plot finds Robinson as Gino Monetti, an Italian American banker who whilst building up the family business has ostracised three of his four sons. When things go belly up for Gino and the bank, the three sons turn against their father, the other, Max (Conte), stays loyal but finds himself set up for a prison stretch. Untimely since he's started to fall in love with tough cookie Irene Bennett (Hayward).Jerome Weidman's novel has proved to be a popular source for film adaptation, after this 20th Century Fox produced picture came the Western version with Broken Lance in 1954 (Yordan again adapting), and then Circus set for The Big Show in 1961. While its influence can be felt in many other, more notable, crime dramas along the way. The divided clan narrative provides good basis for drama and lets the better actors shine on the screen with such material. Such is the case with House of Strangers, which while hardly shaking the roots of film noir technically, does thematically play out as an engrossing, character rich, melodrama.Propelled by a revenge core peppered with hate motives instead of love; and dabbling in moral ethics et al, Mankiewicz spins it out in flashback structure. The primary focus is on Max and Gino, with both given excellent portrayals by Conte and Robinson. Gino is a driven man, very dismissive towards three of his boys (Adler standing out as Joe) who he finds easy to find fault with. But Max is spared the tough love, Gino admires him and sees him very much as an equal, which naturally irks the other brothers something rotten. This all comes to a head for the final quarter where the pace picks up and the tale comes to its prickly, if not completely satisfactory, ending.In the mix of family strife we have been privy to Max's burgeoning relationship with Irene (Hayward sassy), which positively simmers with sexual tension, or maybe even frustration? This in spite of the fact he is engaged to be married to the homely innocent Maria (Debra Paget). So with dad Gino proving to be, well, something of an ungrateful bastard, and Max cheating on his intended, clearly this is not a film about good old family values coming to the fore! Then there's the small matter of brother betrayal and the case of the foolish decision making process, all elements that keep the viewer hooked till the last. 7/10
