Customer Reviews

The House on Carroll Street

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just watched this movie again last night, having watched it before when it was first released. My motive for writing this review is to add one positive contribution to this collection of downward pointing thumbs.

Well, yes, it is sort of an ordinary cloak and dagger film, but I enjoyed seeing a female lead character who was gutsy, a lady who didn't follow the stereotype of the ankle sprainer who has to lean on the big strong man for protection. Actually it is a good thing that Kelly McGillis isn't prone to ankle injuries, because she certainly does a lot of running in this flick. She just seems to be in a hurry wherever she goes, and trots along at a good clip even when she isn't being chased. Sometimes I felt I was watching another version of Run Lola Run.

Anyway the time period is the Joe McCarthy era, and Kelly loses her job because she refuses to name names to Congress. By chance she discovers some strange happenings that indicate maybe there are some ex (current?) Nazis inflitrating her pleasant neighborhood. Well the FBI is involved, too, and the chase is on. Evil people flit in and out, and surprises happen when people open doors.

Admittedly the tale is sort of muted Hitchcock, and not particularly exceptional in its plot, but I found it to be a pleasant thriller to watch. I must also confess that I was mesmerized by Ms McGillis's breathtaking beauty. She was about 30 when this movie was made, and, gosh, I just fell in love with her.

Though the Australian reviewers comments are too harsh, they are entertaining with some points well-taken. But this reviewer would move the overall rating up to 3 ½ stars out of 5 possible.

Having purchased the DVD and seen it without any preconceptions or prior reviews, this reviewer was pleasantly satisfied: not a classic film, but quite entertaining, keeping one on the edge of the seat pretty much throughout. There is never a dull moment, but not overly so as is too often the case in todays hyperactive and mindless action and adventure flicks. This film was definitely not written by 13-year-olds for 13-year-olds and contains a lot of well-presented material. Kelly McGillis gives a credible performance as a balanced and generally level-headed woman being persecuted by governmental agencies. Her portrayal is not the weepy, hysterical and too-vulnerable type that can find its way into films like this. Mandy Patinkin does well as a chilling, oily and thoroughly corrupted and unscrupulous politician/attorney (or whatever) with too much power in the wrong places. Jessica Tandy is good in what few scenes she has; too bad she couldnt have had a more central role.

As to the production values, the film is the letterboxed theatrical presentation at 1.66:1 (as stated on the case, and this seemed about right.) The picture, for a 1988 film, while not exceptional, is mostly clear, though with suggestions of fuzziness for purists. Overall, the image is on the dark side and there is some loss of detail in deep shade scenes, though not annoyingly so. Color fidelity of details in some scenes struck this reviewer as almost exceptionally good. The Dolby Digital mono sound is strong and clean.

There are no annoying advertising impositions or preliminary and unrelated material to try to get around (something becoming increasing annoying in many new DVD releases, sometimes necessitating drastic action to curtail!) The DVD is well-packaged in a quality case. If you like a thriller in the Hitchcock vein with reasonable and well-restrained message content that doesnt get in the way of the story, this DVD is a good buy for the price, and recommended.

When Emily Crane, a photo editor at Life Magazine, refuses to turn over to a Senate committee the names and files of a civil rights organization she's associated with, she doesn't realize she'll soon be out of a job and probably the cause of a young German being stabbed to death. That's not the least of it. Soon she'll be refusing a great hamburger while a senior Senate committee staff man uses catsup on a white dining clothe to illustrate the red menace. And finally, she'll find herself clambering over the interior catwalk of New York's Grand Central Station dome, high above the floor, while killers try to insure she trips. To my mind, The House on Carroll Street is a solid and talented, if not exceptional, child of Hitchcock.

The year is 1951 and anti-Communism hysteria is in full bloom. Congressional demagogues, black-listing and secret FBI files abound. When Emily (Kelly McGillis) loses her job, we learn she's under FBI surveillance. Agent Cochrane (Jeff Daniels) has been assigned to take secret photographs of her, find out who she talks to and to follow her about New York. He observes when, in need of a job, she is interviewed by Miss Venable (Jessica Tandy) to read to the old lady. And one afternoon, relaxing in the townhouse garden of Miss Venable's home, she overhears part of a conversation in German coming from the next house. Naturally nosy, she moves closer through the bushes, glimpses the face of a young German fellow she accidently met a day or two before on the street...and then sees the face of the Senate staff head, Ray Salwen (Mandy Patinkin). Salwen was responsible for hauling her before the committee. Something is not right. A few days later she follows the German to a Jewish cemetery and finds him writing down the names of dead Jews. He seems scared. Before long, she is helping him escape from the house on Carroll Street, only to see him stabbed to death in front of her. By now, FBI agent Cochrane not only realizes something is very off, he realizes Emily Crane has nice legs, is quite likable and may be in danger. He's puzzled when he is warned off by his superiors and then taken off her case. In solid Hitchcockian style, we have been following this nice and nosy woman while she slowly discovers skullduggery and then realizes that she has placed herself at great risk. And in equally solid Hitchcockian style, we have met the man in agent Cochrane who with persistence and humor will attempt to keep her from danger while joining her in uncovering a plot that deals with German war criminals and powerful men in high places.

The movie has well-directed set pieces, ranging from a covert meeting in a huge, dim Greenwich Village book store to a spooky breaking-and-entering into the now abandoned house on Carroll Street (where Emily meets a man with a knife) to the exploration of the tunnels below and the girders high above the Grand Central main station. Most of all, it has two instantly appealing main characters in McGillis and Daniels. Both are completely natural in their portrayals. They have guileless faces. We immediately like both of them. Daniels in particular shows the kind of open-faced honesty that makes the movie so satisfying. The caveat I have is Mandy Patinkin. He is a forceful, intense actor. Patinkin makes Salwen a creature of such supreme self-confidence, such repellant humor that Salwen doesn't just stand for the evils of the period, he disgusts us. Patinkin's self-serving, power-justifying Salwen, full of phony patriotism and contemptuous high spirits, in my opinion very nearly overbalances the movie. Patinkin is just an inch away from becoming a caricature. Added to that are two speeches that Patinkin is given to justify his actions. Unfortunately, they move over into manipulated melodrama. The speeches are so over-the-top they tend to place the movie on hold while Patinkin gives them. However, the screenwriter is Walter Bernstein, a talented man who was black-listed for years. I'm more than willing to cut him some slack.

I think The House on Carroll Street is a well-crafted semi-romantic thriller which doesn't use explosives (well, there's one), cynicism or cumbersome back stories. It has two attractive and likable leads, a plot with a message or two which keeps moving along and a bit of humor. It also has a happy ending which, in one regard, may be unexpected. The DVD transfer looks fine. It's not anamorphic. There are no extras.

"The house on Carol Street" is a bold look about these tense times of furious McCarthyism (1951) in which a young assistant refuses to answer certain information that's why she must be fired. Once the decision ahs been made, she has to earn her life, and decides to take as job as reader of a crusty employer (the unforgettable Jessica Tandy), by just $15 by week.

But trying to get the exact address, she meets a man who behaves nervously, that will be the thread that will lead her to get involved with a Nazi smuggling web that surreptitiously deals with undesirable refugees. On the road she will be involved in a fugacious love affair with a FBI agent. Mandy Patinkin is fabulous as the main villain in this likable film directed by the talented Peter Yates, that knew to impress all the possible realism that certainly remits us to Hitchcokian sequences (as the well made one in Central Station).

Recommended.

Good thriller. No way compares to "House on 92nd Street". Format is different. "House on Carroll Street" is a movie, while "House on 92nd Street" is a documentary intertwined into a movie...very interesting approach. For simple entertaining, I recommend it. However, it's contingent on the audience's viewpoint.

The House on Carroll Street, 1988 film

The movie begins with a view of a cemetery. A man walks along the graves. Next there is a Senate hearing in NY. Miss Emily Crane is summoned as a witness; she is a photo editor for a large circulation weekly magazine. She refuses to hand over the information demanded, and is cited for contempt. Back at work she is fired. The parked cars say it is the early 1950s. Emily goes to look for another job; a reader for an elderly wealthy woman. While relaxing in the backyard she hears a conversation in a foreign language. She recognizes a face in that room. The next scene tells about the doctors: they are technicians (or something). Emily meets a young man and they talk. What is the secret? Later two men from the FBI search her rooms; she is a suspect. [Never keep records or documents in your rooms.] A man calls her on the phone, she meets him in a famous bookstore. "Run!" They join a group in a theater. "How do you get out of here?" Somebody stabs the young man.

The police question Emily. She tells about Ray Solwin at that house. Emily remembers those spoken names. She finds an uninvited visitor in her rooms. "What do you want?" "Does it concern you?" Emily breaks into that house, and searches the rooms. There is a surprise from a man with a knife. She is rescued by another man. What is special about that book? They visit a ship at a dock. Next a wedding party. Emily snoops again. "We have met before." Emily enters a church, then is taken away to a restaurant. Ray Solwin is there, and talks to her. "No one else knows." Emily returns home, and is warned by her new friend Mike Cochrane, FBI agent. Soon there is a big noise. The next morning her friend explains his work. They are friendlier now. Emily visits Grand Central Station. The trains go north to Albany, west to Buffalo, then on to Chicago. Emily snoops on the train. She runs away again. Mike meets her again. Another man meets them. Emily flees again. She is pursued. Ray finds her! Run, Emily, run. There is a chase, then gravity does its thing. Mike Cochrane enters the railroad coach to make arrests. Later the case is wrapped up. Mike is transferred to Butte Montana, he is finally off the case. "Take care of yourself." "I have nothing to say."

The film tries to recreate New York City in the early 1950s. But only a few men wear hats, and few ladies wear white gloves. The non-actors smile when on-camera. This story is below average. It seems the story was put together by a committee with conflicting aims, and lacks focus. It is based on facts but hides it well. It seems like a message movie which suffers from wishful thinking. It could not have been a box-office success. Anyone who knows the history of the early 20th century would know of the fascist sympathies of the big corporations, and their flunkies or agents in the government.

Emily Crane (Kelly McGillis) works for Life magazine but her loyalty to Liberty Watch, an organization devoted to civil liberties, gets her fired. This highly educated woman settles for a job reading aloud to Miss Venable (Jessica Tandy) whose eyes are failing. Standing outside of the house on Carroll Street she hears - or more like eavesdrops on - a conversation she wasn't supposed to hear and soon begins to make inquiries, bringing the FBI to her door and trouble to her life. And when she befriends a young immigrant, she puts her life in danger.

FBI Agent Mike Cochran (Jeff Daniels) doesn't like the big city, but New York isn't so bad once he meets Emily. He becomes her protector.

I didn't like Salwen (Mandy Patinkin). He was so casual and smug about the whole situation as if he had no part in it. He was an evil man and his presence bothered me.

I really like movies that take place in the 40's and 50's. This one takes place in 1951, I believe, and it was intriguing and saddening at times. There is very little profanity and brief nudity that had nothing to do with the sex scene, which was left to the imagination (so unlike most movies today). The German speaking parts are interpreted by another character, which was nice since I don't speak the language, but it would have been nice to have subtitles on the few occasions when there was no interpretation.

Watched this DVD several times and lost track of the plot. Actually,I bought it because of the final scenes in Grand Central Terminal showing areas which are not open to the public.

This Peter Yates directed thriller was written by Walter Bernstein, who had been blacklisted in the McCarthy era, and had written about it for The Front. Here Bernstein takes his anti-McCarthy paranoia one step further by suggesting that Roy Cohn tried to illegally smuggle former Nazis into America, posing them under the name of dead Jews. Yates' underrated skill manages to overcome this somewhat far-fetched premise, providing a woman in peril drama with various Hitchcock-ian setpieces - a wedding reception, a church, a bookshop, a theatre, and the climax at Grand Central Terminal. He also attempts a romance between the woman targetted by the FBI and an FBI agent who feels guilty about her harassment. While the romance is aided by the score by Georges Delerue, and Jeff Daniels is acceptable, if a bit comically light, to play the male lead, Yates has more trouble with Kelly McGillis as the woman. In spite of her skill, McGillis isn't a romantic actress. No matter how effectively she is styled for the period, she lacks vulnerability so that we never feel she will be defeated. Pauline Kael memorably compared McGillis to Charlton Heston. Yates partially compensates by having her silent and on the run, but when in one scene she is naked in the bath being menaced by Mandy Patinkin as the Roy Cohn figure, while she acts vulnerable, it's not truthful. Patinkin playing his menace with musical comedy timing doesn't help either. Perhaps if he sang to her in his terrifying falsetto, McGillis would be truthfully frightened. Jessica Tandy appears briefly as a woman McGillis is paid to read to, and I was disappointed that Bernstein found no way to bring her further into the plot. Even the Carroll Street house (though I don't recall hearing the name Carroll Street ever mentioned) is disposed of quickly. And Patinkin has an odd speech where he demonstrates the logic of his shenanigans by splashing ketchup on a white tablecloth. The Grand Central climax is handled awkwardly when everyone is climbing the belfry (why do people being pursued always go up and no down?!), but Yates comes off better with a chase in a bookshop, and the wedding reception, with Daniels and McGillis dancing and spying. It's a pity Bernstein decided to take on this comic book style approach to an abhorrent moral and political time in history. You would think that someone who was blacklisted would not pander to such a base Hollywood aesthetic. McCarthy was scary enough without making him and his pals neo-Nazis.

It started out with so much promise. It's the Mc Carthy era & paranoia rules. Kelly McGillis gets caught up in it & loses her job. With time on her hands she stumbles onto what becomes a plot to smuggle Nazi into the country. Meanwhile she is being harassed by The FBI. Agent Jeff Daniels gets friendly & she enlist him into what she has discovered. He helps her in his spare time & falls for her(who wouldn't). Mandy Patinkin is pleasently evil. There is a gratuitous shot of Kelly's breasts while she is in the shower. Maybe the high point of the movie. Actually she pulls off being a career woman of the 50's very well. Lots of slow spots, & a silly chase in the rafters of Grand Central Station. It's only 101 minute longer but seemed longer. Maybe I can squeeze 21/2 stars.