Product Details

• Actors: Kelly McGillis, Jeff Daniels, Mandy Patinkin, Jessica Tandy, Jonathan Hogan
• Directors: Peter Yates
• Writers: Walter Bernstein
• Producers: Peter Yates, Arlene Donovan, Nellie Nugiel, Robert Benton, Robert F. Colesberry
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: February 6, 2001
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000050NS6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #341,462 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Maybe I Am Easily Pleased, March 4, 2004

By 

Robert Derenthal "bucherwurm" (California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The House on Carroll Street (DVD)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For the price, a best buy at 3 ½ stars, July 4, 2003

By 

jammer "jammmer" (Laramie, Wyoming United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The House on Carroll Street (DVD)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An engaging, good-spirited thriller thanks to the two appealing leads and the influence of Alfred Hitchcock, May 16, 2007

By 

C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The House on Carroll Street (DVD)

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.