One of Hollywood’s first real ghost stories (i.e.: one in
which the ghost turns out to be an actual ghost and not some shyster pulling a
caper) has inexplicably never been available on DVD. The precise reason for
this oversight is hard to determine, though I’ve read rumors that a lack of
interest in lesser-known classic films is to blame. This theory is a bit tough
to swallow since so many classic and not-so-classic old movies have made it to
DVD and because The Uninvited is
often spoken of in the same breath as The
Innocents, The Haunting, and
cinema’s other great spook shows. Deservedly so, because Lewis Allen’s
adaptation of Dorothy Macardle’s novel Uneasy
Freehold has so much going for it: pleasing interplay between stars Ray
Milland and Ruth Hussey as siblings who buy a haunted house; a charmingly naive performance from newcomer Gail Russell as the granddaughter of the house’s
former owner and Milland’s love interest; a neat blend of romance, humor, and
chills; and a really scary ghost that critic Farran Smith Nehma suggests may
have inspired the spirits that swoop out of the Ark at the climax of Indiana
Jones’s first adventure.
Fortunately, The Criterion Collection has rendered the
often-asked question “Why isn’t The
Uninvited on DVD?” obsolete with an all-new digital restoration available
on DVD and Blu-ray. As is common in films of the forties, the image is soft,
particularly in blemish-concealing close-ups, but it’s also clean with no
serious flecks or scratches. This isn’t the kind of sharp-detail picture that
will knock your socks off, but the film certainly looks good, especially in the shadowy
nighttime scenes that showcase deeper blacks.
Criterion includes several supplements, the most substantial
being a 26-minute “visual essay” by Michael Almereyda, the director of such
features as Twister and Nadja and a really great episode of
“Deadwood.” The essay is interesting yet odd because it isn’t really about the
film but the careers and troubled personal lives of Milland and Russell with a
strange detour about “real life” spiritualists. There are also two radio plays
of The Uninvited, both starring Milland,
and in the accompanying booklet, an essay about the film by Smith Nehma and an
interview film historian Tom Weaver conducted with Lewis Allen in 1997.
