st-shot
Proud stubborn Gino Monetti (Edward G. Robinson) runs his Little Italy bank his way, in fact he does everything his way including cajoling and humiliating his four adult sons. Working his way from a barber to a bank president he never took time to familiarize himself with rules and codes which soon runs him afoul of the law. Three of the sons see it as an opportunity for revenge while loyal son Max (Richard Conti) calls for a united front. They set Max up on a bribery charge and he goes to jail, the old man is ruined and the brothers take over. Released and having sworn a vendetta against his brothers they debate how to deal with him.In between his Oscar efforts Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve, Joseph Mankiewicz made this little gem about patriarchy and family turmoil where no one ends up unblemished. Pops Monetti is a tyrant to his kids without an ounce of sensitivity and while his three sons decide to let him take the fall it comes after a lifetime of abuse. The good son Max though loyal to his dad is willing to bribe as well as have a touch of the dad's arrogance by expecting girlfriend played by Susan Hayward to be his piece on the side given he is engaged.Robinson is outstanding as the thick headed self-absorbed patriarch who brooks no dissent that leads to his downfall. It is all the world according to him and Robinson brings it across without sympathy as he browbeats all around him, occasionally switching to Italian with flair, his coda "Never forget, never forgive" Conti as Max gives his usual intense clipped performance that matches up perfectly when shredding the brothers over their duty as children or being brought around by Hayward to a new way of thinking. Hayward is also impressive as the self assured, independent, passionate and total opposite of the stifled old world Italian women subject to berating while pledging silent allegiance. It is her goading of Max and his anachronistic principles that help motivate him to action. Luther Adler as vindictive brother Joe balances Conti's strong performance with one of his own in which he is both loathsome and at times sympathetic due to Monetti Sr. browbeating.With its updated Shakespearean overtones (King Lear) baroque setting (The Monetti home) and strong stark performances House of Strangers holds its own most of the way with the two Oscar winners that bookend it.
felixoteiza
Superb movie, superbly done; and one quite underrated at that. The Greek tragedy of a father setting three of his sons against himself while grooming the fourth and youngest as his successor. Now, allow me to say that many reviewers have gotten HOS wrong. This is not a tale of greedy sons robbing their father of his wealth but a gripping drama about child abuse and humiliation. So, let's set the record straight on that. That also concerns the bank.The problem is, people tend to feel so comfortable with some ideas that many times they subconsciously juggle facts to fit them, oblivious many times to clear evidence pointing in some other direction. Ex.: most of us see a bank as a source of wealth and power. That's the way we see them and so it got to be for Joe, Tony & Pietro. Wrong. For these men the bank is simply the bat with which their father hits them for not being like his favorite, Max. When we see them as such, as kids who have been tormented all their lives by a monster of a father, the picture changes and the trio appears instead as victims. Victims who, by a providential strike of luck, are finally given the chance to snatch the instrument of torture from their tormentor's hands and use it to regain the dignity and self-esteem he has taken from them. So there's nothing nefarious about what they did. They deserved what they got and also he. What best proves the point is that there's absolutely no hint that they did it for greed. If you remember the first part, you may recall that their main complaint against Gino was not about money, but about never getting any respect from him. Furthermore, if you take note of the abuse he's constantly pouring on them now, when they are adults, imagine how bad it must have been when they were kids. But Gino's cruelty goes even further as, at the smallest show of discontent he challenges the rebel to go look for a job elsewhere. That's even sadism, as he has deprived them since childhood of the indispensable tools for success and self-reliance in life: dignity & self-esteem. That's why I reject the analogy with Don Corleone, who I don't recall humiliating his kids that way. Gino is far worse than him. An egomaniac to whom the entire world must adapt, obey: relatives, random acquaintances—to whom he may hit in a whim--the judiciary, the government. There's no limit to his ego and those closest to him are the ones suffering the most. All them are his victims, specially his long suffering wife, who evades the unpleasant reality searching for the cause for the general unhappiness in cultural alienation—but who finally does the right thing, giving her sons their due. And where all this leaves Max, Irene?.Max is the one holding the plot together and it's through his memory that the story unfolds. With Max comes Irene. Now, this is an incredibly well constructed psychological drama, which is hinted by what critics say about its ambiguity and shades of gray--things are not as they appear at first--and that's because this is not a story told by a neutral, uninvolved, storyteller but Max's reminiscences of the past, so it is a subjective view of things. What we see here is Max's journey into his own memory and that's what brings all the confusion and why Gino appears at first as an unmethodical, yet sympathetic, banker only to gradually go showing his true colors as Max goes on peeling him layer by layer. The same with Irene, who's introduced as an aggressive, sharp tongued vamp, only to come out at the end as a woman in love; a force for good fighting for his soul against the evil in Gino. But the crucial discovery in Max's journey concerns himself. For the first time he sees who he really was, the man that Gino had made to his own image, his creature, who's shown to him now even in his choice of words--"I'm Max Monetti and nobody talks to me like that". And for the first time he realizes how right were all those trying to rescue him from his father's poisonous influence: Irene, his mother, his brothers. And he realizes too that Gino had no intention of ever giving any power to his brothers in the bank, as he was grooming him to continue with his legacy of hatred and contempt. That's why Max comes converted out of his reminiscence and why he has decided to go away. There's is where Irene plays her crucial role. She not only means redemption to him, but also hope, a new future, the breaking of old chains. Without her he got nothing but loneliness in which case he probably wouldn't have even bothered stopping Pietro from killing Joe, letting the family destroy itself. Maria would have never done that for him; she would have just left him be what Gino wanted, his own clone.Great movie, almost perfectly done. Superb acting by all, Paget with too little to chew. Just one flaw: Max's conversion appears too abrupt. His final words to Gino too casual, almost jovial. It should have all taken more time, more pauses, more thoughtful gesturing. And I don't get why they call this one noir when, apart from the cinematography, there's very little noir here--maybe Max, always with that dark cloud hanging over his head. Also I don't think it has anything to do with any immigrant experience. The Monettis could be any family, in any place on Earth. In all, 8.5/10.
classicsoncall
The film opens with one of those great crowded New York City street scenes that the era was noted for and if you have fond memories of that place and time, this picture will bring you back. I never lived there, nor would I care to, but even as crowded as it appeared here, there still seems to be a nostalgic component to the way the scene came together to evoke a simpler place and time. Very effectively done.Edward G. Robinson has always been a favorite of mine, and it's cool to see him break with the wise guy manner of some of the gangster greats he portrayed in other films. In "House of Strangers" his character is Gino Moretti, patriarch of a dysfunctional banking family who gets pinched for usurious lending practices and other less than honorable schemes at the Monetti Trust and Loan. A decade earlier, Robinson appeared as a boxing promoter in 1937's "Kid Galahad" and it was the first time I saw him exude a peculiar charm speaking in Italian to his mother in the picture. He does it here too, making me wonder if he actually knew the language or just played it well for the role. In any event, he's fairly convincing at it.So even if Robinson's not portraying a gangster here, he's pretty much a gangster at heart in the way he deals with his family. Other than son Max (Richard Conte) who becomes the family lawyer, the remaining three brothers all fall under the thumb of the old man who treats them like menial employees. Personally, I don't know how long I could have put up with 'dumbhead' as a nickname, even if I knew I was going to inherit the family business. One thing I could relate to though was oldest brother Joe's (Luther Adler) salary at sixty five dollars a week. My first boss in the supermarket business was a store manager making sixty dollars a week who asked the owner for a five dollar raise because he needed that much to qualify for a mortgage on his first house! He got it, but he didn't have a Gino Moretti to deal with.Notable performances here by the marvelous Richard Conte who's always a professional, and the icy Susan Hayward who probably could have been toned down a bit to make her more sympathetic as a character. You know, when Max got busted for his attempted tampering of the jury lady, I had a momentary feeling that maybe Irene (Hayward) set him up for the fall. It would have been interesting if the story went in that direction.After all this time I think the story holds up well with good performances all around. The story also injects a number of quick throwaway scenes that say a lot about the characters, like the one where Robinson's character upbraids the bank customer for trying to score 'free ink'. My favorite occurred during the bar scene with Max and Irene, when the bartender came over and dumped the ashtray on the floor. You can't get any more New York attitude than that.
kenjha
An immigrant Italian family squabbles over its banking business in 1930s NYC. Robinson is fabulous as the patriarch of the family, who runs a shady business and alienates three of his sons by showing favoritism towards the fourth. Conte is equally good as the favorite son, a no-nonsense attorney. Hayward completes the trio of stellar performances as Conte's tough girlfriend. The script is excellent, with elements of it foreshadowing "The Godfather." Mankiewicz directs with a sure hand. The dialog is sharp and witty, particularly in rapid-fire exchanges between Conte and Hayward. The film also finds time for humor, including a hilarious steam bath scene.
