Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Leofwine_draca THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE is one of the film noirs that Hammer Films regularly made before they hit paydirt with THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1957. It's a low budget movie, filmed at Bray Studios, watchable enough in itself without ever equalling the heights of greatness that Hammer reached once they remodelled themselves as a horror studio.The film stars regular American import Alex Nicol, who was no stranger to appearing in British B-fare (A STRANGER IN TOWN and THE GILDED CAGE are two others I've seen in him and he seems to give the same performance in each one). He plays an everyday character, a washed-up and boozy writer who rents a house on the lake and soon becomes involved in the lives of the rich couple living opposite.Hillary Brooke is another import, playing the adulterous wife who secretly despises her rich husband. Brooke is an odd choice to the part; slightly too old and difficult to see what men would find so alluring about her, although she excels when playing the nastier side of her character, something Hitchcock noticed when he cast her in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. The real stand-out is Sid James in a rare non-comedic role as the sympathetic husband, just looking for friendship in a lonely world. James is fantastic, he really is, and he made the film worth watching for me.Otherwise, this is predictable stuff, involving love triangles, adultery, and of course the inevitable murder. Other than James, the characters aren't very nice which spoils things a bit, although it's hard to criticise THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE too much as there's nothing intrinsically bad about it; it's just that so many pictures like this was made it threatens to get lost amid the rest.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Drowning his troubles in a bottle of scotch at the British Lake Windermere Yacht Club American writer Mark Kendrick, Alex Nicol, spills his guts out to the person, who for the time being shall remain nameless, he meets there about what a fool he was to get involved with icy blond Carol Forrest, Hillary Brooke. It was Carol who manipulated him into doing what he did for her own selfish and murderous interests. That for him to be a pasty in her plans to off her husband Beverely Forrest, Sidney James, and then be left holding the bag as she checked out on Mark with pianist Vincent Gordon,Paul Carpenter.This nightmare started of for Mark when he was invited to a party thrown by Carol to help ferry with his motor boat her guests back to shore after it was discovered that the boat that took them there was out of gas. It was later that Mark took the gas-tank in being set up to whack Beverely while on a fishing trip at lake Windermear planned by Carol. What really set Carol off was the discovery that her old man, who knew she only married him for his money, was going to cut her out of his will and thus out of the lifestyle she's been so used to living. Also her step-daughter Andrea, Susan Stephen, saw through her and was also doing everything possible to get her dad Beverely to divorce Carol before she did him him for good.****SPOILERS**** Not realizing that he was being set up Mark together with Carol and Beverly went out on the lake fishing in pea soup thick fog when by avoiding another boat ended up knocking Beverly off the control or watch booth where he busted up his skull and landed unconscious on the deck below. With his back turned and keeping his eye on the steering wheel Carol pushed the unconscious Beverly overboard where he ends up drowning. With Carol who claimed to be in love with him now dumping Mark for the piano player, whom he detested, he just about had all he could take from her and decided to do the right thing. And with that Mark decides to spill the beans of what he did in him being an accomplice, or better yet pasty, in Beverely's murder of her husband. And the person whom he spilled the beans to, as well as buying him a couple of drinks, is the police detective on the case who's been hounding him all throughout the entire movie Inspt.Maclennan, Alan Wheatley.

LeonLouisRicci This is one of those Hammer B-Movie Noirs. The Studio made a Handful before it Hit Pay-Dirt and became the House of Horror. The Film-Noir Ingredients in this Darkly Lit and Narrated Story are Pure Pulp and Noir Gold. As Alec Nicol (Mark Kendricks) Pounds away at His Typewriter and Laments about Unpaid Bills and Writer's Bloc, it is the Stuff of Penny-A-Word Prose on Cheap Paper.The Audience is Drawn into the World of High Class Blondes (Hillary Brooke) Married to Elderly Men whose "Two step has got a little slow.", and a Down on His Luck Sap, who Will Play One Every Time (except maybe Sam Spade).The Tone of this Thing Rings the Noir Bell and it is Low-Budget, but that doesn't really Matter. This one has the Look and Feel of Reel Noir and it is one of the Better in the Series from the British Studio. It's got a Verbal Style, Nicol's Voice is Velvety and Desperate, and that is sure to Please Fans of the Genre.Although Film-Noir was beginning to Lose its Edge by 1954, this is Virtually a Copy of the Style from the Forties and it's a welcome Trip Back from the Police Procedural to a more Up Close and Personal Downward Spiral with Fem-Fatales and Guys with Smoky Bourbon Breath.

FilmFlaneur In 1950, American producer Robert Lippert formed a business alliance with Hammer studios. Under the agreement, Lippert would provide American acting talent - frequently shop-worn stars or just supporting actors who fancied a profitable trip out of the country - while Hammer would supply the rest of the cast and the production facilities. Together they would split the profits. Famous for his concern with the bottom line, Lippert produced over 140 films between 1946 and 1955, characteristically genre pieces such as I Shot Jesse James or Rocketship XM. For the British deal, most of the films were noir-ish thrillers - and include this title.Sidney James, a regular in this run of productions, appears in House Across The Lake. He plays successfully against type for once, as a millionaire in possession of a straying wife. Directed by Ken Hughes from his own novel, and who a year later also directed another highlight of James' career in Joe Macbeth (1955), as well as later Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) this taut, entirely successful noir thriller is one of the highlights of the Lippert-Hammer noir series (another is The Glass Cage - both available on DVD). A down-and-out writer (Alex Nichol) is invited across the lake to a rich household where he is naturally soon ensnared by a cunning fatale, leading to a waterborne death and inevitable double cross. Although the lure of sex is not quite as explicit as in The Flanagan Boy, which also appears as part of the Hammer series now reissued, House Across The Lake still manages to suggest perfectly satisfactorily the moral quagmire into which the urges of men lead them as well as an effective noir universe, which includes an extended flashback and, that archetypal device, the rueful voice-over. Recommended.