HEFILM With Barrymore seemingly so sure of herself it just isn't convincing that she crumbles so quickly under the genteel home invaders. The set up is quite good but once they supposedly have her under their control there are too many ways she could escape, and yet never does, that it loses reality. There are also too many characters who have to vanish, like the young daughter and even a baby, in order for the plot to work.Evans is good but the stand out is Wynn--very convincing as a heavy and as a Brit. Good score, and carefully placed as well--though the otherwise good print shown on TCM has a distracting warble to the soundtrack that distorts the music.Sturges direction is slick, but he's no Hitchcock. One off camera death is nicely done and the film keeps moving despite limited locations it doesn't feel dull, nor does it bristle with excitement.But the unbalanced script can't convince us the jeopardy is real despite good acting all around. Perhaps the original play worked better.

JohnHowardReid The stage play opened at the Booth on 23 April 1935 and ran a successful 99 performances. Grace George played the spinster and Henry Daniell the sinister fortune-hunter. H.C. Potter directed. M-G-M acquired the rights and made the first film version in 1935 with Aline MacMahon and Basil Rathbone. This second version was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design in black-and-white, losing to Edith Head's "A Place in the Sun".Although produced on a "B" budget, this is a solidly engrossing movie thanks to a charismatically sympathetic performance by Ethel Barrymore and solid support from the likes of Betsy Blair, Angela Lansbury and Keenan Wynn. As the instigator of the sting, Maurice Evans has been taken to task for being a little too gentlemanly in his approach, but that that surely is a virtue rather than a fault. We, the audience, join Ethel Barrymore's ultra-sympathetic Mary Herries as innocent victims of his surprising duplicity. Assisted by Joseph Ruttenberg's superlatively moody photography, director John Sturges conjures up a tingling atmosphere throughout with a sure hand, extracting every bit of tension from a script that gradually turns the screws and adroitly piles suspense on suspense right up to the unnerving fade-out.

MartinHafer At the outset, I must point out that this movie is very similar to the later movie, THE SERVANT, starring Dirk Bogarde. Both concern a person bringing someone into their homes who turns out to be an evil sociopath who threatens and dominates and exploits the master of the house.In this film, sweet old Ethel Barrymore lives alone in a big house. She meets a struggling artist (Maurice Evens) and naively offers to let him stay with her until he becomes an established artist. However, over time, it becomes more and more obvious that Evans is much more interested in Barrymore's fortune and invites in a group of "caretakers" to lock away the old lady as they loot her estate.The acting is superb and the movie is genuinely scary and well made. A wonderful old film that is rarely seen today.

Marie-7 Understated acting makes this production a gem. In the present world movie making is so slipshod as far as plots are concerned; however, I highly recommend this movie - the 1951 version - to anyone who loves old movies. Isn't Ethel Barrymore wonderful? and Maurice Evans is scary. Did anyone pick up on the fact that Rose's sister, Mrs. Harkley, is actually Angela Lansbury's mother, Moyna MacGill? I heartily recommend this wonderful movie.