JohnHowardReid Although he had been under contract for a number of years, Raymond Chandler still hadn't found his "write" niche at his home studio, Paramount. True, his assignment to "The Unseen" (1945), seemed ideal - at least on paper. Based on a book by Ethel Lina White (who wrote the original novels for both Hitchcock's Lady Vanishes and Siodmak's Spiral Staircase), the movie somehow ended up as more of a lightweight ghost story than mystery-suspense. Spooks were not Chandler's forte, but he was brought into the picture to give the supernatural proceedings a bit of rationality. Chandler did his best, but complained to all who'd listen that it was time the studio used his talents in the right direction. Finally, the contractee's voice was heard by studio management. Given the go-ahead for an original suspense thriller, Chandler set to work on "The Blue Dahlia" (1946).It's tempting to write that "The Unseen" was unseen, but that would not be true. The movie was reasonably successful. Not big money, mind you, but enough to keep the wheels turning!

bkoganbing Although The Unseen received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound it is a major disappointment as it was sold by Paramount as a followup to their hit from the year before, The Uninvited. Even the presence of Gail Russell who got her breakthrough role in the previous film, in The Unseen that guaranteed nothing.I also have to say that my copy of this film in fact had bad sound in it and I attribute that to the manufacturer of this bootleg. It was shocking to read here that The Unseen got an Oscar nomination in of all categories, sound.Joel McCrea has moved back to the family estate with his two children, both of whom have some issues. Especially son Richard Lyon who seems to have a lot more money than his allowance would warrant. The house next door is boarded up since a murder took place a decade earlier. Gail is hired by a strangely brooding McCrea who is going into territory inhabited by Orson Welles as Mr. Rochester or Laurence Olivier as Maxim DeWinter. It's unlike anything McCrea ever did before or since. Gail is to be governess to the kids. But she's drawn into all the mystery, especially after a couple of other murders occur in and around that boarded up house.Such players as Herbert Marshall, Tom Tully, Isobel Elsom, and Elizabeth Risdon add to the creepiness of the film.But I can't speak for all who will see it, but I was terribly let down in the ending. No other worldly beings doing deviltry to humans, just some very ordinary humans for very ordinary human motives are responsible for all the dirty work.Joel McCrea decided to concentrate on westerns after this and he did the rest of his career with one exception. It probably was a wise decision.

MARIO GAUCI Despite having a bunch of notable credits (novelist Ethel Lina White, screenwriters Raymond Chandler and Hagar Wilde, associate producer John Houseman, actors Joel McCrea, Herbert Marshall, Norman Lloyd and Tom Tully) and an excellent prototype in one of Hollywood's finest ghost stories, THE UNINVITED (1944) – not to mention reuniting director Lewis Allen and tragic star Gail Russell from that same film – it is no surprise to me now that THE UNSEEN has remained unseen {sic} for so long. In fact, I only managed to score a hazy-looking, VHS-sourced copy of it which does the film's only true trump card – the atmospheric lighting – no favors at all. At any rate, despite being hurriedly put into production following the success of that earlier Ray Milland classic, there are no ghosts to be seen or heard anywhere this time around; instead we have a surprisingly unsatisfying combination of "The Turn Of The Screw" (typified by the obnoxious antics of McCrea's elder son to scare newly-installed governess Russell away) and GASLIGHT (1944; by way of the mysterious comings-and-goings in the supposedly abandoned house next door). Marshall is the outwardly benign family doctor who openly despises prospective property purchaser Lloyd, Phyliis Brooks is the dishy former governess who still exercises a strange hold over McCrea's boy and, as a mere red herring, Isobel Elsom is the inquisitive sister of the suspiciously-deceased inhabitant of the house next door!! Apart from the fact that, for the most part, there are no scares or even thrills to be had here, the film also commits the cardinal sin of making its male lead (a hot-tempered Joel McCrea!) unsympathetic for the duration but, then, have him predictably fall for the doe-eyed governess at the very end.

wcfields1880 Very interesting mystery with Joel Mcrea as a man you just can't understand.Gail Russell gives a great performance as the governess of Mcrea's children and Herbert Marshall is the "friendly" doctor you would never suspect.