Rent House on Telegraph Hill (1951)

Noir on the Hill, Heart in the Basement - House on Telegraph Hill review by griggs

There’s a great film buried somewhere inside The House on Telegraph Hill; sadly, this isn’t quite it. On paper, a Holocaust survivor assuming a dead friend’s identity and ending up in a spooky San Francisco mansion is a belter of a setup. In practice, the script seems oddly impatient with her trauma, treating it as backstory to be hustled through before we get to the inheritance squabbles and poison scares. It’s the cinematic equivalent of “we’ve all suffered, dear”.

The attempt to show a survivor’s experience often tips into the patronising and almost dismissive. Her memories are there to juice the plot, not to be understood, and that leaves a slightly sour taste.

Filed under “noir, allegedly”, it plays more like straight melodrama. The house is atmospheric, the mystery passes the time, but beyond the premise there isn’t much that really grips. I didn’t regret watching it, but I won’t be rushing back up that hill.

'Frisco Noir. - House on Telegraph Hill review by Steve

Curious film noir which steals narrative riffs from many other genre classics (I Married a Dead Man, Suspicion, etc) but contains quite a startlingly original premise for the period about the ongoing ordeal of a distressed woman (Valentina Cortese) rescued by American forces from Belsen.

She steals the identity of her deceased friend from the camp in order to get to America where the the dead woman's son stands to inherit from the wealthy family who took him in. The survivor marries the family lawyer (Richard Basehart). But does he plan to kill her to seize the money for himself?

 The luxurious house of shadows on Telegraph Hill has ominous presence and a classic noir look. The secret old playroom with a hole blasted through a wall reveals a cliff edge overlooking San Francisco, suggestive of the guilt and fear of discovery that hides in the imposter's heart.

This is presented in a semi documentary style (incorporating newsreel of the camp) through flashback. Cortese is sympathetic in a role that puts her on screen for the whole running time and is convincing as a woman who has suffered profoundly. It's a lesser known Robert Wise film, but very suspenseful.