Rent The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)
3.5 of 5 from 66 ratings
1h 29min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- House On Telegraph Hill is an intriguing cliffhanger set in a spooky Victorian mansion below Coit Tower in San Francisco. Victoria Kowelska has lived through World War II bombings and relocation camps, and has finally emigrated to San Francisco Bay. Now she should be blissfully happy with her devoted husband in their mansion overlooking the San Francisco Bay. But Victoria is not who she seems, her child belongs to someone else, and her husband and housekeeper are frightening her half to death.
- Actors:
- Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, William Lundigan, Fay Baker, Gordon Gebert, Steven Geray, Herbert Butterfield, Kei Thin Chung, John Burton, Katherine Meskill, Mario Siletti, Charles Wagenheim, David Clarke, Tamara Schee, Natasha Lytess, Ashmead Scott, Mari Young, Tom McDonough, Alex Ball, Flo Buzby
- Directors:
- Robert Wise
- Writers:
- Elick Moll, Frank Partos
- Others:
- John DeCuir, Paul S. Fox, Lyle Wheeler, Thomas Little
- Studio:
- 20th Century Fox
- Genres:
- Drama, Thrillers
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like: Day For Night, Cinema Paradiso's 2023 Centenary Club: Part 1
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Reviews (1) of The House on Telegraph Hill
Typically diverse early Wise. - The House on Telegraph Hill review by Steve
Curious film noir that steals narrative riffs from other films constantly (I Married a Dead Man, Suspicion, etc) but contains quite an original theme for the time about the ongoing trauma of a woman rescued by American forces from Belsen.
Valentina Cortese plays the damaged woman who takes up the identity of her deceased friend from the camp in order to be allowed to move to San Francisco where the the dead woman's son stands to inherit a fortune from the wealthy family who took him in. She marries the family lawyer (Richard Basehart). Could he be trying to kill her in order to seize the money for himself?
The look of the opulent family home on Telegraph Hill is a typically ominous presence in the film. There's a nice touch with a hidden old playroom with a hole blasted through a wall that reveals a cliff edge overlooking San Francisco, suggestive of the guilt and fear of discovery that hides in the woman's heart.
The film is presented in semi documentary style (incorporating newsreel of the camp) through flashback with Cortese's narration telling the story. 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 little known film from Wise but very suspenseful as we fret over whether the imposter will be rumbled.
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