Wise Noir Watch: The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)

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Watched: 03/20/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  Third

Director:  Robert Wise

I saw this one initially with JeniferSF at Noir City at the Castro.  And then gave it another spin just two years ago.  

Based on a stage play (someone should do this one) it's an interesting film that feels like, emotionally, it pulls a bit from Rebecca and a bit from Laura, what with the huge portrait hanging over the hearth that seems to stare back at the cast, a ghost judging everyone.

A Polish refugee (Valentina Cortesa) from a concentration camp steals the identity of her friend - hoping to have a life on the other side of losing everything in the war.  The friend had a rich aunt to whom she'd sent her infant son, but as no one knows what the friend looks like - she figures she could pass.  

However, by the time she makes it to the US to find the relation, the aunt has died and left everything to the boy.  A relation (Richard Basehart) has adopted the boy, and when Cortesa meets Basehart in New York, he decides she's the one for him, and marries her.

Now in San Francisco, there's a nanny for the boy who is just creepy and possessive (think Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca).  And, as a shocker, the kind US Army Major who was helping our hero at the concentration camp shows up - he's a friend of the family and an attorney in SF.  And clearly would gladly be on our hero given the chance.

Anyway - things go very sideways.

SPOILERS

I really dig the slow reveal of the actual threat and in this film.   You really aren't sure it's not all in Our Hero's head until the last minute - because she is acting *crazy* - but, also, one can see how Richard Basehart's smooth delivery was used to make his every word unnerving.  Even as he explains what he did and why.

He's, of course, top dropped by Fay Baker's icy performance and final coup de grace.  Just perfect to her last frame on screen.

Credit, also, to child actor Gordon Gebert, who was also in The Narrow Margin (and filmed around the same time - but that movie was shelved for a couple of years because Howard Hughes was insane).  

It is funny how in this era, the beautiful scrolled woodwork of a Victorian/ Queen Anne style house is seen as necessarily spooky and claustrophobically insane as the 1950's would roar toward minimalism and mid-century aesthetics.  There's a sort of suggestion the place should (and, in the end, will be) torn down.  Kind of like Millennials buying lovely houses of the 20th Century, gutting the, turning them into warehouses, and painting them monochrome. 

All in all, it's a winding movie that I've now seen three times and which has kept me engaged with all of the viewings.   It doesn't hurt that the camera loves Valentina Cortesa and she earns the audience's sympathies in the two roles where I've seen her.*  It's always a joy with Richard Basehart doing his thing, that is always 6 degrees away from something that feels like someone doing an impression of Richard Basehart.  What's funny is William Lundigan has just as much of a specific voice, and it is a wild ride between the three.

There's a few things here that say Robert Wise to me.  He handles the complexities of Karen/ Victoria's past in a smooth and seamless way that makes sense.  He's shooting on literally multiple levels with the old rambling house and SF itself, and manages to convey some fascinating stuff just through imagery (Margaret's suite is far superior to Victoria's, for example).  And I wonder how he felt about those staircases after Magnificent Ambersons.

*She did return to Europe (she's Italian) so we didn't get as many American movies - and therefore more likely I'd see them - under her belt as she likely could have.