The House on Telegraph Hill

1951

Action / Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Mystery / Thriller

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 62% · 2 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 62% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 4281 4.3K

noir san francisco, california film noir old house assumed identity post world war ii

Plot summary

Concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder when she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America.

Director

Robert Wise Photo
Robert Wise

Top cast

Richard Basehart Photo
Richard Basehart as Alan Spender
Jeffrey Sayre Photo
Jeffrey Sayre as Police Stenographer
Natasha Lytess Photo
Natasha Lytess as Karin Dernakova
Harry Carter Photo
Harry Carter as Detective Ellis
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
854.11 MB
956*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds 1
1.55 GB
1424*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by dbdumonteil 7 / 10

The talented Mrs Kowelska

This movie begins a little like William Irish's aka Cornell Woolrich's " I married a dead man " (the novel was released well before Leisen's movie ,in 1948),the concentration camps replacing the derailment:and then a poor girl becomes an impostor in a wealthy family;then after introducing a Rebeccaesque governess,the story takes a divergent turn ,recalling sometimes "gaslight" "suspicion" (the glass of orange juice replacing the glass of milk) and "sudden fear" which would be released the following year.That said,the movie is good,suspenseful,sometimes excellent and shows how great Robert Wise is as a director when he creates a disturbing atmosphere in an old house;he would take his skill to its absolute perfection with "the haunting" (1963) IMHO the best movie ever made about a haunted house (the remake should be carefully avoided);his talent emerges here and there: the playhouse where a wall is missing,the branch behind the curtain,the shadow on Valentina Cortese's white dress in the garage and the picture of the late old lady who seems like a judge beyond the grave ;her expressive face seems to have changed in the last pictures .Best performance comes from Richard Baseheart who shines in his last minutes on screen and the rest of the cast rises to the occasion.
Reviewed by claudio_carvalho 8 / 10

Enjoyable Thriller of Greed

In the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, the Polish Victoria Kowelska (Valentina Cortesa) has lost her husband and family in the war. She befriends her fellow citizen Karin Dernakova (Natasha Lytess), who miss her son Chris (Gordon Gebert) that lives with her Aunt Sophie in San Francisco. Karin dies three days before the liberation forces commanded by Major Marc Bennett (William Lundigan) arrive at the camp and Victoria assumes the identity of her friend to emigrate to the United States. However, she is informed that Aunt Sophie has just died and she stays in a camp for survivors.Four years later, she succeeds to go to the United States and meets Sophie's lawyer. She learns that Alan Spender (Richard Basehart) was assigned Chris' trustee and he invites her to travel with him to San Francisco to see Chris. Along their journey, they get married to each other and Karin has a cold reception from the housekeeper Margaret (Fay Baker) that raises Chris at the mansion on Telegraph Hill. Karin meets Major Bennett, who is a friend of Alan, in a party at home and she befriends him. Soon Karin is connected to Chris, but when she has a car accident, she suspects that Alan wants to kill Chris and her to keep the money for him. Is she paranoid? "The House on Telegraph Hill" is an enjoyable thriller with a story of greed. The movie has an impressive scene when Victoria's car loses the break on the hills of San Francisco. The mystery is kept to the end when the truth is shown. The Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp is the place where Anne Frank died. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Terrível Suspeita" ("Terrible Suspicion")
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