Blutsfeindschaft (1949) Online

HOUSE OF STRANGERS is another classic from the Noir vaults of 20th Century Fox and is one of their very best. Under the guiding hand of the brilliant director Joseph L. Mankiewicz the film emerged in 1949 and remains to this day a remarkable piece of cinema! All credit must go to the excellent screenplay by Philip Yordan, the masterful low key black & white cinematography of Milton Krasner and the atmospheric score by the Russian composer Daniele Amfitheatrof.

The stellar cast is headed by the great Edward G. Robinson. Fresh from his wonderful Johnny Rocco in Houston's "Key Largo" Robinson plays Gino Monetti, the Italian immigrant who runs the bank he founded in New York's lower east side. He runs it with an iron fist as he does his family of four sons who work for him. Three of whom are resentful of him because of the poor wages he pays them and the domineering way he treats them. Robinson's Gino Monetti is a deftly crafted and skillful piece of acting and with just the right Italian accent the actor once again demonstrates that he was one of the finest players in American cinema. Watching him here one can't help but think what a fine Corleone he would have made had he been around (he died in 1972 the year "The Godfather" was released)

Richard Conte, in one of his best parts, plays the loyal and favoured son Max Monetti with his trademark serious look and in his best oppressed hero style. The other siblings are played by Luther Adler as the oldest and meanest, Efrem Zimbalist as the ladies man and Paul Valentine excellent as a slow witted amateur pugilist. Romantic interest is supplied by the ever lovely and vivacious Susan Hayward whose star at this time was about to start its rise. But it is Robinson's movie from the moment he comes into it - you simply cannot take your eyes of him!

Five years later the studio re-fashioned Yordan's screenplay (itself loosely based on Shakespeare's "King Lear") and turned it into a splendid western called "Broken Lance" with Spencer Tracy. This fact is strangely omitted from any text on the DVD?

A curious footnote: At the end of the picture we don't hear Amfithetrof's finale music! What we get instead is the end title from Alfred Newman's score for "The Razor's Edge" (1946). Why and how this should be is anybody's guess! Apart from this sloppy denouement it is still a fine movie in a fine package which has a commentary,a trailer and a good behind the scenes still gallery.

Classic line from "House Of Strangers".......... When one of Robinson's errant sons declines to help his father during his trial - "I'm sorry pop I don't want to stick my neck out" to which Robinson wryly inquires "Why - what's so good about your neck".

An Italian-American family is the subject of "House of Strangers," a 1949 film starring Edward G. Robinson, Richard Conte, Susan Hayward, Luther Adler, Debra Paget, Hope Emerson, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. Being of Italian extraction myself, I actually thought this film was written by an Italian and was surprised to see it wasn't. It was dead on.

Edward G. Robinson is Gino Monetti, who owns a bank in the '30s. He runs it like he's selling items out of his garage, with lousy bookkeeping, some people being charged interest up front on loans and some getting more money than they asked for. He has four sons, three of whom he treats like second-class citizens: Pietro is a guard at the bank by day and an amateur boxer by night, Joe is a teller, and Tony is a clerk. When Joe, who married a woman from a good Philadelphia family, asks for a raise he was promised, he gets a lecture from Gino about how the family lived in the back of a barber shop when Gino made $15 a week. When Pietro loses a boxing match, Gino takes the jacket off of his shoulders that says "Monetti Bank." Gino runs his home with more rigidity than he does his bank: His wife doesn't say much, and he has mandatory Wednesday night spaghetti dinners during which he plays opera recordings such as "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" starring Lawrence Tibbett.

Gino has a favored child, and that's Max, his lawyer son. When the Feds start investigating Gino, Max comes up with a solution. If all the brothers will take responsibility for the sloppiness at the bank, the Feds won't be able to pin anything on anybody. But the sons refuse to lift a finger to help their father, ultimately forcing him out and starting their own bank. Max goes to prison for attempting to bribe a juror, and when he gets out, he's bent on revenge against his brothers.

The acting is this film is nothing short of fantastic. Robinson is perfect as the dictatorial, ruthless Gino. Conte is totally believable as the favorite son - efficient and slightly to the right of slimy. Luther Adler gives a brilliant performance as the henpecked Tony. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent. Susan Hayward plays Max's love interest, a woman who gives as good as she gets. She looks sensational and does a terrific job in her role. Stardom is right around the corner for her, and it's no surprise.

With a great pace kept by Joseph Mankiewicz, this is a film that I'm surprised we don't hear more about. It just goes to show that there were so many great films made in Hollywood in the past that even some marvelous ones are overlooked. "House of Strangers" is definitely one to see and remember.

This film appears in John Springer's movie book "Forgotten Films to Remember" by Citadel Press, and certainly lives up to it's name! It is a dark movie about the dysfunctional Monetti family. The late great Edward G. Robinson portrays Gino Monetti, the controlling patriarch banker father that rules his family with an iron fist. Richard Conte gives a sterling performance as the well meaning faithful son, Max Monetti. He takes a prison rap for embezzlement for his aging father. While he is in prison he helplessly learns that his brothers Joe (Luther Adler), Tony (Edward Zimbalist Jr., and Pietro (Paul Valentine plan to take over the family banking business. As a result of this his father dies. Max returns home from prison focused on revenge. Fortunately, Max's girlfriend (Susan Hayward)convinces him that the revenge he seeks is not worth it. Realizing that his father Gino was the real source of hatred and evil in the family, he decides to peacefully leave town with his girlfriend, but is soon confronted by his evil brothers.

Amazingly this 1949 film was re-made in 1954 as a Western of all things! The title of the re-make was "Broken Lance". Same story different setting. Spencer Tracy (Controlling Rancher Father) plays the Robinson (Controlling Banker father) part, Robert Wagner plays the Conte part (Faithful son), Richard Widmark plays the Adler part (Ambitious older brother), Hugh O'Brien plays the Zimbalist part, and Earl Holliman plays the Valentine part (strong arm brother). Both films share a powerful script and good performances. Worth seeing!

Edward G. Robinson played many ethnic types in his career, including sinister Chinese types in THE HATCHET MAN and Greek seamen in TIGER SHARK. But he played many Italian - Americans, mostly involved in criminal activities. Best known is his Rico Bandello in LITTLE CAESAR, but he also did Remy Marko in A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER. And there is the more respectable, but still illegal gentleman in this film, Gino Monetti. Living in the middle of Little Italy in a mansion, Monetti started out as a barber, living in a single room with his wife Theresa (Esther Minciotti), and his four sons. They grow up to be Joe (Luther Adler), Max (Richard Conte), Tony (Efrem Zimberlist Jr.), and Pietro (Paul Valentine).

Monetti's views of his Italian heritage and his adopted land's culture are mixed. He loves the music of his homeland - he's frequently playing opera (Rossini's THE BARBER OF SEVILLE sung by Lawrence Tibbett is heard at one point on his record player). He does have a sense of tradition: every Wednesday Theresa cooks a big dinner for the family, and everyone has to come (including Max's fiancé Maria Domenico - Debra Paget - and her mother Helena Domenico - Hope Emerson - and Joe's wife Elena - Diana Douglas). Gino will talk about how different life in America is, where a man does not have to forever be in the same job as his father, or where cities grow upward due to skyscrapers. But he treats three of his sons as servants. Joe, who is his oldest, is asked to scrub Gino's back in the bathtub, or has to chauffeur his father around, and is only a clerk in the bank (although called first Vice President). Pietro is referred to as "dumb-head" because he likes to work on a boxing career rather than an office job. Tony is a lady's man, always quiet and well dressed, and dismissed by his father as a weakling. Only Max has gained the old man's respect - he became an attorney (and a pretty good one).

The bank itself is a mixed concern. When Frank Puglia asks for a $150.00 loan to buy a horse, he only gets $120.00 as $30.00 is taken off the top as interest on the new loan (later the loan has escalated to being $280.00). A poor woman needing money, however, gets the money without any interest being given. It later develops that Gino is lousy with bookkeeping, and resents government interest in his bank, but he is an intelligent banker, on the whole a decent guy, but he occasionally turns into a usurer.

Max, although engaged to Maria, meets a socialite named Irene Bennett (Susan Hayward), who initially hires him to help an ex-boyfriend who robbed her. They gradually get into an affair, which threatens the engagement to Maria. Hayward's jealousy eventually leads to a break in it. At just that time, government actions close the bank and lead to a trial for Gino on serious fraud charges. Max tries to defend him, but he finds Gino too hot-tempered on the witness stand. He talks about the case with Joe (who is not too interested in whether the old man goes to jail or not), and says that possibly if they bribe a juror they can save Gino. Joe refuses to help. Max tries to bribe the juror, but finds himself arrested instead. It results in his disbarment and seven years in prison. Gino is not sent to prison, but finds the bank reorganized by Joe, Tony, and Pietro, and he is put out to pasture. Still Gino encourages hatred in Max to his brothers, pointing out that Joe probably tipped off the police about the bribery attempt.

So Max leaves prison to confront his three siblings, and to see if he can resume life with Irene. And Joe, Tony (who has married Maria), and Pietro wonder if Max is going to be a troublemaker.

The film captured an aspect of life on the lower East side rarely shown in films - how did banks work in those immigrant enclaves? This was before major banks had branches around the cities, and small local banks (like Monetti's) were common. And were run in the same haphazard manner until the Depression made the government take a closer look. The film, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, crackles with good dialog (and steamy lines too - particularly between Conte and Hayward). Robinson's Gino is memorable - not a really bad man, but one who forgot certain simple family rules regarding his sons. Even minor characters have good moments: Hope Emerson's fury at Conte's flaunting his affair with Hayward leads to a confrontation scene, and the dinner at the Monetti's reveals how Diana Douglas (Kirk's wife) is a non-Italian mainliner that Luther Adler married, who barely likes her in-laws (she can't stand spaghetti dinners, and wants him to have a promised raise so she can entertain HER friends). It is a rewarding movie about social mobility and it's pitfalls in the urban immigrant circles.

This is one of those well-crafted films from Twentieth-Century Fox when that studio employed some extraordinary talents both before and behind the cameras. Although he wasn't a Fox contractee, Edward G. Robinson gives a great performance as a wealthy Italian family's patriarch and he is well-matched by everyone else in the cast, especially Richard Conte, Luther Adler, and Susan Hayward, looking terrifically classy. The script bears some obvious signs of being polished by the director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and the technical credits are absolutely top-drawer.

Remade as a Western in CinemaScope and Color by DeLuxe in 1954, entitled "Broken Lance" with Spencer Tracy cast as the domineering father, the direction by Edward Dmytryk was not up to the standard of this earlier film with its then contemporary setting. This one is available on video (and seems to be very rarely exhumed on TV now) and is definitely worth a look.

In New York, after seven years in prison, the lawyer Max Monetti (Richard Conte) goes to the bank of his brothers Joe (Luther Adler), Tony (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and Pietro Monetti (Paul Valentine) and promises revenge to them. Then he visits his lover Irene Bennett (Susan Hayward) that asks him to forget the past and start a new life.

Max recalls the early 30's, when he is the favorite son of his father Gino Monetti (Edward G. Robinson), who has a bank in the East Side. Gino is a tyrannical and egocentric self-made man that raises his family in an environment of hatred and Max is a competent lawyer engaged with Maria Domenico (Debra Paget). When Max meets the confident Irene, he has a troubled love affair with her. In 1933, with the new Banking Act reaches Gino for misapplication of funds. Max plots a plan to help his father but is betrayed by his brothers.

Now Max will see his brothers that have also being raised under the motto "Never Forgive, Never Forget".

"House of Strangers" is a magnificent film-noir by Joseph L. Mankiewicz with a great story of hatred and forgiveness. Edward G. Robinson has one of his best performances (if not the best) and wins the Best Actor award in the 1949 Cannes Film Festival. Richard Conte has one of his best roles (if not the best) in his well-succeeded career. Susan Hayward is very beautiful and elegant and performs a strong female character. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

"House of Strangers" features three of my all-time favorite actors--Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward and Richard Conte--all at the very top of their form, as well as moody, almost noirish direction by the great Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in moody black and white. Those ingredients alone should indicate that a fine work is in store for the viewer, and such, happily, is the case here. The tale is told mainly in flashback, in which we learn how the four sons of Lower East Side banker Edward G. became enemies after their Pop got into some legal trouble. Susan Hayward, never more beautiful, plays a high-class dame who becomes involved with lawyer Conte, despite Conte's engagement to a proper Italian girl from "the old country." The relationship between Hayward and Conte is very adult for the restrictive late '40s. By the film's end, we really come to care about these two and hope that they can survive as a couple. As usual, Edward G. gives a bravura performance, this time as the domineering patriarch of his Italian clan. I believe his performance received a well-deserved award at Cannes that year. Conte and Hayward, both of whose careers are ripe for reevaluation and rediscovery, match him every step of the way. Luther Adler is fine also, in his role as Conte's elder brother, who feels he never got the respect he deserved. Deborah Paget, in one of her earliest parts, looks fine in a decorative role. For me, though, the main lure of this picture is the triumvirate of superb acting by the three leads. What a pleasure it is to watch these three great talents do justice to the well-written script here. I just love this movie, and suspect that a real treat is in store for the first-time viewer. Check it out, by all means!

This movie is just superb. I can't believe I had not even heard of it, hopefully this DVD release will help it find a new audience and some deserved critical acclaim. It's billed as film noir, but it really isn't; it's more an extremely complex, suspenseful family drama. But that doesn't even do it justice. The screenplay is terrific, subtle, thoughtful, and at the same time, razor sharp. Some of the exchanges between Conte and Hayward in particular are electrifying. Talk about two 'tough cookies' that ignite when they get together. And you really begin to care deeply about what happens to them. (All of the acting is top notch, across the board.) And then there is the direction by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The movie is so beautifully crafted and feels as if it could have been made yesterday, it's gritty and urban and fresh. The composition in the movie has deep meaning in just about every shot, and is gorgeous to behold besides. Watch this movie.

Try and imagine Little Caesar getting out of the rackets and taking his hard stolen loot and setting up a bank. Then Mr. Bandello marries and has four sons.

You've got Gino Monetti who now that he's no longer terrorizing citizens confines his terrors to his own family. He's got four grown sons and he treats them like the hired help. All except Richard Conte who instead of working for him directly at the bank uses the bank's space for his law office.

I think that's the key to this film. The other three sons Luther Adler, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Paul Valentine all do work for him and he can treat them like dirt. Conte on the other hand, does not work for him, he's made his own career. By Robinson's logic, he's earned a certain amount of respect.

So he pits them against each other. Unfortunately Robinson's banking practices which are not exactly legal catch up with him. He's forced to turn the bank over to the three sons in an effort to save the bank.

Conte also tries to bribe a juror to save dear old Dad and gets disbarred and a stretch of seven years in prison for his troubles. Conte's out now and looking to even things up with his siblings.

Robinson who's played all kinds of immigrants of many nationalities has covered the Italian ground before. But he's real good as the scheming, sadistic patriarch who in fact gets a deserved comeuppance from his sons. All four sons are fine in their roles with Richard Conte and Luther Adler deserving particular attention.

Susan Hayward is the girl who waits for Conte. She must be in love with him. A disbarred attorney isn't exactly a dream prospect. She was just entering into the height of her career and this role was a career boost.

House of Strangers is far superior to the western setting remake that 20th Century Fox did five years later entitled Broken Lance

This masterful adaptation of Jerome Weidman's novel stars Edward G. Robinson (arguably his best performance) as an Italian immigrant turned successful and wealthy banker. His hard-nosed attitude alienates three of his sons (portrayed by Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Paul Valentine and the always superb Luther Adler). His fourth son (the film noir regular, Richard Conte) however worships the ground his dad walks on. This doesn't go over so well with his brothers.

Although billed as a film noir, the film is as much a family drama as a thriller - and an extremely good one. Excellent screenplay by Philip Yordan. Robinson won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance.

House of Strangers is directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and adapted to screenplay by Phillip Yordan from Jerome Weidman's novel I'll Never Go There Any More. It stars Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Luther Adler, Paul Valentine and Efrem Zimbalist. Plot finds Robinson as Gino Monetti, an Italian American banker who whilst building up the family business has ostracised three of his four sons. When things go belly up for Gino and the bank, the three sons turn against their father, the other, Max (Conte), stays loyal but finds himself set up for a prison stretch. Untimely since he's started to fall in love with tough cookie Irene Bennett (Hayward).

Jerome Weidman's novel has proved to be a popular source for film adaptation, after this 20th Century Fox produced picture came the Western version with Broken Lance in 1954 (Yordan again adapting), and then Circus set for The Big Show in 1961. While its influence can be felt in many other, more notable, crime dramas along the way. The divided clan narrative provides good basis for drama and lets the better actors shine on the screen with such material. Such is the case with House of Strangers, which while hardly shaking the roots of film noir technically, does thematically play out as an engrossing, character rich, melodrama.

Propelled by a revenge core peppered with hate motives instead of love; and dabbling in moral ethics et al, Mankiewicz spins it out in flashback structure. The primary focus is on Max and Gino, with both given excellent portrayals by Conte and Robinson. Gino is a driven man, very dismissive towards three of his boys (Adler standing out as Joe) who he finds easy to find fault with. But Max is spared the tough love, Gino admires him and sees him very much as an equal, which naturally irks the other brothers something rotten. This all comes to a head for the final quarter where the pace picks up and the tale comes to its prickly, if not completely satisfactory, ending.

In the mix of family strife we have been privy to Max's burgeoning relationship with Irene (Hayward sassy), which positively simmers with sexual tension, or maybe even frustration? This in spite of the fact he is engaged to be married to the homely innocent Maria (Debra Paget). So with dad Gino proving to be, well, something of an ungrateful bastard, and Max cheating on his intended, clearly this is not a film about good old family values coming to the fore! Then there's the small matter of brother betrayal and the case of the foolish decision making process, all elements that keep the viewer hooked till the last. 7/10

Pretty interesting story, and adult too. Robinson is Pa Minetti, an Italian immigrant, formerly a penurious barber, now the prosperous president of his own bank. He has three older sons -- Luther Adler, Valentine, and Zimbalist. And he favors his youngest son, Max (Richard Conte), who is a lawyer and has his office in Pa's bank.

All kind of cozy, like the warm Italian family in The Godfather. But there's a problem. Robinson has brought his old-world ways to the new world. He's not only the president of the bank, but president of the family too, and nobody elected him. Someone calls him "Il Duce." (Kids, that was the title of Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator in the 1930s and the early 1940s, when his subjects hung him out to dry.) But Pa has, in fact, absorbed some of the ways of the new world, only it's the wrong philosophy. The philosophy can be summarily described as, "Dog Eat Dog." Boy, does Pa browbeat his three older sons, both at work and at home. He has Luther Adler, his first born, working in a teller's cage. Efram Zimbalist, Jr., has some menial position too. And the biggest and strongest, Paul Valentine as Pietro, wears a guard's uniform. He's constantly ordering them to get back to work. And he refers to Valentine as "dumbhead" repeatedly. Even at the weekly family dinners, when the sons bring their families over for Ma's spaghetti dinners, he plays opera on the phonograph -- and LOUD, so nobody can hear anybody else. And Pa makes everyone wait at the table until Conte arrives. "Nobody's eat untilla Max gets ahere." The three elder sons don't care much for the kind of humiliation that Pa is dishing out, though he's rarely mean about it. He just takes it for granted that they know they'll inherit the bank one day when he's gone, and meantime they'll have some notion of what he himself went through, as they crawl on their bellies like dogs and can't afford decent apartments for their wives and kids.

How does Conte treat all this? With aplomb. He speaks up for his brothers when they ask him to but he doesn't take it all too seriously. I mean, what the hell, he's a lawyer and Pa's favorite son.

A run on the bank (this is 1932) exposes a few weaknesses in Pa's book keeping. He doesn't know the meaning of the word "collateral." He lends money based on his reckoning of whether he'll get it back, accompanied by usurious interest. He keeps money stashed in a cigar box and writes his records on napkins, things like that. So he's brought to trial and is about to be convicted. The older brothers don't care. Pa's just getting what he deserves. But Conte is representing him in court and, seeing the guillotine blade about to fall, interferes with a juror and is sent to prison for seven years. The cops were tipped off by the other brothers, which annoys Conte no end.

So when Conte is finally released from jail he intends to take care of them but, due to the seasonal interposition of an adventitious girl friend, Susan Hayward, he decides not to because that would have represented the worst of Pa's desires. A free man, he leaves with Hayward for San Francisco and the brothers get the bank. So long, Pa.

Joseph L. Mankievicz directed it efficiently and the script is occasionally very keen. An example of what I mean. Susan Hayward calls Conte and tells him to come to her place; it's a legal emergency. Well, it isn't. She just wants to have some fun with him. He turns her offer down but she says, "Let's go to dinner. I'll get my wrap." Conte walks to the door and opens it, then looks back at her. She drops the wrap on the couch and they stand there silently. Fade out. There's a marvelous scene in a seedy bar. Mankievicz's camera glides along from booth to booth, passing one in which a fat, older man with a cigar is sitting next to a frozen young lady. Neither says a word. A few minutes later, Conte and Hayward look up from their drinks when they hear a slight sob, and there is a cut to the other couple. The girl has covered her face with her hands and the fat man is looking around self consciously. A vignette whose character we can fill in with our imaginations.

I said it was an adult movie but that hint of premarital intercourse isn't why. The characters are ambiguous, as people in real life would be. In some ways, for instance, Pa is a lovable old patriarch, but he's also monstrously insensitive to the feelings of others. And the murderous resentment of the older kids is made understandable too. And Richard Conte's character is aggressive and domineering at the beginning, just as a spoiled youngster might be, but he develops into a Mensch by the end of the tale. Hayward develops too, from a whimsical high-end nympho to a woman mature enough to settle for one man, even if he's broke.

I don't know why this had to be an Italian family, though. The Italianate elements seem superimposed on the family dynamics, like one of those nude celebrity photos in which the face of the actress or model has been placed on a fake body. Sure, they eat spaghetti and Pa listens to The Barber of Seville. So what? The writers have resorted to stereotypes. I hate stereotypes. Furthermore, no Italian boy has ever been named "Max". They are all named "Tony" and when born are not wrapped in swaddling clothes but dressed in iddy biddy suits of rubbed silk.

But that's a small thing in this big, complicated, and largely successful tale of power and jealousy.

I just bought this and was looking forward to watching as I like all the main actors and am a film noir fan. This title is being marketed as a film noir - it's a good movie - but it definitely isn't a noir. I certainly don't stick to the narrow definition of a noir either.

I won't bother to write a whole synopsis since that has been covered by earlier posts. Edward G Robinson never disappoints (even though he does kind of sound like Chico Marx in this) and Richard Conte is great. I hadn't seen Luther Adler in anything before but he was perfect in the role of the scorned older brother.

Like I said it is a good movie...just don't expect a noir.

Italian immigrant Gino Monetti (Edward G. Robinson) rises from the gutter to own his own bank, he employs three of his four sons Joe, Pietro and Tony in the bank,his fourth son Max (Richard Conte) is a lawyer. Max and Gino have a mutual respect for each other but his other sons don't believe they get enough respect from their father, so when an investigation into the bank finds Gino in breach of nearly all banking rules, they are happy to let him take the fall,in order to fulfill their own greed Max though is not and decides to take the fall to save his father. While Max is in prison Gino dies but leaves word that he wants Max to seek revenge when he is released. On his release Max duly sets out a plan to keep his word to his father. Marvelous Noir, following a family's greedy self destruction, Robinson is excellent as the Patriarch of the family, even if his accent is a little like an iceA creamA seller. Conte of course gives his usual intense performance as the tough but hard done by Max. Highly Recommended.

Enjoyed this film when it first came to the silver screen in New York City and it still has given a great performance to many generations already! The veteran actors in this film, Edward G. Robinson,(Gino Monetti),"The Red House",'47, gave a great performance as an Italian banker who ran his business the old fashioned way and had the US Government after his accounting books, which he did not have! Richard Conte,(Max Monetti),"The Godfather",'72, stood by his father Gino when his business started to fall a part and his other brothers seemed to just stand around and and throw darts at their own father. Susan Hayward (Irene Bennett),"I'll Cry Tomorrow",'55, gave Max Monetti a hard time and acted like a COLD FISH to his romantic advances. Edward G. Robinson gave an outstanding performance with a great Italian accent and was able to make this film an ALL TIME FAVORITE!

First, I should tell you that I like classic movies. That's when they knew how to make 'em. 'Nuff said.

Having said that, this one fell short for me. Some interesting twists, but ultimately it felt melodramatic. And there was a lot of telling, instead of showing.

The romance with Irene felt forced. The father's negative influence on his sons is much better told in the Godfather.

In fact, that's what this felt like - a chick-flick version of The Godfather. Same forces at work, same conflicts, but a much softer ride.

I do like Richard Conte - obviously in The Godfather, but he also did a Twlight Zone in which he played a man afraid to go to sleep because he thought his nightmares would kill him. Terrific performance.

Susan Hayward never struck me as a very compelling actress. Honestly, it didn't have to be her in this role, could have been almost anybody for me.

I love Edward G. Robinson (especially in Double Indemnity), but here he is constrained by the material. He does the best he can with it, and it would have been a lot worse in the hands of another actor.

***SPOILERS***

One of the things I liked was the setup of the final scene - Joe orders Pietro to pick Max up and carry him upstairs. Joe, Tony, and Pietro (carrying Max) slowly walk up the stairs, while Joe tells us of the lessons he learned from his father. Lessons including finishing a man off while he is down. Fantastic shot, but not enough.

The movie needed more development. Robinson wasn't menacing enough to provoke such disdain from his sons. Even his wife seems cold to the point of death. Was he that bad? You don't get that impression. Robinson's character was fairly likable, in fact. Susan Hayward is kinda wasted in her part, but she's nice to look at. The movie isn't much in the way of 'film noir'. Not really suspenseful at all, except a little at the end. Not a bad film. It just needed about 15 more minutes of drama, making Robinson's character a bit more believable as a tyrant and more interplay of conflict between Conte's character and his brothers. Maybe a little more of Hayward too.

Edward G. Robinson is all wrong as the patriarch of an Italian-American family. He was a marvelous actor -- one of my favorites. And this was not his first Italian. But the pigeon English is so overdone as to be preposterous. The makeup, with a dark mustache, is no help either.

True, other (presumably) non-Italians are in similar roles here. But they underplay. Hope Emerson, Debra Paget, and (as one of his sons) Luther Adler are among these.

Richard Conte is excellent as the son who appreciates the father's efforts and goes to jail for doing so. But think of Conte, cast slightly against ethnic type, in "Thieves Highway" and his father -- Lee J. Cobb -- there. Cobb does not affect a Vaudeville show Greek accent there and it's a shame that Robinson was directed to here.

The story is compelling but it's hard to get past this.

Susan Hayward plays Susan Hayward. In early scenes between her and Conte, he seems to be picking up her mannerisms as they spit consonants at each other.

The role she plays doesn't seem to me to have much to do with the rest of the story. Using "Thieves Highway" as a comparison again -- and I admit it is somewhat arbitrary to do so -- Valentina Cortese's character is more organic to the plot. Here, the Hayward/Conte romance is more like a separate picture than like a subplot.

Just finished watching this terrific film for the third or fourth time and though someone else is credited with the screenplay, Joe Mankiewicz's tart, smart, witty dialog is there in almost every scene. Lubitsch may have had his touch, but when it came to dialog there was no one like Mank.Watch this back to back with ALL ABOUT EVE or A LETTER TO THREE WIVES and you will see what I am talking about.

Though I still don't know what truly constitutes a "noir" film, though touted as being one, HOUSE OF STRANGERS seems more like a Greek tragedy than say something in the same style as I WAKE UP SCREAMING. No matter, this is an excellent film, brimming over with Mankiewicz's brilliant pacing and, yes, dialog.

Edward G. Robinson, who in my opinion can be hammy at times, really nailed this role as the controlling Italian patriarch. This is a psychologically straightforward film that is nevertheless satisfying on more than an entertainment level.

Conte and Hayward, both fine, have some snappy noirish dialog, and their relationship, like most of what occurs in the plot, is on a visceral emotional level, without any deep explanation except "this is what the heart makes people do." And as the film shows it is often to their own pain.

The height of this is what happens to Conte after an act of extreme (though extremely misguided) loyalty to one he loves, which ultimately makes him pay a great price.

The production values of this film are very fine; the forward narrative motion of the story held my interest to the very end. And even though there seemed to be a bit of trimming of exposition -- with the introduction of the Hayward character here and there being a bit awkward and lacking explanation and motivation -- there were enough superior moments to raise the film above the ordinary.

And Luther Adler's performance as brother "Joe" was fantastic.

House of Strangers (1949)

At first this film feels like a forced fit, a good and big idea that was going to stumble over itself. Because there was a brilliant Edward G. Robinson (a Jewish American) playing a terrific old school Italian banker, and there were his four sons, each with something of a developed plot line. It begins in the present, goes back to the start of the various problems between them, then returns to the present. It's complicated in a way, and yet it ends up cohering well. The story holds water, the actors are superb (more on that), and the overall direction and construction (photography and editing) are spot on.

So we end up with a very impressive movie, and one that uses worn ideas and makes them fresh enough to last. Robinson is not in the end the main character, but one of the sons is, Max, played by Richard Conte. Now Conte is not to everyone's taste. There's something conceited about him even when he's playing a regular guy. But he's just right for this part of the "good brother" who is also a lawyer and who gets drawn into major mischief by his father's bullheadedness. And Conte is the key to an important other thread to the story (and in some ways the best part), his falling in love with a young and independent Irene Bennett played by Susan Hayward. She isn't just a love interest but she represents an alternative to his family bound, very Italian-American world.

Of the other brothers, the eldest played by Luther Adler is the most caustic and believable, giving a stunning performance in just a few scenes throughout the movie. The other brothers are simpler types, and they work, too. In fact, it's only when you drift to the farther reaches of the cast, like the fiancée and her mother, do you find caricatures that strain. In all the dynamic of a group of men adjusting (or not) to the ways of the new worlds is fascinating. Throw in a physically imposing and sharp tongued leading man in Robinson and you can see how much this has going for it.

The director is Joseph L. Mankiewicz has a handful of very sensitively made films among the mere twenty in his career (including "All about Eve"), and this is one of his best. He keeps the plot coherent and yet lets it breath. The characters have enough individuality to distinguish themselves without getting us distracted with peripheral stuff. And the camera-work by Milton Krasner is flawless and subtle. This again comes at the slick and yet artful high point in American black and white cinematography, the 1940s.

Made during the golden era of Twentieth Century-Fox excellence, this fine film resurfaces on DVD. I'd missed it in 1949 but remember seeing the trailer at the Silver when I was 11, too young to appreciate adult drama.

Set in Mulberry Street with on location filming it looks at a family with four adult sons, a house divided against itself, taking the best and the worst of the old ways from a barber shop in Palermo to a bank in New York. There are serious conflicts with the law concerning the old man's handling of the banking business, but this is in no way a Mafia movie. Edward G. Robinson and Richard Conte give solid performances as the old man and his strongest/smartest son. Easy to see why non-Italian Susan Hayward is drawn like a magnet to the handsome, willful Italian (like me) who can ride her out on an emotional roller coaster. There simply are not any serious dramas being made (or planned) in 2005-2007 Hollywood as their focus is entirely on cartoons and silly action heroes. Look in the vaults of yesteryear for the good stuff.

One of the great Hollywood dramas with an absolutely breathtaking cast. Just listing them gives you an idea of what to expect. Edward G. Robinson, Richard Conti, a young Susan Haywood, Luther Adler (should have done more movie work), a very young Ephrem Zimbalist Jr, Debra Paget, and several other great stock players. Superb entertainment. They don't make them like this one anymore.

Proud stubborn Gino Monetti (Edward G. Robinson) runs his Little Italy bank his way, in fact he does everything his way including cajoling and humiliating his four adult sons. Working his way from a barber to a bank president he never took time to familiarize himself with rules and codes which soon runs him afoul of the law. Three of the sons see it as an opportunity for revenge while loyal son Max (Richard Conti) calls for a united front. They set Max up on a bribery charge and he goes to jail, the old man is ruined and the brothers take over. Released and having sworn a vendetta against his brothers they debate how to deal with him.

In between his Oscar efforts Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve, Joseph Mankiewicz made this little gem about patriarchy and family turmoil where no one ends up unblemished. Pops Monetti is a tyrant to his kids without an ounce of sensitivity and while his three sons decide to let him take the fall it comes after a lifetime of abuse. The good son Max though loyal to his dad is willing to bribe as well as have a touch of the dad's arrogance by expecting girlfriend played by Susan Hayward to be his piece on the side given he is engaged.

Robinson is outstanding as the thick headed self-absorbed patriarch who brooks no dissent that leads to his downfall. It is all the world according to him and Robinson brings it across without sympathy as he browbeats all around him, occasionally switching to Italian with flair, his coda "Never forget, never forgive" Conti as Max gives his usual intense clipped performance that matches up perfectly when shredding the brothers over their duty as children or being brought around by Hayward to a new way of thinking. Hayward is also impressive as the self assured, independent, passionate and total opposite of the stifled old world Italian women subject to berating while pledging silent allegiance. It is her goading of Max and his anachronistic principles that help motivate him to action. Luther Adler as vindictive brother Joe balances Conti's strong performance with one of his own in which he is both loathsome and at times sympathetic due to Monetti Sr. browbeating.

With its updated Shakespearean overtones (King Lear) baroque setting (The Monetti home) and strong stark performances House of Strangers holds its own most of the way with the two Oscar winners that bookend it.

This is one of Joe Mankiewicz' lesser known films (birthday today 11.2) and definitely among his best ones. Edward G. Robinson performs at his best as the Italian father of a banking family with four brothers embroiled with each other, as usual in Mankiewicz's films a brilliant dialogue mesmerize you all through, Susan Hayward also making a splendid performance. Richard Conte plays the one son who acts honourably, while all the others turn against him and betray their father out of necessity to survive – and let Conte pay for it. When he is freed from prison (which is where the film begins, and we know nothing yet of what has passed), the immediate meeting with his brothers creates the suspense which lasts and constantly grows tighter through the entire film, until the conflict is resolved in the end after many unexpected turns. All actors are at their best, while the lasting impression is made by Conte as a paragon of straight Sicilian nobility, Susan Hayward as a surprising woman of superior character, and above all Edward G. Robinson as the father, who although powerful and successful can't quite follow the new turns of his age. Although autocratic he never becomes unsympathetic, but you rather understand him and have to pity him - he is the tragedy, in a marvellously well-written film script (as all of Joe Mankiewicz' films are) perfectly handled by a masterful director and a set of actors together creating a virtuoso family performance.