The House on Carroll Street

Starring:Kelly McGillis, Jeff Daniels, Mandy Patinkin, Jessica Tandy, Jonathan Hogan, Remak Ramsay, Kenneth Welsh, Christopher Buchholz, Charles McCaughan, Randle Mell, Michael Flanagan, Paul Sparer, Brian Davies, Mary Diveny, Bill Moor, Patricia Falkenhain, Frederick Rolf, Anna Berger, Cliff Cudney, Alexis Yulin
Director: Peter Yates
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

The House on 92nd Street (Fox Film Noir)

Average customer rating:

The House on 92nd Street
Saving Atomic Secrets
An Excellent Transfer
A reverential look at the FBI versus Nazi spies, with a sly performance by Leo G. Carroll
how did we beat back the nazis while we were dressed in ladies undies?

The House on 92nd Street (Fox Film Noir)
Starring: William Eythe , Lloyd Nolan , Signe Hasso , Gene Lockhart , and Leo G. Carroll
Director: Henry Hathaway
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009X766O
Release Date: 2005-09-06

Amazon.com

The House on 92nd Street has solid claims to a place in film history, and not just as an engrossing true-life counter-espionage movie. Its working title was "Now It Can Be Told," and its story--about the F.B.I. smashing a Nazi spy ring in New York--involved the stealing of atomic secrets. That surely upped the topical ante for 1945 audiences (who, we may assume, had a lot less ambivalent feelings about the F.B.I. than latterday viewers).

Of more lasting significance, the movie pioneered a salutary postwar trend in American filmmaking: forsaking the Hollywood soundstages and back lot to tap the freshness and palpable authenticity of real-world locations. Shot mostly in New York City, House was a collaboration between 20th Century-Fox and Louis de Rochement, the documentary producer renowned for his "March of Time" newsreels. The working formula of House and its successors was to fully incorporate documentary techniques into the storytelling, and to "film where it actually happened." That included using some nonprofessional performers, sometimes people who had been involved in the case. Fox went on to embrace this aesthetic in not only the de Rochement-produced 13 Rue Madeleine and Boomerang! but also the gangster movie Kiss of Death, the journalistic detective story Call Northside 777, and another F.B.I. case history, Street With No Name. Even the storybook fantasy of the studio's 1947 Miracle on 34th Street was charmingly validated by setting Kris Kringle down amid real New Yorkers and real Gotham grittiness.

Noiristes should stand advised that House on 92nd Street, a key influence on film noir, is not quite a true noir itself (whereas Anthony Mann's T-Men is noir to the max). Even as a German-American double agent, hero William Eythe is unburdened by neurosis or doubt, and the stylistic keynote is documentary gray, not black--though a murder in a railroad yard and the final showdown are memorably stark and dark. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

A stentorian narrator tells us that the USA was flooded with Nazi spies in 1939-41. One such tries to recruit college grad Bill Dietrich, who becomes a double agent for the FBI. While Bill trains in Hamburg, a street-accident victim proves to have been spying on atom-bomb secrets; conveniently, Dietrich is assigned to the New York spy ring stealing these secrets. Can he track down the mysterious "Christopher" before his ruthless associates unmask and kill him?

Customer Reviews:

The House on 92nd Street.......2007-06-25

Narrated in semi-documentary style and produced by "March of Time" newsreel creator Louis de Rochemont, Hathaway's intriguing WWII espionage thriller helped set in motion the semi-documentary vogue, featuring gritty on-location shooting and stories based on actual cases. Combining extant footage of German spies, a cast of unfamiliar stage actors and real-life FBI agents, and Reed Hadley's stern voiceover, "House" certainly has a true-to-life feel. But it's the tightly paced action and atmospheric, spy vs. spy suspense that turned this noir nail-biter into a bona fide box-office hit.

Saving Atomic Secrets.......2007-05-01

This story is adapted from cases in the FBI files. The scenes are from actual places in most cases. The FBI started building up its personnel in 1939. They checked all mail to suspected German agents, and filmed everyone who visited their Embassy in Washington. They learned they were recruiting Americans as agents. One of them, William Dietrich, started working for the FBI. A German agent had an accident (fell or pushed?) And his belongings were given to the FBI. Cryptanalysts deciphered a message about "Process 97", the top secret scientific research project of WW II.

Double agent Dietrich returned to America. His microfilmed type authorization was quickly forged to allow him more powers. Dietrich visited the house on 92nd Street (the Yorkville area) and presented himself to Elsa Gephardt. (His authority was questioned as it was against Standard Operating Procedures.) The film shows surveillance in those days: conversations are recorded on phonograph records. (The story about re-transmitted radio messages implies the Germans had no records of Dietrich's telegraphy style.) There is a meeting where a drunk talks too much; they take care of him so he will tell no tales. There is an important message about "Process 97". This leads the FBI to investigate hundreds of people at that secret site. The guilty parties are discovered and their contacts identified. But a new message from Hamburg provided the original authorization! Dietrich's cover is blown. Elsa Gephardt uses scopolamine to get Dietrich to talk. The FBI arrives in time to stop and arrest them. There is a surprise in the identification of "Mr. Christopher". [Would that disguise really fool observers?] The ironic ending seems weak. The secret of "Process 97" was kept. No known examples of enemy sabotage occurred during WW II. The FBI did a perfect job.

An Excellent Transfer.......2007-03-24

This is a very clean transfer of the movie. It is well worthwhile to upgrade from the VHS version or to view for the first time. The movie, itself, is a good example of its genre--a period WWII spy thriller that weaves in historical fact. See, for instance, the book "The Game Of The Foxes" by Ladislas Farago.

A reverential look at the FBI versus Nazi spies, with a sly performance by Leo G. Carroll.......2006-09-24

"This story is adapted from the cases in the espionage files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Produced with the F.B.I.'s complete cooperation, it could not be made public until the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan." So reads the introduction. Despite 20th Century Fox marketing this DVD as a noir, it's just a pompous semi-documentary...a paean to the FBI. We're sitting in the church of J. Edgar Hoover and Hollywood has written the sermon and is leading the choir. For the first 20 minutes of this 87 minute movie we're taken on a tour of FBI resources, told of FBI dedication to fight spies..."vigilant, tireless, implacable"...and shown how FBI knowledge of German secret agents protected this nation, especially when it came to foiling Nazi plans to discover "Process 97" (the atomic bomb). If we're not grateful to the FBI by the time the story starts, we still have Reed Hadley's stentorian voice-over and a music score that's part soap opera, part grand opera to come to grips with.

Bill Dietrich (William Eythe), "a brilliant young student," is recruited in 1939 by the Nazi's in America to be a German agent just before he graduates. Dietrich immediately reports this to the FBI. They agree that he will take the offer and then, after training in Germany, become a double agent when the Nazis send him back to the States. When he arrives in New York, he joins a Nazi ring led by Elsa Gebhardt (Signe Hasso), a beautiful, icy blonde who owns a haute couture dress shop on 92nd Street. She rents the five story building, lives there and uses it as her cell's headquarters. Her cell seems to be made up of thugs, goons and manly women. Dietrich sets himself up as a contact point between Gebhardt's operation and Germany. All the while Dietrich is supplying the FBI with vital information about Gebhardt's activities. It's a dangerous game, particularly since Elsa and her team have not fully accepted Dietrich. At the same time, FBI agent George Briggs (Lloyd Nolan) is working with Dietrich to roll up the whole operation and to identify "Mr. Christopher," the unknown master spy behind everything. Then they realize that some of the information being readied for transmission to Germany has to do with the atomic bomb. The stakes now are huge. Not only must the Nazi ring be foiled and the plans kept from Germany, the traitor who is stealing the atomic secrets must be found and stopped. I can't tell you if the FBI is successful because I dislike spoilers.

The movie has such an air of self importance about it, like a collar with too much starch. It infects the actors, who give performances of either wooden, iron-jawed determination (the FBI) or wooden, sneering badness (the Nazi spies). William Eythe, a good-looking, sincere actor, is simply out of his depth as a resourceful double agent. Even Lloyd Nolan, who usually has a lot of crisp energy, is subdued by the need to always appear competent. More often than not we see him giving an order, then briskly marching out of the room, or giving an order and having the person he spoke to turn and briskly march out the room.

Three actors come up with two-and-a-half fine performances. Leo G. Carroll as Colonel Hammersohn, an aging German agent in New York, is a pleasure to watch. His character is crafty, cautious and always wears a wing collar and a Homburg. Carroll is first-rate in the part. Gene Lockhart is actually touching as a weak, chubby man with a great memory who breaks down when faced with the evidence of his crime. The half-point goes to Lydia St. Claire as Johanna Schmidt, the gestapo member of Elsa Gebhardt's cell. She's grim, gimlet-eyed and slaps around our hero with authority. It's a one-note performance but it's fun to watch.

The DVD has a fine looking transfer. Much of the film was shot on location in New York and this provides a good deal of what interest there is. There's a commentary I didn't listen to from Eddie Muller, billed as a film noir historian.

how did we beat back the nazis while we were dressed in ladies undies?.......2006-09-06

this is a fascinating curio, a docudrama a generation before the phrase came into use. its an ok ww2-era spy thriller, but the main reason to watch it is that it contains sequences filmed at fbi headquarters, showing the actual way crimes were tracked 60 years back, as well as the actual personnel involved (save for the lead roles, of course). tho hoover obviously presented a squeaky clean version (for instance, he does not wear flowered frocks in this movie), it is still instructive as a piece of cultural anthropology.

Average customer rating:

An engaging, good-spirited thriller thanks to the two appealing leads and the influence of Alfred Hitchcock
Disappointment
Could have been a made for TV movie. Very Average.
Maybe I Am Easily Pleased
Disappointing

The House on Carroll Street
Starring: Kelly McGillis , Jeff Daniels , Mandy Patinkin , Jessica Tandy , and Jonathan Hogan
Director: Peter Yates
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00008R9KK
Release Date: 2003-06-03

Description

Kelly McGillis (The Accused) and Jeff Daniels (Speed) spark a fiery chemistry in thisMcCarthy-era romantic thriller that boasts "superb casting" (The Wall Street Journal), a "skillful and astute screenplay" (The Hollywood Reporter) by Walter Bernstein (The Train) and edge-of-your-seat direction by Peter Yates (Suspect)! When Emily Crane (McGillis) refuses to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee chairman, Ray Salwen (Mandy Patinkin), she's blacklisted and immediately fired from her job. But when she stumbles upon Salwen's nefarious plot to smuggle Nazi war criminals into the US, sheand an FBI agent (Daniels) she's enlisted to help hermust find a way to bring an end to Salwen's conspiracy before he brings an end to them!

Customer Reviews:

An engaging, good-spirited thriller thanks to the two appealing leads and the influence of Alfred Hitchcock.......2007-05-17

When Emily Crane, a photo editor at Life Magazine, refuses to turn over to a Senate committee the names and files of a civil rights organization she's associated with, she doesn't realize she'll soon be out of a job and probably the cause of a young German being stabbed to death. That's not the least of it. Soon she'll be refusing a great hamburger while a senior Senate committee staff man uses catsup on a white dining clothe to illustrate the red menace. And finally, she'll find herself clambering over the interior catwalk of New York's Grand Central Station dome, high above the floor, while killers try to insure she trips. To my mind, The House on Carroll Street is a solid and talented, if not exceptional, child of Hitchcock.

The year is 1951 and anti-Communism hysteria is in full bloom. Congressional demagogues, black-listing and secret FBI files abound. When Emily (Kelly McGillis) loses her job, we learn she's under FBI surveillance. Agent Cochrane (Jeff Daniels) has been assigned to take secret photographs of her, find out who she talks to and to follow her about New York. He observes when, in need of a job, she is interviewed by Miss Venable (Jessica Tandy) to read to the old lady. And one afternoon, relaxing in the townhouse garden of Miss Venable's home, she overhears part of a conversation in German coming from the next house. Naturally nosy, she moves closer through the bushes, glimpses the face of a young German fellow she accidently met a day or two before on the street...and then sees the face of the Senate staff head, Ray Salwen (Mandy Patinkin). Salwen was responsible for hauling her before the committee. Something is not right. A few days later she follows the German to a Jewish cemetery and finds him writing down the names of dead Jews. He seems scared. Before long, she is helping him escape from the house on Carroll Street, only to see him stabbed to death in front of her. By now, FBI agent Cochrane not only realizes something is very off, he realizes Emily Crane has nice legs, is quite likable and may be in danger. He's puzzled when he is warned off by his superiors and then taken off her case. In solid Hitchcockian style, we have been following this nice and nosy woman while she slowly discovers skullduggery and then realizes that she has placed herself at great risk. And in equally solid Hitchcockian style, we have met the man in agent Cochrane who with persistence and humor will attempt to keep her from danger while joining her in uncovering a plot that deals with German war criminals and powerful men in high places.

The movie has well-directed set pieces, ranging from a covert meeting in a huge, dim Greenwich Village book store to a spooky breaking-and-entering into the now abandoned house on Carroll Street (where Emily meets a man with a knife) to the exploration of the tunnels below and the girders high above the Grand Central main station. Most of all, it has two instantly appealing main characters in McGillis and Daniels. Both are completely natural in their portrayals. They have guileless faces. We immediately like both of them. Daniels in particular shows the kind of open-faced honesty that makes the movie so satisfying. The caveat I have is Mandy Patinkin. He is a forceful, intense actor. Patinkin makes Salwen a creature of such supreme self-confidence, such repellant humor that Salwen doesn't just stand for the evils of the period, he disgusts us. Patinkin's self-serving, power-justifying Salwen, full of phony patriotism and contemptuous high spirits, in my opinion very nearly overbalances the movie. Patinkin is just an inch away from becoming a caricature. Added to that are two speeches that Patinkin is given to justify his actions. Unfortunately, they move over into manipulated melodrama. The speeches are so over-the-top they tend to place the movie on hold while Patinkin gives them. However, the screenwriter is Walter Bernstein, a talented man who was black-listed for years. I'm more than willing to cut him some slack.

I think The House on Carroll Street is a well-crafted semi-romantic thriller which doesn't use explosives (well, there's one), cynicism or cumbersome back stories. It has two attractive and likable leads, a plot with a message or two which keeps moving along and a bit of humor. It also has a happy ending which, in one regard, may be unexpected. The DVD transfer looks fine. It's not anamorphic. There are no extras.

Disappointment .......2006-11-07

Watched this DVD several times and lost track of the plot. Actually,I bought it because of the final scenes in Grand Central Terminal showing areas which are not open to the public.

Could have been a made for TV movie. Very Average........2004-07-24

It started out with so much promise. It's the Mc Carthy era & paranoia rules. Kelly McGillis gets caught up in it & loses her job. With time on her hands she stumbles onto what becomes a plot to smuggle Nazi into the country. Meanwhile she is being harassed by The FBI. Agent Jeff Daniels gets friendly & she enlist him into what she has discovered. He helps her in his spare time & falls for her(who wouldn't). Mandy Patinkin is pleasently evil. There is a gratuitous shot of Kelly's breasts while she is in the shower. Maybe the high point of the movie. Actually she pulls off being a career woman of the 50's very well. Lots of slow spots, & a silly chase in the rafters of Grand Central Station. It's only 101 minute longer but seemed longer. Maybe I can squeeze 21/2 stars.

Maybe I Am Easily Pleased.......2004-03-05

I just watched this movie again last night, having watched it before when it was first released. My motive for writing this review is to add one positive contribution to this collection of downward pointing thumbs.

Well, yes, it is sort of an ordinary cloak and dagger film, but I enjoyed seeing a female lead character who was gutsy, a lady who didn't follow the stereotype of the ankle sprainer who has to lean on the big strong man for protection. Actually it is a good thing that Kelly McGillis isn't prone to ankle injuries, because she certainly does a lot of running in this flick. She just seems to be in a hurry wherever she goes, and trots along at a good clip even when she isn't being chased. Sometimes I felt I was watching another version of Run Lola Run.

Anyway the time period is the Joe McCarthy era, and Kelly loses her job because she refuses to name names to Congress. By chance she discovers some strange happenings that indicate maybe there are some ex (current?) Nazis inflitrating her pleasant neighborhood. Well the FBI is involved, too, and the chase is on. Evil people flit in and out, and surprises happen when people open doors.

Admittedly the tale is sort of muted Hitchcock, and not particularly exceptional in its plot, but I found it to be a pleasant thriller to watch. I must also confess that I was mesmerized by Ms McGillis's breathtaking beauty. She was about 30 when this movie was made, and, gosh, I just fell in love with her.

Disappointing.......2003-12-09

I agree with the Leonard Maltin review. This starts off well, but becomes a very ordinary, unexciting melodrama, that tries to have some Hitchcock tension, but it doesn't work very well. Towards the end of the film, I was muttering, "what a waste of time."

The reviewer Peter(can't remember the rest of his or her name) should have his or her review REMOVED, for revealing too much of the plot of the film. I'd write to Peter, if there were an e-mail address. Do NOT reveal too much about plot details. It's nice to be surprised when you see a film, Peter.

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