Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

atlasmb Released the same year as "The Accused"--a better film that received plenty of attention by critics and the media--"The House on Carroll Street" is another Kelly McGillis vehicle, but it suffered from a lack of interest.McGillis plays Kathryn Murphy, an editor for "Life" magazine who loses her job after being targeted in a 1951 Senate hearing by the zealous committee that capitalized on the Red Scare.She takes a lesser job but unexpectedly (and very coincidentally) finds herself embroiled in a dangerous intrigue.Unfortunately, the script lacks motivation for some actions taken by Murphy. As she plays sleuth, there are some Hitchcockian touches, but they only serve to remind the viewer of how this film is lacking.Shot in Manhattan, the exteriors are sometimes interesting.Jeff Daniels is an FBI agent who is charged with investigating Ms. Murphy. Mandy Patinkin plays the heavy. And Jessica Tandy plays the strict employer who is reluctantly charmed by Murphy's disarming demeanor.This period piece does a good job of recalling the fifties, but the meat of this story leaves one wanting.

coolplanter This is a thriller that provides home entertainment, and is preferred alternative to what competes with it today on TV screen. The performance of Jeff Daniels, Kelly McGillis, and Mandy Potemkin live up to expectations --and there are good supporting performances provides as well. The Korean war was going on that time this movie was framed (1951), and if you can accept the absence of this, you'll probably be wondering about the timing/intent of bringing former Nazi physicians into the country. The scenes from Grand Central Station are some best parts of the movie--and compare favorably with all others I've seen. An aside point, the sound recording level is poor--we cranked it up while watching it--and was shocked at the regular volume when we switched back to regular TV. Record this on your digital recorder.

Terrell-4 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 accidentally 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 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 repellent 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.

sol1218 **SPOILERS** Beautifully photographed period piece, New York City circa 1951,about a young women asst. photo editor Emily Crane, Kelly McGillis, who's let go by her employer Life Magazine for refusing to give or name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Getting a job as a reader for an old women Miss. Venable ,Jessica Tandy, Emily one afternoon notices this young man Alan ,Jonathan Hogan, across the way in the house on Carroll Street through the window talking to Ray Salwen, Mandy Patinkin,the man who interrogated her at the HUAC hearings. Becoming obsessed with the young man Emily follows him on the subway to Rockaway Queens and finds that he spends his time going to mostly Jewish cemeteries taking down the names of those recently departed? Not knowing what she's getting into Emily uncovers a secret plan to smuggle ex-Nazi scientist's into the US, giving them Jewish name and identities as a cover! These ex-Nazis are to be use by the US Government in their expertise in the fight against the Red Menace, or International Communism. This secret government operation is headed by the aforementioned anti-Communist fanatic and borderline psycho HUAC investigator Ray Salwen. It was Salwen who later shows how unstable he is by pouring an entire bottle of ketchup, his way of emphasizing the Red Manace, over a clean white table-cloth in order to impress and show a shocked Emily in how the menace of Communisum has spread over the globe! Emily feels guilty when Alan, who put his trust in her , is murdered before he can talk to G-Man Cochran, Jeff Daniels, who became romantically involved with her. Salwen who's involved with the Nazis being smuggled into the country has his goons try to murder Emily. This before she let's the cat out of the bag about the US Government being allied with high ranking members of the defunct Adolf Hitler's Germany. Salwen ends up on the losing end when he makes a fatal miss-step on the roof of Grand Central Station and takes the fall for what his superiors have been doing since the end of WWII: secretly aiding ex-Nazis in the war against Commnisum. P.S the movie "The House on Carroll Street" is not as far fetched as one might think with President Turman passing the secret order Project, or Operation, Paper-Clip in September 1946 having the US Immigration Department allow hundreds of ex-Nazi scientists, which many of Truman's supporters and admirers say that he didn't know about, into the US. This was done in order to help in developing rockets and other military hardware in fighting the Communists Menace overseas in far away places like Korea and Vietnam.