Can anyone recommend some other old films that may be similar to this one? Preferably in that relative era (1930s-50s). I've already seen Rebecca; The Ghost and Mrs Muir; The Spiral Staircase; Footsteps in the Fog. I'm trying to find some more "forgotten gems" that suggest a similar kind of atmosphere.
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A couple of others:
A Matter of Life and Death (1946; US title Stairway to Heaven)
Portrait of Jennie (1948)
Even the Abbott and Costello fantasy/comedy The Time of Their Lives (1946) has a somewhat serious and eerie undertone and is one of their best films.
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Yes, quite a remarkable movie, one of those one-of-a-kind 40s films only Powell & Pressburger could have summoned into reality.
shareI absolutely *love* The Time of Their Lives! No way I'd think that Abbott and Costello could do such a fantastic film. My friends and I watch both that and "The Uninvited" every Halloween - they're as scary as any of us ever would want to watch.
shareCurse of the Cat People
shareExcellent choice, Tranio1. But we should add all the Val Lewton horror films -- which of course are only incidentally "horror", more like eerie psychological thrillers, nine of the most remarkable genre films made in Hollywood, all between 1942 and 1946:
Cat People
I Walked With a Zombie
The Leopard Man
The Seventh Victim
The Ghost Ship
Curse of the Cat People
The Body Snatcher
Isle of the Dead
Bedlam
I hope the OP is taking all of this down!
I was going to second Val Lewton's RKO movies. I have the box set from Warner Bros. that has all of those films (The Seventh Victim, Cat People, and I Walked with a Zombie are my favorite ones). I was going to say The Innocents too, but you guys beat me to it.
Let's so... I suppose I'd also recommend some of Mario Bava's work, like Black Sunday.
Diabolique and Eyes Without a Face are great ones as well, and both released by Criterion too.
The Lewton set is great. My faves are I Walked With a Zombie, The Ghost Ship and Isle of the Dead. The Ghost Ship was pulled from theaters a couple of weeks after its debut in 1943 due to a lawsuit claiming it was plagiarized, a common enough occurrence in Hollywood down the years. But in this case the plaintiff won, and the film was withdrawn from public view for over half a century. Warner finally got the rights issue resolved and in 1995 the film had a gala re-premiere, 52 years after it had last been seen publicly. Not supernatural but truly scary.
Another film to see -- the 1945 Ealing supernatural thriller Dead of Night, perhaps the best British ghost film, with several classic episodes and a neat twist ending. Hard to find now, though.
I just got my hands on Dead of Night (1945) from my local library and can't wait to watch it!
shareI totally forgot about Cat People. I saw it about 7 yrs ago and absolutely loved it. It remains one of my favorites! Thanks for the box set recommendation - I'll try to check that out on Amazon.
shareAbsolutely agree with the recommendation of The Innocents. Truly one of the great atmospheric films. Subject matter is very unnerving, adding to the fright. To me Deborah Kerr's finest role. I read on here that she considers it her best role as well. One I have purchased for my film library. The Haunting is also very good (the original of course).
shareHaving now seen all three (The Uninvited, The Haunting & The Innocents), recently, and for the first time, I think that The Innocents is the best film by far. The other two are not bad by any means though. I find The Haunting to be the weakest of the lot.
In any case I don't regret this little excursion into horror, which is a genre I've never really cared about.
The Haunting (60's version) may be the weakest as a story, but for terror and creepiness, I think it's one of the scariest of all time considering you don't really see anything...
Malombra
Suspicion
~.~
There were three of us in this marriage
http://www.imdb.com/list/ze4EduNaQ-s/
Laura 1944 starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews
Shadow of a Doubt 1943 starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotton
Secret Beyond the Door 1947 starring Joan Bennett and Michael Redgrave
13 Ghosts starring Rosemary Decamp
House on Haunted Hill starring Vincent Price
Dangerous Crossing starring Jeanne Crain
Midnight Lace starring Doris Day
Gaslight starring Ingrid Bergman
Conflict starring Humphrey Bogart
Dragonwyck starring Gene Tierney
The Two Mrs. Carrolls starring Barbara Stanwyck and Humphrey Bogart
Leave Her To Heaven starring Gene Tierney
Sorry, Wrong Number starring Barbara Stanwyck
Dial M For Murder starring Grace Kelly
Night Must Fall starring Rosalind Russell
Undercurrent starring Katharine Hepburn
The Woman in White starring Alexis Smith
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) is fantastic, even better than The Uninvited IMO
shareThere are many:
I like
The Innocents with Debra Kerr
The Others with Nicol Kidman
The Changeling with G.C. Scott
and of course
Hell House with Roddy McDowall