The Red House 1947

Pete Morgan: “I picked up the whip and beat him till he wasn’t handsome anymore, till he was dead, finished.”

Written for the screen and directed by Delmer Daves (Dark Passage 1947) this is a tautly wound horror/thriller featuring one of my favorites, the gruff everyman Edgar G Robinson as Peter Morgan, a very ‘unbalanced’ guy.

Pete ( Edgar G Robinson) and sister Ellen Morgan ( Dame Judith Anderson) have raised pretty Meg ( Allene Roberts) as their own child after her parents ran off and abandon her as a baby.

Meg now a young woman gets her friend Nath (Lon McCallister) to come help out doing odd jobs on the farm because her father Pete has a wooden leg and is getting on in years.

One night, Nath decides to use a shortcut home through the woods, which enrages Pete who warns him to stay clear of the red house, for fear of the unspeakable horrors associated with the dilapidated old wreck.

But like all great horror thrillers, Meg and Nath ignore his warnings and start digging around anyway and of course, the two begin falling in love, which is not only a problem for Meg’s mysterious caretaker, but for Nath’s sexy girlfriend Tibby played by a very young Julie London.

What is the dark secret of the red house, and what is deranged father Pete Morgan hiding after all these years?

Happy Father’s Day from MonsterGirl!