THE UNINVITED

Out 15 october / Cert PG / 99 mins

One of Hollywood’s first serious ghost stories — the granddaddy of all films about suspiciously affordable homes infested with spooks. Siblings ray Milland and ruth Hussey abandon dissatisfying London life — “Oh rick, it isn’t even as if you were a good music critic,” Hussey tells her brother — for a clifftop mansion in Cornwall that turns out to be haunted by at least two spirits and one still-living person... unearthly waif Stella (Gail russell), who is drawn to the room where her mother supposedly died. A scent of mimosa, an eerie tune (which became a hit song, ‘Stella By Starlight’), and a wispy spectre threaten to waft Stella away to the beyond. the sophisticated script sneaks transgressive elements (lesbianism, illegitimacy) past the 1944 censors. Director Lewis Allen was mostly a solid craftsman — just this once, he was inspired to greater things.