Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1954
The House Across the Lake
Buy The House Across the Lake now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'The House Across the Lake' is a 1954 British crime film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Alex Nicol, Hillary Brooke, Sid James and Susan Stephen. A film noir it was produced as a second featureChibnall & McFarlane p.82 by Hammer Films and shot at the company's Bray Studios. It was released in the United States by Lippert Pictures under the title 'Heat Wave'.
Plot
An American pulp novelist, Mark Kendrick (Nicol), meets his rich neighbours across the lake and is soon seduced by beautiful blonde Carol (Brooke), the wife of Beverly Forrest (James), despite Beverly treating him as a friend. When Beverly is badly injured by a fall on his boat, Carol fails to persuade Mark to throw him overboard, so Carol does it.
After first refusing to go along with her plan to call it an accident, Mark agrees when Carol tells him that they will meet up again later and live off her dead husband's money. However, after the coroner rules the death an accident, Mark does not hear from her, but the still suspicious CID inspector on the case arranges for Mark to find out that Carol has secretly married another old flame and changed residences. Mark angrily confronts her, but she sneers that she only used him and that there is nothing he can do about it without implicating himself. Mark decides to confess, thinking that, although it will probably mean a prison sentence for him, it will mean the rope for Carol.
Cast
*Alex Nicol as Mark Kendrick
*Hillary Brooke as Carol Forrest
*Sid James as Beverly Forrest
*Susan Stephen as Andrea Forrest
*Paul Carpenter as Vincent Gordon
*Alan Wheatley as Inspector MacLennan
*Peter Illing as Harry Stevens
*Gordon McLeod as Doctor Emery
*Joan Hickson as Mrs. Hardcastle
*John Sharp as Mr. Hardcastle
*Hugh Dempster as Frank
* Monti DeLyle as Head Waiter
Production
The film was based on a novel by Ken Hughes, 'High Wray', published in 1952.Advertisements
The Sphere; London Vol. 209, Iss. 2752, (Nov 8, 1952): 251 It was filmed at Bray Studios.Round the British Studios
Nepean, Edith. Picture Show; London Vol. 62, Iss. 1614, (Mar 6, 1954): 11. Nicol and Brooke were the only Americans in the cast, although Brooke played a British character, as she did in most films. (Her mastery of a "posh" accent caused her to be typecast as British in Hollywood films starting in the 1940s.)HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE, The
Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 21, Iss. 240, (Jan 1, 1954): 105.THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE: Assoc. Brit.-Pathe
Picture Show; London Vol. 62, Iss. 1630, (Jun 26, 1954): 10.
Reception
According to an obituary of Ken Hughes, "The film was praised by critics, and began Hughes's ascent into more important productions. "OBITUARY: Ken Hughes: [FOREIGN Edition]
Vallance, Tom. The Independent 1 May 2001: 6.
'Filmink' said "Its quite a fun movie, reminiscent of 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'; one is inclined to wonder if Nicols character, a writer under the pump and distracted by lust, was a Hughes self-portrait."
References
Bibliography
* Chibnall, Steve & McFarlane, Brian. 'The British 'B' Film'. Palgrave MacMillan, 2009.
Buy The House Across the Lake now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1954