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Originally Posted by BarnDoor
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Spanish Fly is pretty desperate stuff and Whoops Apocalypse is a very mixed bag (and very different to the TV series), but House Across the Lake is interesting with a great performance from Sid James:
Part of a co-production deal between Hammer (when they were still called Exclusive) and Robert L. Lippert to produce quota quickies, 1954’s
The House Across the Lake aka Heat Wave was cast to a template that British films still all too often slavishly adhere to today: the setting and supporting players may be British, but the stars are affordable Americans who never quite made it but had enough name recognition to get the film some modest exposure in the US. In this case that means Alex Nicol and Hilary Brooke, the former best known for supporting roles in 50s westerns of varying quality, the latter perhaps best known as the boys’ friendly neighbour in the first season of The Abbott and Costello Show but here a femme fatale. She’s married to rich but unhappy Sidney James, the kind of man who thinks that
“Too much money makes you miserable. At least you can be miserable in comfort,” but she wants to be more than just comfortable and sees a chance to arrange it when he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Nichol’s pulp writer who has taken a small cottage across the lake in the hope of beating both his writer’s block and his financial worries. It’s clear things will not end well for any of them…
While Nichol is the lead, an effectively cast against type James is by far the most interesting character in the film, which makes it a pity he’s so obviously marked out to not make it anywhere near the end credits. Throwing parties full of guests who owe him something and resent him for being in a position to help them do something they can’t do themselves that he avoids in favour of solitary drinking like a Home Counties Gatsby, he’s used to being used: “
You know the first thing I ask myself when I meet somebody? What does he want out of me? And believe me, it isn’t before I’m being tapped in one way or another.” And he’s used to his wife collecting artists like others collect butterflies. Right now it’s a pianist.
“Vincent won’t last long, they never do. Pity in a way. That piano cost me twelve hundred pounds. He’s the first person who’s been able to play it properly.” He puts up with it because he’s still in love with her, but “Carol’s in love with Carol.” Naturally she convinces Nichol that she might be in love with him, but when her opportunity strikes she plans to use him as an alibi rather than a killer – she’s more than capable of doing her own dirty work…
Framed in flashback with healthy doses of doom laden narration it’s clearly influenced by noir but has none of the genre’s signature visual style: even though writer-director Ken Hughes does a more than capable job this is more a decent British programmer aimed at padding out the bottom half of a double bill (the 68-minute running time is the giveaway). But then with a hero who introduces himself as a hack novelist trying to breathe some life into a dying novel, it’s clear that Hughes knew what he was hired to do and did it rather better than many of his contemporaries churning out second features. If you adjust your expectations accordingly there’s more than enough here to reward a viewing, especially James in the days when he was still a character actor playing a wide variety of roles rather than an eternal chancer and Carry On icon. Be warned that the trailer includes one very big spoiler and is best viewed after the film.
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