Wow, where do I begin? For anyone who wants a different take on the book, grab a coffee. If your interest is more casual you should probably skip this comment. First off, I appreciate you making this video and sharing your thoughts. Mine are totally different but that is OK. So to start, I am in my 50s now and have had a lifelong love of mysteries and ghost stories. I've read many novels in those genres, from all time periods. The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle is my favorite novel of all time. I first saw the film version on television as a teenager and it sparked my interest. Then when I was in my 20s, I was reading a lot of romantic suspense, and the novel The Uninvited was actually recommended by a character in a 1980s era novel by the prolific Barbara Michaels (I think The Uninvited reference comes in her novel Shattered Silk). The Uninvited was long out of print but I found a first edition hardcover at my local public library. I was in my late 20s at first read and absolutely loved the novel. Since then, I have reread this 340+ page novel 8 times over a period of about 30 years. Why? There is something about the author's style I find as tremendously engaging as you did not (lol!). For me the characters just crackle with life. It seems to have been written in the second half of the 1930s (no date is given in the book) and strikes me as a window into the past to that fascinating time and place, a very unsettled period in the world. The repartee between Roderick and his sister remind me very much of Cary Grant films from this period. The book is loaded with period slang that I find fascinating. But most of all, it has a ton of heart. Although this was written as a pop novel, a summer beach read of the early 1940s, the author subtly slips so much of herself into it that I feel like I know her. Philosophical observations she has the characters toss as asides that really resonate. Off hand, an example I can think of (from memory not verbatim): "I will never be rich. No one in our family is. There are too many things we are not willing to sell." The movie did a great job condensing the story. I would recommend the book to anyone who liked the movie because the book is written in a cinematic style; you will recognize these people; learn much more about their backstories, and meet many additional interesting characters. As an example of what I mean by the book being written in a cinematic style: almost the entire drugstore scene in the film, all the dialog, is lifted verbatim from the novel. Another aspect of the book that I love is it represents again another element lost to time: Roderick is a playwright (as was Dorothy Macardle) and the author takes us into that world, and backstage, in a time before television, a time when talking movies were still fairly new, and live theater was considered popular mass entertainment. She takes us behind the scenes to meet the personalities of actors, directors and producers. In your review you mention Roderick writing a play "in record time" but it really is not that unrealistic. He writes the first draft during the summer and revises it in the fall. In real life I produce community theatre. I recently licensed a play from a NY company. The playwright private messaged me on FB to wish us well. I asked how long he spent writing his two hour play, as I found it rather deep in its philosophy. He replied "two months or less". Which rather startled me. On the subject of plays, The Uninvited is more than just a book and a movie. It was also adapted as a play! I think the stage adaption was made in the late 1940s or 1950s but it is still available to license for performances. I have seen contemporary productions of it in local community theatre. One thing that is really interesting is that both the movie and the stage play tell the same story, but they use different parts of the book to do it! So the characters and scenes (like the housewarming party) that were cut out for the movie actually form the bulk of the play. It is really kind of neat how the two adaptions of this novel manage to tell the same story by using different sections of the book. I am guessing this may have been deliberate. The stage adaption probably licensed the book, not the movie script, and so wanted to avoid any legal issues. But that is only a guess. Creatively it is interesting; if you watch the movie AND the play you will get almost the entire novel. The play does condense the personalities of the visiting party guests, from four people to two, if my memory serves. Last thing I will mention re: book vs movie. I find it interesting that in the movie Ray Milland says to their housekeeper "We will do nothing tonight that the priest wouldn't approve of." This is a reference to a character in the book, Father Ansen, who is not in the film at all. He is a local priest who befriends the couple and earnestly wants to perform an exorcism of their house. In the movie the line comes outside of any context, it is just there. I've wondered if perhaps the film contained scenes with the priest that wound up on the cutting room floor to reduce the running time. Finally, you mention (as nearly every review does) that the book was originally titled Uneasy Freehold. I am thinking that was perhaps only in the UK? In decades of collecting old novels, and having an interest in this one in particular, I have never come across a vintage copy titled anything other than The Uninvited. I own the first printing (US) and it is The Uninvited. OK, end of essay! LOL. Thank you for your review and offering other readers a forum for their thoughts.
Thank you for taking the time to share you thoughts! You make me want to go back and read the book again. Maybe I just wasn't in the right headspace when I read it!
@legiontheatregroup Really enjoyed your take on the novel & film! After loving the film for years I finally scored a vintage copy of the novel (published in 1942) a few years back and it quickly became one of my favorite books of all time as well! As much as I admire the classic film, I would love to see a remake that is keyed more to the novel itself (I could see Mike Flanagan really doing this justice!).
@@Polymorphia1965 Thanks! I have often thought the same thing: a remake telling the novel's more complex story would be great. I suspect it would be too long for a movie, but would make a great "limited series" on Hulu or Netflix. Since you enjoyed the novel so much I have a reading recommendation: The Red Lamp, by Mary Roberts Rinehart. After The Uninvited this is the novel I have re-read most over many years. It was written in 1925. Just a caution though, it has both similarities and major differences from The Uninvited. Differences: it is primarily a murder mystery about a serial killer (with a wild motivation). Therefore it is not set around past tragedies but current ones. However, the similarities are there. The gathering clouds of WWII are an undertone in The Uninvited. The Red Lamp - written in the mid 1920s - has cultural references to impacts still being felt in the US after the end of the first World War. The Red Lamp has a romantic storyline to it, like The Uninvited, although that developing relationship is not the primary focus. The Red Lamp has a constant supernatural undercurrent regarding seances, spiritualism, etc - all very popular in the 1920s. The biggest similarity lies in the quality of the writing and the way the author manages to weave so much personal philosophy into a genre (considered 'disposable') mystery novel. One of my favorite passages occurs when a character is dismissive of the supernatural, stating they prefer reality. To which the author muses in a little aside: "But what is reality? Only what we can see, feel, touch and taste? But that is ridiculous. Thought is reality. Perhaps, the only reality." Happy reading!
I stumbled upon this movie when it was recommended in a TH-cam video as one of the best haunted house movies you have never seen . Took awhile to track it down but it is now definitely one of my favorite haunted house movies , didn't know it was based on a book . Your description of the novel makes me want to read it , hopefully it is easier to find than the movie .
Love the fall set up in the background! I'm currently reading Dracula and look forward to you covering it. I still haven't seen any of the Dracula films 😱. The Uninvited film looks interesting
The Victor Young song played in the movie for Stella became the pop standard, "Stella by Starlight". This and "The Innocents" (1961) are my favorite ghost movies. Not coincidentally both are b&w.
The movie is on Daily Motion (it's kind of an alternative TH-cam) as long as you don't mind watching it in two parts. It was uploaded 8 years ago so hopefully it stays put a few years longer. I haven't watched it yet, but haunted house movies are my favorite. My top two are "The Haunting" (1963) and "The Legend of Hell House" (1973) -- they're basically the same movie but have different emphases. I love Rebecca too, but that's not a horror movie...it's what I call a gothic romance (a lot of the same elements as a haunted house movie/story but psychological haunting rather than physical). Good review.
Just watched it with my better half. I agree that the tone was dissonant, not unlike some modern movie (which is also ruined). I appreciated some use of light and the special effects, creepy and very well made for the time. What I found the most baffling is the old man dying and them being happy in the end. I get he was cantankerous but boy, it felt cold.
Wow, where do I begin? For anyone who wants a different take on the book, grab a coffee. If your interest is more casual you should probably skip this comment.
First off, I appreciate you making this video and sharing your thoughts. Mine are totally different but that is OK. So to start, I am in my 50s now and have had a lifelong love of mysteries and ghost stories. I've read many novels in those genres, from all time periods. The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle is my favorite novel of all time. I first saw the film version on television as a teenager and it sparked my interest. Then when I was in my 20s, I was reading a lot of romantic suspense, and the novel The Uninvited was actually recommended by a character in a 1980s era novel by the prolific Barbara Michaels (I think The Uninvited reference comes in her novel Shattered Silk). The Uninvited was long out of print but I found a first edition hardcover at my local public library. I was in my late 20s at first read and absolutely loved the novel.
Since then, I have reread this 340+ page novel 8 times over a period of about 30 years. Why? There is something about the author's style I find as tremendously engaging as you did not (lol!). For me the characters just crackle with life. It seems to have been written in the second half of the 1930s (no date is given in the book) and strikes me as a window into the past to that fascinating time and place, a very unsettled period in the world. The repartee between Roderick and his sister remind me very much of Cary Grant films from this period. The book is loaded with period slang that I find fascinating. But most of all, it has a ton of heart. Although this was written as a pop novel, a summer beach read of the early 1940s, the author subtly slips so much of herself into it that I feel like I know her. Philosophical observations she has the characters toss as asides that really resonate. Off hand, an example I can think of (from memory not verbatim): "I will never be rich. No one in our family is. There are too many things we are not willing to sell."
The movie did a great job condensing the story. I would recommend the book to anyone who liked the movie because the book is written in a cinematic style; you will recognize these people; learn much more about their backstories, and meet many additional interesting characters. As an example of what I mean by the book being written in a cinematic style: almost the entire drugstore scene in the film, all the dialog, is lifted verbatim from the novel. Another aspect of the book that I love is it represents again another element lost to time: Roderick is a playwright (as was Dorothy Macardle) and the author takes us into that world, and backstage, in a time before television, a time when talking movies were still fairly new, and live theater was considered popular mass entertainment. She takes us behind the scenes to meet the personalities of actors, directors and producers. In your review you mention Roderick writing a play "in record time" but it really is not that unrealistic. He writes the first draft during the summer and revises it in the fall. In real life I produce community theatre. I recently licensed a play from a NY company. The playwright private messaged me on FB to wish us well. I asked how long he spent writing his two hour play, as I found it rather deep in its philosophy. He replied "two months or less". Which rather startled me.
On the subject of plays, The Uninvited is more than just a book and a movie. It was also adapted as a play! I think the stage adaption was made in the late 1940s or 1950s but it is still available to license for performances. I have seen contemporary productions of it in local community theatre. One thing that is really interesting is that both the movie and the stage play tell the same story, but they use different parts of the book to do it! So the characters and scenes (like the housewarming party) that were cut out for the movie actually form the bulk of the play. It is really kind of neat how the two adaptions of this novel manage to tell the same story by using different sections of the book. I am guessing this may have been deliberate. The stage adaption probably licensed the book, not the movie script, and so wanted to avoid any legal issues. But that is only a guess. Creatively it is interesting; if you watch the movie AND the play you will get almost the entire novel. The play does condense the personalities of the visiting party guests, from four people to two, if my memory serves.
Last thing I will mention re: book vs movie. I find it interesting that in the movie Ray Milland says to their housekeeper "We will do nothing tonight that the priest wouldn't approve of." This is a reference to a character in the book, Father Ansen, who is not in the film at all. He is a local priest who befriends the couple and earnestly wants to perform an exorcism of their house. In the movie the line comes outside of any context, it is just there. I've wondered if perhaps the film contained scenes with the priest that wound up on the cutting room floor to reduce the running time. Finally, you mention (as nearly every review does) that the book was originally titled Uneasy Freehold. I am thinking that was perhaps only in the UK? In decades of collecting old novels, and having an interest in this one in particular, I have never come across a vintage copy titled anything other than The Uninvited. I own the first printing (US) and it is The Uninvited. OK, end of essay! LOL. Thank you for your review and offering other readers a forum for their thoughts.
Thank you for taking the time to share you thoughts! You make me want to go back and read the book again. Maybe I just wasn't in the right headspace when I read it!
@legiontheatregroup Really enjoyed your take on the novel & film! After loving the film for years I finally scored a vintage copy of the novel (published in 1942) a few years back and it quickly became one of my favorite books of all time as well! As much as I admire the classic film, I would love to see a remake that is keyed more to the novel itself (I could see Mike Flanagan really doing this justice!).
@@Polymorphia1965 Thanks! I have often thought the same thing: a remake telling the novel's more complex story would be great. I suspect it would be too long for a movie, but would make a great "limited series" on Hulu or Netflix.
Since you enjoyed the novel so much I have a reading recommendation: The Red Lamp, by Mary Roberts Rinehart. After The Uninvited this is the novel I have re-read most over many years. It was written in 1925. Just a caution though, it has both similarities and major differences from The Uninvited. Differences: it is primarily a murder mystery about a serial killer (with a wild motivation). Therefore it is not set around past tragedies but current ones. However, the similarities are there. The gathering clouds of WWII are an undertone in The Uninvited. The Red Lamp - written in the mid 1920s - has cultural references to impacts still being felt in the US after the end of the first World War. The Red Lamp has a romantic storyline to it, like The Uninvited, although that developing relationship is not the primary focus. The Red Lamp has a constant supernatural undercurrent regarding seances, spiritualism, etc - all very popular in the 1920s.
The biggest similarity lies in the quality of the writing and the way the author manages to weave so much personal philosophy into a genre (considered 'disposable') mystery novel. One of my favorite passages occurs when a character is dismissive of the supernatural, stating they prefer reality. To which the author muses in a little aside: "But what is reality? Only what we can see, feel, touch and taste? But that is ridiculous. Thought is reality. Perhaps, the only reality."
Happy reading!
@@legiontheatregroup Thanks for the recommendation!
I stumbled upon this movie when it was recommended in a TH-cam video as one of the best haunted house movies you have never seen . Took awhile to track it down but it is now definitely one of my favorite haunted house movies , didn't know it was based on a book . Your description of the novel makes me want to read it , hopefully it is easier to find than the movie .
Yeah the book is definitely easier to find! I wish this movie was more accessible because it really does deserve more attention.
Love the fall set up in the background! I'm currently reading Dracula and look forward to you covering it. I still haven't seen any of the Dracula films 😱. The Uninvited film looks interesting
Thanks! I really enjoyed the book dracula! I think the Gary Oldman movie is the most faithful but I haven't seen it yet.
Thank you for this!
You're welcome 😊
The Victor Young song played in the movie for Stella became the pop standard, "Stella by Starlight".
This and "The Innocents" (1961) are my favorite ghost movies. Not coincidentally both are b&w.
I'll need to check out The Innocents!
Love the movie AND the book.
Yeah a lot of people have positive things to say about the book!
The first time I saw this film I was probably ten. Absolutely one of my favorites.
The movie is on Daily Motion (it's kind of an alternative TH-cam) as long as you don't mind watching it in two parts. It was uploaded 8 years ago so hopefully it stays put a few years longer. I haven't watched it yet, but haunted house movies are my favorite. My top two are "The Haunting" (1963) and "The Legend of Hell House" (1973) -- they're basically the same movie but have different emphases. I love Rebecca too, but that's not a horror movie...it's what I call a gothic romance (a lot of the same elements as a haunted house movie/story but psychological haunting rather than physical). Good review.
Yeah I really liked The Haunting! I still need to see Hell House.
Thanks for letting me know about daily motion! I'm glad you enjoyed the review 😊
No love for "The Innocents" (1961)? Adapted from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
Happy Halloween , I guess I need to see the film, I read the book, but not seen the film
Did you like the book?
Its was okay, not great but did have some good chapters
Just watched the movie adaptation of the uninvited I did enjoy it I have never read the book
Glad you liked it!
Just watched it with my better half. I agree that the tone was dissonant, not unlike some modern movie (which is also ruined). I appreciated some use of light and the special effects, creepy and very well made for the time.
What I found the most baffling is the old man dying and them being happy in the end. I get he was cantankerous but boy, it felt cold.
Lol yeah so true about the ending!
Interesting...
soooo there isn’t any book for the 2009 version 🥹 damn it
No, sorry!