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the audience applauded

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

While his wife is away, diabolically clever writer Stephen Byne (played by Louis Hayward) makes an unwanted romantic advance upon his maid (Dorothy Patrick). When she screams he panics and strangles her to death. He manipulates his gentle loyal brother John Byrne (Lee Bowman) into helping him hide the body. They place the body into a sack and dump it into a nearby river, but unknown to both of them the sack has a named stitched into it ... that of the innocent brother. The innocent John is wracked with guilt, while the devious Stephen is happy to seemingly be in the clear. This movie was directed by German émigré Fritz Lang, the man responsible for the brilliant classic thriller, M, and early science fiction classic Metropolis. His films tend to be dark, tense and brilliant. This is one of his best.

*Possible Spoilers Ahead!*To be completely frank here, I honestly didn't much like House By The River's bleak, over-wrought tale of woe. I found that it took itself way-way too seriously and carried the level of its melodramatics to the point of being downright laughable at times.This business of over-doing it really came to a head in this film's last half-hour.I mean, c'mon. The characters in the story pushed the plausibility of their actions just a bit too far for me to take them at face value.OK. I will gladly admit that regardless of "House" being a poverty-row production from Republic Studios, director Fritz Lang certainly did manage to milk the moody eeriness of its Gothic setting to the fullest extent possible. And, yes, that did serve as quite an effective distraction.But, after all was said and done, it sure seemed to me that all that there was left lurking beneath the ominous-looking shadows and the foreboding ambiance was just the barest bones of a decidedly confused and poorly thought-out story.By the end of the picture I was left feeling quite dissatisfied and misled by "House's" story which told a rather screwy tale of a quirky, second-rate novelist whose pent-up neurosis finally rears its ugly, little head.In a number of ways "House's" story about madness and inevitable murder reminded me a lot of Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" (with its obvious differences well noted, of course).

The most interesting aspect of House By The River is the fact that it was produced at Republic Pictures, the home of Roy Rogers and several other B movie cowboys and the values those pictures put forth. Hardly the place for a moody and atmospheric thriller that examines a man's moral degeneracy directed by Fritz Lang who always likes to explore the dark. One thing that does mark this as a Republic film is the usual Herbert J. Yates economy.But for a director like Lang who was used to exploring shadowy worlds, economy on the set isn't a hindrance, though back in Germany this man directed the opulent Metropolis. House By The River delivers the most for its meager budget.Louis Hayward who was a poor man's Tyrone Power and like Power could play straight heroes and hero/heels gets his Nightmare Alley type role as the rich and idle writer who just can't move the writer's block. He takes a real fancy to maid Dorothy Patrick and when she repulses his advances, Hayward kills her. He gets older and club footed brother Lee Bowman to dump the body in the river. But as dead bodies will do, they bloat and have a nasty habit of floating to the top.Lang and Hayward create a really frightening picture of moral degeneracy that would have resonated well with post World War II audiences who had just defeated a nation gripped in the philosophy that it was a race of super people. Jane Wyatt gets her innings in playing Hayward's wife who Bowman also loved and who starts thinking that maybe she married the wrong brother.I have to single out Jody Gilbert from the cast who plays Bowman's housekeeper and who Bowman takes his frustrations out on after he's helped Hayward. She's not the sharpest knife in the drawer and misreads all of Bowman's signals and later does him damage at a coroner's inquest. I'm not sure how much money House By The River brought in to Republic Pictures, but it is a minor masterpiece for this studio.

Wow this guy was one bottom feeder of a brother. A semi-semi-talented wanna be writer decides he wants to have a little kiss from the maid and his true nature comes out. He kills her accidentally but he realizes that...he doesn't care.After this (and this is just the beginning) he decides to shove the blame over to his brother. Of course his brother has done nuthin' except help him his whole life. This is a seriously useless individual. After the killing he realizes what he can get away with and decides that his writing needs "reality" to be any good. Meaning he has to actually live the stories for them to sell. So he lies against his brother, tries to kill him and whilst doing this he's writing a new book called...."The River".The performances are pretty good. The lead look scarily similar to a young thin Orson Welles. I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't him. He over does it a bit but the others, like his brother and wife, play their parts with a steady hand. This one has a Gothic typa feel to it. All in all a fairly decent film...just make sure you don't watch it with a sibling that doesn't like you :D