jarrodmcdonald-1 Edward G. Robinson won the Best Actor award at Cannes for his role in this motion picture from 20th Century Fox. He is cast as the patriarch of a dysfunctional Italian-American family and steals one scene after another. Also in the cast: Richard Conte and Efrem Zimbalist, who play his sons. As the story unfolds, we learn that the boys have been used time and again to carry out nefarious crimes that suit dear old dad's own purposes. It's a complex and multi-layered melodrama, where violence seems to be the only way out. But Conte's character finds an alternative solution, when he strikes up a relationship with a woman played by Susan Hayward. Miss Hayward gives a fascinating performance as the love interest whose own happiness is soon jeopardized by her involvement with this man from a ruthless clan.Hayward and Conte would re-team on screen a few years later in the biopic I'll Cry Tomorrow.

Alex da Silva Edward G Robinson (Gino Monetti) is head of a bank and a family of four sons, three of whom work for him, but none of whom are shown any respect by him. The only son he seems to value is Richard Conte who has his own legal practice, albeit with dodgy customers. One of his customers is Susan Hayward (Irene) who gets the love interest role.Robinson rules as a dictator. although he does have a funny scene where he compares the old world to the new world, and his business practices come under investigation. As a result of this, Conte tries to protect him but doesn't get very far. The majority of the film is told in flashback, on either side of which we follow Conte as he seeks out his mission of revenge to those who encouraged the downfall of his father.Keep a look out for the best plate of spaghetti ever filmed. Robinson presides over his family every Wednesday evening when they are required to attend a family meal. They take their places around the table, sit in silence and wait for everyone to arrive before they can start to eat while listening to Robinson's opera records at a volume of 3 million decibels. On this particular occasion, they wait for Conte to arrive. It's a strained atmosphere but definitely worth the wait when that pasta shows up.The film gets you involved in a family drama that throws in an un-anticipated end sequence that pushes the story to another level. It's an entertaining film that emphasizes dialogue and drama more than action. All the cast do well with a special mention to oldest brother Luther Adler (Joe). Not sure why Susan Hayward is billed above Richard Conte, though.

felixoteiza Superb movie, superbly done; and one quite underrated at that. The Greek tragedy of a father setting three of his sons against himself while grooming the fourth and youngest as his successor. Now, allow me to say that many reviewers have gotten HOS wrong. This is not a tale of greedy sons robbing their father of his wealth but a gripping drama about child abuse and humiliation. So, let's set the record straight on that. That also concerns the bank.The problem is, people tend to feel so comfortable with some ideas that many times they subconsciously juggle facts to fit them, oblivious many times to clear evidence pointing in some other direction. Ex.: most of us see a bank as a source of wealth and power. That's the way we see them and so it got to be for Joe, Tony & Pietro. Wrong. For these men the bank is simply the bat with which their father hits them for not being like his favorite, Max. When we see them as such, as kids who have been tormented all their lives by a monster of a father, the picture changes and the trio appears instead as victims. Victims who, by a providential strike of luck, are finally given the chance to snatch the instrument of torture from their tormentor's hands and use it to regain the dignity and self-esteem he has taken from them. So there's nothing nefarious about what they did. They deserved what they got and also he. What best proves the point is that there's absolutely no hint that they did it for greed. If you remember the first part, you may recall that their main complaint against Gino was not about money, but about never getting any respect from him. Furthermore, if you take note of the abuse he's constantly pouring on them now, when they are adults, imagine how bad it must have been when they were kids. But Gino's cruelty goes even further as, at the smallest show of discontent he challenges the rebel to go look for a job elsewhere. That's even sadism, as he has deprived them since childhood of the indispensable tools for success and self-reliance in life: dignity & self-esteem. That's why I reject the analogy with Don Corleone, who I don't recall humiliating his kids that way. Gino is far worse than him. An egomaniac to whom the entire world must adapt, obey: relatives, random acquaintances—to whom he may hit in a whim--the judiciary, the government. There's no limit to his ego and those closest to him are the ones suffering the most. All them are his victims, specially his long suffering wife, who evades the unpleasant reality searching for the cause for the general unhappiness in cultural alienation—but who finally does the right thing, giving her sons their due. And where all this leaves Max, Irene?.Max is the one holding the plot together and it's through his memory that the story unfolds. With Max comes Irene. Now, this is an incredibly well constructed psychological drama, which is hinted by what critics say about its ambiguity and shades of gray--things are not as they appear at first--and that's because this is not a story told by a neutral, uninvolved, storyteller but Max's reminiscences of the past, so it is a subjective view of things. What we see here is Max's journey into his own memory and that's what brings all the confusion and why Gino appears at first as an unmethodical, yet sympathetic, banker only to gradually go showing his true colors as Max goes on peeling him layer by layer. The same with Irene, who's introduced as an aggressive, sharp tongued vamp, only to come out at the end as a woman in love; a force for good fighting for his soul against the evil in Gino. But the crucial discovery in Max's journey concerns himself. For the first time he sees who he really was, the man that Gino had made to his own image, his creature, who's shown to him now even in his choice of words--"I'm Max Monetti and nobody talks to me like that". And for the first time he realizes how right were all those trying to rescue him from his father's poisonous influence: Irene, his mother, his brothers. And he realizes too that Gino had no intention of ever giving any power to his brothers in the bank, as he was grooming him to continue with his legacy of hatred and contempt. That's why Max comes converted out of his reminiscence and why he has decided to go away. There's is where Irene plays her crucial role. She not only means redemption to him, but also hope, a new future, the breaking of old chains. Without her he got nothing but loneliness in which case he probably wouldn't have even bothered stopping Pietro from killing Joe, letting the family destroy itself. Maria would have never done that for him; she would have just left him be what Gino wanted, his own clone.Great movie, almost perfectly done. Superb acting by all, Paget with too little to chew. Just one flaw: Max's conversion appears too abrupt. His final words to Gino too casual, almost jovial. It should have all taken more time, more pauses, more thoughtful gesturing. And I don't get why they call this one noir when, apart from the cinematography, there's very little noir here--maybe Max, always with that dark cloud hanging over his head. Also I don't think it has anything to do with any immigrant experience. The Monettis could be any family, in any place on Earth. In all, 8.5/10.

ctomvelu1 If you can accept Edward G. Robinson and Luther Adler as Italian, then you can probably go along with this old-fashioned family melodrama about an overbearing banking tycoon and his four grown sons. Robinson steals every scene he is in as the aging bank owner whose unorthodox lending practices eventually get him in dutch with the government. One son, played by Richard Conte, is a lawyer and somewhat immune to his tyrannical father's ways. The other three all work at the bank and live in dad's shadow. A young Susan Hayward plays Conte's love interest. Extremely corny by today's standards, and clearly reflecting the near end of the old Hollywood system, HOUSE nevertheless is watchable for Robinson and his tirades. And his organ grinder mustache and accent.