clanciai Valentina Cortese and Richard Baseheart make this film together with a superb script an ace of films. Only the introduction to the story is gripping enough, the familiar situation of displaced persons in refugee camps after the war, here two ladies, one dying, the other desperate enough to do anything to take a chance. Valentina takes a chance and gets from the frying-pan into the fire, but in a completely different world - from the atrocious misery of concentration camps to webs of intrigue in the riches and luxuries of high society in California.Robert Wise was always one of the most reliable of directors, while he never repeated himself - it's astounding how different the character of every one of his films is from all the others. Here we find ourselves in a thriller like in "The Spiral Staircase" but with more interesting human relationships, as you walk in blindness among the manoeuvring characters as much as Valentina does, and you can only suspect the worst of almost every one of them - except the real perpetrator. Only in the last scene the real drama is revealed, and the only one who understood it all from the beginning was the dead woman in the portrait, who triumphs.It's a film of outstanding eloquence both in intrigue, dialogue, cinematography and above all direction. Even the music couldn't be better.

Mikel3 'The House on Telegraph Hill' (1951) Starring Valentina Cortese and Richard Basehart. Contains minor spoilers.Last night we were looking for an older film to watch that we had never seen before. We found this movie. It was a strange offbeat mix of friendship, love, infidelity, greed, stolen identity and murder. Richard Basehart shows here just what a fine actor he was. Sadly, I feel he is mostly associated with his role on TVs 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' and not his earlier films that showed his versatility. He was convincing here as a seemingly loving new husband who might just be hiding a murderous side. In some ways much like Gary Grant's character in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Suspicion' (1941). I wonder if that earlier film influenced the character for this one? 'The House on Telegraph Hill' was directed by the usually very talented Robert Wise.I did like this film and it's worth seeing, however, I couldn't help thinking how much better it may have been if directed by the master of suspense 'Alfred Hitchcock'. It's hard to explain, some scenes just didn't ring as real to me as they might have in a Hitchcock film. Also, the occasional surprises should have had much more impact than they did. I really don't understand that, I expected more from Robert Wise. This was a good film that should have been a great film. The acting talent was all there, something else was missing.It's interesting to note that the two leads Valentina Cortese and Richard Basehart met making this movie and were soon married. This may have added to the chemistry they had on screen together early on as two lovers. Their marriage lasted 9 years and they had one child together.I do recommend this movie to people who enjoy crime dramas with some surprises. The story does have a very satisfying ending to it. Also, the resolution of the stolen identity story rather surprised me. I can't explain without giving too much away. I'll only say it seemed justified. I rate this a 6 out of 10.

AaronCapenBanner Robert Wise directed this drama(not a haunted house thriller!) that stars Valentina Cortesa as Victoria Kowelska , a Nazi concentration camp survivor who swaps identities with her deceased friend in order to escape her dire situation. She eventually ends up in San Francisco, at the woman's home, trying to bond with the son, who is now in the custody of Alan Spender(played by Richard Basehart) with whom she falls in love. Sadly, he isn't all he seems either, and circumstances force a fateful confrontation where all secrets will be revealed. Interesting film with a compelling(if contrived) plot, and most appealing San Francisco locations, especially the beautiful title house.

MartinHafer Victoria (Valentina Cortese) is a Polish concentration camp inmate when the film begins. She is friends with Karin, though it seems likely Karin will not survive the camp. And, when the war ends and Karin is dead, impulsively Victoria assumes Karin's identity. After all, Karin has a relative and child in the US and Victoria is all alone. However, moving into her friend's life isn't as easy as she suspects. While they do accept her as Karin, things have happened behind the scenes and soon Karin/Victoria thinks someone is out to kill her. But who and why? I could say more, but as this is a mystery film, I will not spoil the surprises. This is a decent movie but has a few problems. The most obvious is that once the leading lady realizes there is a problem in the house, she behaves so stupidly. First, she acts totally high-strung and hides her feelings so poorly. Second, you'd think that given her fears, she'd just get the heck out of the house! In fact, that's a problem with a lot of films--when the leading character is afraid for their life but don't just runaway to avoid being killed. Duh. This just wasn't handled very well. However, despite this, the film does have an interesting plot, it maintains a nice creepy atmosphere, it ends well and the actors all were quite good. By the way, get a load of the car wreck. It was amazingly unconvincing-especially when the intended victim just got up and walked away after being thrown from the crashing car. Again, duh.