House by the River
House by the River is a 1950 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Louis Hayward, Lee Bowman and Jane Wyatt. It is based on the 1920 novel of the same title by A. P. Herbert.
Plot
Rich Victorian-era novelist Stephen Byrne, who lives and works by a river, accidentally kills his attractive maid after she resists his drunken advances. Stephen coaxes his crippled brother John to help him dispose the body. They stuff the body in a truck and dump it into the river. Days later, the sack and body float to the surface and pass Stephen's house. He desperately tries to retrieve it in the water, but fails. The police recover the bundle and, because John's initials have been stenciled on the sack, it is all traceable to him.An inquest is held and a cloud of suspicion hangs over John, who is tortured by his role in the situation and contemplates suicide. John and Stephen's wife Marjorie harbor feelings for each other. Stephen has used the maid's disappearance and death as publicity for his books. Looking to reap great financial gain, he begins writing a novel specifically about the crime in which he obliquely implicates himself in a manner that will not be evident to readers.
At a late-night meeting on a dock, Stephen knocks John unconscious and pushes him into the water. After returning home, Stephen finds Marjorie in his office reading the manuscript and she confronts him with her knowledge that he is the killer, having "read between the lines". Stephen strangles her so that she will not tell the police, but he stops when he hears John's footsteps coming toward the room. John, who is disheveled, enters the room and Stephen flees in panic. As he runs, he sees before him, in a curtain blowing in the wind near the top of the stairs, the image of Emily. He tries to run past the curtain but it catches him, wrapping around his throat, and as he cries out to Emily, "Let me go!", he falls over the banister to the floor below, presumably to his death. Back in the office, John and Marjorie, having heard Stephen's cries and the sound of his fall, look at each other in wonder, and they then embrace.
Cast
- Louis Hayward as Stephen Byrne
- Jane Wyatt as Marjorie Byrne
- Lee Bowman as John Byrne
- Dorothy Patrick as Emily Gaunt
- Ann Shoemaker as Mrs. Ambrose
- Jody Gilbert as Flora Bantam
- Peter Brocco as Harry – Coroner
- Howland Chamberlain as District Attorney
- Margaret Seddon as Mrs. Whittaker – Party Guest
- Sarah Padden as Mrs. Beach
- Kathleen Freeman as Effie Ferguson – Party Guest
- Will Wright as Inspector Sarten
- Leslie Kimmell as Mr. Gaunt
- Effie Laird as Mrs. Gaunt