The House on Carroll Street (1988)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Great Film overall

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Many of us are too young to remember the McCarthy era, but that doesn't mean we should not be aware of it because many of the actions occurring during that time have been going on the last seven years.Kelly McGillis, who did a great job in Witness with Harrison Ford, is Emily, a woman caught up in the witch hunt that occurred during that era. Quite by accident, she stumbles on a plot by these same people in power to smuggle Nazi war criminals into the country, using the names of dead Jews, if you can believe that.Mandy Patinkin plays a great evildoer in the government, and he even looks like the former President that made his reputation during this time.Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale , Good Night and Good Luck) is very good a a farm-boy turned FBI agent who falls for Emily and helps her uncover the plot.In the absence of CGI and FX, it was great acting that really made this an enjoyable movie.

Emily Crane, a photo editor at Life Magazine, refuses to turn over to a Senate committee the names and files of a civil rights organization she's associated with, she doesn't realize she'll soon be out of a job and probably the cause of a young German being stabbed to death. That's not the least of it. Soon she'll be refusing a great hamburger while a senior Senate committee staff man uses catsup on a white dining clothe to illustrate the red menace. And finally, she'll find herself clambering over the interior catwalk of New York's Grand Central Station dome, high above the floor, while killers try to insure she trips. To my mind, The House on Carroll Street is a solid and talented, if not exceptional, child of Hitchcock. The year is 1951 and anti-Communism hysteria is in full bloom. Congressional demagogues, black-listing and secret FBI files abound. When Emily (Kelly McGillis) loses her job, we learn she's under FBI surveillance. Agent Cochrane (Jeff Daniels) has been assigned to take secret photographs of her, find out who she talks to and to follow her about New York. He observes when, in need of a job, she is interviewed by Miss Venable (Jessica Tandy) to read to the old lady. And one afternoon, relaxing in the townhouse garden of Miss Venable's home, she overhears part of a conversation in German coming from the next house. Naturally nosy, she moves closer through the bushes, glimpses the face of a young German fellow she accidentally met a day or two before on the street...and then sees the face of the Senate staff head, Ray Salwen (Mandy Patinkin). Salwen was responsible for hauling her before the committee. Something is not right. A few days later she follows the German to a Jewish cemetery and finds him writing down the names of dead Jews. He seems scared. Before long, she is helping him escape from the house on Carroll Street, only to see him stabbed death in front of her. By now, FBI agent Cochrane not only realizes something is very off, he realizes Emily Crane has nice legs, is quite likable and may be in danger. He's puzzled when he is warned off by his superiors and then taken off her case. In solid Hitchcockian style, we have been following this nice and nosy woman while she slowly discovers skullduggery and then realizes that she has placed herself at great risk. And in equally solid Hitchcockian style, we have met the man in agent Cochrane who with persistence and humor will attempt to keep her from danger while joining her in uncovering a plot that deals with German war criminals and powerful men in high places. The movie has well-directed set pieces, ranging from a covert meeting in a huge, dim Greenwich Village book store to a spooky breaking-and-entering into the now abandoned house on Carroll Street (where Emily meets a man with a knife) to the exploration of the tunnels below and the girders high above the Grand Central main station. Most of all, it has two instantly appealing main characters in McGillis and Daniels. Both are completely natural in their portrayals. They have guileless faces. We immediately like both of them. Daniels in particular shows the kind of open-faced honesty that makes the movie so satisfying. The caveat I have is Mandy Patinkin. He is a forceful, intense actor. Patinkin makes Salwen a creature of such supreme self-confidence, such repellent humor that Salwen doesn't just stand for the evils of the period, he disgusts us. Patinkin's self-serving, power-justifying Salwen, full of phony patriotism and contemptuous high spirits, in my opinion very nearly overbalances the movie. Patinkin is just an inch away from becoming a caricature. Added to that are two speeches that Patinkin is given to justify his actions. Unfortunately, they move over into manipulated melodrama. The speeches are so over-the-top they tend to place the movie on hold while Patinkin gives them. However, the screenwriter is Walter Bernstein, a talented man who was black-listed for years. I'm more than willing to cut him some slack. I think The House on Carroll Street is a well-crafted semi-romantic thriller which doesn't use explosives (well, there's one), cynicism or cumbersome back stories. It has two attractive and likable leads, a plot with a message or two which keeps moving along and a bit of humor. It also has a happy ending which, in one regard, may be unexpected.

All the time this girl was running. And at final reject an facile end. It was so natural from a woman point of view to reject an agent who loves she. She is blonde ?! I see now you need 10 lines to admit it is a comment. Well: All this movie I see this girl alone against all. Fighting for his Idea or right. You can see this girl as a "don Quijote" one. Impresionant is that succeed to convince the people around her ... is like a warm wind of springtime, arising the flowers up at sun. This was not a typical Hollywood movie, it was a MOVIE. Why 10 lines of text ? I'll repeat tree times the text. Is unfair: I have few opinions about to share and now I must make a dissertation about it ? well I am not Tolstoi ... All the time this girl was running. And at final reject an facile end. It was so natural from a woman point of view to reject an agent who loves she. She is blonde ?! I see now you need 10 lines to admit it is a comment. Well: All this movie I see this girl alone against all. Fighting for his Idea or right. You can see this girl as a "don Quijote" one. Impresionant is that succeed to convince the people around her ... is like a warm wind of springtime, arising the flowers up at sun. This was not a typical Hollywood movie, it was a MOVIE. All the time this girl was running. And at final reject an facile end. It was so natural from a woman point of view to reject an agent who loves she. She is blonde ?! I see now you need 10 lines to admit it is a comment. Well: All this movie I see this girl alone against all. Fighting for his Idea or right. You can see this girl as a "don Quijote" one. Impresionant is that succeed to convince the people around her ... is like a warm wind of springtime, arising the flowers up at sun. This was not a typical Hollywood movie, it was a MOVIE.

Watching beautiful women sneaking around, playing cops and robbers is one of the most delightful guilty pleasures the medium film lets me enjoy. So The House on Carroll Street was not entirely a waste of time, although the story is contrived and the screenplay uninspired and somewhat irritating.There are many allusions to different Hitchcock pictures, not least the choice of Kelly McGillis in the starring role. She is dressed up as Grace Kelly, and she is not far off the mark. Not at all. But her character is not convincing. The way she is introduced to the audience, she should be someone with political convictions and a purpose in life. After all the movie deals with a clearly defined time period, true events and a specific issue. But the story degenerates within the first minutes into a sorry run-off-the-mill crime story with unbelievable coincidences, high predictability and a set of two dimensional characters. This is all the more regrettable, as the performances of the actors are good, as are the photography and the set design.The finale in Central Station, New York is breath taking. It starts in the subterranean section and then moves up to the roof. The movie can be praised for its good use of architecture.