The Uninvited (1944)

Ray Milland and his sister Ruth Hussey (so memorable in The Philadelphia Story), move into a house on the coast of Cornwall and almost immediately receive a visit from a former resident, vulnerable and luminous Gail Russell, who is irresistably drawn to the place. Hussey knows trouble when she sees it, but Milland is smitten, and becomes protective when the house begins to show as great an interest in Russell as Russell does in the house. The place is host to not one, but two ghosts, and her life is in danger...

I'm working from memory here, because, for some inexplicable reason, this excellent romantic ghost story has yet to make it to DVD, despite having been released on a long out of print videotape in 1988. However, I can offer you the Screen Director's Playhouse adapation for radio, which brief thought it is at only 30 minutes will give you a taste.



And here's the trailer:

The Uninvited is all class, restrained and cumulatively creepy rather than clamouring for attention as if the director's Ritalin prescription has run out, which is just as it should be. The All Movie Guide review cuts right to the bone and describes it as being like a Val Lewton film, which is apt considering that there won't be another haunted house film quite as good until The Haunting (1966), wherein Lewton protege Robert Wise will apply everything he learned working on Curse Of The Cat People.  Speaking of which...