The House on Telegraph Hill
| The House on Telegraph Hill | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Robert Wise |
| Produced by | Robert Bassler |
| Screenplay by | Elick Moll Frank Partos |
| Based on |
The Frightened Child 1948 novel by Dana Lyon |
| Starring |
Richard Basehart Valentina Cortese William Lundigan Fay Baker |
| Music by | Sol Kaplan |
| Cinematography | Lucien Ballard |
| Edited by | Nick DeMaggio |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The House on Telegraph Hill is a 1951 American film noir directed by Robert Wise, and starring Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, and William Lundigan. Fay Baker also stars in the film, which received an Academy Award nomination for its art direction. The hill in the title is San Francisco's Telegraph Hill, where much of the story takes place.
Polish woman Viktoria Kowalska (Valentina Cortese) has lost her home and her husband in the German occupation of Poland, and has been imprisoned in the concentration camp at Belsen. She befriends another prisoner, Karin Dernakova (Natasha Lytess), who dreams of reuniting with her young son Christopher (Gordon Gebert), who was sent to live in San Francisco with a wealthy Aunt. Karin dies shortly before the camp can be liberated, and Viktoria, seeing a way to a better life, uses Karin's papers to assume her identity. After the camp is liberated, she is interviewed by Major Marc Bennett (William Lundigan), who gets her a place in a camp for persons displaced by the war. She writes to Karin's Aunt Sophia in San Francisco, but receives a cable from Sophia's lawyers that she has died.
Four years later, Viktoria (still going by the name of Karin) is able to travel to New York, where she meets with Christopher's guardian Alan Spender (Richard Basehart), a distant relative of Sophia's. "Karin" intends to gain custody of "her" son, but it becomes clear that Sophia has left her fortune to Christopher when he comes of age. When she realizes that Alan is attracted to her, she realizes that it will be easier to stay in America if she has an American husband. She allows him to romance her, and they soon marry. Alan takes Karin to San Francisco where Christopher meets his "mother" for the first time, and she settles into Sophia's Italianate mansion on Telegraph Hill, where Christopher has lived with Alan and his governess, Margaret (Fay Baker).
...
Wikipedia