The Red House (1947, Delmer Daves) 📺 Full Movie Classics - Film-Noir

📘 Plot:
Handicapped farmer Pete Morgan and his sister Ellen live on an isolated farm with their adopted daughter, Meg. They keep to themselves and are viewed as mysterious by the nearby town. Now a teenager, Meg convinces Pete to hire one of her 12th-grade high school classmates, Nath Storm, to come help with chores on the farm. On the first evening, when it is time for him to go home, Nath says he is going to take a shortcut through the old woods. The woods are part of Pete's property and he forbids anyone from entering them. Pete becomes agitated, insisting the woods are dangerous and contain a haunted house which is painted red, and that Nath must stay out.

After traveling through the woods in the dark, Nath returns spooked, after hearing moans and yells. However, a few days later, he is embarrassed at his cowardice and goes through the woods again after dark. Nath is struck from behind and knocked down into a stream. He returns to the farm believing that Pete hit him, but Meg and Ellen say Pete has been in the room with them since Nath left. Soon, both Nath and Meg become obsessed with searching for the mysterious "red house" and agree to go into the woods every Sunday, which is the one day Nath has some free time, to look for it. They have no luck.

In the meantime, Meg begins to fall in love with Nath, but his jealous and shrewd girlfriend Tibby has other plans for him. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Pete has secretly given local handyman and petty thug Teller rights to hunt on the land, as long as he keeps everyone else off of the property.

One Sunday, Nath cannot get out of a date with Tibby, so Meg goes off on her own to look for the red house. She finds it, located in a small gully a few miles from Pete's farm along an unused dirt road. Teller fires at her to scare her away. Running away, Meg falls and breaks her leg. That evening, when Meg does not return, Nath ventures into the woods to find her and brings her back to the farm. Pete is furious that both young people defied his warning to stay out of the woods and he outright fires Nath, banishing him from the farm and from seeing Meg again.

Nath catches Tibby flirting with Teller and sucker punches him. Nath confronts her and finally learns how vain and selfish she is. Teller then punches Nath, while Tibby watches with satisfaction.

One evening, Ellen decides to burn the red house down, to end Pete's obsession. As she walks through the woods, Teller, mistaking her for Nath, shoots and severely wounds her. Meg, having heard the gunshot, finds Ellen then rushes back to tell Pete, who refuses to act to help his sister. Meg phones Nath for help and he says he will bring a stretcher after he calls the sheriff and the doctor. Pete fails to dissuade Meg from returning to the woods. By the time Nath arrives, Ellen is dead. In the meantime, Teller goes to Tibby's home and persuades her to leave town with him. They are pulled over and arrested by the state police.

Pete takes Meg to the red house. By this point, he has completely gone crazy and thinks Meg is actually Jeannie, who is leaving him again. He begins to re-live the experience, puts his hand over her mouth and starts suffocating her. Nath and the sheriff show up in the nick of time. Pete takes off in his truck, but drives into the ice house, where the truck sinks in the large pond formed by the melted ice, and Pete drowns.

The final scene shows Nath and Meg a few days later, talking about starting a new life together as they watch the smoke from the red house, which Nath has burned down in keeping with Ellen's wishes. Nath tells Meg "Looking forward is much better than looking back."

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