Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

The House on Carroll Street Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf November 18, 2015

Before her career came to an inexplicable stop in the 1990s, actress Kelly McGillis had an interesting run. With “Top Gun” and “Witness,” McGillis achieved tremendous box office awareness, and with “The Accused,” critical raves followed. A few duds were encountered, including “Made in Heaven” and “Winter People,” and there was 1988’s “The House on Carroll Street,” which offered McGillis a more action-oriented role in a throwback thriller. While a bit out of her league in the picture, the star manages the tepid twists and turns of the screenplay with some degree of grace, dutifully working through director Peter Yates’s modest design for thrills and chills. “The House on Carroll Street” wasn’t a hit back in the day (stiff competition included Richard Pryor’s “Moving” and 11th week of “Good Morning, Vietnam”), and it’s not especially interesting, but it remains a curiosity, reminding viewers of a time when Hollywood was investing in the Kelly McGillis brand name, trying to transform a character actress into a leading lady.

In 1951, Life Magazine photo editor Emily Crane (Kelly McGillis) is put before the House Un-American Activities Committee, facing the wrath of Senator Ray Salwen (Mandy Patinkin), who’s out to destroy her when she refuses to cooperate. Losing her job and her reputation, Emily takes part-time employment with Miss Venable (Jessica Tandy), an elderly woman battling blindness who needs an excitable woman to read to her. As Emily begins to piece together a meager existence, her world is turned upside down when she meets Stefan (Christopher Buchholz), a young German in possession of secrets. When he’s murdered by shadowy men, Emily decides to continue the fight, investigating clues and piecing together names, leading her back to Salwen and his sketchy sense of patriotic duty. Joining the fight is F.B.I. Agent Cochran (Jeff Daniels), a sensitive man who realizes Emily’s paranoia is justified, with the pair soon on the run to expose villainy and save their own lives.

Yates is an accomplished director with a wildly uneven track record (“Breaking Away” and “Bullitt,” but also “Krull” and “Year of the Comet”), and he’s not the first helmer that pops into mind when considering the heavy Hitchcockian intentions of “The House on Carroll Street.” There’s atmosphere to manage, and Yates does a fine job with period details, keeping up appearances with appropriate costuming and hairstyles, while the production embraces a slightly gauzy look to sell the retro appeal of the material. Walter Bernstein’s screenplay is equally interested in the era, using the threat of the Red Menace to add a dash of anxiety to the effort, with Emily thrust into the middle of an American plot to defeat the Russians using dangerous instruments of death from World War II, while her own professional history is erased by Salwen’s vitriolic line of questioning, attempting to extract names from the increasingly resistant woman. Without much of a budget to bathe the feature in style, the production still manages to create a feel for the decade, which extends to storytelling execution, which also feels old-fashioned.

Excitement is attempted in “The House on Carroll Street,” which embarks on a plot that works through mysterious names, murder, and coded messages. Emily gets in deep fairly quickly here, soon becoming a target herself when her questions are met with violent attempts on her life. Yates is skilled enough to build charged dramatic encounters, but once the chase is on, the feature lacks heft, with one heated encounter inside a library lacking fundamental momentum as it strives to make winding though bookshelves in an already tight space nail-biting entertainment. Yates fare better with smaller moments, with character deaths and acts of intimidation far more successful than large-scale showdowns. “The House on Carroll Street” eventually makes its way to Grand Central Station for the finale, but bigger isn’t necessarily better, with the picture more confident holding to intimate threats with bad metaphors (Salwen tries to disturb Emily during a dinnertime meeting by using ketchup to identify wartime bloodshed) than sweeping action and admittedly impressive stuntwork.

McGillis doesn’t exactly have the verve or depth to play Emily as intensely as Yates would like, but she’s appealing here, always ready to access emotion and surprise as the character begins to comprehend the enormity of the situation. She also has passable chemistry with Daniels, who’s enjoyable as a docile federal agent beginning to understand Emily’s crisis. Daniels is measured but engaged, and he sells romantic intentions with true professionalism. While it’s strange to watch Cochran put the moves on Emily in the midst of a panicked time, Daniels sustains his character’s impulsiveness, making the move to the bedroom understandable, but still quite ridiculous. As the villain, Patinkin is appropriately oily, trying to shape Salwen’s mission through hushed tones and reptilian cool, only blowing up when his bizarre scheme is threatened by a plucky Life Magazine staffer.

The House on Carroll Street Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.67:1 aspect ratio) presentation isn't a particularly robust viewing experience, but original cinematographic intentions are largely respected. It's a softer picture at times, going for mood, but detail remains, helping to identify period details and decoration, finding interiors open for study, while facial particulars are preserved. Fabrics also display some degree of texture. Colors hold up well, with a clean survey of primaries, with the most potent pushing through costuming and greenery. Skintones are natural. Delineation is acceptable, never solidifying when challenged by low-lit adventures. Grain is fine and filmic. Source is in encouraging shape, without any significant damage.

The House on Carroll Street Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix takes some initial volume boosting to achieve a comfortable level of engagement, registering a tad too quiet at first. Once levels are set, dramatics come through with purpose, finding dialogue exchanges satisfactory, isolating whispered threats and bolder moments of public panic. Scoring is secure, offering instrumentation and support without overwhelming the track. Atmospherics aren't particularly pronounced, but they maintain position, exploring outdoor interactions and crowd bustle, displaying a little extra oomph during the train station climax. No pronounced hiss was detected.

The House on Carroll Street Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Theatrical Trailer (2:00, SD) is included.

The House on Carroll Street Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"The House on Carroll Street" certainly has the ambition to achieve a more spectacular sense of tension. The production is terribly motivated to wind up the picture, and the ingredients are there, following Emily as she spies dastardly deeds, evades assassination attempts, and even encounters a bomb threat. And yet, the feature retains a steady heart rate, rarely working up a sweat. Yates doesn't hustle, electing to treat "The House on Carroll Street" as a product of its era, dialing down intensity to respect PG-rated thriller traditions. It feels like a missed opportunity.