Plot
Gino Monetti is a rags-to-riches Italian-American banker in New York City whose questionable business practices result in a number of criminal charges. Three of his four grown sons, the ambitious Joe, playboy Tony, and physically imposing Pietro (a budding prizefighter), unhappy at their domineering father's dismissive treatment of them, refuse to help Gino when he is put on trial. Joe is especially angry—he has to support a wife with expensive tastes. Max, a lawyer, is the only son who stays loyal to his father. He believes Gino has done nothing that warrants punishment by jail time, and serves as Gino's attorney during the trial.
After Gino signs ownership of his bank over to his wife Theresa as a temporary protective measure, Joe persuades his mother to sign it over to him and seizes control. Gino is relegated to an early retirement with a meager monthly allowance. The three brothers conspire to send Max to jail as well. When Max tells Joe of his plan to bribe a sympathetic juror to ensure a mistrial for Gino, Joe arranges for the police to catch him in the act. Max is disbarred and sentenced to seven years in prison; Max's fiancé Maria Domenico breaks off their engagement to marry Tony, but Irene Bennett, a former client of Max's whom he fell in love with, waits for him.
Meanwhile, Gino's trial ends in an acquittal, but he remains humiliated by Joe, Tony, and Pietro's betrayal and is directionless without his bank to run. He drinks and smokes heavily, and writes countless letters to Max decrying his other sons' mistreatment of them both. Irene urges Gino to stop sending the letters, knowing that Gino is trying to divide the brothers and provoke Max to take revenge, but Gino refuses. Eventually, Gino dies, and Max is let out of prison for a half-day to attend the funeral. There, Max vows revenge on his brothers and ignores his mother's pleas to let go of the hate that Gino had cultivated between them.
Max returns to the family home after completing his sentence, intent on destroying his brothers and their bank, but has a sudden change of heart when he realizes that his father was the source of the family conflict. Max is then confronted by his brothers, who still believe Max will follow through on his vow. After a fight in which Max is incapacitated, Joe orders Pietro to throw Max off their house's balcony to his death. Pietro hesitates, and Joe begins insulting Pietro in the same way their father always had, prompting Pietro to turn on Joe instead. Max saves Joe from Pietro's wrath by convincing Pietro that if he kills Joe, he would be doing exactly as their father would have wanted. Max then leaves his brothers to re-join Irene and travel to San Francisco, where they plan to start a new life together.
Reception
Critical response
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote the film was "a sizzling and picturesque exposure of a segment of nouveau-niche life within the Italian-American population". He also noted Edward G. Robinson "does a brisk and colorful job of making 'Papa' Monetti a brassy despot with a Sicilian dialect, and Paul Valentine, Luther Adler and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. are good as his weak sons. Likewise Richard Conte plays Max with a fine, superior air." [4]
Variety called House of Strangers "a strong picture" and noted "Joseph L. Mankiewicz has directed with a feeling for balancing the more humorous moments with the dramatic ones. Sol C. Seigel has given the film good production values. Philip Yordan's screenplay is a faithful, workmanlike adaptation of the Jerome Weidman novel." [5]
Harrison's Reports called House of Strangers "[a] gripping drama, excellently produced, directed and acted [...] Edward G. Robinson gives an exceedingly fine performance, probably, the best in his career; he arouses considerable sympathy, despite his faults and shortcomings." [6]
Time magazine noted: "Except for a wobbly beam or two—notably some unlikely melodramatics at the end—House is a well-constructed movie. Into its making went an intelligent screen play by Playwright Philip Yordan; some distinguished lighting effects and camera work by Milton Krasner; and Director Joseph Mankiewicz's talent for handling atmosphere and sets as effective projections of character." [7]
Among retrospective reviews, Dennis Schwartz liked the film, writing, "Joseph L. Mankiewicz stylishly helms the dark screenplay by Philip Yordan of Jerome Weidman's novel I'll Never Go There Any More ... It's a bitter psychological family drama that focuses on hatred as the family's driving force instead of love. Max is the ambivalent hero, the only one in the film who is a true film noir character, who is punished for being loyal to his father yet is someone who has rejected the ways of the old-country and its traditionalism for the ethics of the New World. Superb performances by Conte, Robinson, and Adler lift the ordinary dramatics into loftier territory." [8]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 7 critics gave the film a positive review. [9]
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