The House on Carroll Street (1988)

The House on Carroll Street is another film directed by Peter Yates. My last blog article was about Eyewitness, also directed by Yates and a film I enjoyed much more than I thought I would, which is why I decided to see The House on Carroll Street. Both films take place in New York City. Eyewitness was shot on location, and the city is photographed as it was in 1981; in The House on Carroll Street, the city is shown as it might appear in 1951. Both films are rich in color, and the cinematography is spectacular. The House on Carroll Street isn’t nearly as shadowy as Eyewitness, but both films are tense, suspenseful stories that are beautiful to watch.

(This article about The House on Carroll Street contains spoilers.)

The opening credits appear over a sequence at a cemetery. The camera pans over several gravestones, then stops on a young man who is standing in front of a freshly dug grave, that of Meyer Teperson, 1898–1951. The first time that I saw the film, I somehow expected most of the film to be flashbacks that would explain how the young man ends up standing in front of a grave dug for Meyer Teperson, but that wasn’t the case at all, and I don’t know why I had that particular expectation. It came as quite a shock to me when this young man is murdered about halfway through the film! (And no, he is not Meyer Teperson, and the grave is not dug for him.)

Right after the young man’s visit to the cemetery, the film cuts to a U.S. Senate hearing taking place in New York City in 1951. Emily Crane has been called as a witness. She is an assistant picture editor for Life magazine, and she is on the board of an organization called Liberty Watch. She refuses to name any of the other people who work with her at Liberty Watch (she refuses to “name names”). She is cited as being in contempt of Congress because she didn’t bring to the hearing any of the documents listed in her subpoena. Her so-called stubbornness leads to the loss of her job and to surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The fact that Emily refuses to cast any suspicion on her friends and coworkers says a lot about her character generally, but it still puts her under suspicion from the federal government, hence the FBI surveillance. The early 1950s were a time of finger-pointing and suspicion because of fears of communism. Anyone suspected of communist ties and brought before a government hearing could save themselves if they were willing to name the people they worked with in suspect organizations or those they believed were communists.

Emily now needs a job because the magazine has decided to fire her after the publicity from her hearing. She interviews for a job reading for Miss Venable, who happens to live on Carroll Street. On the way to her interview, Emily asks directions of a young man on the street. (He is a stranger to Emily, but he is the same young man that viewers saw at the cemetery during the opening sequence.) Miss Venable hires Emily on the spot because she likes her spunk and the way that she reads.

Emily starts working for Miss Venable, who falls asleep one day during a reading sessions. Emily decides to take a break and go out into the courtyard for some fresh air. She sees the young man in a building adjoining the courtyard and hears him translating for Dan Salwyn, the lawyer who questioned her at the congressional hearing. She sees them talking to a third man, one who doesn’t speak English. That man is the one who eventually spots her in the courtyard. He isn’t happy about her presence and closes the window so that she can no longer hear what anyone inside says.

Senator Byington, also from the congressional hearing, is worried about Ray Salwyn’s activities. He is concerned about the number of refugees that Salwyn is bringing into the country and the need for secrecy. He even mentions that he doesn’t want to be sponsoring war criminals as refugees. Senator Byington should be worried: Salwyn is lying to him about bringing former Nazis into the United States, he is taking advantage of the senator’s influence to cover his true intentions, and the house on Carroll Street is being used as a way station for people entering the country under assumed names.

Emily Crane spots the young man leaving the house on Carroll Street one day and decides to follow him as he makes his way back to the cemetery. The young man realizes that he is being followed, and he demands to know what Emily is doing and why. She wants to help him because she believes that he is afraid. He doesn’t believe her, but she is right about one thing: He is afraid.

The young man eventually calls Emily looking for help. He knows that the house he is staying in is being used for criminal activity and he no longer wants to be any part of it. They agree to meet at a bookstore, and when they try to leave to meet the lawyer that Emily knows can help the young man, two men claiming to be from U.S. Immigration try to stop them. The young man recognizes the men and knows that they are not from immigration. He begs Emily to help him escape. They manage to hide in a theater that is in the middle of a live performance, but someone catches up with them eventually, and the young man is killed.

Emily is understandably distraught, and she is now in trouble with the local police department. But assistance comes from an unlikely source: one of the FBI agents who have been surveilling her. FBI Special Agent Mike Cochran has shown up and put in a good word for her. In spite of her record as an unwilling witness in a federal hearing investigating communism, the New York City police detective interviewing her agrees to let her go.

It is not clear that Ray Salwyn ever saw Emily in the courtyard on Carroll Street, but he is keeping tabs on her anyway. He breaks into her apartment and tells her that he wants to help her, but he takes her by surprise while she is in her bathtub, and he is in her apartment uninvited. Is he trying to bring her onto his team? Does he think that she can be bribed? It’s hard to know at this point, but Salwyn eventually loses patience with Emily and she finds herself in real danger before too long.

Emily Crane is a strong leading character who is quite resourceful. She follows the young man to learn more about him. She is curious about the goings-on in the house on Carroll Street and tries to learn more. After the house has been vacated, she breaks in (with encouragement from Miss Venable) to do some investigating of her own.

And these are the very reasons that I found the scene in that vacant house, where she comes upon FBI Agent Mike Cochran and an unidentified intruder, so incongruous. She does nothing to help Cochran as he wrestles with the man. In fact, she jumps from one spot to the next trying to stay out of their way. I wanted her to look for something to hit that unidentified man right on the crown of his head!

Well, I guess it goes without saying that I didn’t get my way. And maybe it was an unrealistic expectation for a film that was set in the 1950s, when women weren’t expected to do much more than become wives and mothers and move to the suburbs. But Emily takes charge again after that fight between Cochran and the stranger. She continues investigating, looking for clues and answers, and making Dan Salwyn angrier and angrier. She learns that Ray Salwyn is smuggling Nazis into the United States and giving them the identities of deceased Jewish Americans. The young man who was killed was getting the names off the tombstones in the cemetery for this very purpose.

The House on Carroll Street isn’t just a noir about international intrigue and illegal human trafficking. A romance begins to blossom between Mike Cochran and Emily Crane. She keeps telling him that they will never work as a couple because they are like oil and water. He is a civil servant working for a government that is turning on its own citizens—she is one of them. The film is ambiguous about the future of their relationship but not about the way they feel about one another. Emily is the one to pause the relationship because of her ideals, but I think she really cares for Mike Cochran; she just doesn’t know what to do with him.

The music on the soundtrack is dark, with deep bass notes that hint at foreboding, even in the opening sequence. The music emphasizes the action and the emotions of the characters. New York City reimagined in the 1950s looks beautiful. The cinematography works well for a noir that is also a romance. I found myself thinking about a film that took place in New York City just ten years after the time period of The House on Carroll Street: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). The filmmakers for The House on Carroll Street succeeded in choosing locations in the city that would invoke the 1950s.

The House on Carroll Street didn’t get very good reviews when it was first released, and that is really a shame. Roger Ebert compared its style to that of Alfred Hitchcock’s. It is a throwback film—that’s the whole point. And I think it deserves another look, especially from fans of film noir.

March 4, 1988, release date  •  Directed by Peter Yates  •  Screenplay by Walter Bernstein  •  Music by Georges Lelerue  •  Edited by Ray Lovejoy  •  Cinematography by Michael Ballhaus

Kelly McGillis as Emily Crane  •  Jeff Daniels as FBI special agent Mike Cochran  •  Mandy Patinkin as Ray Salwen  •  Jessica Tandy as Miss Venable  •  Jonathan Hogan as the lawyer Alan Engels  •  Remak Ramsay as Senator Byington  •  Ken Welsh as FBI special agent Joe Hackett  •  Christopher Buchholz as the boy Stefan  •  Bill Moore as Meyer Teperson  •  Gregory Jbara as Tom, the office boy  •  Jamey Sheridan as a train porter

Distributed by Orion Pictures  •  Produced by Orion Pictures

Eyewitness (1981)

I enjoyed watching Eyewitness even more than I thought I would. Even though I know better, I almost allowed myself to be swayed by the short segments of the film that I watched, more than once, on television and interrupted by commercials. These glimpses gave me the feeling that I wouldn’t like the film all that much. I’m glad I didn’t let them keep me from seeing the film on DVD from beginning to end, without interruption.

Eyewitness introduces its main characters in alternating sequences at the start of the film. (I never did get to see these sequences when I would come upon the film on television.) Viewers know that something is being left out for each character, and the technique builds interest and suspense. The opening credits appear over a pan shot of a building’s boiler room, with machinery working and steam hissing. Viewers learn right away with this sequence that Daryll is a janitor working nights in a large office building in New York City.

(This article about Eyewitness contains spoilers.)

Daryll starts his nightly routine. He interrupts someone leaving the office of Long Ltd. Deever wants to talk to Mr. Long about a misunderstanding concerning someone named Alan (“Aldo”) Mercer. Viewers learn only later that Aldo and Daryll are good friends who met when serving in the Vietnam War. Mr. Long brushes Daryll off and closes his office door in his face. When Daryll goes home at the end of his shift, a large black dog in his apartment attacks him. But this type of staged attack is part of their routine; the dog is Deever’s pet. Viewers also learn that Daryll is obsessed with a news anchor named Antonia (“Toni”) Sokolow. He tapes all her broadcasts.

The film cuts to Toni Sokolow playing the piano as part of a trio. Her father is on violin, her mother on bass. When they finish, her fiancé Joseph gets up in front of the group to talk about raising money to help Jews escape the Soviet Union. He is impassioned about this cause and has no trouble asking the members of the small audience for money. In their midst is a recent immigrant from Russia, and everyone welcomes him warmly.

The next day, Toni Sokolow drives Joseph to the airport. He is off to Israel for more charity work presumably, although neither of them says exactly why he is going. Toni mentions seeing a woman, a stranger, at the recital at her parents’ house. Joseph says little about the woman or about his work trip. When Toni drops Joseph off, she tells him that he is keeping something from her. He admits, “A little.” There is room for doubt in their relationship, for both of them and for the audience, but the reasons for this doubt are unclear.

Daryll is back at work. (He, Toni, and Joseph have yet to cross paths.) He spots someone in red sneakers hiding behind some of the boiler room machinery, but it’s just a ruse by Aldo Mercer, Deever’s friend. Mercer complains about fighting in Vietnam to save the country, only to have all the Vietnamese living now in New York City. Mr. Long is one of them. Deever and Mercer had heard of Mr. Long in Vietnam: He bought and sold everything, including information. Everyone on all sides bought from him, everyone was indebted to him, and no one liked him. Later that night, Daryll investigates Long’s office because of an unusual noise coming from it. He finds Long’s body with his throat cut. Instead of reporting the murder, Daryll leaves the office building for the night. He has his reasons, but they aren’t disclosed until later in the film.

The following day, Daryll is interviewed by the police, specifically by Lieutenant Jacobs and Lieutenant Black. He tries to cover for his friend Aldo. The police detectives know that Aldo was court-martialed for cowardice and that Daryll is a decorated war hero. When Daryll leaves the office building after his police interview, he spots Toni Sokolow waiting to learn more about the murder for her newscast. Daryll approaches Toni and pretends to know something about Long’s murder so he can talk to her. She wants to interview him and get it on tape so that she will have a lead for her news story. Daryll goes along without giving Toni anything definite.

It’s a move that will haunt him: The police detectives suspect both Daryll and Aldo of Mr. Long’s murder. When Toni and her work associates review the tape of Daryll trying to impress her and to convince her that he knows something about the murder, they all believe that he is hiding something.

But for Daryll, suspicion begins to fall on Aldo. Daryll is seeing Aldo’s sister, Linda, and she tells Daryll that she is sick of lying. She admits to providing an alibi for Aldo’s whereabouts the night of Long’s murder, but it was a lie. She doesn’t know where Aldo was that night. She asks Daryll if he knows what Aldo was doing, but he doesn’t, which makes him worried about what his friend might be capable of and what he has done.

The main characters are connected in ways that will surprise them when they learn of them. Long was involved in Joseph’s international project to get Russian Jews out of Russia and bring them to the United States. Long channeled the money and was paid by Joseph. But he kept demanding more and more so Joseph killed him. Joseph confesses this to Toni’s parents because they are part of the operation, although they didn’t know that Joseph is a killer until he admits as much to them. He also maintains that Daryll Deever now knows about the operation and the murder of Long and that he will have to kill Deever, too, which sets up the final meeting between Joseph and Daryll.

Daryll Deever is played by William Hurt, and he is terrific in the part. In a memorable scene, he tries to seduce Toni by asking her if her floors need buffing. He describes his process for buffing floors, and he fills it with so much sexual innuendo that Toni pauses long enough for viewers to think she just might say yes. But she declines—for now. She isn’t ready for his advances, and neither of them trusts the other yet.

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of Hurt, but only because of his personal life: He didn’t treat his significant others all that well apparently. But actors’ personal lives have little to do with making a great film meant for theater release. Sigourney Weaver is also great in the role of Toni Sokolow. The two of them have on-screen chemistry, and when they do finally become involved romantically, it is completely believable.

Eyewitness introduces some grand ideas, for instance, Jews escaping oppression in the Soviet Union, and the effects of the Vietnam War on so many people, not just the returning war veterans. But these themes are part of the characters’ lives. The plot is not about international human smuggling or war; it’s about people living in New York City who are coping with these themes and the murder of someone connected to many of them. It’s really a simple story that keeps viewers engaged and ties up its loose ends.

And it is beautifully made. The colors are rich and the shadows are deep. Eyewitness was filmed mostly on location in New York City, which gives it a fascinating backdrop. New York City is so big and so varied that it is almost always a character itself, and it doesn’t disappoint in Eyewitness. The film was released in 1981, so viewers get to see the city as it was then, a little bit of historical perspective.

I watched Eyewitness on DVD, which came with commentary by the director, Peter Yates, and “moderator” Marcus Hearn. This commentary was more like an interview, with Hearn asking Peter Yates about his career and his films, not just Eyewitness. I don’t think Hearn had anything to do with producing Eyewitness, but he was a good interviewer and a fan of Peter Yates, and he made some good points of his own. For instance, the film is a whodunit on the surface, but it is very complex, with many themes, including romance, disillusionment, power, powerlessness, attachment, obsession. He is the one to point out that Daryll Deever transitions from stalker to lover rather successfully. Toni at first wants information from Daryll, but she starts to fall in love with him as the narrative progresses and she learns what Joseph has been doing behind her back.

From the audio commentary I learned that the working title for Eyewitness was The Janitor Can’t Dance, which I think would have worked well, but apparently the producers thought it would confuse viewers. Maybe they were interested solely in the murder mystery and not the relationships between the main characters. The working title is a reference to a story that Daryll tells Toni about his past, and it makes him much more sympathetic than he originally appears. The title for release in the United Kingdom was simply The Janitor.

The film’s commentary is worth a look and a listen. I enjoyed it after seeing the film. I have seen Eyewitness at least twice now, and, like so many noir films, a repeat viewing really helps to catch all the fine details. And I have a soft spot for New York City from the 1970s and 1980s: the city itself, just as it was, and as Peter Yates said in the commentary, is a wonderful backdrop to the story.

February 13, 1981, release date  •  Directed by Peter Yates  •  Screenplay by Steve Tesich  •  Music by Stanley Silverman  •  Edited by Cynthia Scheider  •  Cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti

William Hurt as Daryll Deever  •  Sigourney Weaver as Antonia (“Toni”) Sokolow  •  Christopher Plummer as Joseph  •  James Woods as Alan (“Aldo”) Mercer  •  Irene Worth as Mrs. Sokolow  •  Kenneth McMillan as Mr. Deever  •  Pamela Reed as Linda Mercer  •  Albert Paulsen as Mr. Sokolow  •  Steven Hill as Lieutenant Jacobs  •  Morgan Freeman as Lieutenant Black  •  Alice Drummond as Mrs. Eunice Deever  •  Chao-Li Chi as Mr. Long  •  Keone Young as Mr. Long’s son  •  Sharon Goldman as the Israeli woman

Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation  •  Produced by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation