Crow Hollow
Crow Hollow
| 01 August 1952 (USA)
Crow Hollow Trailers

A greedy woman tries to poison her nephew's bride in a dark mansion.

Reviews
SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless
Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.
Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
MartinHafer Why did he even marry her? That's the question that soon comes to mind as you watch "Crow Hollow". After all, after a whirlwind courtship, Dr. Armour marries Ann and then barely shows her any attention at all and completely dismisses her concerns--and she has plenty! It's obvious this is no match made in heaven. So why did the Doctor marry her and exactly what is going on in this weird mansion filled with his strange aunts and that lousy maid? And, could someone really be attempting to kill her?This is a pretty good mystery/suspense picture. Not a must-see by any stretch but exciting and with a nice ending. Worth seeing with nice performances all around and a well written story. And, one more reason why you should NEVER marry someone after knowing them only one week!!By the way, at one point in the film Ann has a tarantula dropped on her. They then say she could have died and that the bug was poisonous. Well, tarantulas are mildly poisonous (like a bee sting) and you will not die from its bite. This is just bad writing and I've heard this repeated several times in films (such as "Dr. No").
davecountryfan Gothic thrillers usually see a young woman marry a man and move to a spooky old house where she begins to fear he may kill her. Many novels – from Mary Roberts Rinehart to early Susan Howatch and beyond – revolve around such portents, and Hitchcock made use of it too in Suspicion. It seems to happen also in this 1952 film in which newlyweds Ann and her doctor husband Robert move onto his family estate. However, the twist is that the danger does not stem from the new husband but, it seems, from the three eccentric old aunts who live with them.There's Aunt Judith, a bespectacled entomologist; the doting Aunt Opal and the tall and severe Aunt Hester. All the aunts seem to adore their nephew and they are friendly enough to Ann, but she senses something is wrong. Robert's dying mother had anxiously warned her not to go to Crow Hollow and she feels lonely and listless there while Robert is at his surgery in the village. The crows have returned to roost for the first time in decades, and legend has it that they foretell tragedy. Ann is also puzzled by the way in which her husband's aunts indulge their insolent maid, Willow, and even catches the girl trying on her clothes. Things get stranger still when Ann suffers a series of accidents… This is one of the best B-movies I've seen yet. It may be rather languid – particularly for the first few minutes – but it's one of those films in which the atmosphere takes precedent over plot. The aunts are suitably creepy, despite being polite, and we appreciate Ann's trepidation as she is left alone with them.Played by actress Natasha Parry – whose career would be defined by her marriage to film director Peter Brook and the parts he gave her – Ann is a likable, generous woman who is already in an unsettling situation before the danger starts. It does so about twenty five minutes in, and it is Parry's engaging performance which holds the film until then. Husband Robert is a bit of a wet blanket who frustratingly – but, by the conventions of the genre, inevitably – dismisses his wife's concerns.The film is only marred by its rushed ending and I was able to conjure a couple of better scenarios myself as, I think, would many others. Nevertheless, it's well worth an hour and ten minutes of your time and – like so many excellent old films – is available on YouTube.
Leofwine_draca As a suspense film, I thought CROW HOLLOW was a bit lacking. This is a slow, meandering type film that has a good location in a gloomy country house populated by eccentric sisters. The acting is hard to fault and certainly the cast members give solid performances if not outstanding. I would have to lay the blame at the door of screenwriter Vivian Milroy, who didn't seem to have much experience of the mystery genre. The resultant film is plodding although not without merit.Natasha Parry plays the protagonist role in this film. It's a typical part that has a little of REBECCA about it; a new bride moving into an ancestral home where she may or may not be going out of her mind. Parry is a fine choice for lead, she's lovely, fragile, and determined, all in the same breath. As her husband, Donald Houston is less interesting - I've never warmed to him - but there are good roles in support for the fine Melissa Stribling (DRACULA) as the friend and confidant and the delightful Esma Cannon (CARRY ON CRUISING) as the eccentric aunt.CROW HOLLOW does well with a handful of shock sequences, one of which involving a tarantula that was later borrowed by Hammer for their adaptation of HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. However, the mystery aspects of the storyline feel dragged out and I found the ending to be more than a little unbelievable. It's watchable enough, but in a genre crowded with similar movies, CROW HOLLOW doesn't really stand out.
Snow Leopard It's pretty slow much of the time, but this is a decent mystery story that has enough atmosphere and suspense to hold your interest. The story starts with a young bride coming to live with her husband at "Crow Hollow", which is dominated by his three aunts, none of whom are ideal in-laws. Gradually she realizes that her situation is not just unpleasant, but hazardous. It has quite a low-budget look to it, but the characters are interesting enough, and one detail that is done well is the presence of the many crows on the family property, whose constant racket parallels the anxiety building up inside the main characters. It might have been better if the first part had moved much more quickly, because they spent a lot more time setting up everything than they did with the actual mystery. But for a low-budget mystery, it's not bad at all.
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