📽 1950: House by the River American psychological crime drama directed starring Louis Hayward, Lee Bowman and Jane Wyatt.
• A rich Victorian-era novelist Stephen Byrne (Hayward) who lives and works by a river, accidentally kills his attractive maid after she resists his drunken advances. Stephen coaxes his crippled brother John (Bowman) to help him dispose of the body. They stuff the body in a boat and dump it into the river. Days later, the sack and body float to the surface and pass Stephen's house. He desperately tries to retrieve it in the water, but fails. The police recover the bundle and, because John's initials have been stenciled on the sack, it is all traceable to him.
An inquest is held and a cloud of suspicion hangs over John, who is tortured by his role in the situation and contemplates suicide. John and Stephen's wife Marjorie (Wyatt) harbor feelings for each other. Stephen has used the maid's disappearance and death as publicity for his books. Looking to reap great financial gain, he begins writing a novel specifically about the crime in which he obliquely implicates himself in a manner that will not be evident to readers. (Republic Pictures)
