The House Across the Bay

Plot

A singer (Bennett) waits for an imprisoned gangster (Raft) to be released from Alcatraz.

Cast

Production

The film was based on an original story by Myles Connolly. In 1939 it was reported Warner Bros were considering buying it as a vehicle for James Cagney and Marlene Dietrich. They could not come to an agreement and Walter Wanger bought the rights. Wanger made the film as part of what was meant to be a slate of six films for United Artists. Filming was pushed back so Wanger could make Foreign Correspondent.

George Raft was loaned by Warner Bros, dropping out of It All Came True. Walter Pidgen was borrowed from MGM. Director Archie Mayo was borrowed from Sam Goldwyn. Bennett was under contract to Wanger.

Filming started 16 October 1939.

Some scenes of Pidgeon and Bennett in an airplane were filmed by Alfred Hitchcock as a favor to Wanger, who directed Foreign Correspondent for Wanger the same year.

Bennett and Wanger married after filming completed.

Box office

The film recorded a loss of $101,334. It caused tension between Raft and Warner Bros, to whom he was under long term contract, because in this United Artists film, Raft played a gangster who loses in the end - the sort of role he had refused to play for Warner Bros.

Critical

The New York Times called it a "somewhat less than fascinating tale of one of the more glamorous Rock-widows of Alcatraz" which was "old hat and scarcely worth its maker's bother—or yours." The Los Angeles Times thought it was "curiously (and unnecessarily) complicated."