House of Strangers (1949)

House of Strangers is a nourish adaptation of Jerome Weidmans' novel I'll Never Go There Any More, which has also been adapted as a western in 1954 (Broken Lance) and a film about German circus performers (The Big Show) in 1961. The core of the story seems to be about how an overbearing father can tear his family apart by choosing a favorite son (in this case Richard Conte) at the expense of the others, and endanger a family empire (in this case, banking). Edward G. Robinson won a best actor award for this at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, though to its determent the performance now plays very strongly of its time. The plot is actually fairly complicated, though at the same time not a lot seems to happen. Still its an interesting enough film and contains several story and thematic parallels to the later Godfather Trilogy, not the least of which is Conte's presence. ***