The House Across the Lake (1954)

The House Across the Lake is a 1954 British crime film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Alex Nicol, Hillary Brooke, Sid James and Susan Stephen. A film noir it was produced as a second feature by Hammer Films and shot at the company’s Bray Studios. It was released in the United States by Lippert Pictures under the title Heat Wave.

Director – Ken Hughes

Writer – Ken Hughes (screenplay)

Cast –
Alex Nicol as Mark Kendrick
Hillary Brooke as Carol Forrest
Sid James as Beverly Forrest
Susan Stephen as Andrea Forrest
Paul Carpenter as Vincent Gordon
Alan Wheatley as Inspector MacLennan
Peter Illing as Harry Stevens
Gordon McLeod as Doctor Emery
Joan Hickson as Mrs. Hardcastle
John Sharp as Mr. Hardcastle
Hugh Dempster as Frank
Monti DeLyle as Head Waiter

Watch “The House Across the Lake” (1954)

Plot

An American pulp novelist, Mark Kendrick (Nicol), meets his rich neighbours across the lake and is soon seduced by beautiful blonde Carol (Brooke), the wife of Beverly Forrest (James), despite Beverly treating him as a friend. When Beverly is badly injured by a fall on his boat, Carol fails to persuade Mark to throw him overboard, so Carol does it.

After first refusing to go along with her plan to call it an accident, Mark agrees when Carol tells him that they will meet up again later and live off her dead husband’s money. However, after the coroner rules the death an accident, Mark does not hear from her, but the still suspicious CID inspector on the case arranges for Mark to find out that Carol has secretly married another old flame and changed residences. Mark angrily confronts her, but she sneers that she only used him and that there is nothing he can do about it without implicating himself. Mark decides to confess, thinking that, although it will probably mean a prison sentence for him, it will mean the rope for Carol.