House by the River

House by the River is a 1950 Gothic film noir directed by Fritz Lang, and starring Louis Hayward, Jane Wyatt, Lee Bowman, and Dorothy Patrick.

Byrne, who uses the womans disappearance and killing for publicity for his books, realizes that his brother is the one who is going to be accused of the crime. Meanwhile, he begins writing a book about the crime in another attempt to cash in on the scandal. His wife and brother begin to fall in love, despite the fact that he has become the prime suspect.When the film was first released, film critic for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther, panned the film, writing, ... we fear that neither the enlightenment nor the excitement that a customer might expect in such a flickering melodrama is provided by this film ... the script by Mel Dinelli, based on a novel by A. P. Herbert, is shy on genuine melodrama, it provides little in the way of suspense since you know that the killer is bound to get his and it comes to a weak and cheerless end. It seems that the killer is a novelist and unconsciously writes an exposure in his new book. This is about as measly a way to catch a man as we know. ........

Source: Wikipedia