La sombra

Agnes Langley (Ida Lupino) starts her new job as caretaker for an enormous estate. Agnes is informed that the last occupant, Jennifer, disappeared without a trace.

As Agnes settles in to her new position, she uncovers clues, including a diary, that suggest that Jennifer might not have vanished voluntarily.

JENNIFER is a subtly suspenseful mystery. Ms. Lupino is very convincing in her sleuthing role. Really, the only problem with this movie is the ending. It seems rushed and incomplete.

Co-stars Howard Duff as the semi-creepy estate manager...

A few years later and this 70-minute flick could have been an entry on TV's The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. It's cheaply produced with a bare-bones cast and in b&w at a time when Hollywood was going all out in Technicolor. But the plucky Lupino plugged along with her gritty little programmers that bucked the tide.

There's nothing special here, but there's enough ambiguity in Agnes's (Lupino) character and the circumstances to keep viewers engaged. A troubled Agnes (note the unflattering name) seeks escape by signing on as caretaker to a vacant old mansion, perhaps haunted by the missing former resident, Jennifer. Soon she gets involved with locals Hollis (Duff) and Orin (Nichols). At the same time, the mystery of Jennifer's disappearance deepens and we wonder about Hollis and Orin.

Oddly, not much really happens. Still, it's a clever screenplay with a number of provocative dark hints. That plus Lupino's superb acting skills provide subtle compensation. I especially like the unexpected hints that goofy kid Orin may not be the innocent he appears. But just why the studly Hollis would be attracted to the rather plain, unstable Agnes remains something of a stretch. Still, it's a measure of Lupino's all-around artistry that, for the sake of the role, she wouldn't flatter her looks. But get out your ear-muffs whenever Agnes starts spinning "Vortex" on the turn-table. It's music-to-go-mad-by, and the last thing wobbly Agnes should glom onto.

Anyhow, the results amount to a decent variation on a familiar thriller theme. I just wish the all-around gifted Lupino would get the industry recognition she so richly deserves.

A woman is hired to look after a vacated old mansion that seems to be haunted by the spirit of the woman who previously had the job but disappeared. It sounds like a good, old-fashioned thriller and gets off to be pretty good start. Soon, however, it goes awry, turning into a dull drama. It becomes a drag despite the short running time of only 73 minutes. It was directed by some mysterious fellow named Joel Newton, who has no other film credit on his resume. Perhaps he is an earlier version of "Allen Smithee," the alias given to the director of films to which no director would attach his name. Lupino and off-screen husband Duff try their best but are given little to work with.

I first caught up with Jennifer years ago while out of town when it showed up on TV in the middle of the night; I fell asleep before it ended but it stuck with me until I had to track it down. Its appeal is that, though there's not a lot to it, it weaves an intriguing atmosphere, and because Ida Lupino and Howard Duff (real life man-and-wife at the time) display an alluring, low-key chemistry. Lupino plays a woman engaged to house-sit a vast California estate whose previous caretaker -- Jennifer -- up and disappeared. (Shades of Jack Nicholson in the Shining, although in this instance it's not Lupino who goes, or went, mad). Duff is the guy in town who manages the estate's finances and takes a shine to Lupino, who decides to play hard to get. She becomes more and more involved, not to say obsessed, with what happened to her predecessor in the old dark house full of descending stairways and locked cellars. The atmospherics and the romantic byplay are by far the best part of the movie, as viewers are likely to find the resolution a bit of a letdown -- there's just not that much to it (except a little frisson at the tail end that anticipates Brian De Palma's filmic codas). But it's well done, and, again, it sticks with you. Extra added attraction: this is the film that introduced the song "Angel Eyes," which would become part of the standard repertoire of Ol' Blue Eyes.

Watching Ida Lupino in a nearly one-woman show of a movie was enthralling, but its shaggy-dog story let me down. Too bad, because this is a small-budget Allied Artists release that boasts top talent at work: James Wong Howe as cinematographer and Ernest Gold with a strong music score. There's even Matt Dennis on hand in a party scene at the piano singing his jazz standard "Angel Eyes".

But the director is Joel Newton, either a one-shot or a pseudonym. His pacing is lugubrious, basically following Ida around as she is on screen almost throughout, except for a brief plot line sequence featuring co-stars Howard Duff and Mary Shipp.

Casting of Duff, ida's frequent co-star and husband, robs much of the film of maximum suspense, as he seems way too comfortable opposite her, when for dramatic purposes a more sinister Zachary Scott type would have been preferable. Similarly, the 19-year-old delivery boy is played by Robert Nichols, way too old and way too bland for the rather significant (functionally) role.

I enjoyed the atmosphere generated by Howe's location photography, but Ida deserved a better vehicle.