La mujer de blanco

At least you have to give Warner Bros. credit for trying to film THE WOMAN IN WHITE, taken from the famous Wilkie Collins novel about an evil man (SYDNEY GREENSTREET) and his equally cunning wife (AGNES MOOREHEAD), along with more conventional romantic characters, ELEANOR PARKER (in a dual role), ALEXIS SMITH and GIG YOUNG.

They only partly succeed, due mainly to Greenstreet's histrionic finesse as Count Fosco, seething with villainous intentions and stealing every scene he's in. Eleanor Parker, even though she has a dual role, gives one of her weaker performances as the dull heroine Laura and is only slightly more interesting in the title role. Gig Young is handsome as her suitor but looks a bit uncomfortable in his costume role.

If you like Gothic romance, you'll find plenty to admire here, especially the low-key lighting, the costumes, the quietly menacing music and the overall atmosphere of this period piece. But the resolution differs from the novel and goes for an artificially contrived happy ending.

Trivia note: When the film was released, the poster art showed all the actors in modern costumes to disguise the fact that the story took place in Victorian times. Warner Bros. frequently misled their audiences in this manner, particularly with films like DEVOTION (the Bronte sisters) showing the actresses in modern dress.

Notice how fluidly the one-and-only Sydney Greenstreet moves his prodigious bulk across drawing-room floors, like a greedy shark among stumbling minnows. No movie with him can be ignored, especially one that showcases his heavyweight talent. Here, as Count Frasco, he schemes ruthlessly to cheat hapless Eleanor Parker (in a dual role) out of her family fortune. And he does it with such style and civilized malevolence. Without him, the film would amount to little more than a well-mounted and occasionally engaging Gothic mystery. With him, it appears better than it is.

Except for a few grotesque close-ups of Greenstreet, director Godfrey films the scenes in straightforward fashion, as though they come straight from the pages of the Collins book. Thanks, however, to Warner's art department and set designer, the visuals come across as generally atmospheric and evocative of the period. Nonetheless, someone should have told composer Max Steiner that not every scene needs scoring, especially when the notes sound as if they thunder from the bottom of a well. Then too, the script should have made better use of the great Agnes Moorehead (just count her lines), one of the few actresses with enough gravitas to go toe-to-toe with the formidable Greenstreet. You just know at first glance, she's no one to mess with.

Somehow, I kept wishing Val Lewton ("Cat People", "Seventh Victim") had gotten hold of the material first. This movie could have used his eye for combining the literary with the uncanny, which would go beyond atmosphere to cast a much-needed hypnotic spell, particularly in Anne's outdoor scenes (the actual woman in white). As things stand, the movie's an okay entertainment, with a chance to view some of Warner's leading contract players, circa 1948.

A long term plan to get the fabled Fairlie inheritance starts to go awry the second visiting artist and art instructor Gig Young comes to the Fairlie estate in Great Britain. He runs into the Woman In White, a rather strange young lady and then a coach with people in it looking for same. He decides to pretend he knows nothing.

Our heiress Laura Fairlie and the mysterious Woman In White are both played by Eleanor Parker. Almost up to the end I had trouble figuring out exactly what the relationship was between the two Eleanors so I will not say. It's half the fun of watching the film.

There's a pair of villains in the piece Sidney Greenstreet playing Count Fosco, playing him with the same avuncular malice as Casper Guttman. He's a scientist with a title like Baron Von Frankenstein. But rather than experimenting with dead bodies, Fosco prefers to work on the mind with chemicals and intimidation. He's getting a big payoff for arranging the marriage between Parker the heiress and a rapacious no account count John Emery. The only friend the heiress has in the house is companion Alexis Smith.

My favorite in the film is John Abbott who is Parker's father who has the constitution of a napkin and makes Adrian Monk look hale and hearty with all his phobias. Greenstreet and Emery intimidate him rather easily.

Second favorite is Agnes Moorehead who is the countess Fosco and with very little dialog, but much facial expression is the picture of a woman scorned.

This Victorian Gothic drama has one fine cast of scene stealers all working overtime for your enjoyment. The end is unforgettable.

I'll sheepishly admit to having seen NO version of the apparently VERY popular Willkie novel until seeing the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical adaptation on Broadway recently. Came out of the Marquis Theater with a passion to see ALL prior adaptations, and this delectable one is my first. LOVED it! Without doing any "spoilers," let me advise others like me who are seeking this out in the wake of the musical that the musical cut one MAJOR character, that being the Countess Fosco (played here with breathtaking abandon by the fabulous Agnes Moorehead), and despite several story alterations to the musical that I appreciate (it's a bit more emotionally gripping), the Countess might have helped improve the musical. But mostly I'm coming here to make a statement of appreciation for the great Sydney Greenstreet, whose Count Fosco is simply as masterful a portrait of evil as I've ever seen, and a career peak for one of the cinema's greatest character actors. Only problem with the film, whose cast is wonderful in its entirety, is that at its finale, it just sorta trickles away into a forced and artificial-feeling happy ending that I just KNOW couldn't have been in the novel. Otherwise, a swift and engrossing 109 minutes.

Gothic, eerie, studio vision of what a Wilkie Collins novel should and would look like, The Woman in White manages to successfully transcend the written page and give the viewer a good, old-fashioned mystery with some excellent performances and some crafty direction. Though the trimming/cutting/changing of the novel is awkward at times(sometimes even downright blunt), the script does manage to convey the basic premise of the story about a mysterious woman shrouded at night who asks a walking stranger for the time and then tells him that she is being hounded by forces she cannot explain. The walking stranger, an artist on his way to a new job, is then introduced to a household of unique personalities and a woman who could be the exact double of the woman he met on the road. This is a Victorian mystery all the way and the script is heavily aided by the skill of Godfrey the director. Swirling fogs, moonlit nights, and the ever-engaging, ever-looming, ever-massive presence of one Sydney Greenstreet make it more than what is could and would have been without them. Greenstreet gives a wonderfully droll, pernicious, charming portrayal of Alessandro Fosco, the primary villain in the piece. His Fosco is witty and yet can make a wicked look faster than any actor I have seen. Greenstreet and his agile bulk glide in oily joy from one scene of menace to another. Watching him smugly and contemptuously speak condescendingly to each and every character was great fun. Greenstreet is ably aided by some other equally memorable turns: Agnes Moorehead in a brief role as his wife, beautiful Alexis Smith as Marian, Eleanor Parker in dual roles, John Emery as a British blighter in the Terry-Thomas tradition, and John Abbott creating a minor comedic gem as Frederick Fairlie with all his "problems." Gig Young is the male lead and even though he probably is miscast he does do a decent enough job and does not detract in any way. The Woman in White is not a great film but a very good film with some wonderful atmosphere, skilled direction, and the indomitable Sydney Greenstreet. Should you, could you, would you need more than that? In the words of Greenstreet himself, "Ha, ha, Hmm - I should think not. Most definitely not. Ha. Hmm."