Rosas trágicas

It's amazing the degree of professionalism Hollywood reached in those early decades. The foggy London street scenes are superb, the mansion interiors impeccable, the costumes perfect, the women hairstyles... (are there hairdressers nowadays able to duplicate those Victorian hairstyles?). And of course the acting impeccable. Peggy Cummins off camera voice at the beginning, explaining the situation reveals a child speaking, such is her Betty Boopish voice.

Eventually she appears and throughout the whole film mesmerizes us with her blond Lolita looks and startling acting ability. Precisely with all that Hollywood professionalism it's difficult to understand why, a cockney like Cummins character, that speaks like a regular Eliza Doolittle, all of a sudden loses her typical speaking mode and starts, very naturally, to speak in a normal intercontinental English.

It took Eliza many months of extremely harsh study to get rid of her cockney intonation, but this character does it in a jiffy (without the help of a professor Higgins!!), and nobody questions that miraculous change! The movie is entertaining and very predictable; the end is rushed in, ruining everything previously done, but I imagine it was part of fitting the story within a certain length of time.

I saw "Gun Crazy" before, where I "discovered" Peggy Cummins and found her (in a totally different rol) quite a trouvaille! sort of a Veronica Lake (as petite as her) and unusual, like a Gloria Graham. Lovely with her round mouth, sting lipped childish appeal (and voice!). Nice, cozy movie to watch (we are so familiar with the formula!) when it's raining and dark outside.

From 1947, "Moss Rose" stars Peggy Cummins, Victor Mature, and Ethyl Barrymore.

Cummings plays Belle Adair, a dance-hall girl who sees a strange man (Mature) leave the room of one of her friends. The woman has been murdered, a moss rose sitting in an open Bible next to her. Belle sets out to find the man, one Michael Drego.

Once she does, she blackmails him. He refuses to give in, so she nearly identifies him when asked by the police chief (Vincent Price) which man she saw. Drego is able to signal her that she wins.

Belle is a little like Eliza in Pygmalion - turns out it's not money this petite Cockney wants. She wants to be a lady, and asks Drego to take her to his country home for a visit. Not sure how he will explain her presence - since he has a fiancee - Drego gives in, says she helped him with something, and is stopping by for a few days.

Michael's mother (Ethel Barrymore) is obsessive about her son, from whom she was separated while he lived with his father in Canada, but she likes Belle. Michael's fiancee feels a bit threatened by her. While Belle is at the house, there is another murder, with another moss rose in an open Bible.

Pretty good, with a vivacious performance by Peggy Cummins. You never for one minute think of her as an evil blackmailer. Mature for me wasn't aristocratic and smooth enough for the character of Michael. He gave a low-key performance, so he was aware his persona had to change from his street-wise roles. However, you can take a man off the street, but you can't take the street out of a man. Ethel Barrymore gives a strong performance.

Nice Victorian atmosphere and lovely costumes. And yes, Peggy Cummins is the same actress from "Gun Crazy!"

Gabrille Margaret Long, writing under the names of Majorie Bowen and Joseph Shearing wrote many fascinating novels based upon actual murder cases using her own interpretations as to what actually happened and who was really guilty. This novel and film "Moss Rose" is based upon an 1873 murder of a prostitute named Buswell, which was never solved. Other Shearing novels turned into films around this time are "Blanche Fury" and "Mark of Cain ("Airing in a Closed Carriage" based upon the Maybrick case).

Shearings novels are very hard to adapt and the film "Moss Rose" differs very much from the novel. So much so, that outgside of the basic idea it is almost a complete revision of the novel. Nevertheless, this film is very well produced with the sets and costumes capturing the late Victorian ambiance and a outstanding performance from England's Peggy Cummins. She captures the spunky cockney persona of "Belle Adair", while showing the vulnerability of a young woman alone in the world and making her way during an era of very closely defined social classes. Even when she is blackmailing a aristocratic family, she is still likable.

All in all, very well done and well worth watching.

Chirpy cabbies and fake fog abound in this Victorian murder mystery which ticks all of the boxes.

Daisy Arrow, a showgirl, is murdered in her room, but her friend Rose (Peggy Cummins) sees a well-dressed man leaving hurriedly. She discovers he is Michael Drego (Victor Mature), an aristocrat, and reports him to Inspector Clinner (Vincent Price). However, at the last moment she deliberately fails to identify him, choosing to use the situation to her own advantage which is - going to his country estate and experiencing the high life. Amazingly he agrees and takes her with him, explaining that she had helped him with a police matter. His mother Lady Margaret (Ethel Barrymore) takes to her, but fiancee Audrey (Patricia Medina) is suspicious of Rose's motives. Suddenly Inspector Clinner turns up. He is investigating the significance of a Bible and a Moss Rose which were found at Daisy's murder scene. The Drego's gardens are known for growing the flowers out of season and, the Bible is a new edition which could have been purchased at the local village book store. Rose tries to keep out of sight but is seen by Clinner who later sends for her. She is about to leave when Michael reveals he has fallen for her and wants to break off his engagement to Audrey. Rose is confused, but later when Audrey finds out she threatens to ruin Rose. Attempting leave again she finds Audrey, dead with a Bible and rose by her. This time Michael is arrested and the distraught Rose is looked after by Lady Margaret.......

The audience will probably have guessed the ending by this stage, but it has to be admitted that the film is entertaining. As others have mentioned, Vincent Price would probably have been better cast as Michael Drego. His distant,dreamy air would have suited the equivocal nature of the character better than Mature's brash approach. This is another of Hollywood's "British" films, but most of the cast manage a passable English accent, with the exception of Mature who goes for the spent-his-childhood-in-Canada cop out. Acting honours however go to the incomparable Ethel Barrymore who portrays Lady Margaret in every guise, from imperious matriarch to blubbering hysteric. The only fly in the ointment is Cummins. Her Cockney accent is the worst, most irritating I've ever heard, and that includes Dick Van Dyke in "Mairy Paw-puns!" For a Brit, Cummins sounds more like an American actress making a very poor attempt at the dialect. Fortunately she doesn't resort to "Strike a light!" or "Yer can't do that there 'ere!" That apart, if you can immerse yourself in the atmosphere, you will enjoy it.

This is a movie adaptation of a Marjorie Reynolds book that I just recently discovered, and I'm glad I did. It's not very long, but there's enough packed into it to hold your interest. Peggy Cummins does an excellent job in the starring role of Belle Adair (a.k.a. Rose Lynton), a chorus girl in late 19thc London, who becomes amateur sleuth, as she investigates her friend Daisy's murder. The movie co-stars Victor Mature as Michael Drego, whom Belle suspects is the killer. There's also Ethel Barrymore, who plays Michael's mother, Lady Margaret Drego, and Vincent Price, as Police Inspector Climmer.

Wanting to better herself socially, Belle bargains with Michael (whom she gradually decides is innocent): she'll keep quiet about some incriminating evidence, if he'll take her to his family estate, where she can learn to be a lady. Her presence there intrigues his mother and displeases his fiancee, Audrey (Patricia Medina), but for Belle it's like a dream come true, as she enjoys being in such lovely surroundings, wearing nice clothes, learning to ride and just feeling special. (Not to mention, falling in love with Michael and having those feelings returned.) However, trouble looms ahead, as well as another murder.

I won't give the mystery away, but I will say that there's a hint in the story as to whodunit that I should have picked up on.

Anyway, check it out, it's worth it.