Il mistero degli specchi

I saw that one of my favorite film critics Eddie Muller insisted that this be shown at one of his Noir City Film Festivals even though it wasn't a noir. He said it was too good looking and had been obscure for far too long to not show to film lovers. I have to agree that it looks fantastic.

A woman who is already cheating on her husband decides to flirt with another man who is a weird dandy hipster obsessed with horse buggies and mirrors and speaks in obtuse quips. To up his weirdness, he's convinced he's a reincarnation of a 15th century member of the Borgias family.

Apart from the standard 40s silly melodrama and the very strange flashback that is most of the movie, the cinematography was outstanding. Especially during the 15th century Venetian party where most of the interesting action occurs. The overall look felt very French and sure enough when I looked to see who had lensed it, it was a Frenchman named Andre Thomas who worked in pre WWII France and Germany before fleeing to England to work in the film industry.

Watched on YouTube.

Corridor of Mirrors is directed by Terence Young and adapted to screenplay by Rudolph Cartier and Edna Romney from the novel written by Chris Massie. It stars Eric Portman, Edana Romney, Joan Maude, Barbara Mullen, Alan Wheatley, Hugh Sinclair and Bruce Belfrage. Music is by Georges Auric and cinematography by Andre Thomas.

A woman travels from Wales to Madame Tussauds in London for a rendezvous with her lover. The rest will be told in flashback…

Laughter had a strange effect on him…

Corridor of Mirrors is a hypnotic and nightmarish experience, not in that scared to death kind of way, but in a nightmare where nothing allows you to be comfortable, keeping you in a realm of purgatory, what is real – imagined – or otherwise? The crux of the story concerns a man, Paul Mangin (Portman), who lives in the past and is obsessed with Mifanwy Conway (Romney), who not only looks like the portrait of a lady that hangs in the Mangin palace, but on Mangin's insistence was his lover centuries in the past.

Would you care to continue the adventure?

What follows during the course of the story are subjects ranging from reincarnation, obsessive madness, fetish kinks, seduction, fantasist leanings and murder. To passionate romance, heartfelt regret and soul cleansing. The unusual story, unique maybe? Enjoys toying with audience expectations, even taking famous literary inspirations and fusing them into this Baroque world, with seasoning of the macabre for added spice. As the Mangin/Conway relationship develops, the tension becomes palpable, fear and trepidation vie for control over wistful yearnings. What will win out in the end?

What's behind the curtain?

The look, sound and feel on offer here is quite simply magnificent. This is Gothic noir nirvana. Young and Thomas shoot the film in what I think is an average of 99% shadows and low lights, it's the darkness in daylight effect as shards of light struggle to pierce the gloom through the Venetian blind slats. Candlelight, Scotch mist, moonbeams, canted angles and otherwise all play their atmospheric part, and then there is the backdrop and props…

The Mangin palace is vast in its opulence, complete with the titular corridor of mirrors. Behind each mirror is something that links Mangin's obsession with the past, it is eeriness personified. Mannequins, wax work figures and dolls feature prominently, the Tussauds connection is the Chamber of Horrors, naturally. Spooky harp, spooky housekeeper (again, naturally), and Auric's musical score is a blend of the sinister with poetic whimsy. And the crowning sequence is a Venetian costume ball, a decadent soirée that looks magnificent, but craftily it asks just what is beneath the costume facade of it all?

It's a little too bonkers and creaky in plot development at times, but it knows this and embraces the short comings to keep with the unstable off-kilter vibe. Unfortunately it's a difficult film to track down in good quality home format form, but if you can find a reliable source and you love Gothic noir or Baroque fantasies, then this is for you. 8/10

In Terence Young's first movie, Edana Romney is a society girl whiling her time away while the young man she's going to marry is overseas. She falls in with Eric Portman, who seems terribly rich and terrible arty.... but is obsessed with a 300-year-old painting of a young woman and reincarnation. When he gets around to showing it to Miss Romney, it's the spit and image of her, and he thinks he's the reincarnation of the Borgia she left for another man.

The remainder is part 18th Century Gothic literature, part war-weary spiritualism, and part obsessive behavior that Hitchcock would revisit in VERTIGO. Young directs it as a movie about madness, but it could have easily been tilted in favor of spiritualism, especially given the ornate palace sets, a wild medieval party, and the shafts of light that cinematographer Andre Thomas lays among Serge Pimenoff's Cyclopean sets. It's French realism gone mad, and the film makers knowing it. It's terribly arty, and almost self-congratulatory in its excesses. While it takes itself too seriously for my taste, it will certainly appeal to many people.

This is expert, expert film making, rich in atmosphere and mood, and easily as good as the best gothics and psychological 'horror' films of the forties such as Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Seventh Veil, or the Val Lewton works. I don't think there was a single scene that did not hold my attention. I could not begin to enumerate all the little touches and flourishes of lighting, camera angle, dialog, story ideas, etc. but I particularly enjoyed the seamless interweaving of references to Lewis Carroll's Alice (when Edana Romney follows the white cat (white rabbit surrogate) through the labyrhinthine corridors of the mansion, or to Othello/Romeo and Juliet at the Venetian ball, or again to Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast. Some compare this film to to Cocteau (it's on the video box), with its ornate and detailed set, as well as its theme, but Corridor of Mirrors for all its fine acting, atmosphere, and mastery of technique is not genius. It is not poetically simple. But if you liked any of the films mentioned above, you will definitely enjoy watching dark, mysterious leading lady Edana Romney (who also co wrote the screenplay) search for the inner resources to free herself from the spell of an incredibly intense and psychologically compelling, but morbid, life.

Terence Young found a huge audience thanks to his James Bond movies ("Dr No" "From Russia with love" "Thunderball" ) ,which remain,along "Goldfinger" ,the best 007 ever made ,the only ones which will endure.One should add he tackled many genres : the historical drama ("Mayerling" ),sword and sandal ("Orazi e Curiazi")and thrillers the best of which is certainly "wait until dark" which features an excellent performance by Audrey Hepburn.

And then there's "corridor of mirrors" .It compares favorably with "Beauty and the Beast" (Cocteau) ,"POrtrait of Jennie" (Dieterlé),Peter Ibbetson (Hathaway) and "dead of night" (various directors).It's Young's first effort and his best movie by such a wide margin one cannot imagine which one of his later production could be number two.

It's impossible to summarize such a complex tale ,which borrows from fairy tales ("La Barbe-bleue") Wilde's "Portrait of Dorian Gray" Val Lewton's productions and the movies I mention above but brings it all back home.

A man is living in the past cause past is certain and future might be dangerous.He seduces a woman and asks for a rendezvous in Madame Tussaud's museum.Taking place in the present and in the past,in a home in the English country,in the famous museum ,in a sumptuous palace with a fascinating corridor of mirrors ,symbol of illusions and of a time which ,no matter what he tries, is passing by the hero,a time which is not on his side ,even if he goes back as far as the Italian Renaissance -with scenes of carnival which may have inspired Fellini for "Casanova" -this is the lost gem of the English cinema.