Un bienfait dangereux

I woke up one morning about 3:00 with the TV was still on, I go to sleep watching TCM, I love the old black and whites. A movie called Kind Lady was playing, and although I was still sleepy, I couldn't stop watching this incredibly disturbing movie about a lovely kind woman played beautifully by Aline MacMahon and the most unlikable despicable character, played to the hilt by Basil Rathbone! I missed the very beginning so don't know why or how he got invited in the first place but the premise is that she's wealthy and generous and invites him, a starving artist, for some reason into her home. She's a collector and has some very famous and expensive paintings hanging in her living room, and after a few visits and a scam involving a pretend wife and starving baby, this horrid man manages to take over her entire life.. I just hated him, he played this character so well that the only thing I can say is that I found it disturbing! Of course it was made in the 30's so it's reasonably naive by today's standard, but a great movie nevertheless!

"Kind Lady" is based on a stage play. This version stars Aline MacMahon, Basil Rathbone, Nola Luxford, Mary Carlisle, and Donald Meek. It was remade with Ethel Barrymore and Maurice Evans in 1951.

"Kind Lady" is the story of Mary Herries, a wealthy British woman who takes pity on a starving artist, Henry Abbott (Rathbone), his wife, and baby and take them in. Her home and life are soon taken over by Abbott and his gang, and Mary is a prisoner in her own home while she is gradually robbed.

Somehow, with a younger Mary and Henry, this film has a different and better dynamic, although the denouement in the 1951 film is more interesting than the ending here. Here, Mary still has the possibility of romance in her life, and though it isn't explored (or, given the class distinctions, probably not even a thought), there is some chemistry in the beginning between Mary and the debonair, dashing Rathbone.

Aline MacMahon, normally in character roles, is excellent as Mary, a formal though generous and honest woman who cares for the less fortunate. Rathbone is dastardly and smooth as silk as Henry, whose aggressiveness becomes apparent almost immediately as he pressures Mary into buying one of his ugly paintings.

This version is a little less cruel in its treatment of poor Mary, who seems to have the freedom to move around; in the '51 version, she doesn't, and Henry actually does her portrait.

Both films are very good, as it's a strong story, but the '51 comes out as slightly superior. I did love this cast, though.

...to see Aline MacMahon, the great character actress, in a lead role. As a tender benefactress who unwisely invites a suave beggar (Basil Rathbone) into her gracious home on Christmas Eve, she effortlessly plays beyond her years and even suggests an inner life--you can see her past regrets, her essential goodness, and her cunning, all in her eyes. The rest of this ungainly comedy-suspense melodrama, adapted from a musty stage play, is boilerplate and frequently illogical; the compressed "stage time" is overused to skirt plot implausibilities, the ending is rushed, and leave it to the callow American (Frank Albertson) to get the dumb Brits out of their scrape, MGM-style. Hitchcock could have made the material work, and George B. Seitz is decidedly not Hitchcock. But it's a handsome programmer, told economically, with two great cinematic supporting players being given unusual chances to strut their stuff.

1935's "Kind Lady" may be held in less regard than its 1951 remake, but comes off better by casting Aline MacMahon and Basil Rathbone in the leads, both younger and more effective than Ethel Barrymore and Maurice Evans. The widowed Mary Herries still pines for the husband she lost during the Great War, and meets impoverished artist Henry Abbott in front of her door on Christmas Eve, inviting him in for a short visit. She banishes any thoughts of romance with the suave handsome stranger upon learning he has a wife and child, and resolves never to see him again. She sadly fails to reckon with his persistence however, enabling him to move in his family and 'friends,' driving all but the maid (Nola Luxford) out of the house, filled with valuable paintings and artifacts, now targeted by Abbott and his despicable entourage. Dependable players such as Murray Kinnell (as the murderous doctor), Dudley Digges, Frank Reicher, E. E. Clive, and Donald Meek make a terrific ensemble, as Mary feigns illness in seeking to regain the upper hand, an uphill struggle without outside help. Having debuted opposite Edward G. Robinson and Boris Karloff in 1931's "Five Star Final," Aline MacMahon enjoys one of her few starring roles, while Rathbone was only solidifying the villainous reputation he so richly deserved, until Sherlock Holmes succeeded in making audiences forget how deliciously wicked he could be (he'd already played Philo Vance in 1930's "The Bishop Murder Case").

An excellent thriller in which an artist tries to take over a woman's life to get the fabulous 10 paintings she owns, worth a fortune. Surprisingly, five years ago I saw the 1951 remake with Ethel Barrymore and Maurice Evans in the leads, but that in no way diminished my enjoyment of this film, despite my knowing the ending. I found Aline MacMahon a bit too young for the title role in this film, but I relished Basil Rathbone as the evil artist. He's such a convincing villain. Dudley Digges and Eily Malyon are also excellent as Rathbone's accomplices, although I wondered how such a cultured man as Rathbone got involved with these lowlifes. And why is Murray Kinnell, as the doctor also in cahoots with Rathbone, involved in such a nasty undertaking? He's a real doctor, as we find out after he murders the maid he catches trying to call the police; he fills out a death certificate. Doris Lloyd, playing a friend of MacMahon in this film played the maid, Rose, in the remake. The critics liked the remake better, but I felt both films are on par with each other. See both films and you decide.