The Sign of the Ram

SUSAN PETERS had been an Oscar nominee already(RANDOM HARVEST) and a star-on-the-rise when a hunting accident led to paralysis. But this gifted young performer did not stop acting. Despite difficulties, she starred in THE SIGN OF THE RAM and gave a remarkable performance. As a manipulative, youthful stepmother, she creates dangerous problems for all those around her. Ms. Peters' performance is all the more striking, because it is not the kind of sympathetic role one might expect from a true-life actress in pain. She blithely moves from decent, lovely, caring woman to a woman desperately seeking control of all those around her. Her growth in the characterization is powerful, and she deserved award consideration. Everything else in the film works well -- from the work of Alexander Knox, Peggy Ann Garner, Phyllis Thaxter, Allen Roberts, Dame May Whitty, etal. to the cinematography of the cliffside house, to the art direction, music, etal. John Sturges' direction manages to avoid the pitfalls of melodrama as much as possible. But it is Susan Peters' charisma that makes this an important, albeit forgotten, work of art. She would go on to touring the country in THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET and onto TV in the MISS SUSAN series, but she deserved further critical acclaim. This film should be given more prominence; it is a strong work starring a fine actress.

SIGN OF THE RAM drew a great deal of publicity at the time of its release, with the focus on Susan Peters for whom this marked a return to acting after a tragic hunting accident that left her paralyzed below the waist. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this cinematic moment is that Ms. Peters does not play a sympathetic character in the film. Instead she is a controlling paraplegic whose lovely personality masks her domination over her family. Ms. Peters' performance indicates that her widely different Oscar-nominated work in RANDOM HARVEST was not a fluke. It moves the potentially melodramatic plot along with an unique force. John Sturges' direction is on a par with his other fine work, and there is no faulting the excellent work of such actors as Alexander Knox, Allene Roberts, Peggy Ann Garner, Phyllis Thaxter...and, of course, the ever reliable Dame May Whitty. It is sad that this semi-forgotten but exquisite work is not available on any format. It deserves to be restored and saved if only for Ms. Peters' skills.

Since I was a teenager, I loved this movie! It had just the right amount of mystery, intrigue and drama. I loved the study of a controlling, manipulative woman, who was wheel-chair bound, who caused much heartache and death. I didn't know until recently that Susan Peters was actually wheel-chair bound from an automobile accident, I believe. I have been trying to find this movie to purchase it for my home for ages, but no luck! I also wanted to find out if the movie was based on a novel, and what the name is. I thought it was one of the best movies I ever saw, and loved the scenery, with the waves crashing on the shore. I have fond memories of it, and would like to relive them. My horoscope sign, incidentally is THE SIGN OF THE RAM! I don't believe the movie is still available, and would hope that Ted Turner or whoever owns the rights would reprint the movie, so that we could buy it!

From the wheelchair to which the actress was confined as the result of a hunting accident three years earlier, Susan Peters builds a controlled, subtle, expert performance that's the centerpiece of John Sturges' The Sign of the Ram. As the paralyzed young stepmother of three children living in a great Gothic pile on the Cornish coast, she conceals her frustrations under a mask of serenity (she writes mawkish poems for a London newspaper under the name Faith Hope) only to unleash them in sly, vindictive manipulation.

The wheelchair may render her immobile, but her hands, restless and expressive, are ever on the move: posturing with cigarettes and lighter, picking out waltzes on the keyboard, plying her pen, knitting and purling. They seem to have a life of their own – a slithery, reptilian life, fueled by the cold instincts of the brainstem alone.

The cast around her pulls its weight, too, in particular husband Alexander Knox, best remembered as the president in Darryl Zanuck's overblown biopic Wilson; Phyllis Thaxter as a hired secretary/companion; and Peggy Ann Garner, as an adolescent girl whose warped loyalty to Peters almost has irreversible consequences. Sturges maintains the pace, a brooding andante, while Burnett Guffey coaxes the most out of the labyrinthine house and crashing Irish Sea.

But it's Peter's movie, and her last (she died four years later). When her machinations come to light, with the fog rolling in, Sturges devises a superb final scene – a cinematic `schlussgesang,' as they called those overwrought soprano passages that rang down the curtain in German opera. She deserved nothing less.

The promising career of Susan Peters, nominated for an Oscar for "Random Harvest," was cut short when she was shot in a hunting accident and wound up paralyzed. MGM kept her going by having her interview stars for the fan magazines. I know Susan's nurse from those days, and everyone from Clark Gable to Lucille Ball - all the MGM stars - came to Susan's home to be interviewed.

In 1948, she appeared in this film, "Sign of the Ram," which was tailor-made for her, as it concerned a woman in a wheelchair. Peters plays Leah, married to an older man (Alexander Knox). As this was his second marriage, her family was ready-made. Leah is responsible for having saved the lives of two of his children in the ocean, but she was smashed against the rocks and it left her permanently in a wheelchair.

Her husband and family are devoted to her, but the truth is that Leah is a manipulative witch who does what she has to in order to keep the focus on her and preventing anyone from finding happiness outside the home. She manages to put the kibosh on two potential marriages by devious means and has one of the children (Peggy Ann Garner) totally brainwashed. When a pretty new secretary (Phyllis Thaxter) is hired, she is very threatened.

This isn't much of a movie. It's atmospheric but fairly predictable. Also, though it's set in England, the Americans in the cast make no attempt at a British accent.

Susan Peters was a fine actress, and she does a good job here as an angry, brittle woman who hides her true feelings. This was her last film. She had a go at a TV series and toured with a play which, in fact, came through my home town. She died in 1952, at the age of 31, when her kidneys failed, in part due to anorexia. A terrible end for a beautiful actress who had much to offer in life and on the screen.