The Three Weird Sisters

Co-scripted by Dylan Thomas, this tale of three ageing and infirm, although philanthropically inclined, spinster sisters presiding over a crumbling mansion in 1930s South Wales is an oddball post-War slice of Welsh Gothic. In their hermetically sealed universe, the sisters' otherworldly formalism is threatened, firstly, by a landslip caused by the family mine which destroys part of their small village at the outset and, secondly, by the return of their wealthy and apparently hard-hearted pragmatist brother and his primly efficient secretary, whose modernity further unravels the web of antiquity which has preserved their world. The narrative clunkiness is swiftly apparent from the somewhat obvious symbolism of the structural cracks and fissures which fracture the sisters' home at the beginning of the movie, and the stateliness of the family's surroundings is matched by similarly ossified pacing; Dylan Thomas' occasionally poetically barbed and witty insights notwithstanding. It's not just the old dark house that creaks here; even a nick of time climax does little to shore up the cracks of this crumbling edifice.

When a mine collapses destroying the homes built on top of it, the three sisters of the the family that owned the mine promise to rebuild the homes. This doesn't sit well with their brother who now lives in the city and is the real source of money for the family. Returning home in order to straighten out the situation, he soon finds that all is not well in the old homestead, and his life is in grave danger.

A post war-Gothic tale with a great deal on its mind this is a movie that never really works. Graced with a script that was written in part by Dylan Thomas the dialog is often very literate in a way that real people never talk. The writing does provide for some very wicked exchanges between the characters but it never really comes to life. Some of the miners are just a bit too poetic about the tragedy that has befallen their small town.

Thematically the film is about the clash of the old and the stayed with the new and the modern. I mention this because the film seems much more interested in ideas than it is in any real action. We have the three sisters who never left home and want to rebuild things the way they were battling their brother and his secretary who have come from the outside and want live in the present and deal with the situation as it is. Its a battle that forms the basis, in one way or another, for almost every scene often to the detriment of the drama. Everything seems to be arranged to have some deep meaning from the aliments of the sisters to the crumbling nature of the manor house. I wasn't watching a movie so much as a dramatized argument for the modern; there aren't people on the screen rather they are ideas.

I applaud the filmmakers for wanting to make a movie that is more than a Gothic drama, but they went the wrong way and forgot the drama. Honestly this is a tough movie to get through, its 80 minutes long and feels like twice that in the lecture hall. As good as the basic plot line is the execution makes this a film I doubt I'll ever watch again.

Worth a shot if you don't mind seeing a literate drama that tries too hard and just misses being something special

Director Daniel Birt offers a creepy little tale, as Ramond Lovell -- in a fine and nuanced performance -- returns to the crumbling Welsh mining town where his sisters have made some big promises. Although he has supported them in the past, this is too much. He says no, and then falls mysteriously ill. The local doctor doesn't draw any connection at first, but Lovell does, and his loyal secretary, Nova Pilbeam, tries to get him out of the house, always thwarted.

Nancy Price, Mary Merral, and Mary Clare are judgmental and creepy as the handicapped sisters, and there are nice performances from Marie Ault and Hugh Griffith. I can see this being made into a very interesting "Old Dark House" comedy thriller, but that's not the way it's pitched.

Miss Pilbeam made only one more movie after this. She continued to act on the stage for another couple of years, then retired after her second marriage. She died in 2015, aged 95.

This appears like a black comedy, but it is actually a masked tragedy. The male protagonist, the sickly David Davies, who instantly gets bedridden and stays so as soon as he gets into the weird old house of his three sisters, should have been played by Charles Laughton, as the character is very much in his line. The three sisters are extreme characters all three of them, one deaf, one blind and the third one oversensitive to anything, which is a weird company indeed. Their brother instantly believes they are going to kill him, and they would indeed be motivated.

The actual story is, that the derelict small mining town is hit by an earthquake demolishing many houses, and the three sisters as guardian angels and benefactors of the town promise to sponsor their restoration. The problem is they can't afford it, while their brother is a rich industrial baron, so they summon him to help them. He has no intention of doing so and thus leave his three sisters in an awkward position, which they can't accept.

He has a secretary, Nova Pilbeam, who is his ony support in the gradually more serious intrigues conducted against him, and she is always lovely to look at. The film peters out in a genetral derailing of the intrigue, and the end is not satisfactory. You would have wished the three weird sisters to go on undisturbed. The main asset and attraction of the film is that parts of the script were written by Dylan Thomas, which makes the dialogue at times extremely relishable.

A film worth watching and owning. Three elderly sisters try to manipulate their wealthy brother into underwriting the repair bill for both their house (mansion) and their Welsh village both damaged after a mine collapse. Set in Wales it has the Welsh imprimatur of Dylan Thomas as script co-writer.

It was directors Daniel Birt's first outing as a director and actress Nova Pilbream, the put upon secretary's, swan-song though she did a little stage work after the films completion. (Her life story would make a fascinating up-to-date biography if anyone had the time and skill.)

The film, though not exactly horror is gothic, and is essentially about murder. It's sinister leanings see it falling into the sub-genre of psycho-biddy of hagsploitation a le Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The films three Morgan-Vaughan sisters are far more refined than their American counterparts; one reviewer described them, and the movie, as 'posh'. I guess compared to what was happening across the pond The Three Weird Sisters was 'posh'. Little in the way of histrionics, that deliberately cultivated BBC voice without which securing work in the UK was impossible and a gentler more controlled tone all contribute to an elegance absent from say What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.

The Sisters , released in 1948, pre-date the advent of the American psycho-biddy genre by a decade or two. Even so the defining trope, a formerly alluring older woman, three in this case, becomes mentally unstable and threatens those around her/them is immediately evident in the The Sisters.

This films real significance is it's place in cinematic history. It is never mentioned in scholarly discussions of the psycho-biddy genre and should be. It is no stretch at all see it stand comfortably alongside Lady in a Cage or Straight Jacket despite its British reserve.