A fascinating Cockney maid is portrayed by Angela Lansbury in a debut of great promise. This is the job for which Cukor admirers have been waiting.Ĭotten has a relatively incidental role as a Scotland Yard man, but he does it with dashing presence. He utilizes small mosaics of sharp characterization in building to his climax and works in each facet faultlessly. And he increases his acting stature by playing the part, much as did Robert Montgomery by appearing in Night Must Fall.ĭirection by George Cukor is ever a display of fine craftsmanship. It is a far cry from his average romantic roles, actually his first unmitigated screen villainy. She is saved only by the timely intervention of the police who have never been satisfied with the mystery surrounding her aunt’s demise.īoyer’s performance of the husband is really brilliant. The husband seems intent upon driving his wife insane by psychological suggestion and, with diabolical cunning, lead her to doing away with herself. He plants the thought in her mind that she does not always remember what she has done, that she loses things which have been given to her, that her sanity may be impaired. Without her unforced ability to capture the very spirit of youth, the prologue would have been impossible.įollowing their return to London, a subtle change begins in her husband’s attitude. Miss Bergman is indescribably lovely as the young wife, but even more remarkable is her appearance as the teen-age child, quite the youngest girl you have ever seen an established actress portray seriously. But she gives up her music when she falls in love and marries the man who is her accompaniment, then with her husband returns to Thornton Square. She leaves the old house on Thornton Square, London, to study singing on the Continent. This introduces the heroine as a girl in her ‘teens, deeply touched by the tragedy of her aunt’s mysterious murder.
True, a prologue has been added to the original play.
In the complete honesty of the melodrama rests its strong bid for outstanding box office. Hornblow is to be congratulated for his sagacity in avoiding the usual Hollywood “production touches.” He has a melodramatic tale to tell, and he gives it to audiences straight-from-the-shoulder. There is the properly terrifying atmosphere of the Drury Lane era in this piece, the emotional content of which relentlessly grips and holds absorbed interest.
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