I’ve often heard of this film referred to as a classic of
the genre, the gothic romance. Along with WUTHERING HEIGHTS it is often
considered worth watching. Was it?
Based on the novel by author Daphne Du Maurier who wrote
REBECCA among other novels, it centers around Philip Ashley (Richard Burton), a
man taken in by his cousin Ambrose when his parents died. The two form a quick
bond, more like an uncle and nephew than cousins, with Ambrose determined to
raise Philip as a gentleman. The years pass and Ambrose health becomes an issue
so he travels to the warmer climate of Florence. There he meets their cousin
Rachel (Olive de Havilland), falls in love with her and then marries her.
All of this is learned via letters he sends back to Philip.
But then the letters change. Ambrose becomes suspicious of Rachel and thinks
she is poisoning him. He request Philp to come to him and he obliges only to
arrive too late. Ambrose has passed while he was on his way and Rachel has gone
into mourning among friends elsewhere.
Returning home he swears vengeance against Rachel. He is
also surprised to learn that Ambrose has left his entire estate to him rather
than his wife. And while she could contest the will she instead obliges it. A
planned visit is requested and Philip agrees. While he assumes the worst his
mentor and god father Nick Kendall (Ronald Squire) comes to her defense,
informing Philip that Ambrose could have fallen to the same malady that his father
suffered, a brain tumor.
Unwilling to listen, Philip invites Rachel to stay at the
estate. When she arrives she is nothing that he thought she would be. It isn’t
long before he finds himself enchanted by the woman and soon his thoughts of
her murdering Ambrose fade away. Providing her with an allowance to live on he
ignores warning signs when Kendall informs him that her spending has over
reached the amount she’s been provided which was considerable.
When Philip falls ill he never questions Rachel or consider
her behind his ailment, even though she insists on bringing him her home made
recipe of herbs. But is she poisoning him? And did she poison Ambrose? Is she
truly a woman of loose morals as some have claimed or a victim of circumstance?
Even when the film ends you will find yourself unsure of the answers.
As I said, the film has been praised for years but I found
it difficult to take. It seems that in the two I’ve most recently viewed (this
and the remake of WUTHERING HEIGHTS) they both depended on the stupidity of the
men involved and the uncaring attitudes of the women. In both we find a men
desperately in love with the women they cannot have and women who claim
affection for them yet do everything possible to harm them emotionally.
This film is the more disturbing of the two with Burton in
his first major American film providing one of his worst performances ever.
He’s completely over the top from start to finish. Every sequence in which he
speaks comes out more like a stage actor unaware of the nuance of film that
doesn’t require him to speak to the back of the theater of to gesture to do the
same. Couple that with the fact that the character seems to be the dumbest
person you’ve ever come across, flipping from massive anger to unbridled love for
the same woman, willing to give her all that he has with no guarantee that she
will oblige him anything and you find yourself with little sympathy for him.
De Havilland as Rachel does a solid job here but again, this
is not a character you find yourself sympathizing with. The thin line between
guilt and innocence is shifted back and forth so often that you worry if you
like her she’s really a killer and if you hate her then you’re displaying
contempt for an innocent woman. The end result is not knowing how to feel and
being left in limbo.
Twilight Time is releasing the film and providing movie
lovers with the best possible version released to far. Fans of the film will be
delighted to find this in hi definition 1080p format. Extras are limited to an
isolated music track, a radio play of the story and the original theatrical
trailer. As always the release is limited to just 3,000 copies so if you are
one of the many fans of the film then by all means pick it up before it’s gone.
Click here to order.
No comments:
Post a Comment