If Winter Comes (1947)

Director:

Victor Saville

Writers:

A.S.M. Hutchinson (novel)
Marguerite Roberts (writer)

Release Date:

31 December 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

It's 1939 in the small English town of Penny Green and events in Poland are about to change lives. Mark Sabre...

Plot Keywords:

Scandal | WWII | Small Town | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Cast

Walter Pidgeon	...	Mark Sabre
Deborah Kerr	...	Nona Tybar
Angela Lansbury	...	Mabel Sabre
Binnie Barnes	...	Natalie Bagshaw
Janet Leigh	...	Effie Bright
Dame May Whitty	...	Mrs. Perch
René Ray	...	Sarah 'Low Jinks'
Virginia Keiley	...	Rebecca 'High Jinks'
Reginald Owen	...	Mr. Fortune
John Abbott	...	Mr. Twyning
Rhys Williams	...	Mr. Bright
Hugh French	...	Tony Tyber
Dennis Hoey	...	Tiny Wilson
Nicholas Joy	...	Mr. Pettigrew
Halliwell Hobbes	...	The Coroner

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #12565, Adult Audience)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Angela Lansbury then twenty-two wanted the sympathetic role of the waif-like village girl Effie but was forced to play Mabel the thirty-five year old shrewish wife of fifty year old Walter Pidgeon. This brought home to Lansbury that she would never be a star player at MGM. The role of Effie went to Janet Leigh who would be Lansbury's co-star in The Manchurian Candidate where Lansbury would again play an older unsympathetic woman although this role - Mrs. Iselin - would be cited by Lansbury as her favorite film role.

Movie Connections:

Version of If Winter Comes (1923)

Somber but not intense........

Should deliver an emotional wallop, but the best you could call it is merely "workmanlike". This film lacks the sincerity required for its heavy themes. Somber like some movies made during WWII but without the intensity (probably because this movie was made after the war was over). "Somber but not intense" would be the best description of this movie, and indicates its greatest drawback.

Good effort by Angela Lansbury. Everyone else just kind of goes through the motions, but this seems to have been the style wanted by the director here. Wonder what kind of dramatic effect he was going for. In fairness, I must say that Pidgeon's facial expressions and body language convey genuine anguish during the inquest scenes (this movie could use a lot more of such genuine intensity).

Usually lively Janet Leigh is not lively (director again?). Janet Leigh with British accent? Huh?

Waste of great talent but you might want to watch it if you are a fan of the individual actors involved.