Portrait of Jennie (1948)

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

Robert Nathan (novel)
Leonardo Bercovici (adaptation)

Release Date:

22 April 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Fantasy | Mystery

Plot:

A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.

Plot Keywords:

Artist | Hurricane | Black & White To Color | Ghost | Melodrama

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Jennifer Jones	...	Jennie Appleton
Joseph Cotten	...	Eben Adams
Ethel Barrymore	...	Miss Spinney
Lillian Gish	...	Mother Mary of Mercy
Cecil Kellaway	...	Matthews
David Wayne	...	Gus O'Toole
Albert Sharpe	...	Moore (as Albert Sharp)
Henry Hull	...	Eke
Florence Bates	...	Mrs. Jekes (landlady)
Felix Bressart	...	Pete
Clem Bevans	...	Capt. Cobb
Maude Simmons	...	Clara Morgan

Also Known As:

Jennie (UK)
Tidal Wave

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo (special stereo mix in final storm scene) | Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:TV-PG | Finland:S | Germany:12 | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #12700) | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Boston Harbor, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Vanguard Films

Trivia:

Bernard Herrmann was originally hired to write an original background score and did compose several themes but due to various production delays as well as the fact that Herrmann was tiring of Selznick's demands, he dropped out and was replaced by Dimitri Tiomkin who, by the insistence of Selznick, ended up using themes by Debussy. At the time, Tiomkin was condemned by his colleagues for his adaptations. All that remains of Herrmann's contribution is the haunting song sung by Jennie entitled "Where I come from, nobody knows."

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: As Eben clings to Jennie on the rocks at the Land's End lighthouse, they speak to one another, but their lips either aren't moving or aren't in sync with what they're saying.

Quotes:

Mrs. Jekes: I just can't understand a man fiddling away his time just painting things. Of course he did shovel some snow to pay part of last month's rent.
Mrs. Bunce: Painting things? Women? Women in the...
Mrs. Jekes: Mrs. Bunce, we agreed that he was a gentleman and gentleman just don't paint "women in the...”
Mrs. Bunce: [flustered] No, of course not.

Movie Connections:

References Thunder Rock (1942)

Soundtrack:

Jennie's Song

This film haunts me

"Portrait of Jeannie" ran again tonight on TCM and yet again I sat there mesmerized, and yes, admittedly in tears. It is a haunting film, one that once seen echoes in memory. It fulfills an ideal of love found and lost, with a promise that it will be found again, this time forever.

The use of Debussy is inspiring, as is the sepia tone shots which impressed me even more than the famed green tinted finale of the storm. I do wonder how that effect of sepia was achieved, as if a rough layer of burlap was draped over the lens to create a look of photographs from a lost age. It creates a sense of 19th and early 20th century images that is stunning. I was in NYC this summer for a couple of days and found myself at a bookstore on Columbus Circle doing a book signing. After I was finished there I wandered into Central Park, on a mission to find the locations of where the wonderful sequence of Jeannie, ice skating, meets Joseph Cotton and their first stunningly filmed encounter at night on a pathway. What a thrill to find those spot.

I grew up in NJ back in the 1950s and remember the stories about the great blizzard of 1948 and do wonder if that blizzard was used by the director for the incredible outdoor shots of Jeannie's first meeting with her lover born too late and the ice skating scene.

To any who have yet to see this film. You might be a cynic, jaded by all that our world tosses your way. This film can reawaken within you the dream, or memory of an ideal love, the bittersweet sense of loss and of promise. Believe me, I tend towards "guy" films, but with "Jeannie," cynic that I can be at times, I still pull out the box of tissues, sit back, have a good cry (something I don't admit to my macho friends) and marvel at the timelessness of this incredible film.