Portrait of Jennie (1948)

A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

Robert Nathan (novel), Leonardo Bercovici (adaptation),

Stars:

Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore

Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited 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

Storyline

Eben Adams is a struggling artist in Depression era New York who has never been able to find inspiration for a painting. One day, after he finally finds someone to buy a painting from him, a young girl named Jennie Appleton appears and strikes up an unusual friendship with Eben.

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Plot Keywords:

artist | manhattan new york city | supernatural power | spiral staircase | ghost | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | Fantasy | Mystery

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 April 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tidal Wave

Filming Locations:

RKO-Pathé Studios - 9336 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,041,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vanguard Films, Selznick International Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

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

Color:

Black and White (green and sepia tints for final reel, excluding last shot) Color (Technicolor) (final shot)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on October 31, 1949 with Joseph Cotten reprising his film role.

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Goofs

While talking to Eke, Eben is standing on the left of the screen. After a close-up shot of Eke, Eben is on the right.

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Quotes

Miss Spinney: Don't be soft, Matthews. I'm an old maid, and nobody knows more about love than an old maid.

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Crazy Credits

No credits at all are shown at the beginning except for the studio logo, not even the title of the film. Instead, we hear a narrator speaking the prologue, and then announcing, "And now, 'Portrait of Jennie'". The credits are saved for the end of the picture.

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Connections

Referenced in Biography: Jennifer Jones: Portrait of a Lady (2001)

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Soundtracks

"Arabesque No. 1 in E"
Music by Claude Debussy
Heard as background music and during closing credits

User Reviews

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.