Portrait of Jennie (1948)

A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

Robert Nathan (from the book by), Paul Osborn (screen play)

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
Henry Hull	...	Eke
Florence Bates	...	Mrs. Jekes (landlady)
Felix Bressart	...	Pete
Clem Bevans	...	Capt. Cobb
Maude Simmons	...	Clara Morgan

Storyline

Eben Adams is a talented but 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 pretty but odd young girl named Jennie Appleton appears and strikes up an unusual friendship with Eben.

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Plot Keywords:

portrait painting | supernatural power | artist | reference to will rogers | reference to sarah bernhardt | 

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Taglines:

ARE YOU IN LOVE THIS WEEK? If you are - you'll get a double thrill from this most romantic of all love stories about a man who was in love with a girl who lived twenty years before his time. If you aren't - it may change your ideas on the subject for the rest of your life.

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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:

Graves Light, Boston Harbor, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,041,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Selznick Studio, Vanguard Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

3 Channel Stereo (1956) (5.0) (L-R) Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

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

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A 17 year old Anne Francis (uncredited and overdubbed) appears in the final scene as one of the three teenage girls admiring the portrait.

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Goofs

During Eben's conversation with Pete, it becomes clear that Pete's moustache is fake when it starts to come away from his face.

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Quotes

Narrator in prologue: Since time began man has looked into the awesome reaches of infinity and asked the eternal question: What is time? What is life? What is space? What is death? Through a hundred civilizations, philosophers and scientists have come together with answers, but the bewilderment remains... Science tells us that nothing ever dies but only changes, that time itself does not pass but curves around us, and that the past and the future are together at our side for ever. Out of the shadows of knowledge, ...

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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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Alternate Versions

During premiere engagements, the climactic storm sequence, along with being tinted green, was screened in Magnascope, an early widescreen format. The audio also changed from mono to an experimental multi-channel sound, to intensify the scene's overall effect. At the beginning of the sequence the curtains surrounding the screen would open, and the scene would fill the wider screen surface. At the end of the scene the curtains closed, and the remainder of the film was shown in its 1:1.37 ratio format, while the film's soundtrack reverted back to monaural.

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Connections

References Thunder Rock (1942)

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Soundtracks

Jennie's Song
(uncredited)
Music by Bernard Herrmann
Lyrics by Gordon Burdge
Sung by Jennifer Jones

User Reviews

PORTRAIT OF JENNIE -- beauty, fantasy and tears

This is my first comment for this site, so be gentle. The history of PORTRAIT OF JENNIE is fairly well known...a love letter from producer David O. Selznick to Jennifer Jones...and it shows by giving her, in my opinion, one of the best showcases for her talents at that time. I have read the pros and cons about this film, but each time I watch it, which isn't often, being the romantic that I am, I can sense it in the way she was treated in the film.

Why don't I watch it that often? Because it touches me in personal ways in terms of the loneliness of the two main characters, the yearning to find someone and not be alone. But most importantly, the music score arranged by the great Dmitri Tiomkin from the works of Claude Debussy. I am sorry that nobody has ever issued a track LP or CD of Tiomkin's score. To me it is a beautiful, sometimes haunting arrangement, with the theme used for Jennie touching me...I believe it is called THE GIRL WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR...I could be wrong. At points it became painful for me to watch as the film touches certain personal pains (the loneliness part particularly, more so since I lost my parents recently after caring for them and have no family to speak of). When the final scene occurs, showing the portrait itself in the museum in full color and Tiomkin's music plays over it, I am in tears. It sounds stupid, doesn't it...

The film itself is not the perfect movie that Selznick had wanted but the flaws are minor to the final result. It is a film not just for those with a romantic streak still in them, but also for the lonely, maybe giving them a message of hope.

I am glad that, unlike many classic films, this one has been preserved and is available on video. Well, that's my rambling on the subject. It may not be film criticism but its how I feel about PORTRAIT OF JENNIE.