A ghostly woman warns a beautiful Victorian heiress about a count, and a strange spell haunts a mansion and its inhabitants in an adaptation of Wilkie Collins' novel.A ghostly woman warns a beautiful Victorian heiress about a count, and a strange spell haunts a mansion and its inhabitants in an adaptation of Wilkie Collins' novel.A ghostly woman warns a beautiful Victorian heiress about a count, and a strange spell haunts a mansion and its inhabitants in an adaptation of Wilkie Collins' novel.
- Attendant
- (uncredited)
- Station Agent
- (uncredited)
- Young Boy
- (uncredited)
- Underservant
- (uncredited)
- Mourner
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWilkie Collins' 'The Moonstone', published in 1868, is considered to be the first modern mystery employing a crime-detecting hero.
- GoofsThe first time Ann visits Laura in her sick bed (a composite shot, as Eleanor Parker is playing both roles), her shadow is visible on the headboard. Her shadow is not synced with her head movements while talking; it rises and moves away moments before Ann herself does. Apparently, the attempt to 'imitate' Ann's shadow on Laura's half of the shot didn't quite get the timing right.
- Quotes
Count Alessandro Fosco: Your proposal doesn't surprise me. Like a good general, you admit defeat when it's a fact. You're bold, you're logical. My dear, you're immensely tempting.
Marian Halcombe: Please Count Fosco, can you not say yes or no?
Count Alessandro Fosco: Let me see then. You suggest I take my ill got gains, free and then abandon my precious wife.
Marian Halcombe: Precious? The day you do so will be the day of her deliverance.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Max Steiner: Maestro of Movie Music (2019)
The best role in the film is that of the evil Count Fosco, played by Sidney Greenstreet, who is up to the task - he's excellent. In the musical, he has the big show-stopping number in the show with a real mouse - here he has a different pet. I believe also unless I've gone crazy that the Broadway musical ended differently than the film - I don't know how the book ended. The ending here seems quite Hollywood.
Gig Young is likable as Walter, Alexis Smith is beautiful and charming as Marian, and Agnes Moorhead is very effective as the understandably miserable Countess Fosco. Then there is Eleanor Parker who is positively radiant, and so good in a dual role. Why such an excellent actress and beauty is not better known today is probably because in her youth, I don't believe she ever got that really monster film that would have put her over. I can only say I saw her in Pal Joey as Vera in 1977, and she was fantastic. Could she have done the Deborah Kerr role in From Here to Eternity? Something for Hitchcock? Don't know.
A true treasure from Warner Brothers, right up there with some other films they've never bothered to release on DVD, Three Strangers being one. Try to catch this on TCM.
- blanche-2
- Jan 6, 2008
Details
- Runtime1 hour 49 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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![Sydney Greenstreet, Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith, and Gig Young in The Woman in White (1948)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNWUwY2QzOWQtNmY4YS00ZDRhLTg0YzEtNDczYmQ1ZTdiMWRiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTY5Nzc4MDY@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,3,90,133_.jpg)