Portrait of Jennie (1948)

Approved   |    |  Drama, Fantasy, Mystery

Portrait of Jennie (1948) Poster

A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.

7.7/10
6,141
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  • Portrait of Jennie (1948)
  • Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones in Portrait of Jennie (1948)
  • Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones in Portrait of Jennie (1948)
  • Jennifer Jones in Portrait of Jennie (1948)
  • Portrait of Jennie (1948)
  • Joseph Cotten in Portrait of Jennie (1948)

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Awards

Won 1 Oscar.

Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Reviews & Commentary

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User Reviews
26 May 2007 | dbdumonteil
Old Father Time ,you 're out of time.
Dieterlé's film is magic itself.Borrowing from "Peter Ibbetson " (Hathaway,1935) ,from "the portrait of Dorian Gray" (Lewin ,1944,the final trick is the same)or from the "the Ghost and Mrs Muir" (Mankiewicz,1947) ,it succeeds in connecting all the links of the chain .Moreover,I'm almost sure that Richard Matheson saw this movie for its influence on his "bid time return" novel (transferred to the screen as "Somewhere in time" (1981) ) is obvious.

A painter down on his luck meets a strange girl.Her clothes are old-fashioned and she seems out of nowhere .Dieterlé marvelously creates an offbeat poetic atmosphere.Using urban landscapes,an ominous sky or the stairs in the lighthouse shrouded in a green light,he 's got an extraordinary sense of mystery.The cast is ideal:Jennifer Jones was par excellence the romantic heroine ("Duel in the sun" which was the first time she had played opposite Cotten,"Ruby Gentry" "Madame Bovary" "Love is a many -splendored thing" ) with an adequate timeless beauty,Joseph Cotten could play everything ,and Lilian Gish made a short but conspicuous appearance as Mother Superior.The Cotten/Jones meeting in the convent could have been mushy and disastrous with any lesser talent:Dieterlé makes it a moving scene ,intimate and grandiose all at once.

We all live with our past.Some of us would give everything to relive scenes of their past .Einstein told one day that time was the form of his powerlessness while space was the form of his power.Who knows if (and the lines which open the movie open any door) somewhere we are not living in our past,or in our future?

Critic Reviews

Did You Know?

Trivia

Premiered in Los Angeles on Christmas Day, 1948.

Quotes

Jennie Appleton: I hate for it to stop, because when will we ever have it again?

Goofs

When Jennie sings a song when they first meet, the sound and her mouth don't match.

Crazy Credits

There are no credits at all at the beginning of the film; even the title is not disclosed until the end of the film. Furthermore, several credited workers on the film are not designated by their actual function on the movie, but simply as "staff executives".

Alternate Versions

Originally, all television prints were completely in black-and-white, but by the 1980s the shot of the portrait at the very end was again shown in color. More recently, though, the greenish tint used in the storm scene (lasting about ten minutes) was also restored. Numerous sources, most notably "Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide," have stated that the final reel, save for that color shot, was green, but it was the storm sequence alone, regardless of where it falls on the reels. While the 1990 Fox Video VHS release returned to black-and-white for the two scenes between the storm sequence and the painting-shot, the version currently shown on Turner Classic Movies has them in sepia tint. Which accurately reflects the original theatrical prints is undetermined, but both have the end titles in sepia.

Soundtracks

The Girl With The Flaxen Hair
(uncredited)
Music by Claude Debussy
Adapted by Dimitri Tiomkin
Played often in the score

Storyline

Plot Summary

Genres

Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance

Details

Release Date:

22 April 1949

Language

English

Country of Origin

USA

Filming Locations

Graves Light, Boston Harbor, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,041,000 (estimated)

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