The Three Weird Sisters (1948) User Reviews (13)

Classic British Thriller

[nova-63 · 7/10 · 20 August 2009]

Three older sisters live on their family estate in Wales. This household once proudly reigned over a mining town, but the mines dried up and the estate and the town have fallen on hard times. When the land crumbles and a number of homes in the town are destroyed the sisters promise to rebuild the homes.

The sisters refuse to accept the reality of the situation, that being they have no money. They all live in the past when their name and wealth was foremost in the community. A half brother is a businessman who works in London. He is asked to travel to Wales and pay for the restoration of the town. When he refuses, weird strange events start happening and the half brother's life is in peril. Are the sisters trying to murder their half brother to get their hands on his money? His secretary believes this to be true, but the locals refuse to believe her.

Philanthropy with a few twists

[paxveritas · 7/10 · 28 September 2017]

The sisters are irritated when their successful younger half brother refuses to help them in their philanthropic plans to help the ill-starred community rebuild. They are positively miffed when he later decides to leave his secretary all his assets (including the family house) in his will. Greed and pride in their heritage takes over, philanthropy is set aside, and they begin a program of steady, unsuccessful assaults on their half brother and his secretary, who represent London and modernity.

This interesting movie might as well have been titled "Escape from Wales." It is known that the script co-writer, the poet Dylan Thomas, took a dim view of Wales, his homeland, and one can't help but feel that the decrepitude of the sisters, and their fragile old house set in a bleak Welsh town where the mines are defunct, are emblematic of Wales as seen by the author and script writers.

Logically, the half brother and secretary want to leave as soon as the danger is palpable, but are thwarted in doing so at every turn. A doctor (recipient of the sisters' philanthropy in the past) zigs in and zags out like a confused, allegiance-less mosquito, for most of the time until the very end.

Nova Pilbeam as the secretary has a pleasingly crisp voice and comes across in 1948 as a Katharine Hepburn type, but is a much more natural actress than Hepburn, who usually announced her lines rather artificially instead of just saying them. Pilbeam was very good in Hitchcock's "Young and Innocent," and is better still in this film.

For all its melodrama and its interspersed (overly poetic?) political moments, this is an engaging "dark houser" that holds one's interest from the first minute to the last.

Daffy Taffy Trio Are homicidal Maniacs

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 5 April 2014]

I counted in all no less than 6 separate attempts to kill Nova Pilbeam and Raymond Lovell.This rather resembles a Welsh Adams family or the downside of Arsenic and Old Lace.Towards the end it just becomes too laughable to take seriously.Nova Pilbeam fainting away at the sight of the three stern faced sisters.Then the sisters hauling about the furniture and breaking down walls so that they could fix Nova one last time.I have only seen this film once before,many years ago at the BFI Southbank and the ending has stayed with me ever since.So I think that you could say that it is fairly memorable.This was one of a number of rather exotic films that came out after the end of the war.All that repressed emotion no doubt.

Nancy Price, Mary Clare, and Mary Merrall Star

[drednm · 17 June 2012]

Gothic tale of a dying Welsh mining town and the three old ladies who oversee it. Each old lady is afflicted: one is blind, one deaf, and one arthritic.

After the town collapses into the coal mine, the old ladies vow to rebuild the town but don't have the money. So they summon their younger brother (Raymond Lovell) from London to come help them and the town. But as he drives into town with his secretary (Nova Pilbeam), someone throws and rock and hits him in the head. At the decaying mansion of his sisters, a doctor (Anthony Hulme) is summoned.

But something else is wrong. The brother seems to be ill, and his secretary tries to get information from the doctor, but he seems oddly distant. As the secretary tries to warn the doctor about the sisters' odd behavior, he bristles and tells of how the old ladies put him through medical school.

Stranded in the old mansion, the brother again confronts the sisters about money and finally declares he will change his will rather than leave money to the old ladies to waste on a dying town. This seems odd since they are all about 20 years his senior.

Odd things keep happening, but when the lawyer shows up to draw up a new will, things come to a head when the doctor realizes that the secretary may be in danger since she is the new beneficiary.

The three old ladies are remarkable and are all noted British character actresses. Nancy Price plays Gertrude, the blind one (she also co-scripted the film); Mary Clare plays Maude, the deaf one; and Mary Merrall plays Isobel, the arthritic one.

Co-stars include Marie Ault as the housekeeper, Elwyn Brook-Jones as her son, and Hugh Griffith as the town troublemaker.

Nova Pilbeam, best known for her 30s films with Alfred Hitchcock, retired from the screen after the release of this film and THE DEVIL'S PLOT in 1948. She was 29 years old.

The Fall Of The House Of Morgan-Vaughn

[boblipton · 6/10 · 21 July 2021]

Director Daniel Birt offers a creepy little tale, as Ramond Lovell -- in a fine and nuanced performance -- returns to the crumbling Welsh mining town where his sisters have made some big promises. Although he has supported them in the past, this is too much. He says no, and then falls mysteriously ill. The local doctor doesn't draw any connection at first, but Lovell does, and his loyal secretary, Nova Pilbeam, tries to get him out of the house, always thwarted.

Nancy Price, Mary Merral, and Mary Clare are judgmental and creepy as the handicapped sisters, and there are nice performances from Marie Ault and Hugh Griffith. I can see this being made into a very interesting "Old Dark House" comedy thriller, but that's not the way it's pitched.

Miss Pilbeam made only one more movie after this. She continued to act on the stage for another couple of years, then retired after her second marriage. She died in 2015, aged 95.

How Vile Was My Valley

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 18 August 2017]

'The Three Weird Sisters' was the feature film debut of director Daniel Birt, adapted by Louise Birt and Dylan Thomas from the novel 'The Case of the Three Weird Sisters' (1943) by Charlotte Armstrong. A barnstorming piece of Grand Guignol set in South Wales which meets 'The Old Dark House' going one way and 'The Addams Family' the other; it was a typically bold offering from Louis H. Jackson's ill-fated British National Pictures, which went into receivership the same year this film was released.

Madness runs in some families, in the Morgan-Vaughan's it practically gallops. The attitude to physical disability displayed here would be considered well beyond the pale today, with the three sisters described as "blind, deaf and warped". Nancy Price (who is here blind, and four years later played a wise deaf woman in 'Mandy'), Mary Clare and Mary Merrall are a blast as the unholy three; especially Clare as deaf Maude, who unnervingly is the only one who's always smiling. The rest of the cast all pitch in enthusiastically, the one outsider to the valleys being the lovely but agitated-looking Nova Pilbeam in one of her last films.

When a name as celebrated as Thomas's is associated with a project it's always tempting to attribute all its qualities to him, but both the crazy mood and the ripe, fruity dialogue certainly seem to have his finger prints all over them. You won't forget this in a hurry...!

Oddball post-War slice of Welsh Gothic.

[noir guy · 4/10 · 14 January 2002]

Co-scripted by Dylan Thomas, this tale of three ageing and infirm, although philanthropically inclined, spinster sisters presiding over a crumbling mansion in 1930s South Wales is an oddball post-War slice of Welsh Gothic. In their hermetically sealed universe, the sisters' otherworldly formalism is threatened, firstly, by a landslip caused by the family mine which destroys part of their small village at the outset and, secondly, by the return of their wealthy and apparently hard-hearted pragmatist brother and his primly efficient secretary, whose modernity further unravels the web of antiquity which has preserved their world. The narrative clunkiness is swiftly apparent from the somewhat obvious symbolism of the structural cracks and fissures which fracture the sisters' home at the beginning of the movie, and the stateliness of the family's surroundings is matched by similarly ossified pacing; Dylan Thomas' occasionally poetically barbed and witty insights notwithstanding. It's not just the old dark house that creaks here; even a nick of time climax does little to shore up the cracks of this crumbling edifice.

A boorish bully of a rich industrialist at the mercy of three weird sisters who need his money

[clanciai · 8/10 · 12 July 2018]

This appears like a black comedy, but it is actually a masked tragedy. The male protagonist, the sickly David Davies, who instantly gets bedridden and stays so as soon as he gets into the weird old house of his three sisters, should have been played by Charles Laughton, as the character is very much in his line. The three sisters are extreme characters all three of them, one deaf, one blind and the third one oversensitive to anything, which is a weird company indeed. Their brother instantly believes they are going to kill him, and they would indeed be motivated.

The actual story is, that the derelict small mining town is hit by an earthquake demolishing many houses, and the three sisters as guardian angels and benefactors of the town promise to sponsor their restoration. The problem is they can't afford it, while their brother is a rich industrial baron, so they summon him to help them. He has no intention of doing so and thus leave his three sisters in an awkward position, which they can't accept.

He has a secretary, Nova Pilbeam, who is his ony support in the gradually more serious intrigues conducted against him, and she is always lovely to look at. The film peters out in a genetral derailing of the intrigue, and the end is not satisfactory. You would have wished the three weird sisters to go on undisturbed. The main asset and attraction of the film is that parts of the script were written by Dylan Thomas, which makes the dialogue at times extremely relishable.

Gothic drama set in post WW2 England tries too hard to me more than what it is and ends up seeming a bit too snobbish

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 6 February 2007]

When a mine collapses destroying the homes built on top of it, the three sisters of the the family that owned the mine promise to rebuild the homes. This doesn't sit well with their brother who now lives in the city and is the real source of money for the family. Returning home in order to straighten out the situation, he soon finds that all is not well in the old homestead, and his life is in grave danger.

A post war-Gothic tale with a great deal on its mind this is a movie that never really works. Graced with a script that was written in part by Dylan Thomas the dialog is often very literate in a way that real people never talk. The writing does provide for some very wicked exchanges between the characters but it never really comes to life. Some of the miners are just a bit too poetic about the tragedy that has befallen their small town.

Thematically the film is about the clash of the old and the stayed with the new and the modern. I mention this because the film seems much more interested in ideas than it is in any real action. We have the three sisters who never left home and want to rebuild things the way they were battling their brother and his secretary who have come from the outside and want live in the present and deal with the situation as it is. Its a battle that forms the basis, in one way or another, for almost every scene often to the detriment of the drama. Everything seems to be arranged to have some deep meaning from the aliments of the sisters to the crumbling nature of the manor house. I wasn't watching a movie so much as a dramatized argument for the modern; there aren't people on the screen rather they are ideas.

I applaud the filmmakers for wanting to make a movie that is more than a Gothic drama, but they went the wrong way and forgot the drama. Honestly this is a tough movie to get through, its 80 minutes long and feels like twice that in the lecture hall. As good as the basic plot line is the execution makes this a film I doubt I'll ever watch again.

Worth a shot if you don't mind seeing a literate drama that tries too hard and just misses being something special

Welsh gothic tale of decaying family

[thomandybish · 8 May 2001]

This film, whose screenplay was written by poet Dylan Thomas, concerns a lawyer and his young secretary who travel to the Welsh ancestral home of their client to alter his will. Seems the man is the youngest child and only male heir of a once pround family who controlled the local coal mine. The home is presided over by the man's three older sisters, each with a distinctive affliction: one is blind, one is virtually deaf, the other has painful arthritis that has molded her hands into claws. A series of bizarre events begin to occur, particularly to the man and the lawyer's secretary, that ultimately ends in a cataclysmic finale!

What we have here is an old set of standards giving way to a new mindset and, to quote the poet himself, the old ways(or sisters)"do not go gentle into that good night"! These three women drift phantom-like through their gloomy mansion, exhibiting the kind of arcane Victorian propriety and claustrophobic narrowness only an isolated life in a wealthy, rarefied setting can bring. Their brother left the house and community to go to school and work, so he doesn't share their outlook. His reappearance, along with that of the free-thinking secretary, challenges the women's way of thinking. The sense of decay shown by the three sisters is heightened by the fact that the mine which has supported them is almost exhausted and, in fact, threatens the town above it by dent of the fact that the tunnels and caverns are dangerously near to collapse. A great sense of gloom and gothic atmosphere prevades the interior shots in the house. Interesting.

An early venture into the psycho-biddy genre.

[ansell-72879 · 8/10 · 30 October 2020]

A film worth watching and owning. Three elderly sisters try to manipulate their wealthy brother into underwriting the repair bill for both their house (mansion) and their Welsh village both damaged after a mine collapse. Set in Wales it has the Welsh imprimatur of Dylan Thomas as script co-writer.

It was directors Daniel Birt's first outing as a director and actress Nova Pilbream, the put upon secretary's, swan-song though she did a little stage work after the films completion. (Her life story would make a fascinating up-to-date biography if anyone had the time and skill.)

The film, though not exactly horror is gothic, and is essentially about murder. It's sinister leanings see it falling into the sub-genre of psycho-biddy of hagsploitation a le Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The films three Morgan-Vaughan sisters are far more refined than their American counterparts; one reviewer described them, and the movie, as 'posh'. I guess compared to what was happening across the pond The Three Weird Sisters was 'posh'. Little in the way of histrionics, that deliberately cultivated BBC voice without which securing work in the UK was impossible and a gentler more controlled tone all contribute to an elegance absent from say What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.

The Sisters , released in 1948, pre-date the advent of the American psycho-biddy genre by a decade or two. Even so the defining trope, a formerly alluring older woman, three in this case, becomes mentally unstable and threatens those around her/them is immediately evident in the The Sisters.

This films real significance is it's place in cinematic history. It is never mentioned in scholarly discussions of the psycho-biddy genre and should be. It is no stretch at all see it stand comfortably alongside Lady in a Cage or Straight Jacket despite its British reserve.

Usher : Bye, Baby

[writers_reign · 4/10 · 21 June 2009]

!948 might have been a tad too late for this Poe-faced Gothic outing just as the poetry masquerading as dialogue and penned by Dylan Thomas was a tad out of keeping with realistic speech. Thomas tips his symbolic glove in an early scene when a collapsing mine triggers falling plaster and cracks in the walls of the 'big house' in the mining village, which is home to the eponymous sisters, who pledge to rebuild the homes in the mining village destroyed by the collapse. They make this pledge despite not having change of a match but (so they think) secure in the knowledge that their half brother (Raymond Lovell), who long ago left the village and became a successful businessman, will underwrite the repairs. Lovell decides to mark their card and journeys to Wales with his secretary, Nova Pilbeam, and anticipates Ann Robinson by a good 50 years with the question, 'is this hell, or Wales'. Once ensconced in the house he begins to resemble Bob Hope in The Cat And The Canary with the three sisters blending into Gale Sondergaard. I can't think of a single reason why you would want to watch this but then what do I know.

With a family like this, I'd rather be an orphan!

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 20 June 2018]

Wealthy Raymond Lovell is the product of the second marriage of a wealthy man and his cook, unfortunately the half sibling of the vindictive survivors of his father's first marriage. When a mine cave-in in their Welsh community has them wanting to help the families of the survivors, they contact Lovell who decides (reluctantly) to come out with his secretary (Nova Philbeam) to investigate their claim and most likely turn them down. What he finds is the trio of bible spouting spinsters determined to get their hands on his money any way they can, even though he's made it clear he's bequesting the majority of it to the loyal Philbeam. Not getting what they want makes these already looney ladies all the more a little nutty in the Macadamia Manor they live in, and through schemes like poisoned wine, a falling grandfather clock and a road that isn't really a road, it appears that neither Philbeam or Lovell will live to see a return to their happy London office space.

The three sisters are Nancy Price, Mary Clare and Mary Merrall, maybe unknown names and faces to American audiences, but very theatrical in nature, as if being played by Judith Anderson, Gale Sondergaard and Margaret Hamilton with the direction of Tod Browning. But that's not the case here. This is very British, and delightfully gothic style melodrama, set in a decaying house that makes both Wuthering Heights and Manderlay seem like Tara. The oldest sister reminds me of Mary Morris's vindictive spinster matriarch in the Broadway melodrama "Double Door", made into a 1934 movie where Morris had a large safe room ready to lock anybody in (alive, and with no air) whom she feel betrayed her. The others are supposedly deaf or blind, but equally capable of the nefarious actions of their older sisters. No cute elderberry wine makers are these old ladies, closer to the three witches from Shakespeare's "Scottish Play".

Also present for the melodrama is a handsome doctor (Anthony Hulme) who appears to be manipulated by the sisters, their cold-hearted cook and her mentally deranged son who is first seen flinging a rock at the window of Lovell's car. The mood is straight out of Nathaniel Hawthorne or Edgar Allan Poe, and the suspense builds up right to a conclusion that may have you clapping after 90 minutes of hissing at these three descendants of the Stygian witches. Everybody is excellent, with Philbeam delightfully bold as she stands up to each of the sisters every time they either insult her, make an accusation, or roll their hands together as they spout a threat. Lovell makes it clear that as a businessman, he is very strong willed and domineering, but as the youngest brother of the three women, it is obvious that he fears them, and for good reason. Each of the sisters has their own personality, so it's not as if they were playing the same person. Quite outstanding in almost every way, this is a must see for fans of gothic melodrama and horror films where the monsters are quite human.