Kind Lady (1951) User Reviews

Edwardian Home Invasion

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 24 August 2009]

In the last period of her life when the First Lady of the Theater decided to join her brothers finally in Hollywood, Kind Lady was the only time Ethel Barrymore played the lead role. Parts were not readily available then and now for 72 year old leads. In addition Ethel's health was not the best. Margot Peters study of the Barrymore clan says that Ethel was not in the best of shape during the making of Kind Lady and production was halted a few times before it was completed. She was never again asked to carry a film, henceforth her parts would be supporting ones.

Her regal theatrical training stood her in good stead for the part of a genteel Edwardian widow who lives comfortably, but not ostentatiously in London at the turn of the last century. Still she's got some valuable paintings and antiques which arouse the interest of Maurice Evans.

Evans plays a ne'er do well artist who insinuates himself together with his gang in her home. They take the place of her real home staff and proceed to gradually strip the place and terrorize the old woman. Probably Ethel's real life frailties stood her in good stead in playing the part.

As for Evans he's one crafty villain, the rest of his gang consist of Keenan Wynn, Angela Lansbury, and Betsy Blair. This was Evans American screen debut. During his career Maurice Evans did not do much big screen work, preferring the stage and small screen. A lot of people consider his the best MacBeth ever done. But film audiences remember him best as Dr. Zaius in two Planet of the Apes films and television audiences know him as Samantha's father in Bewitched.

Evans and Barrymore are a well matched duo of classically trained stage performers who knew what to do in film as well. Kind Lady is well worth a look.

Creepy and full of suspense

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 13 July 2006]

At the outset, I must point out that this movie is very similar to the later movie, THE SERVANT, starring Dirk Bogarde. Both concern a person bringing someone into their homes who turns out to be an evil sociopath who threatens and dominates and exploits the master of the house.

In this film, sweet old Ethel Barrymore lives alone in a big house. She meets a struggling artist (Maurice Evens) and naively offers to let him stay with her until he becomes an established artist. However, over time, it becomes more and more obvious that Evans is much more interested in Barrymore's fortune and invites in a group of "caretakers" to lock away the old lady as they loot her estate.

The acting is superb and the movie is genuinely scary and well made. A wonderful old film that is rarely seen today.

Most Chilling Film I've Ever Seen

[zesty-4 · 5 March 1999]

I saw this black-and-white chiller on tv when I was a boy, some 35 years ago. Yet I recall scenes from it as though I saw it only last week. Imagine a group of seemingly well-bred people, patrons of the arts, befriending you--but then locking you in your house as they move in, and then hearing them tell visitors that you are delusional and being cared for by them. The scene in which the elderly victim is continually taunted while being forced to pose for the painting of her portrait--a rendering that, when completed, is seen to have grotesquely distorted her likeness to resemble that of a haggard, insane woman--is particularly spine-chilling. Without exaggeration, this is a gripping drama whose suspense few (if indeed any) can match. I only hope that someday it appears on video, so that I can purchase it for my library.

Suspenseful, but awfully unpleasant...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 19 October 2006]

Anyone who remembers Maurice Evans' kindly turn as Mia Farrow's friend in "Rosemary's Baby" may be shocked to find him so convincingly evil in this gripping melodrama. Ethel Barrymore plays a sharp, sensible woman who gets taken in by a con-man; he moves into her house and she quickly becomes his prisoner. The plot is infuriating (we in the audience feel like prisoners, too) and the inevitable turning-the-tables ploy seems to take forever to arrive. Still, Barrymore's plight is played to the urgent hilt, and Evans (along with his brutish cohorts, Keenan Wynn and Angela Lansbury) is downright despicable. The handling of this story, previously filmed in 1936 with Aline MacMahon, twists all the right screws with grueling accuracy, but calculated pictures like this may turn off many viewers before the final act. Ultimately, too many plot entanglements are left ignored and some crucial moments take place off-screen. Strictly as a masochistic thriller, however, the film is queasy and indeed suspenseful. **1/2 from ****

...and the Girl Ran Off with the Cat

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 6 August 2010]

Fragile, wealthy, and elderly Ethel Barrymore (as Mary Herries) invites struggling artist Maurice Evans (as Henry Springer Elcott) into her home. A London art collector filled with Christian charity, Ms. Barrymore wants to help Mr. Evans' sickly wife Betsy Blair (as Ada Elcott) recover from a fainting spell. But, the couple turn out to be con artists. Soon, her house-guest has taken over, getting rid of the servants and binding Barrymore in her bed. Moreover, Evans has crooked Keenan Wynn (as Edwards) and shifty wife Angela Lansbury move in as maid and butler, while he pretends to be Barrymore's nephew.

They sell Barrymore's valuables and tell inquisitors the "Kind Lady" has suddenly become delusional.

This re-make of the 1935 stage play and subsequent film is delightfully well-cast, features fine production values, and good direction from John Sturges with cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg. But, not much done to improve the adaptation. Characters and situations come and go with little or no explanation - some even have no point in being part of the story at all. For example, something sinister could have been done with the cat - or, at least hinted at - and the naughty child "Aggie" (played by Barbara Shields) disappears after quite an entertaining introduction. It's certainly worth watching, but a bit frustrating.

****** Kind Lady (6/20/51) John Sturges ~ Ethel Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Angela Lansbury, Keenan Wynn

half Parasite

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 14 September 2020]

Rich art collector Mary Herries (Ethel Barrymore) finds artist vet Henry Abbott (Maurice Evans) drawing on her doorstep. She kindly takes him inside. He and his family work to insinuate into her life. Her kindness is turned against her.

This is the first half of Parasite. There are unlikely turns in the story. They would never let her downstairs and allow her to talk to the French art expert or the banker. I think killing Rose is a mistake. Once they kill one person, it doesn't matter if they kill more people. It would be more tense and with more potential of escape if Rose is simply kept captive. This is a good descend and a bumpy ride to the finish.

Wonderfully done ..........

[Marie-7 · 9/10 · 15 August 2000]

Understated acting makes this production a gem. In the present world movie making is so slipshod as far as plots are concerned; however, I highly recommend this movie - the 1951 version - to anyone who loves old movies. Isn't Ethel Barrymore wonderful? and Maurice Evans is scary. Did anyone pick up on the fact that Rose's sister, Mrs. Harkley, is actually Angela Lansbury's mother, Moyna MacGill? I heartily recommend this wonderful movie.

Using fake culture to take advantage of a little old lady.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 17 December 2014]

Ethel Barrymore's whole suburban world is turned upside down by the sudden knock at the door by the curious Maurice Evans who inquires as to the origins of her ornate door knocker. She politely answers his questions, impressed with his knowledge of art, and soon, he is across the street in the park painting her flat. She kindly invites him in for conversation, but he's actually rather insulting to her, even going as far as to steal from her. But she's forgiving, and when he follows her into a bookstore to return the stolen item, she gullibly falls prey to his next scheme which involves his frail wife (Betsy Blair) and cockney friends (Keenan Wynn and Angela Lansbury) who show up and basically take over. There's really nothing Barrymore can do, and she ends up being trapped in terror in her own bedroom as the nefarious villains begin to sell her belongings.

On the surface, Barrymore's not quite totally sweet old lady seems more stupid than simply just kind. She's actually quite emotionless, showing no real fear other than annoyance. However, like any great thespian, Barrymore speaks more with her eyes than words, especially when she's standing over the banister in her own home and witnesses a scene between Evans and her loyal housekeeper (Doris Lloyd) that expresses a thousand thoughts. Lansbury is basically playing an older version of her character in "Gaslight", and it certainly would be interesting at this point in her career to see her playing the Barrymore part. Wynn, one of the great character actors of the golden age of cinema, was adept at parts either comical or sinister, and here, he does the later brilliantly. Lloyd also deserves kudos for showing her character's fear after coming off as quite tough when the situation first began to develop. Blair's fragility reminds me of the great character actresses Judith Evelyn and Edith Barrett, women who often played those afraid of their own shadows.

The Victorian age setting is brilliantly crafted at the hands of director John Sturges who doesn't put on any pretensions while creating a dark atmosphere which dominated most of his films. Previously made 15 years earlier with a younger actress playing the Barrymore part (Aline MacMahon), "Kind Lady" is the type of predictable "gaslight" thriller that dominated the stage (sort of like "Night Must Fall") and takes great pains in exposing sociopaths for the demented minds that are covered up by alleged sophistication and phony manners.

Kind Lady Was Duped into Great Thriller ***1/2

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 22 July 2006]

Maurice Evans has a field day as a supposed artist who tricks his way into the home of dowager Ethel Barrymore and then with the aid of Keenan Wynn and Angela Lansbury, hold her hostage in her own home. They try to make others believe that Barrymore has gone insane and proceed to sell her belongings along with the house.

George Sanders would have had great fun in the Evans part but the latter is convincing as the vicious con artist. Betsy Blair is appealing in the small role of his disturbed wife. Wynn and Lansbury have what it take as the evil co-conspirators.

The trio almost pull it off but we know that they will not. Utterly engaging and exciting.

Original early thriller by John Sturges, starring Ethel Barrymore in a late role.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 12 February 2008]

The movie begins like a very typical Victorian-like costume movie, with real ladies and gentlemen but soon the movie makes a thriller turn, which makes the movie as a whole a surprising and fine contrasting one. It has a real good thriller story, that above all is also really original and everything gets uplifted all by its settings and time-period it is set in.

Even though this movie was from 1951, the movie certainly looks and feels like a '30's/'40's movie. It's in black & white, has Victorian settings and has '30's/'40's big time movie star Ethel Barrymore in it. The style of film-making and the way things are set up are also done in an old fashioned, as the overall visual style and atmosphere of the movie. Basically the only thing that gives away that this is a '50's movie is that Angela Lansbury is in it as well.

It's an early thriller that works mostly out because of its original as well as intriguing story about a 'poor' man and his wife and baby who are kindly given shelter by an elderly lady. Only thing is, he doesn't want to go away and soon start taking over the household and takes the command, especially when some of his 'friends' show up as well, without giving much more away of it all. The story makes this movie a sort of an 'unpleasant' one to watch. of course in a positive and effective way. It provides the movie with a constant certain tension and not knowing what will happen next.

But lets not overpraise this movie too much, fore it's definitely not the best or most perfect movie within its genre. The story and directions it is heading in are at times a bit too simple for that and also the restrained settings prevent this from being a true genre classic. It's a good and original early movie within its genre and it deserves to be known better but not really a movie you must see before you die or anything.

The movie is directed by John Sturges. The man best known for directing movies such as "The Magnificent Seven", "The Great Escape" and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral". So he's not really a man that is widely known for his thriller making expertise and it sort of makes it a shame after watching this movie that he didn't made any more thrillers in his career, since he obviously had the right talent and skills for it.

The movie features Ethel Barrymore in a rather late role of hers. She is best known for her roles in '30's and '40's movies, as is she known for being the sister of John and Lionel Barrymore. Sort of funny that she once more plays a character in this movie who is mostly sitting on a chair and lying in a bed, as she also used to do in many other previous roles of her. But she plays a good role in this movie, even though I just never have been the biggest fan of her. Maurice Evans also plays a good early typical thriller villain with a brain. It was also nice to see a still quite young Angela Lansbury in this movie. Never thought I would see Angela Lansbury and Ethel Barrymore in one and the same movie together! It's a kind of a surreal image.

Definitely a movie that deserves to be better known and seen by more!

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Blind Lady

[BumpyRide · 8/10 · 18 January 2007]

"Kind Lady" is a disturbing, little film that doesn't seem to be very well known. Ethel Barrymore (did she ever give a bad performance?) of course plays the kind, rich art patron who is generous with her wealth. She lives in a lavish, antique infested house where famous paintings adorn the walls like wallpaper. Being duped by a con-man, he and his posse, slowly weave themselves into the kind lady's life until suddenly, (after it's too late of course) she realizes what is going on but by then, she has become their prisoner. Slowly and deliberately, the start selling off her beautiful antiques and paintings for personal gain, while telling her caller's that she is ill and mentally unstable. Reminiscent of "Gaslight," you quickly relate to Mary and her plight. Of course there are the heart pounding attempts when she tries to get away, only to be caught. A well made movie that deserves to be more popular than it is.

The rare remake that is better than its original, features Ethel Barrymore in the title role

[jacobs-greenwood · 7/10 · 8 December 2016]

Directed by John Sturges, this unassuming thriller stars Ethel Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Angela Lansbury, Keenan Wynn, Betsy Blair, John Williams and Doris Lloyd. Edward Chodorov wrote the original play (from a Hugh Walpole story), and the screenplay with Charles Bennett and Jerry Davis.

It's Christmas-time and Mary Herries (Barrymore) asks her live-in maid Rose (Lloyd) to give the carolers some money. Mr. Foster (Williams), the bank's new representative, has some business to attend to with Mrs. Herries. After it's concluded, she gives him a gift to pass along to the former representative and asks what he would like for Christmas. He declines but she insists that it will be a book. Another gentleman knocks on the door and asks Rose about the door knocker. She summons Mrs. Herries who confirms that the knocker was made by an Italian artist. She asks how he knew and he replies that he's an artist too.

The next day, Mrs. Herries notices the artist in the park across the street. She walks to him and notices that he's painting her home's facade. She comments that his work is satisfactory and asks to see some of his paintings. After she returns home, the artist introduces himself as Henry Elcott (Evans); he has brought three of his paintings, which he to show her while noticing her wonderful furnishings and a fancy cigarette case. When she turns to ring for Rose, he pockets the case and then rushes out, leaving his paintings behind. Mrs. Herries notices the case's missing.

Later at a bookstore, Elcott returns Mrs. Herries's cigarette case, apologizes for taken it saying that he pawned it but, after selling a painting, was able to return it. Being the forgiving woman that she is, Mrs. Herries then goes to Elcott's squalid apartment where she learns that he paints while another woman takes care of their infant and his wife works. Mrs. Herries thinks this is a despicable, tells him so and leaves. Later Elcott receives 25 pounds from Mrs. Herries; he shows it to his wife Ada (Blair) as proof of his painting's value.

Elcott shows up at Mrs. Herries home again, toting a painting of his wife, whom he says is with their child across the street. When he points them out, Ada stands and faints. They all rush to Ada, then carry her and the baby inside. A doctor enters the home and diagnoses that Ada has pneumonia and shouldn't be moved. Mrs. Herries tells Elcott to take Ada to the bedroom upstairs. After another visit from the doctor, Mrs. Herries is told that Ada's recovery might take a couple of weeks; Elcott then escorts the doctor out.

After a few days, the cook quits telling Rose that she should too. She can't stand Elcott, who's become a bossy resident with his wife. Mrs. Herries is visited by her niece Lucy, who notes that Elcott is painting her aunt's picture for her hospitality. After she leaves, Ada's 'family' the Edwards arrive - Mr. (Wynn) and Mrs. Edwards (Lansbury), and their ill-behaved daughter - with bags in hand! Rose reports this, and the cook's departure, to Mrs. Herries who has finally figured things out. She tells Rose to call a nursing home to send an ambulance to come get Ada, and not to be frightened. Elcott enters to introduce the Edwards family and finds that she's wise to the situation. However, it's too late: Mrs. Edwards secures Mrs. Herries in a sitting position on her bed while Edwards catches Rose calling the nursing home. Mrs. Edwards cancels the call, and the takeover is complete.

Behind a cover story that Mrs. Herries is losing her mind, Elcott satisfies the local constables that she must be moved to the country. This makes the selling of her home's antiques acceptable and accounts for any screaming that might be heard. Rose has been locked in her quarters. Edwards becomes the butler while his wife replaces the cook. Eventually, Ada assists too. But Mrs. Herries refuses to sign a power of attorney for Elcott. In order to make Mrs. Herries realize the hopelessness of her predicament, Elcott invites an art dealer to visit her and price her paintings. She slips him a note but he returns it to Elcott on his way out (he'd been told she was crazy). When Rose's family shows up, Elcott is quick to invent a story that she'd left with a married man, and pays them Rose's back wages to seal the deal. Mr. Foster, asked to secure a buyer for the home, is the only one who has any doubts.

To escape her predicament, Mrs. Herries begins to work on Ada. She then pays Mrs. Edwards 200 pounds for the key to Rose's room. Edwards is upset that his wife wants to leave the setup. Meanwhile, Mr. Foster communicates his doubts to his boss, but his superior is reluctant to accept them. Ada is convinced to unlock Rose's door, but she is caught escaping and is killed by Edwards. When Mr. Foster calls to request a meeting, Elcott realizes his gig is about up and instructs Edwards to eliminate the old lady. Edwards finds her positioned in her wheelchair in front of an open window, rushes into the room, and pushes her out the window. Mr. Foster and the constables rush to the scene while Edwards rushes downstairs to join his wife and Elcott. Suddenly, the living room doors are thrust open by Mrs. Herries, who has Ada behind her. It was Rose's dead body that was pushed out the window. Mrs. Herries opens the door to allow Mr. Foster and the constables to enter and arrest the guilty.

Stale shocker

[roslein-674-874556 · 5/10 · 13 October 2022]

Kind Lady was shocking and quite unusual in its time, but in today's climate of violence and crime it is very bland and unsatisfactory. With three nasty adults taking advantage of one elderly spinster, the story is very nasty and sadistic. On the other hand, if it's terror you want, you won't get it from the doughty, super-dignified Ethel Barrymore (who, oddly is so naive that she is taken in by the leader of the crooks for some time and then allows a really creepy couple into her home).

Suspense can only be created if the menaced character is desperate and terrified, and that doesn't happen here. Indeed, we keep wondering why the old lady isn't more ingenious or forceful in trying to escape or to let others know of her plight--after all, she must know many people in the neighbourhood. But we get the impression that Barrymore is too great a lady to do anything as undignified as fight for her life.

The whole thing is such an unsavoury story that it could have been concocted as a cautionary tale by Republicans or Tories--look what happens when you try to help the poor! Especially artists! You want to keep well away from THEM!

Civilized Evil

[dougdoepke · 4 July 2011]

A kindly old dowager takes a penniless artist into her lavish household, only to find out he's got his own plans.

For a filmed stage play, the movie surprisingly never drags. That's a tribute to a tight screenplay and excellent staging. For example, catch how director Sturges in the first confrontation scene positions the four intruders in the foreground so they appear now to loom over the exasperated old lady (Barrymore), symbolizing their gradual reversal of authority. Then too, Sturges has basically only a single set to dramatize with, a real staging challenge.

However, the movie really belongs to the mild-looking Evans (Elcott) who manages an effortless study in civilized evil. His manipulations are so understated that his malignant nature sort of creeps up on you. It's one of the slyer incarnations in the history of bad guys. And get a load of the Edwards family, with the shrill Lansbury, the hulking Wynn, and the bratty Aggie. They're household help from heck, and we know Barrymore's in big trouble when this British version of The Beverly Hillbillies walk in the door.

Anyway, the tension stays on high as we feel trapped along with the kind lady. All in all, the movie's a minor gem of claustrophobic suspense.

HIS KIND OF WOMAN

[mmthos · 6/10 · 16 October 2020]

Somewhat creaky suspenser in which a wealthy and kind lady (Ethel Barrymore) is grifted by a con artist (Maurice Evans) and his gang of no-goodniks (Angela Lansbury and Keenan Wynn) and winds up a slave in her own bed, forced to do their bidding.

Maurice Evans is cold, calculating, diabolical and obviously VERY sick. Lansbury fairly reprises her performance from "Dorian Gray". Wynn is the bloody-minded company enforcer, with a tendency to want to go off and transform to a killing beast,.

Barrymore is the sweetest old lady possible to be set upon by this pack of jackals. The crooks have nearly milked her dry, managing to trick everyone she knows along the way, till they attempt to sell her mansion on a fashionable London square. It's then that her trusted banker of all these many years smells a rat, and, well, you know the rest

an adequate pastime

Not credible

[HEFILM · 6/10 · 9 August 2016]

With Barrymore seemingly so sure of herself it just isn't convincing that she crumbles so quickly under the genteel home invaders. The set up is quite good but once they supposedly have her under their control there are too many ways she could escape, and yet never does, that it loses reality. There are also too many characters who have to vanish, like the young daughter and even a baby, in order for the plot to work.

Evans is good but the stand out is Wynn--very convincing as a heavy and as a Brit. Good score, and carefully placed as well--though the otherwise good print shown on TCM has a distracting warble to the soundtrack that distorts the music.

Sturges direction is slick, but he's no Hitchcock. One off camera death is nicely done and the film keeps moving despite limited locations it doesn't feel dull, nor does it bristle with excitement.

But the unbalanced script can't convince us the jeopardy is real despite good acting all around. Perhaps the original play worked better.

Barrymore Carries this Production Reminiscent of 50s Television

[tr-83495 · 7/10 · 1 May 2019]

Turn on any drama series or anthology during the 1950s -- and there were many -- and this is exactly what you would find. The actors were just as good and the plots came from writers who wrote for both industries.

Later in the 50s, the Twilight Zone series could be riveting, and if children were left to watch it unattended, the results could be many years of nightmares, the drama was so realistic. With films like this television and movies reached parity and created the first crisis movie studios would have to face.

Tense "B" Movie

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 24 October 2013]

The stage play opened at the Booth on 23 April 1935 and ran a successful 99 performances. Grace George played the spinster and Henry Daniell the sinister fortune-hunter. H.C. Potter directed. M-G-M acquired the rights and made the first film version in 1935 with Aline MacMahon and Basil Rathbone. This second version was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design in black-and-white, losing to Edith Head's "A Place in the Sun".

Although produced on a "B" budget, this is a solidly engrossing movie thanks to a charismatically sympathetic performance by Ethel Barrymore and solid support from the likes of Betsy Blair, Angela Lansbury and Keenan Wynn. As the instigator of the sting, Maurice Evans has been taken to task for being a little too gentlemanly in his approach, but that that surely is a virtue rather than a fault. We, the audience, join Ethel Barrymore's ultra-sympathetic Mary Herries as innocent victims of his surprising duplicity. Assisted by Joseph Ruttenberg's superlatively moody photography, director John Sturges conjures up a tingling atmosphere throughout with a sure hand, extracting every bit of tension from a script that gradually turns the screws and adroitly piles suspense on suspense right up to the unnerving fade-out.

absorbing and suspenseful

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 6 August 2010]

Ethel Barrymore is the "Kind Lady" in this 1951 MGM suspenser, also starring Maurice Evans, Keenan Wynn, Angela Lansbury, and John Williams. Barrymore plays an elderly woman who falls for a con man's (Evans) ruse of a sick wife living in a cold flat with a baby and invites them to stay in her home. House servants (Lansbury and Wynn) who are actually his cohorts soon move in, and the lady is made a prisoner in her home as it is stripped of furnishings and art work.

A marvelous cast is directed by John Sturges in this neat, absorbing drama. Maurice Evans is excellent as a cold beast of a man; Angela Lansbury is Nancy of "Gaslight" grown older - cheap and cunning; Keenan Wynn is okay, but he doesn't seem very British. John Williams, as an insurance man, is very good as always in a familiar role for him.

At 72, Ethel Barrymore plays a strong and determined woman, nobody's fool, who is nevertheless compassionate and generous. It's a wonderful performance - she appears both tough and alternately frail in different parts of the film.

The set looked an awful lot like "Gaslight." The woman Mrs. Harkey (Moyna McGill) who comes looking for the maid Rose was Angela Lansbury's real-life mother. Talented ladies both.

Loved it.

Ethel Barrymore gave a Fantastic Performance !

[whpratt1 · 10/10 · 18 October 2003]

Ethel Barrymore, ("The Spiral Staircase"'46), gave one of her greatest performances as an old lady captured in her home with all her favorites treasures along with other film greats like:- Maurice Evans,("Beneath the Planet of the Apes"'s '70, Angela Lansbury,(Mrs. Edwards) "Murder She Wrote",'03 and Keenan Wynn, son of Ed Wynn the veteran comedian of the '30's and 40's. Every film that Ethel Barrymore ever appeared in was a great success because of her great family of actors, John, Lionel and presently Drew.

Gorgeous Edwardian Gothic stuff

[jandesimpson · 12 September 2003]

I realise that my passion for the Golden Age of Hollywood - the mid '30s to the mid '60s - has little to do with such popular genres as Westerns, Musicals and Film Noir; rather is it the Romantic cinema I adore. In the hands of a master director such as William Wyler the genre achieved greatness ( "Carrie", "The Heiress", "Wuthering Heights" and "The Best Years Of Our Lives"). Even works that are little more than good yarns ("Gone With The Wind", "All This And Heaven Too" and "Kings Row") leave me speechless with admiration for their sheer craftsmanship and style. I have to confess to swallowing with considerable pleasure what may be regarded as a by-product of the genre, Hollywood Gothic melodrama, the more outlandish the better ("The Spiral Staircase", "Dragonwyck" or "Ladies in Retirement"). When the genre depicted Victorian or Edwardian London as it so often did I am apt to experience frissons of delight ("Gaslight", "Moss Rose" or "Hangover "Square"). I thought I knew them all until one of our TV channels came up with one I had never heard of, John Sturges's "Kind Lady" of 1951. What a discovery! The eponymous heroine is played by that most commanding of Hollywood matriarchs, Ethel Barrymore, she of the gravel voice and penetrating eyes. It was rare for her to play the tormented party but somehow you know from the beginning that here is a character with the inner strength to overcome the wiles of her tormentors. If the film has a weakness it lies in Maurice Evans's rather colourless arch-villain. Although I have not seen the earlier version of "Kind Lady" I can well imagine the Basil Rathbone who played the part could convey evil with more sinister aplomb. But everything else about the film is absolutely right. Hollywood seemed to have a particular obsession with plots where villains attempted to drive their victims insane or else present them as insane to the rest of the world. If George Cukor's "Gaslight" is probably the finest example "Kind Lady" runs it a close second. With Ethel Barrymore's fine performance and excellent support from Betsy Blair, an amazingly young Angela Lansbury and John Williams as the solicitor who is bound to come to the rescue, superbly accomplished photography from Joseph Ruttenberg who did marvels with "The Great Waltz" and "Mrs Miniver" and a wonderfully lyrical score by David Raksin, to my mind the finest of all the Hollywood in-house composers, what more can one ask. Unadulterated pleasure!

"corrupt, vicious and insane"

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 9/10 · 9 May 2019]

John Sturges directed this gem in 1951, before his great westerns and other classics. And in this first part of his career, he yet had a serious professional direction, often working with the best technicians, especiallly the director of photography, for example the master of expressionist black and white John Alton in "Mystery Street" and "People Against O'Hara". For "Kind Lady", John Sturges worked with Joseph Ruttenberg (compare their portraits), who always created a very precise cinematography, like John Alton. John Sturges must have learned a lot by working with these masters for his future classics. "Kind Lady" is the story of an old rich woman (wonderful Ethel Barrymore) hijacked by Maurice Evans (nearly as good as George Sanders) with help of Angela Lansbury, Betsy Blair and Keenan Wynn. The story and direction are fast-paced, the hijackers being faster and faster in their swindle. And I'll say it again, Ruttenberg's cinematography serves presicely all the details of this violent story shot in luxurious settings by William Ferrari and Cedric Gibbons. Music is by David Raksin. "Kind Lady" was already shot in 1935, both versions are available on a double bill dvd. Enjoy.

True creepiness!

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 8/10 · 1 March 2015]

I think this is one of the creepiest thrillers you will find from the 1940s-1950s. And why? Because it shows how fragile every day life can be when just one little occurrence can bring one's life tumbling down! While it is an excellent story, it's the cast that makes it shine. There was always something special about Ethel Barrymore in a film, and here she really shines! I won't say it's her best film role (that may be "Pinky"), but this is so very good. I was never very impressed with Maurice Evans; he probably thought more of himself than others thought of him, in terms of acting. But he does very nicely here as the villain...not overplaying it, which some actors might have done. This is not a very impressive role for Angela Lansbury, but she's good in it as another of the thieves. Likewise, Keenan Wynn does nicely as another thief, not overplaying the role at all, but just being slightly menacing. John Williams to the rescue! A venerable character actor who never disappoints. Doris Lloyd is pleasant as the servant.

This is a neat thriller, a bit chilling in an old-fashioned way, and worth the mere 77 minutes of screen time! It's a gem.

Excellent little-known thriller

[MOscarbradley · 8/10 · 14 June 2018]

The "Kind Lady" in question is Ethel Barrymore. She isn't so much kind as vain and very foolish, allowing thief, con-man and potential murderer Maurice Evans into her home. This began life as a short story by Hugh Walpole, before being adapted for the stage by Edward Chodorov and having been previously filmed in 1935 with Aline MacMahon and Basil Rathbone. This version was directed, (very well), by John Sturges in 1951 and as well as Barrymore and Evans the excellent cast also includes Angela Lansbury, Keenan Wynn, John Williams and Betsy Blair. However, the real stars of the picture are the house where all the action takes place, (Cedric Gibbons was one of the art directors), and the luminous black and white cinematography of Joseph Ruttenberg. Not quite a small gem, perhaps, but very good indeed.