The Woman in White

At least you have to give Warner Bros. credit for trying to film THE WOMAN IN WHITE, taken from the famous Wilkie Collins novel about an evil man (SYDNEY GREENSTREET) and his equally cunning wife (AGNES MOOREHEAD), along with more conventional romantic characters, ELEANOR PARKER (in a dual role), ALEXIS SMITH and GIG YOUNG.

They only partly succeed, due mainly to Greenstreet's histrionic finesse as Count Fosco, seething with villainous intentions and stealing every scene he's in. Eleanor Parker, even though she has a dual role, gives one of her weaker performances as the dull heroine Laura and is only slightly more interesting in the title role. Gig Young is handsome as her suitor but looks a bit uncomfortable in his costume role.

If you like Gothic romance, you'll find plenty to admire here, especially the low-key lighting, the costumes, the quietly menacing music and the overall atmosphere of this period piece. But the resolution differs from the novel and goes for an artificially contrived happy ending.

Trivia note: When the film was released, the poster art showed all the actors in modern costumes to disguise the fact that the story took place in Victorian times. Warner Bros. frequently misled their audiences in this manner, particularly with films like DEVOTION (the Bronte sisters) showing the actresses in modern dress.