VidMate
Free YouTube video & music downloader
ACTOR
Charles BoyerAnn BlythJessica TandyCedric Hardwicke
DIRECTOR
Zoltan Korda
SYNOPSICS
A Woman's Vengeance (1948) is a English movie. Zoltan Korda has directed this movie. Charles Boyer,Ann Blyth,Jessica Tandy,Cedric Hardwicke are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1948. A Woman's Vengeance (1948) is considered one of the best Drama,Film-Noir,Mystery movie in India and around the world.
More
Same Actors
Same Director
A Woman's Vengeance (1948) Reviews
Splendid cast does justice to Aldous Huxley's tale of country-house frustration and murder
Ah, English country life all revenge killings and red-currant fool. That's the fate that conveniently befalls Rachel Kempson, the irritating invalid spouse to squire Charles Boyer. It's convenient for him, because the lid's just been torn off his affair with his teen-aged mistress (Ann Blythe), with whom he was whiling away the evening as the bell tolled for his lawfully wedded wife. At first, the demise of that royal pain causes a general sigh of relief. It leaves Boyer free to marry Blythe, which he does; it also left him free, in the view of neighbor and intimate family friend Jessica Tandy, to marry her, which he did not. When a trouble-making nurse (Mildred Natwick), outraged by Boyer's extramarital carryings-on, goes to the police, an autopsy proves her suspicions correct: The sudden death, at first though to have a heart attack brought on by those beastly berries, turns out to be poisoning by arsenic found in weed killer. Inquest, trial and death sentence all go badly for Boyer, who awaits the scaffold claiming his innocence. It sounds like an Agatha Christie country-house mystery genteel homicide between rubbers of Bridge but it's a bit more than that. Aldous Huxley wrote the script, from his story The Gioconda Smile, and he's less interested in the logistics of murder than its psychology. Today, he's remembered chiefly as author of Brave New World and as an apostle of LSD. But he was one of the more thoughtful and inquisitive popular novelists of his time, holding the sort of position Gore Vidal does today, and, like Vidal, found Southern California and The Industry congenial for living and working. He was lucky to get a director (Zoltan Korda) and a cast this good. Boyer breaks free from the debonair malevolence that, following the success of Gaslight, so often shackled him, and Blythe starts out recycling her Veda Pierce but finally realizes that this is a new role. Tandy, fresh from creating Blanche DuBois on Broadway, tackles her part a lovesick spinster of 35 cautiously at first, then deepens and underscores what turns out to be the movie's central role. There's a strikingly composed scene in which her face is severely framed in a high aperture overlooking Boyer's death cell when she unleashes her pent-up frustration, and Tandy does it full justice. Acting honors, however, go to Cedric Hardwicke, family physician turned psychoanalyst and father-confessor, who steals every scene simply by off-handedly underplaying. A Woman's Vengance is a Hollywood product so skillfully put together that its multi-national cast needs no cumbersome explication. It's literate, verging on the sedate, keeping attention though subtle shifts rather than clamorous developments. In its sense of the malice festering under a cultivated facade of manners, A Woman's Vengeance calls to mind another country-house movie of the same year, Sign of the Ram.
A brilliant study in self-delusion, revenge, guilt and self-destruction
WOMAN'S VENGEANCE, A ('47 UNIV) Dir: Zoltan Korda Critique: Jessica Tandy, fresh from her Broadway role as the original Blanche du Bois in "A Streetcar Named Desire" in the same year gives the greatest performance of her film career, and one of the greatest, measured by any standard in film history, in Aldous Huxley's brilliant, exceptionally intelligent and literate screenplay from his own "The Giaconda Smile." Tandy, who was unfortunately relegated to secondary roles for the rest of her career until she won an academy award near the end of her life for "Driving Miss Daisy" ('89) is a 35 year-old spinster (!) whose love is spurned by charming but callous philanderer, Charles Boyer, brilliant in his role as the object of Tandy's vengeance. The two stars are backed up by an outstanding cast, especially the cerebral Cedric Hardwicke as the kindly, understanding and extremely perceptive doctor who, in a scene of mesmerizing brilliance, ultimately draws out of Tandy the grim truth about the guilt or innocence of Boyer, who is condemned to death for the murder of his wife. Zoltan Korda, of the illustrious film family, directed this (his) masterpiece, with beautiful chiaroscuro photography by Russell Metty and a fine, understated score by Miklos Rozsa. Marc Feldman 2-4-05
A highly literate script by Aldous Huxley and an absorbing courtroom drama.
Henry Maurier (Boyer) is an arrogant wealthy Englishman married to Emily who is both sickly and shrewish. Doris (Blyth) is his much younger mistress. The Maurier's also have a woman friend named Janet Spence (Tandy) who has always loved Maurier. When Emily is poisoned, suspicion falls on Henry and there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence against him. The script, by Aldous Huxley, is extremely literate and the movie is a pleasure to watch. Courtroom fans will also enjoy the capably executed inquest and trial scenes.
One of Jessica Tandy's best!
This movie provides some interesting character studies by Aldous Huxley. Charles Boyer portrays Henry, a not very likeable husband to an invalid wife,Emily (Rachel Kempson). He has a very young mistress on the side, Doris, played by Ann Blythe. On the sidelines stands Janet, played by Jessica Tandy, whom Henry flirts with as a matter of course, but she takes it all very seriously and is in love with him. When Emily is murdered, Henry is arrested and sentenced to death by hanging. The second half of the movie deals with the secrets underlying Emily's death. Very well done with one flaw. Ann Blythe seems to start out in the movie as a selfish, manipulative young mistress and her transformation to a caring wife seems a bit of a stretch. Mildred Natwick is superb as a nosy nurse as is Cedric Hardwicke as a doctor who just about effortlessly steals every scene he is in. A true pro. 8 out of 10.
Excellent film!
A wonderful film with a marvelous cast and brilliantly written screenplay. This film superbly captures the anguish of unrequited love and how it transforms its victims into wrong-doers.