Eric Portman, the commanding British star equally at home as suave leading men and darkly attractive villains, draws from both to play Paul Mangin. Mangin is a wealthy retired painter who makes a striking entrance in the film as if he stepped out from another century. Edana Romney costars as Mifanwy, a bored socialite who is fascinated by this enigmatic man who surrounds himself with artifacts of the past.
When she wanders into the corridor of mirrors and finds room after room devoted to lavish gowns from yesteryear, what could be a turn into dark secrets and danger becomes instead an invitation for Mifwany to try on the gowns and join his embrace of all things old and elegant.
Paul is eccentric but polite, proper, and dignified, with a touch of sadness about him—like a man out of his era out of place, and he seems entranced by a centuries-old painting in his home with a portrait of a woman who could Mifanwy's twin.
Director Terence Young, making his directorial debut, keeps a quality of mystery to it all, bringing British Gothic style to a contemporary setting with a touch of French poetic fantasy. The ambiguity adds to the enigmatic atmosphere, with a suggestion of the supernatural or a man out of his time.
There is finally a whodunit of sorts involving the murder of a young woman but this is more romantic tragedy than thriller or murder mystery. Portman gives his tormented artist the quality of a Gothic hero, which casts a shadow of doubt over the events that end with a wax effigy of Paul in the chamber of horrors of the wax museum.
The framing story, with a married Mifwany recalling her romance with Paul and how she was both attracted to and afraid of his passion for the past, is less convincing in its attempt to explain everything than the illusory, darkly romantic tale of love and obsession that she recalls as if a dream. Though not as well-known as other British films of the era, it is an atmospheric and compelling romantic drama that brings Gothic romance into post-war England.
It debuts on DVD and Blu-ray in a new digital restoration so sharp that you can see condensation on the actors' breath in some scenes, revealing just how cold some of the studio sets were while filming. There are no supplements. Recommended for classic film and mystery collections in public libraries.
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