Thu 18 Feb 2021
A Book! Movie!! Review by Dan Stumpf: WILKIE COLLINS – The Woman in White // Film (1948).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[9] Comments
WILKIE COLLINS – The Woman in White. Low, UK, hardcover, 1860. Harper, US, hardcover, 1860. First published in serial form in 1859–60, appearing in Charles Dickens’ magazine All the Year Round (UK) and Harper’s Weekly (USA)
THE WOMAN IN WHITE. Warner Brothers, 1948. Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet, Gig Young, Agnes Moorehead, John Abbott and John Emery. Screenplay by Stephen Morehouse Avery, from the novel by Wilkie Collins. Directed by Peter Godfrey.
The ending is a bit cumbersome, but Wilkie Collins’ novel is a genuine Victorian masterpiece of plot and counter-plot, with lively characterizations throughout and a plot that defies synopsis.
Briefly, the tale unspun in Woman in White involves Laura Farlie, a lovely young heiress, her almost-as-lovely and much-smarter companion, Marian Halcombe, and a mysterious young woman who resembles Laura, wandering about dressed in white — hence the title of the piece.
All three ladies become enamored to one degree or another with art teacher Walter Hartright, but all three become the intended prey of the insidious Count Fosco and the ruthless Sir Percival Glyde.
What follows is a panoply of melodrama, with false heirs and heiresses, secret agreements, lingering illness, the odd murder and involuntary impersonation, secret societies, death by fire….
The wonder of it is that under Collins’ skillful pen it all reads much better than it sounds. The smooth prose and Dickensian characters kept me enthralled with this long after my willing suspension of disbelief had crashed to the floor.
I should also add that among the characters, Count Fosco comes off the most compellingly. Rotund, loquacious, charming and venomous, he almost seems as if, writing in 1859, Collins foresaw the coming of Sydney Greenstreet and wrote the part just for him.
Small wonder then that Greenstreet appeared as Count Fosco in the Warners film of 1948. Indeed, he is the linchpin of a sumptuous production with an excellent cast, despite the truncations of plot, and the unfortunate miscasting of Gig Young as the lead (A capable actor, but try to picture Bogart in Pride and Prejudice to get my drift.) the film is splendidly faithful to the tone and feel of Collins’ classic. Agnes Moorhead, John Abbott and John Emory sparkle in supporting roles, and Sydney Greenstreet was born to play the porcine, mellifluous Count Fosco. The fast resolution is a definite improvement on the book.
But I found myself most intrigued by the happy ending, which (WARNING!) finds our hero and heroines vaguely landing in some sort of merry menage-a-trois. Oddly apt in view of Colins’ feelings about marriage (He spent his later years in the company of two ladies.) but surprising in a Hollywood film of its time.
February 18th, 2021 at 11:34 am
Has there ever been a more sinister villain than Count Fosco?
February 18th, 2021 at 1:18 pm
I don’t think Marian Halcombe is attractive in the book – isn’t there something odd about her eyebrows? – and she ends up living with Walter and Laura as a sort of companion. She’s the “hero” of the novel, as in the one that has the adventures.
There are a couple of good BBC serial adaptations – one with Simon Callow as Fosco, the other with Alan Badel. A serial – more leisurely, with room to show backgrounds – is better than a feature film for Victorian books Ithink.
February 18th, 2021 at 6:52 pm
My favorite Collins novel which even includes some decent detective work among the mix.
Greenstreet is so perfect as Fosco I would swear you can see the mouse capering across his waistcoat as in the book. Smith, John Abbott, and Agnes Moorehead are all fine in the film too.
Fosco is such a splendid villain Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child appropriated him for their Pendergast novel BRIMSTONE. Many a fat villain owes Fosco something, and probably some leaner ones, and I would suspect Nero Wolfe owes almost as much to Fosco as to Mycroft Holmes, though not his jollyness.
According to lore the idea came to Collins after a mysterious encounter with his own woman in white who he apparently gave shelter to and eventually married. I have no idea if the story is true, but it is a great story in any case.
February 18th, 2021 at 6:59 pm
In the novel, Marian is emphatically described as ugly; not even just ‘plain’ or ‘dowdy’. Her waist, her thighs, and her bosom are all described as excellent by the young Hartnell; (when he first views her from the rear) but her face is the kind which makes horses bolt their handlers. The kind which can put you off your breakfast. She’s hairy and almost simian of face.
Which is why I’m surprised to learn of the existence of this movie. It sounds fun but had I not known about it, I would have sworn that a faithful adaptation could probably never be realized; based on the difficulty of casting.
Of course, I’d be hilariously in error because there’s been a Broadway musical of this wonderful novel, and heck there’s always actresses like Kathy Bates who wouldn’t balk at playing a frumpy role. No reason at all for eager producers to avoid this tale.
The novel is as glorious, as immersive, and as savory as its longstanding reputation attests. I came to it chronologically well after Collins’ ‘The Moonstone’ and I admit to a bias there as well. Previous to my cracking the binding, I doubted any yarn about apparitions on a marshy lake would hold-its-own against that other famous Collins romp. But it surely does. I was astounded and pleased by every chapter. Did not want the read to conclude.
Count Fosco: I’m similarly at a loss here (compared to the OP) for I never would have imagined Greenstreet in the role. Fosco strikes me as a younger man than Greenstreet and as more vividly Italian than Greenstreet. This is how I recall him set down in the book. If Charles Laughton was swarthy-skinned and made up with densely-curly black hair, if Laughton had an Italian accent …that’s more of my mental image of Fosco. Modern actors? Perhaps someone like Brian Blessed in his prime. Someone deeply menacing even if viewed far across the room. Edward Gorey’s illustrations are fairly close to the mark, as far as I’m concerned.
Ah well. However he might be portrayed, Fosco as Collins wrote him is –I’m sure most readers agree –one of the great literary villains. He would easily straddle the middle of any casual top ten list I might have in mind.
Enjoyable book+and+movie review!
February 18th, 2021 at 8:49 pm
I’ll have to sit down and read the whole book at some point. Once I began listening to an audio version but the narrator proceeded at a snail’s pace and at times I swear I could hear him stifling belches as he read. It was not the most riveting of experiences.
February 19th, 2021 at 3:28 pm
Good, bad or indifferent, and the latter is my impression, this film of The Woman in White is nowhere near a true reflection, and while I agree with Lazy about Count Fosco, the principal issue is Marian. I happen not to mind a novel to film compromise, but this made no sense. Just a way to work Alexis Smith, soon to be let go by Warners. Oh, and you can have Gig Young.
February 20th, 2021 at 6:56 pm
It was common in Hollywood at the time to cast women known for their beauty in roles of decidedly ugly or plain women in books and then ignore the obvious. Actresses often fought to get the roles hoping for an Oscar nod. I can think of Bette Davis in NOW VOYAGER (no I didn’t find her a great beauty but she was not considered ugly or dowdy), and Olivia de Haviland in GWTW and THE HEIRESS, Joan Fontaine in REBECCA. Dressing down and going against type was often an almost automatic Oscar nomination for them.
Expecting Hollywood to have cast the central character in that period with a homely actress pretty much ignores the Studio system in its entirety. I mean they cast Cary Grant as a mousey anthropologist and Clark Gable as Parnell.
Greenstreet is Greenstreet, not the least Italian, but still magnificent as Fosco. For that matter though far more Italian I didn’t find Alan Badel half as fascinating in the role in one of the PBS adaptations.
February 20th, 2021 at 9:32 pm
David,
Marjorie Main is not required, but Agnes Moorehead might do for Marian. Your point about Fontaine in particular makes sense, but Marian must really be unattractive, or more, and Alexis Smith comes nowhere near fitting that bill. Hope Emerson comes near perfect. Yes? And while we are at it, let’s not forget to unload Gig.
February 21st, 2021 at 12:10 am
Re above: add Peter Lawford.