Word: girling
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...acting of the entire cast is above all reproach. Michele Morgan, as the blind girl, and Pierre Blanchar, as the Pastor, are ideally cast and give sensitive, intelligent performances. No less impressive is Line Noro, who plays the wife...
...written version was told in the form of a diary kept by a Swiss pastor. In it the reader was allowed to see what went on around the Pastor as well as what went on in his mind. The reader saw him take the blind girl into his family, saw him slowly grow to love her, and saw the suffering this love caused among his family. The reader could see this as well as the almost inevitable climax, but the Pastor could see neither. This gave the tale a special horror: there you (the reader) were, there he stood...
This reader-relationship with the pastor has, of course, been lost in the film version. The camera and not the Pastor now tells the story. Some of the subtlety is lost when in order to reveal the wife's knowledge of her husband's love for the girl, she must peek in through a window and see them together...
Olivia DeHaviland's performance as the mentally sick girl is superb. Almost the entire credit for the success of the film must go to her acting. She shows the torments and confusion of the girl in the early symptoms of trouble, in the depths of her madness, and then when the signs of improvement and eventual recovery come. She handles the difficult job of reflecting mental states so well that the doctor does not have to say that she is improving...
...Genn does an admirable job as the soft-speaking doctor who takes a personal interest in this case and gradually uncovers the source of the ailment; Mark Stevens is adequate as the girl's husband. Celeste Holm appears briefly as a completely mad girl who tries to choke all who come near her, and is only comforted by the heroine. Her powerful portrayal of the pitiful figure leaves a strong impression, for she does not recover and is left in darkness at the bottom...