While I Live

Compared to today's line-readers sometimes called, "actors," this cast is first-rate. A bit corny, perhaps, but so is Gone With the Wind. The film hit a nerve with 1947 audiences who were dreaming their war dead might return. Watch it with that thought in mind and you'll shed tears.

The film keeps replaying and replaying Charles Williams' "Dream of Olwen" a perhaps little too much, but I don't tire of it. For over 50 years, "Dream of Olwen" has been one of my favorite musical pieces. Not until recently did I learn that it came from this film.

The young amnesiac woman who visits on the night of the 25th anniversary of the death of Julia's sister, Olwen, brings too many coincidental similarities to Olwen. The story is an wonderful original mystery tale.

I could not have stated it better than Jeremy Ross (London).I watched the film too when I was a kid. I even remember that it was on a Sunday afternoon. Haven't seen it since. It must have been about 1963. I have lived in America since 1974 but I remember that there was very excellent TV pro grammes in England during the 60's, this film being one of them! The scene where Olwyn is standing at the edge of the cliff still sticks in my memory after all these years. I didn't actually know the name of the film it's self until I looked up the music (dream of Olwyn on You tube. If the film were available on DVD, I am sure it would appeal to a lot of people.

I remember seeing this film on TV as a boy in the late 50s/early 60s and have never forgotten it. Very powerful with wonderful music. The image of a sleep-walking woman on the cliffs sticks with me after 40 years.Would love to see it again, but for some reason it isn't regarded as Classic enough for release on DVD. Why doesn't someone release the theme tune as a single with clips from the film on the accompanying video? It worked for 'Love is all around me'... Have sometimes toyed with the idea of writing to Total Film and submitting candidates for the Top 100 British films which they never seem to mention, such as this and some of the best George Formby and Gracie Fields films. When I was a boy they were often on TV. Why aren't they now?

Like another reviewer on this board, I can't help but go against the grain and describe this film as tosh: moody, well-shot tosh perhaps, but tosh nonetheless. It has a nice bit of piano music in it which keeps popping up time after time, and the usual distinguished performances we see from British actors in the 1940s, but that's about it.

WHILE I LIVE has an arresting opening sequence which climaxes in a woman dropping off a Cornish clifftop. Years later, folk in the ancestral home question whether a mysterious young woman who has mysteriously arrived at the property is in fact the reincarnation of the dead woman. Yes, it's one of those melodramas with a spiritual edge, made as a result of the massive loss of life in the Second World War (just as WW1 heralded another mini-boom in spiritualism).

Sadly, WHILE I LIVE doesn't offer much in the way of mystery or depth, and after a while all of the brooding and endless dreamy moments become more than a little tiresome. I'm the sort of person who looks for incident in a film, whatever its type, and there just isn't enough of it here.

I've seen this film dozens of times, albeit that the music "The Dream of Olwen" is the most haunting and beautiful piece and holds this film together, the acting and story line I find entertaining and most pleasant...It's a GREAT pity they don't make films like this now, instead of the some of the TRASH that is churned out.

I hope this film will soon be put to DVD and available in England. So many fine British films never seem to find their way to DVD of even become available to the British public

If you like truly great music (Written by Charles Williams) and a light yet very watchable film then this is for you, a haunting film that you will recall, and watch time and again..Excellent !