Inverno D'Alma

This was sort of two movies in one. It started out with Angela Lansbury as a self-centered woman who was fearful that her husband (Walter Pidgeon) would be drawn back to his old flame. Lansbury was quite good as the wife who had an interesting approach to this situation. But later, the movie turned into a story about a young woman (Janet Leigh, doing a good British accent), who turns to Pidgeon for help and inadvertently causes a host of problems for him. Deborah Kerr is also good as Pidgeon's old girlfriend, but even with the good cast, the movie overall is little more than a confused soap opera, and the ending doesn't make much sense. Not one I'd recommend, unless you're a particular fan of anybody in the cast.

Set in a small English town just before the beginning of WW2, the story follows the trials and tribulations of Mark Sabre (Walter Pidgeon), a good, decent man married to the shrewish Mabel (Angela Lansbury). He's secretly in love with the also-married Nona Tybar (Deborah Kerr), but both are hesitant to make a move forward. When the war breaks out, Mark discovers that young Effie Bright (Janet Leigh) is pregnant, and the father is a mystery that she won't divulge. Forced out onto the streets by her religious father, Mark agrees to take Effie into his home, much to the rage of Mabel, and the condemnation of his fellow townsfolk.

The overstuffed script reveals the material's literary roots, with perhaps one or two too many minor characters for the 90+ minute running time. I get the feeling this was supposed to be a an Oscar contender for Walter Pidgeon, but he's not quite up to challenge, faltering in the film's last act with some amateurish acting. 19-year-old Janet Leigh, in only her second film, seems to have had trouble with her British accent as much of her dialogue is noticeably looped. Poor Angela Lansbury was only 22, and she auditioned for the role Leigh got, but was instead cast as the disagreeable wife of 50-year-old Pidgeon. Kerr often seems like an afterthought, a victim of the script trying to do too much. The clash of old morals mixed with small-minded people and small-town gossip would make this a good addition to a triple bill including My Reputation and Cass Timberlane.

This film is based upon a novel by a long-forgotten novelist, Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson (1879-1971), who was born in colonial India, and who earlier wrote a novel called THE HAPPY WARRIOR which was made into a silent feature film as long ago as 1917, in which Leslie Howard made his first feature film appearance. This film, IF WINTER COMES, was also initially made into a silent film in 1923 with a cast of actors all of whom are now entirely forgotten in the mists of time. The very powerful and disturbing story was thus a postwar tale, but one told of the aftermath of the First World War, but which is here recycled and set in the aftermath of the Second World War. Walter Pidgeon plays the lead, a gentle and kindly man living in the fictional Surrey town of Tidborough and married to an embittered harridan of a wife, played by Angela Lansbury, who certainly knew how to play embittered women and have a pinched face and the tongue of a serpent. The film is chiefly notable for the second screen appearance of Janet Leigh, aged twenty but successfully playing an innocent 16 year-old girl named Effie Bright, who is all sweetness and light. And who ever had a sweeter smile than Janet Leigh at this age? Despite being American, she manages a British accent successfully enough. The romantic female lead is played by an impassioned Deborah Kerr, at her most intense. She has returned to the town and has her heart set on joining up again with Walter Pidgeon whom she had jilted three years earlier when she ran off and married the wrong man. Pidgeon is a bit wooden, so that one wonders why all this passion is swirling around him. He is excellent at being kindly and noble, and in fact during my brief acquaintance with him in my teens, he was exactly like that offscreen. 'You couldn't find a nicer man.' But that is not the same as inspiring an controllable passion in Deborah Kerr when she is on heat. Oh well, that's the movies for you. Victor Saville did an excellent job of directing, and the film works very well. Dame May Witty has a cameo role, and it is always a pleasure to see her. The story however is very powerful and upsetting. It is about a man with a good heart who through his kindness becomes a central figure in a vast misunderstanding, where he stands accused of all sorts of terrible things which he did not do. Most of the people of the town are exposed as bitter and small-minded, and they turn against him en masse. It is really very harrowing indeed. This makes for good drama, and there is plenty of desperate tragedy.

Good deeds better be their own reward since they can easily backfire as the movie shows. Poor Mark Sabre (Pidgeon) undergoes something of a mid-life dedication to doing good for others above everything else. Maybe it's a reaction to his cold-hearted wife (Lansbury) or renewed affection for now married former flame Nona (Kerr). Whatever the reason, circumstances are conspiring to ruin him because of his kindness. So how will things finally sort out.

It's the kind of production MGM specialized in—classy players in classy surroundings (British). Nonetheless, the topic of unwed motherhood was rather daring for its time, figuring quietly but importantly in the plot here. It's Britain 1939 and civil society is responding to WWII mobilization, including the small town of Pennygreen, whose sons are suddenly marching off to war. While on the homefront, volunteers are flocking to boost civil defense.

The movie's first part meanders some, appearing to head in one direction— namely, straightening out Sabre's love life. But then his lady-love Kerr largely disappears from screen, gone into civil defense. At the same time, the second part changes direction, picking up in suspense, when the unlucky Effie enters the picture. Because of Sabre's selfless attitude, we can't be sure how the movie will end. Still, I wonder if there isn't a backstory to Kerr's abrupt absence and the resulting shift of direction.

Anyway, in my book, a youthful Leigh steals the film with a highly sensitive turn as the star-crossed Effie. It's easy to see why she climbed the Hollywood ladder so quickly. At the same time, the unknowns playing High Jinx and Low Jinx manage to spark proceedings with their imaginative character concepts. Of course, vets like Pigeon and Kerr come through on cue, while Lansbury's stony wife would send any guy packing.

All in all, it's well done soap opera with a few surprises that should please fans of tangled relationships.

As mentioned in another review this film admittedly appears flat in the beginning, but develops rapidly into a well-blended story about true love, charity, and the foibles of human misunderstanding and communication akin to those so eloquently portrayed in the American film 'Peyton Place.' Both films are set in small, idyllic towns as well, with this one in England, and both films show the ongoing impact of WWII loses of native sons on their respective communities.

The addition of three extremely accomplished actresses in the initial flash of their stardom -- Angela Lansbury, Deborah Kerr, and Janet Leigh -- makes this film evermore an enjoyable watch.