User reviews

In the last period of her life when the First Lady of the Theater decided to join her brothers finally in Hollywood, Kind Lady was the only time Ethel Barrymore played the lead role. Parts were not readily available then and now for 72 year old leads. In addition Ethel's health was not the best. Margot Peters study of the Barrymore clan says that Ethel was not in the best of shape during the making of Kind Lady and production was halted a few times before it was completed. She was never again asked to carry a film, henceforth her parts would be supporting ones.

Her regal theatrical training stood her in good stead for the part of a genteel Edwardian widow who lives comfortably, but not ostentatiously in London at the turn of the last century. Still she's got some valuable paintings and antiques which arouse the interest of Maurice Evans.

Evans plays a ne'er do well artist who insinuates himself together with his gang in her home. They take the place of her real home staff and proceed to gradually strip the place and terrorize the old woman. Probably Ethel's real life frailties stood her in good stead in playing the part.

As for Evans he's one crafty villain, the rest of his gang consist of Keenan Wynn, Angela Lansbury, and Betsy Blair. This was Evans American screen debut. During his career Maurice Evans did not do much big screen work, preferring the stage and small screen. A lot of people consider his the best MacBeth ever done. But film audiences remember him best as Dr. Zaius in two Planet of the Apes films and television audiences know him as Samantha's father in Bewitched.

Evans and Barrymore are a well matched duo of classically trained stage performers who knew what to do in film as well. Kind Lady is well worth a look.

I saw this black-and-white chiller on tv when I was a boy, some 35 years ago. Yet I recall scenes from it as though I saw it only last week. Imagine a group of seemingly well-bred people, patrons of the arts, befriending you--but then locking you in your house as they move in, and then hearing them tell visitors that you are delusional and being cared for by them. The scene in which the elderly victim is continually taunted while being forced to pose for the painting of her portrait--a rendering that, when completed, is seen to have grotesquely distorted her likeness to resemble that of a haggard, insane woman--is particularly spine-chilling. Without exaggeration, this is a gripping drama whose suspense few (if indeed any) can match. I only hope that someday it appears on video, so that I can purchase it for my library.

Anyone who remembers Maurice Evans' kindly turn as Mia Farrow's friend in "Rosemary's Baby" may be shocked to find him so convincingly evil in this gripping melodrama. Ethel Barrymore plays a sharp, sensible woman who gets taken in by a con-man; he moves into her house and she quickly becomes his prisoner. The plot is infuriating (we in the audience feel like prisoners, too) and the inevitable turning-the-tables ploy seems to take forever to arrive. Still, Barrymore's plight is played to the urgent hilt, and Evans (along with his brutish cohorts, Keenan Wynn and Angela Lansbury) is downright despicable. The handling of this story, previously filmed in 1936 with Aline MacMahon, twists all the right screws with grueling accuracy, but calculated pictures like this may turn off many viewers before the final act. Ultimately, too many plot entanglements are left ignored and some crucial moments take place off-screen. Strictly as a masochistic thriller, however, the film is queasy and indeed suspenseful. **1/2 from ****

Fragile, wealthy, and elderly Ethel Barrymore (as Mary Herries) invites struggling artist Maurice Evans (as Henry Springer Elcott) into her home. A London art collector filled with Christian charity, Ms. Barrymore wants to help Mr. Evans' sickly wife Betsy Blair (as Ada Elcott) recover from a fainting spell. But, the couple turn out to be con artists. Soon, her house-guest has taken over, getting rid of the servants and binding Barrymore in her bed. Moreover, Evans has crooked Keenan Wynn (as Edwards) and shifty wife Angela Lansbury move in as maid and butler, while he pretends to be Barrymore's nephew.

They sell Barrymore's valuables and tell inquisitors the "Kind Lady" has suddenly become delusional.

This re-make of the 1935 stage play and subsequent film is delightfully well-cast, features fine production values, and good direction from John Sturges with cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg. But, not much done to improve the adaptation. Characters and situations come and go with little or no explanation - some even have no point in being part of the story at all. For example, something sinister could have been done with the cat - or, at least hinted at - and the naughty child "Aggie" (played by Barbara Shields) disappears after quite an entertaining introduction. It's certainly worth watching, but a bit frustrating.

****** Kind Lady (6/20/51) John Sturges ~ Ethel Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Angela Lansbury, Keenan Wynn

Maurice Evans has a field day as a supposed artist who tricks his way into the home of dowager Ethel Barrymore and then with the aid of Keenan Wynn and Angela Lansbury, hold her hostage in her own home. They try to make others believe that Barrymore has gone insane and proceed to sell her belongings along with the house.

George Sanders would have had great fun in the Evans part but the latter is convincing as the vicious con artist. Betsy Blair is appealing in the small role of his disturbed wife. Wynn and Lansbury have what it take as the evil co-conspirators.

The trio almost pull it off but we know that they will not. Utterly engaging and exciting.

The movie begins like a very typical Victorian-like costume movie, with real ladies and gentlemen but soon the movie makes a thriller turn, which makes the movie as a whole a surprising and fine contrasting one. It has a real good thriller story, that above all is also really original and everything gets uplifted all by its settings and time-period it is set in.

Even though this movie was from 1951, the movie certainly looks and feels like a '30's/'40's movie. It's in black & white, has Victorian settings and has '30's/'40's big time movie star Ethel Barrymore in it. The style of film-making and the way things are set up are also done in an old fashioned, as the overall visual style and atmosphere of the movie. Basically the only thing that gives away that this is a '50's movie is that Angela Lansbury is in it as well.

It's an early thriller that works mostly out because of its original as well as intriguing story about a 'poor' man and his wife and baby who are kindly given shelter by an elderly lady. Only thing is, he doesn't want to go away and soon start taking over the household and takes the command, especially when some of his 'friends' show up as well, without giving much more away of it all. The story makes this movie a sort of an 'unpleasant' one to watch. of course in a positive and effective way. It provides the movie with a constant certain tension and not knowing what will happen next.

But lets not overpraise this movie too much, fore it's definitely not the best or most perfect movie within its genre. The story and directions it is heading in are at times a bit too simple for that and also the restrained settings prevent this from being a true genre classic. It's a good and original early movie within its genre and it deserves to be known better but not really a movie you must see before you die or anything.

The movie is directed by John Sturges. The man best known for directing movies such as "The Magnificent Seven", "The Great Escape" and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral". So he's not really a man that is widely known for his thriller making expertise and it sort of makes it a shame after watching this movie that he didn't made any more thrillers in his career, since he obviously had the right talent and skills for it.

The movie features Ethel Barrymore in a rather late role of hers. She is best known for her roles in '30's and '40's movies, as is she known for being the sister of John and Lionel Barrymore. Sort of funny that she once more plays a character in this movie who is mostly sitting on a chair and lying in a bed, as she also used to do in many other previous roles of her. But she plays a good role in this movie, even though I just never have been the biggest fan of her. Maurice Evans also plays a good early typical thriller villain with a brain. It was also nice to see a still quite young Angela Lansbury in this movie. Never thought I would see Angela Lansbury and Ethel Barrymore in one and the same movie together! It's a kind of a surreal image.

Definitely a movie that deserves to be better known and seen by more!

7/10

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Understated acting makes this production a gem. In the present world movie making is so slipshod as far as plots are concerned; however, I highly recommend this movie - the 1951 version - to anyone who loves old movies. Isn't Ethel Barrymore wonderful? and Maurice Evans is scary. Did anyone pick up on the fact that Rose's sister, Mrs. Harkley, is actually Angela Lansbury's mother, Moyna MacGill? I heartily recommend this wonderful movie.

With Barrymore seemingly so sure of herself it just isn't convincing that she crumbles so quickly under the genteel home invaders. The set up is quite good but once they supposedly have her under their control there are too many ways she could escape, and yet never does, that it loses reality. There are also too many characters who have to vanish, like the young daughter and even a baby, in order for the plot to work.

Evans is good but the stand out is Wynn--very convincing as a heavy and as a Brit. Good score, and carefully placed as well--though the otherwise good print shown on TCM has a distracting warble to the soundtrack that distorts the music.

Sturges direction is slick, but he's no Hitchcock. One off camera death is nicely done and the film keeps moving despite limited locations it doesn't feel dull, nor does it bristle with excitement.

But the unbalanced script can't convince us the jeopardy is real despite good acting all around. Perhaps the original play worked better.

Rich art collector Mary Herries (Ethel Barrymore) finds artist vet Henry Abbott (Maurice Evans) drawing on her doorstep. She kindly takes him inside. He and his family work to insinuate into her life. Her kindness is turned against her.

This is the first half of Parasite. There are unlikely turns in the story. They would never let her downstairs and allow her to talk to the French art expert or the banker. I think killing Rose is a mistake. Once they kill one person, it doesn't matter if they kill more people. It would be more tense and with more potential of escape if Rose is simply kept captive. This is a good descend and a bumpy ride to the finish.

Kind Lady was shocking and quite unusual in its time, but in today's climate of violence and crime it is very bland and unsatisfactory. With three nasty adults taking advantage of one elderly spinster, the story is very nasty and sadistic. On the other hand, if it's terror you want, you won't get it from the doughty, super-dignified Ethel Barrymore (who, oddly is so naive that she is taken in by the leader of the crooks for some time and then allows a really creepy couple into her home).

Suspense can only be created if the menaced character is desperate and terrified, and that doesn't happen here. Indeed, we keep wondering why the old lady isn't more ingenious or forceful in trying to escape or to let others know of her plight--after all, she must know many people in the neighbourhood. But we get the impression that Barrymore is too great a lady to do anything as undignified as fight for her life.

The whole thing is such an unsavoury story that it could have been concocted as a cautionary tale by Republicans or Tories--look what happens when you try to help the poor! Especially artists! You want to keep well away from THEM!

I realise that my passion for the Golden Age of Hollywood - the mid '30s to the mid '60s - has little to do with such popular genres as Westerns, Musicals and Film Noir; rather is it the Romantic cinema I adore. In the hands of a master director such as William Wyler the genre achieved greatness ( "Carrie", "The Heiress", "Wuthering Heights" and "The Best Years Of Our Lives"). Even works that are little more than good yarns ("Gone With The Wind", "All This And Heaven Too" and "Kings Row") leave me speechless with admiration for their sheer craftsmanship and style. I have to confess to swallowing with considerable pleasure what may be regarded as a by-product of the genre, Hollywood Gothic melodrama, the more outlandish the better ("The Spiral Staircase", "Dragonwyck" or "Ladies in Retirement"). When the genre depicted Victorian or Edwardian London as it so often did I am apt to experience frissons of delight ("Gaslight", "Moss Rose" or "Hangover "Square"). I thought I knew them all until one of our TV channels came up with one I had never heard of, John Sturges's "Kind Lady" of 1951. What a discovery! The eponymous heroine is played by that most commanding of Hollywood matriarchs, Ethel Barrymore, she of the gravel voice and penetrating eyes. It was rare for her to play the tormented party but somehow you know from the beginning that here is a character with the inner strength to overcome the wiles of her tormentors. If the film has a weakness it lies in Maurice Evans's rather colourless arch-villain. Although I have not seen the earlier version of "Kind Lady" I can well imagine the Basil Rathbone who played the part could convey evil with more sinister aplomb. But everything else about the film is absolutely right. Hollywood seemed to have a particular obsession with plots where villains attempted to drive their victims insane or else present them as insane to the rest of the world. If George Cukor's "Gaslight" is probably the finest example "Kind Lady" runs it a close second. With Ethel Barrymore's fine performance and excellent support from Betsy Blair, an amazingly young Angela Lansbury and John Williams as the solicitor who is bound to come to the rescue, superbly accomplished photography from Joseph Ruttenberg who did marvels with "The Great Waltz" and "Mrs Miniver" and a wonderfully lyrical score by David Raksin, to my mind the finest of all the Hollywood in-house composers, what more can one ask. Unadulterated pleasure!

Somewhat creaky suspenser in which a wealthy and kind lady (Ethel Barrymore) is grifted by a con artist (Maurice Evans) and his gang of no-goodniks (Angela Lansbury and Keenan Wynn) and winds up a slave in her own bed, forced to do their bidding.

Maurice Evans is cold, calculating, diabolical and obviously VERY sick. Lansbury fairly reprises her performance from "Dorian Gray". Wynn is the bloody-minded company enforcer, with a tendency to want to go off and transform to a killing beast,.

Barrymore is the sweetest old lady possible to be set upon by this pack of jackals. The crooks have nearly milked her dry, managing to trick everyone she knows along the way, till they attempt to sell her mansion on a fashionable London square. It's then that her trusted banker of all these many years smells a rat, and, well, you know the rest

an adequate pastime

Ethel Barrymore (Mary) is the kind lady of the film's title. She is an art-lover who has collected various valuable pieces over the years and lives in a large house in a wealthy part of London. Just herself, her maid Doris Lloyd (Rose) and her cook Phyllis Morris (Dora). One day around Christmas, Barrymore is visited by artist Maurice Evans (Elcott) and a friendship is forged between the two. Barrymore is a benevolent lady and begins to be rather too charitable to Evans and his wife and friends as she finds out to her peril as they begin to take over her house once invited in.

This is a remake of a 1935 film of the same title and both films are worth watching. The cast are good and the story resolves itself in a satisfactory manner with a twist at the end.

The world is full of conmen. I came across someone who claimed to be a member of the royal family and befriended me. I then introduced him to my social group. It soon became apparent that he was stealing from people and just telling lies about everything from his background to his daily activities. He was very charming but we had all been conned.

We gradually put the pieces together surrounding his claims and missing money and one night at my friend's house, my friend just gave him some money to get a taxi and told him to never come back. That was it - he just disappeared and moved on to his next victims as we later learned. About a month later my friend got a phone call from somebody who was after this guy as he owed him money. He had told this person that my friend's number was his international dialing line. So, my friend explained that he was a conman and so the cycle repeated.

It's amazing how many of these sociopaths and psychopaths are roaming freely. Be careful who you let into your home. It's a good film.

Turn on any drama series or anthology during the 1950s -- and there were many -- and this is exactly what you would find. The actors were just as good and the plots came from writers who wrote for both industries.

Later in the 50s, the Twilight Zone series could be riveting, and if children were left to watch it unattended, the results could be many years of nightmares, the drama was so realistic. With films like this television and movies reached parity and created the first crisis movie studios would have to face.

Ethel Barrymore is the "Kind Lady" in this 1951 MGM suspenser, also starring Maurice Evans, Keenan Wynn, Angela Lansbury, and John Williams. Barrymore plays an elderly woman who falls for a con man's (Evans) ruse of a sick wife living in a cold flat with a baby and invites them to stay in her home. House servants (Lansbury and Wynn) who are actually his cohorts soon move in, and the lady is made a prisoner in her home as it is stripped of furnishings and art work.

A marvelous cast is directed by John Sturges in this neat, absorbing drama. Maurice Evans is excellent as a cold beast of a man; Angela Lansbury is Nancy of "Gaslight" grown older - cheap and cunning; Keenan Wynn is okay, but he doesn't seem very British. John Williams, as an insurance man, is very good as always in a familiar role for him.

At 72, Ethel Barrymore plays a strong and determined woman, nobody's fool, who is nevertheless compassionate and generous. It's a wonderful performance - she appears both tough and alternately frail in different parts of the film.

The set looked an awful lot like "Gaslight." The woman Mrs. Harkey (Moyna McGill) who comes looking for the maid Rose was Angela Lansbury's real-life mother. Talented ladies both.

Loved it.

The "Kind Lady" in question is Ethel Barrymore. She isn't so much kind as vain and very foolish, allowing thief, con-man and potential murderer Maurice Evans into her home. This began life as a short story by Hugh Walpole, before being adapted for the stage by Edward Chodorov and having been previously filmed in 1935 with Aline MacMahon and Basil Rathbone. This version was directed, (very well), by John Sturges in 1951 and as well as Barrymore and Evans the excellent cast also includes Angela Lansbury, Keenan Wynn, John Williams and Betsy Blair. However, the real stars of the picture are the house where all the action takes place, (Cedric Gibbons was one of the art directors), and the luminous black and white cinematography of Joseph Ruttenberg. Not quite a small gem, perhaps, but very good indeed.

A kindly old dowager takes a penniless artist into her lavish household, only to find out he's got his own plans.

For a filmed stage play, the movie surprisingly never drags. That's a tribute to a tight screenplay and excellent staging. For example, catch how director Sturges in the first confrontation scene positions the four intruders in the foreground so they appear now to loom over the exasperated old lady (Barrymore), symbolizing their gradual reversal of authority. Then too, Sturges has basically only a single set to dramatize with, a real staging challenge.

However, the movie really belongs to the mild-looking Evans (Elcott) who manages an effortless study in civilized evil. His manipulations are so understated that his malignant nature sort of creeps up on you. It's one of the slyer incarnations in the history of bad guys. And get a load of the Edwards family, with the shrill Lansbury, the hulking Wynn, and the bratty Aggie. They're household help from heck, and we know Barrymore's in big trouble when this British version of The Beverly Hillbillies walk in the door.

Anyway, the tension stays on high as we feel trapped along with the kind lady. All in all, the movie's a minor gem of claustrophobic suspense.

Ethel Barrymore, ("The Spiral Staircase"'46), gave one of her greatest performances as an old lady captured in her home with all her favorites treasures along with other film greats like:- Maurice Evans,("Beneath the Planet of the Apes"'s '70, Angela Lansbury,(Mrs. Edwards) "Murder She Wrote",'03 and Keenan Wynn, son of Ed Wynn the veteran comedian of the '30's and 40's. Every film that Ethel Barrymore ever appeared in was a great success because of her great family of actors, John, Lionel and presently Drew.