Kind Lady

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.

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.

Ethel Barrymore defies Hollywood ageism by taking the lead role in this thriller from MGM, and quite frankly, with the exception of her work in None But the Lonely Heart, it is one of her best on-screen performances.

MGM previously filmed this story in 1935 with Aline MacMahon. Miss MacMahon excelled at the role of a recluse whose life is now at the mercy of a group of con artists. But Barrymore imbues it with more authenticity and the right amount of wisdom and shrewdness that comes with being the exact age of the character, not dressing up in old woman's clothes and applying gobs of make-up like a much younger Miss McMahon did in the first filmed production.

This remake also benefits from a stellar supporting cast, the likes of which include MGM contract player Angela Lansbury and Lansbury's real-life mother Moyna Macgill in a small role. Miss Barrymore's best is brought out in spades by costar Maurice Evans, the slickest con in the bunch, who dazzles the kind lady as a smooth-talking rogue while avoiding the pitfalls of scene chewing. As a result, we are kept enthralled right up to the story's denouement. The ending certainly does not disappoint and reaffirms our belief in the justice of this world.

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.

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.