This Was a Woman

Sonia Dresdel is the wife of Walter Fitzgerald and the mother of Barbara White and Doctor Emrys Jones. She's one of those women who dominate everything about the house. When Miss White gets married to Scott Forbes, she's mildly incredulous; it soon becomes apparent to the audience that she is trying to cause a rift between the two of them. As for the others in her family, well, she has plans for them all.

Tim Whelan directs this Queen Bee movie well enough, but the score by Mischa Spoliansky is way over the top, informing the audience that something really important is going on, even at the movie's most banal moments. It's a horrid score that mickey-mouses every plot twist -- not that there are many once you understand the basic thesis that Miss Dresdel is going to get her own way, even when it makes no sense at all. Perhaps without this score, it might have been an interesting melodrama, but with it, it's almost laughable.... or would be if didn't go on for one hundred minutes.

I read recently that Sonia Dresdel made a great ' Hedda Gabler ' on stage, and I can believe it but sadly her films fell far short of that achievement. She fell into the trashy cinematic trap that a lot of 1940's melodrama's fell into; the fundamentally evil woman. In this example she is a woman seeking power and perhaps a better sexual life than she has been having. She reads ' Lady Chatterley's Lover ' and of course in the 1940's this was a forbidden book that only the depraved read and brought over from France. Absurdly she gives it to her female ' servant ' so as to lure her son in law away from his wife. Tellingly her Doctor son considers male sexuality to be ' aggressive ' and inferred in this that it was the natural order of things. Certainly if you want to see a portrait of a repressive and class obsessed UK during this period of cinema then this film is a film to see. Slowly and painfully in society we have hopefully evolved a little from this. Inevitably she kills her husband's dog and on a destructive bent seeks to destroy those around her. Dresdel seemed to enjoy the role as she also played it on stage, and no doubt this was what the public of the time wanted from her. I give this a 4 as the acting and direction is good but the ending was sickening and no doubt again pleasing to the public. Of sociological interest only and for those who still believe we are ' born ' evil.

Sonia Dresdel always made a striking appearance. She did not make many films, but she is the dominating character in every one of them. Here she is a mother who is smitten by a power complex, she acquires a passion for power, and she feels her marriage is stifling her, so she looks for a way to escape the trap she feels she is caught in. She has two children, a son and a daughter, and the daughter is going to be married, while the mother instinctively feels her daughter must be spared that marriage, and when the marriage is a fact she starts intriguing to ruin it. Her son becomes a doctor, and gradually he sees her through. The intrigue develops into a tragedy, and finally the mother is forced to give up her struggle for absolute domination. Her taste for clothes is stunning in all of her films, and I will never hesitate to find a new one of hers.

Fassbinder would have been thrilled if he'd ever seen this incredible gothic melodrama depicting a house full of unhinged females (presided over by malevolent Queen Bee Sonia Dresdel a year before she played Ralph Richardson's horrible wife in 'The Fallen Idol'), the principal victim being the gorgeous Barbara White. The strangely haunting violin score by Mischa Spoliansky adds considerably to the mood.

1945's "Leave Her to Heaven" is a classic film about an evil and mentally disturbed woman who destroys people. It's a great film. "This Was a Woman" is a similar sort of movie, though not nearly the same quality....mostly because it lacked the subtlety of the Hollywood movie.

The story is set in the home of a well to do English family, the Russells. The mother, Sylvia, is vicious and it's strange that it takes everyone so long to realize this. It's odd, even after putting the family dog to sleep for no particular reason, folks don't seem to think she's a bit off! And why did she do this? Her daughter was getting married and Sylvia didn't approve...so she took the dog to the vet to put it down! Soon after, she does everything she can to ruin the marriage...though you're never really sure why. Later, for kicks, she poisons her husband...something clearly telegraphed in the film when she's caught reading up on that sort of thing.

As I already mentioned, Sylvia isn't exactly subtle and that's a problem with the story. Clearly, she's an awful person but oddly no one in the family seems to notice...until it's too late. Had the movie been more subtle and had Sylvia's actions been more covert, it would have improved it tremendously. Now I am not saying it's a bad film...but with a few minor changes, it could have been marvelous. Instead, it just had me wish I'd re-watched "Leave Her to Heaven".