Corridor of Mirrors – 1948 | 105 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Based on a novel by Christopher Massie, the French-influenced Corridor of Mirrors became director Terence Young’s debut feature film. The gothic tale holds the attention with a gripping storyline, inventive cinematography and atmospheric lighting. Edana Romney featured in a support role as well as contributing to the script.

Obsessed by the portrait of a girl an old painting, artist Paul Mangin (Eric Portman) lives the past, behind a corridor of mirrors in his treasure-filled home are dummies in period costumes. The man who designed the costumes has a friend, Caroline (Joan Maude), who loves Paul unrequitedly. Meeting Mifanwy (Edana Romney), a judge’s daughter, he sees her as the reincarnation of the girl in the four-hundred-years-old portrait. He delights in watching her don the costumes in the mirrored corridor, but Mifanwy is getting engaged to a childhood sweetheart and leaves Mangin.

The portrait is slashed to ribbons, Caroline is found strangled, and Paul is sentenced to death by Mifanwy’s father. Years later, Mifanwy, now married, receives letters threatening her happiness. By the wax effigy of Paul in Madame Tussaud’s she meets his former servant, Mortimer, who reveals that it was the hanged man’s housekeeper, Veronica, who sent the menacing letters. Veronica visit’s the museum night; to talk to Paul’s effigy. Together they await her coming. They watch her pleading to the wax figure for mercy for having killed Caroline instead of Mllanwy.