If Winter Comes

[dpgmel]

Have been reading about Victor Saville's 1947 film If Winter Comes featuring amongst others Deborah Kerr and it sounds quite interesting, has anybody here seen it ? and if so any comments good or bad would be appreciated.



Thanks in advance.

[TimR]

Have been reading about Victor Saville's 1947 film If Winter Comes featuring amongst others Deborah Kerr and it sounds quite interesting, has anybody here seen it ? and if so any comments good or bad would be appreciated.



Thanks in advance.

I have seen it. It's on TCM sometimes.



I didn't like it very much, but I was intrigued by it because it is one of the many strongly anglophile films that Hollywood produced in large quantities during those years.



Deborah Kerr has only a small role but she makes the whole thing come to life when she is on the screen.



The story is about one man versus what seems to be an entire town, with Walter Pidgen as the one man. He seems to be playing the passive, suffering role usually played by women in those older films. He is like a block of wood while the women take the initiative. In the scenes with Deborah Kerr, she seems to be acting in a vacuum while he just sits there and stares.



Even the typical "old biddy" roles are taken by men, who make spiteful remarks about the sex life of their fellow townspeople and mind other people's business while the women behave like the men in those studio films - and are forthright and concerned about the war. Weird.



I thought the story was absurd, but some of my family members disagreed with me!

[dpgmel]

Thanks for taking the time to post that Tim, still sounds intriguing .

[Ray]

Have been reading about Victor Saville's 1947 film If Winter Comes featuring amongst others Deborah Kerr and it sounds quite interesting, has anybody here seen it ? and if so any comments good or bad would be appreciated.



Thanks in advance.

A friend sent me a copy from the USA, and if he had not kept urgimg me to watch it I would not have bothered. When I eventually did, I was pleasantly surprised, and found it very entertaining. A very young Angela Lansbury, even then playing a character older than herself, was particularly impressive.

[TimR]

Thanks for taking the time to post that Tim, still sounds intriguing .

You're welcome! My own response was the minority in my family. I have little patience with that sort of story so I was prejudiced from the beginning.

A friend sent me a copy from the USA, and if he had not kept urgimg me to watch it I would not have bothered. When I eventually did, I was pleasantly surprised, and found it very entertaining. A very young Angela Lansbury, even then playing a character older than herself, was particularly impressive.

Angela Lansbury is a fine actress; in fact, the whole cast in this is first rate with the exception of the blob-like Mr. Pidgen.



Lansbury is about 22 in this and could pass for 45. She is usually grim and unsmiling in these older films and in this one she looks like she's chewing nails.