Painter Henry Elcott tricks wealthy art collector Mary Herries into permitting him, his wife Ada and their baby to live in her London home. Ada collapses and a doctor claims that she should not be moved. However, Elcott schemes to sell Mrs. Herries' art collection and her other possessions while holding her and her housemaid Rose captive in their bedrooms. Elcott's accomplices, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, become the butler and maid. Elcott masquerades as the nephew of Mrs. Herries who has come to tend to her affairs after a sudden mental breakdown.
The criminals taunt Mrs. Herries, placing her chair near a window after informing the neighborhood that any screams emanating from the house would be those of an insane woman. Mrs. Edwards is concerned that they are staying too long in the house, which Elcott intends to sell. Mrs. Herries tries to bribe Mrs. Edwards, but Mr. Edwards snatches the money from his wife and refuses to leave. Tensions rise as Mrs. Herries learns the true identity of Elcott from a portrait of his wife that he had signed with his real name. Ada has seen Elcott kill before and realizes that he will kill again. She tries but is unable to free Rose, who is murdered by Mr. Edwards.
When the time comes to leave the house, Mr. Edwards approaches Mrs. Herries to push her out of the window, attempting to suggest suicide. However, the body in the chair has been switched by Mrs. Herries and Ada and is actually that of Rose. The police arrive and Elcott realizes that he and Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have made a fatal mistake.[2]
MGM announced the film project in March 1950, with Ethel Barrymore slated as the star. MGM hired Edward Chodorov, who had written the stage play Kind Lady with George Haight, to write the screen adaptation. The play had been based on the story "The Silver Mask" by Hugh Walpole.[3]
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic A. H. Weiler wrote: "Although remakes sometimes have borne the stigma of staleness, 'Kind Lady' ... should dispel the notion that second editions are not equal to the original. For this yarn about a gang of knaves who hold a trusting elderly lady captive while they attempt to snatch her worldly goods is literate melodrama impeccably translated by a fine cast. And since it has been sixteen years since it first saw the light of day on Broadway, it is in order to point out that the present company is as convincing as were the troupes who originated it on the stage and, some months later, on the screen."[4]
According to MGM records, the film earned $361,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $139,000 in other markets, resulting in a loss to the studio of $664,000.[1]
References
123The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
↑"Kind Lady". FilmScoreMonthly. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
↑Brady, Thomas F. (1950-03-31). "Metro Planning 'Kind Lady' Movie". The New York Times. p.36.
↑Weiler, A. H. (1951-08-08). "The Screen in Review". The New York Times. p.21.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
