This Was a Woman | |
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![]() Trade ad, Kinematograph Weekly , 1948 | |
Directed by | Tim Whelan |
Written by | Val Valentine (adapted from the film treatment by Joan Morgan) |
Based on | play This Was a Woman by Joan Morgan |
Produced by | Marcel Hellman |
Starring | |
Cinematography |
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Edited by | Edward B. Jarvis |
Music by | Mischa Spoliansky |
Production company | Excelsior Films |
Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
Release dates |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
This Was a Woman is a 1948 British crime film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Sonia Dresdel, Walter Fitzgerald and Emrys Jones. [1] It was made at the Riverside Studios with sets designed by the art directors Ivan King and Andrew Mazzei. [2] Based on a successful play by former film actress Joan Morgan, [3] its plot concerns an outwardly respectable family dominated by a murderous matriarch. [4]
Sylvia Russell is a woman who likes to get her own way. With a huge ambition to exercise power, she has had to be content with manipulating and demoralising her sweet natured husband and controlling the lives of her children, all while presenting the appearance of a devoted wife and mother.
When her daughter Fenella announces that she is going to marry Val, Sylvia is furious at this sign of independence and while pretending to welcome Val into the family, does everything she can to undermine the marriage, eventually splitting the couple up.
Her son, although not really understanding why, chooses never to bring his girlfriend to the house; is he beginning to comprehend his mother's true character?
When Austin, her husband's old friend, returns to England after many successful years abroad with the same company, Sylvia sees a chance to further her ambitions. She feels sure that she can achieve the power she craves with the right person at her side. And then her husband falls ill...
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland, known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was an English-American actress who is best known for her starring roles in Hollywood films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Fontaine appeared in more than 45 films in a career that spanned five decades. She was the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland. Their rivalry was well-documented in the media at the height of Fontaine's career.
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Sonia Dresdel was an English actress, whose career ran between the 1940s and 1970s.
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Sandra Dorne was a British actress.
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While I Live is a 1947 British drama film directed and co-written by John Harlow and starring Sonia Dresdel, Tom Walls and Carol Raye. While I Live is best remembered for its musical theme "The Dream of Olwen" composed by Charles Williams, reprised at intervals throughout the film, which became hugely popular in its time and is still regularly performed. The film itself became widely known as The Dream of Olwen. It was based on a play by Robert Bell, in which Sonia Dresdel also starred.
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Escape Me Never is a 1935 British drama film directed by Paul Czinner, produced by Herbert Wilcox, and starring Elisabeth Bergner, Hugh Sinclair and Griffith Jones. The score is by William Walton with orchestration by Hyam Greenbaum. Bergner was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance, but lost to Bette Davis. British readers of Film Weekly magazine voted the 1935 Best Performance in a British Movie to her. The film is an adaptation of the play Escape Me Never by Margaret Kennedy, which was based upon her 1930 novel The Fool of the Family. That book was a sequel to The Constant Nymph, which was also about the Sanger family of musical geniuses, but there is a disjunct among the books and the films: the Sanger brothers are never mentioned in the 1943 film version of The Constant Nymph. Another film adaptation of Escape Me Never was made in 1947 by Warner Bros.
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