"Nobody wants to belong to the past. Except me. But perhaps you'll be there with me sometimes."
I loved everything about the two leads (Edana Romney and Eric Portman), their looks so perfect for the period, the way they gazed at each other, and their range throughout a haunting story. Romney plays Mifanwy (or as the natives of a foreign country had called her long ago, "Devil Girl"), and Portman plays a cultured man who takes a liking to her the moment he lays eyes on her in a night club. He inhabits a lavishly furnished house, one full of mystery, and has impeccable taste in the trappings of the past. As the two become lovers, she says of his obsession "Even in my sleep, he would be there, in the corridor of mirrors. Watching me, dressing up for him."
Eventually we're confronted with two possibilities, that he's somehow known her from a past life centuries ago in Italy, which he tells her about, or that he's a manipulative player who strings women along, which a strange woman she comes across in the house claims (Barbara Mullen). It's a fine premise, and Terence Young pulls all the right strings by telling it in an extended flashback, with a liberal dose of dreamy lights, music, and costumes. I'm not quite as sure about the ending, which was a bit drawn out and ended with things a little too conveniently tidied up, but overall, I really enjoyed this.
I loved everything about the two leads (Edana Romney and Eric Portman), their looks so perfect for the period, the way they gazed at each other, and their range throughout a haunting story. Romney plays Mifanwy (or as the natives of a foreign country had called her long ago, "Devil Girl"), and Portman plays a cultured man who takes a liking to her the moment he lays eyes on her in a night club. He inhabits a lavishly furnished house, one full of mystery, and has impeccable taste in the trappings of the past. As the two become lovers, she says of his obsession "Even in my sleep, he would be there, in the corridor of mirrors. Watching me, dressing up for him."
Eventually we're confronted with two possibilities, that he's somehow known her from a past life centuries ago in Italy, which he tells her about, or that he's a manipulative player who strings women along, which a strange woman she comes across in the house claims (Barbara Mullen). It's a fine premise, and Terence Young pulls all the right strings by telling it in an extended flashback, with a liberal dose of dreamy lights, music, and costumes. I'm not quite as sure about the ending, which was a bit drawn out and ended with things a little too conveniently tidied up, but overall, I really enjoyed this.