Portrait of Jennie 1948

     This film is based on a novel by Robert Nathan published in 1940.  The setting of the film is New York in 1934 during the depression.  Eben Adams is an artist and he’s having trouble paying his rent.  He goes to a gallery, he sells a painting and that will take care of the rent for a while.  Soon after the sale, he meets Jennie Appleton.  She gives him inspiration and he paints a portrait of her.  He sells the portrait right away.  He doesn’t see Jennie regularly and she seems to be older every time he sees her again?

     Time is separated into different parts in this imaginative film.  It expounds on the idea of love found and lost but with a promise that it will be found again but forever the second time.  Jennie could be a dream, a memory or a lovely ghost from the past?  It’s also possible she has stepped from another world into this present world?  I found this very interesting and enjoyable.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)   

   

86 min, Drama directed by William Dieterie with Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Cecil Kellaway, David Wayne, Albert Sharpe, Henry Hull, Florence Bates, Felix Bressart, Clem Bevans, Maude Simmons.

Note:  Imdb 7.7 out of 10, 91% critic 86% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 161 reviews, TCM Leonard Maltin 3* out of 4*, user rating & review average 4.51 out of 5, Slant Magazine 4* out of 4*.

Special Note:  Filmed in The Cloisters Museum and Central Park, Manhattan, New York City; Graves Light, Boston, Massachusetts.  Originally, David O. Selznick thought about filming this movie over a period of several years with a young actress in the role of Jennie.  He abandoned the idea as too risky and difficult to film.  Portrait artist Robert Brackman was the painter of the portrait of Jennie.  The painting was prized by Selznick and hung in his home from 1946 until his death in 1965.  This film flopped at the box office and it was released again with the title Tidal Wave in 1950.  It was marketed to a different audience but this release also flopped.  The film is in black and white except the portrait is in Technicolor and the scenes at Graves Light in Massachusetts are filmed in green.  Screen Director’s Playhouse broadcast a 30-minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 10, 1950.  Jennifer Jones was married to Robert Walker, they divorced and she married David O. Selznick, the producer of this film.