Touches You

Powerful

Expected more

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This is a great fantasy story. An aspiring artist who is lacking inspiration meets a pretty young woman in a park. They seem to hit it off. Later, from memory, he paints a portrait of her. He sees this as a kind of masterwork. From that point on, he has several encounters with her. It seems she is getting older, faster, and becoming more and more sophisticated. He also seems to be losing connection with her. This is a loving movie about unrequited love, facing obstacles one cannot overcome. It's also a mystery of the first order. This is a film of consummate beauty and ethereal being. We have to ask ourselves who this woman is and where did she come from.

Daid O. Selznick struck Hollywood good with his four hour 1939 technicolor GONE WITHE THE WIND and his two hour 1949 black and white RECBECCA. Eight years later he made PORTRAIT OFJENNIE on the parallel dark brooding supernaturally tinged premise to REBECCA which lasts only 86 minutes the first hour in nblack and white the remainder switching from green monochrome to techicolor. Ethel Barrymore in a lead role and Lillian Gish coming out of retirement for a considerable length cameo continue his tradition of producing Hollywood gold. The choice of Joseph Cotten in the central role and Florence Bates in a cameo lends merit to the film. The film was originally shown in a not working well prelude to cinemascope called Cyclorama which was abandoned quickly and is not available in modern cablecasts or DVD. Jennifer Jones was his chosen bride and star of the era who can be beautiful in finery and cosmetics but plays for much of the film a little girl dressed down. Her vocal shortcomings would not be worth stardom today. Her sound track comes out less than satisfactory on modern cablecast and DVD.

Was a godsend for me as an adolescent, back in the early 60's, and many of the films I watched stayed with me - Portrait of Jennie being one of the strongest of those memories.This always puzzled me because, while there was much in the tone of the movie I remembered with affection, there were also elements of melodrama and weak plot elements that gnawed. And, given that I'd only seen it once so long ago, I always wondered if I'd projected a teenager's perspective into it.So, when it popped up on TCM recently I recorded it, discovering where both impressions originated.Frankly, the opening and ending credits reek of Selznick's ego while the opening voice-over is both unnecessary and bombastic, tossing in pointless speculations of time and space, neither of which are well understood to this day.Then Portrait begins with Cotten's character, Eben Adams, meeting Jennifer Jone's Jennie Appleton as a young girl (Who dreamed up these names?), and Portrait takes off - building from friendship to love within a frame of mystery as Adams slowly comes to realize that Jennie is not what she seems.A great deal of credit goes to Director and Screen Writer for letting the story evolve, from Adams' perspective, without explicitly identifying Jennie as a Spirit or Ghost even 'til the very end, and finally granting her Immortality in Adam's haunting portrait.Jennie's never explained, the mystery is never really solved, logic is never imposed on the story. It's left, as it should be, lyrical and heart-breaking.As for my remembered misgivings, blame Selznick and his ego. Cut out everything after "A Selznick Production" to Cotten's opening scene as well as the pretentious closing credits (did Selznick just get back from a French vacation?) and you've got a small masterpiece.As for the source, Robert Nathan's novella, I suspect he dreamed up the names to seem more New Englandish (Eben? Miss Spinnery?) and I'd love to find a copy; he did write "The Bishop's Wife", the film version of which is also a favorite. So I'm inclined to give him a pass rather than thinking Portrait was a superior adaptation of a lesser work.At any rate thank God for TCM and, despite my criticism, Selznick's ability to recognize when he's produced a winner and restrain, if not totally corral, his ego.

The really really really odd thing about the much-criticized studio system of Ancient Hollywood is that, every now and then, almost by accident, by some sort of weird Darwinian evolution, films like this, one of a kind films that you could (literally) watch 100 times, just appeared. Almost like the principle character in this film. She just appears -- and within moments Joseph Cotten, and the audience, are swept away. Cotten is an astonishing and vastly under-rated actor. Orson Welles understood his ability to keep a film together and used Cotten whenever he could. Cotten like Welles came from radio, so when you are casting a story that requires voice-over as well as screen charisma, this is your man. Jennifer Jones was known as a great romantic lead but not a sex goddess. An important distinction. She is perfectly cast. I could lean over and check the "spoiler box" and tell you how this story unfolds, but that would be mean. It is one of the best 100 films ever made, regardless of whether modern fanboys have ever heard of it. From the first moment to the last it is near-perfect. Bring a Kleenex because you may cry. And that comment applies to the women too.