I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Brilliant and touching

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Eleanor Parker (Laura Fairlie/Anne Catherick), Alexis Smith (Marian Halcombe), Sydney Greenstreet (Count Fosco), Gig Young (Walter Hartright), Agnes Moorehead (Countess Fosco), John Abbott (Frederick Fairlie), John Emery (Sir Percival Glyde), Curt Bois (Louis), Emma Dunn (Mrs Vesey), Matthew Boulton (Dr Nevin), Anita Sharp-Bolster (Mrs Todd), Clifford Brooke (Jepson), Barry Bernard (Dimmock).Director: PETER GODFREY. Screenplay: Stephen Morehouse Avery. Based on the 1860 novel by Wilkie Collins. Photography: Carl Guthrie. Film editor: Clarence Kolster. Music composed by Max Steiner, orchestrated by Murray Cutter, directed by Leo F. Forbstein. Art director: Stanley Fleischer. Set decorator: George Southall. Wardrobe: Bernard Newman. Miss Smith's gowns: Milo Anderson. Make- up: Perc Westmore. Special effects directed by William McGann, photographed by Robert Burks. Dialogue director: Herschel Daugherty. Sound recording: Charles Lang. RCA Sound System. Producer: Henry Blanke.Copyright 15 May 1948 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 7 May 1948. U.S. release: 15 May 1948. U.K. release: 30 August 1948. Australian release: 20 October 1949. 9,968 feet. 110 minutes. (The Warner Archive DVD rates 10/10).COMMENT: This seems to be the first sound version of the Collins novel, though there were at least four silent versions — 1912, 1914, 1917 and lastly one directed by Herbert Wilcox in 1929 with Blanche Sweet in the title role.Literature, particularly Victorian literature (unless it was classic children's stuff like Tom Sawyer or Little Women), marked a movie immediately for lower-rate midweek bookings at neighborhood cinemas, no matter how lustrous its stars, how impressive its production.This superb adaptation of the Wilkie Collins thriller proved to be no exception. Faithful it is not only in plot and characters but in mood and atmosphere. Director William McGann and photographer Robert Burks are to be congratulated on their wonderful special effects. The film is superbly directed by Peter Godfrey and has one of Max Steiner's best music scores. Almost all the acting demands the highest commendation, with Greenstreet and Miss Parker (in a dual role) really outstanding.The only speck in an otherwise perfect entertainment mixture is Gig Young. Admittedly, he tries hard, but the role is beyond him.

A long term plan to get the fabled Fairlie inheritance starts to go awry the second visiting artist and art instructor Gig Young comes to the Fairlie estate in Great Britain. He runs into the Woman In White, a rather strange young lady and then a coach with people in it looking for same. He decides to pretend he knows nothing.Our heiress Laura Fairlie and the mysterious Woman In White are both played by Eleanor Parker. Almost up to the end I had trouble figuring out exactly what the relationship was between the two Eleanors so I will not say. It's half the fun of watching the film.There's a pair of villains in the piece Sidney Greenstreet playing Count Fosco, playing him with the same avuncular malice as Casper Guttman. He's a scientist with a title like Baron Von Frankenstein. But rather than experimenting with dead bodies, Fosco prefers to work on the mind with chemicals and intimidation. He's getting a big payoff for arranging the marriage between Parker the heiress and a rapacious no account count John Emery. The only friend the heiress has in the house is companion Alexis Smith.My favorite in the film is John Abbott who is Parker's father who has the constitution of a napkin and makes Adrian Monk look hale and hearty with all his phobias. Greenstreet and Emery intimidate him rather easily.Second favorite is Agnes Moorehead who is the countess Fosco and with very little dialog, but much facial expression is the picture of a woman scorned.This Victorian Gothic drama has one fine cast of scene stealers all working overtime for your enjoyment. The end is unforgettable.

I love these old spooky classics. This one has all the elements of the Gothic novel. It has the forced marriage, the mysterious woman in the woods, the young lover who has to go, and some great villains. At the top of the list is one of the greatest character actors ever, Sydney Greenstreet. Did he ever make a bad movie? He has total control of every scene in which he appears. One of my favorite scenes is when they are at dinner and the young count is eating with Greenstreet's monkey on his shoulder. Greenstreet throws his wine at him. It is to say, "I'm the boss of everyone here. Don't forget that." Otherwise, with some pretty dramatic silliness involving women and Gig Young's sort of dull character, it comes out quite well. It contains suspense and darkness and a satisfactory conclusion. it has some very nice camera work, and the house is quite magnificent.

A film I thought promised more than it actually would deliver (after a moodily atmospheric beginning), but nonetheless "The Woman in White" is an earnestly crisp and broodingly scheming minor mystery / thriller that's brought to life by its exceptionally dramatic performances. Thanks namely of the hearty and eccentric turns by Sydney Greenstreet (who's simply great), Eleanor Parker, John Abbott and Agnes Moorehead.A new tutor Walter Hartright (an artist) is hired at a country English estate, but on his way their on a brightly lit night through a forest. He encounters a lady dressed in white asking for help, but minutes later she's gone. After arriving at the estate, the next morning he thinks he encounters the lady again to find out she's not the one, despite the uncanny appearance, but actually Laura Fairlie who he'll be teaching. In the estate he finds himself amongst an odd collection of characters, which seem to have their own little secrets and when they hear that of Walter's encounter with the lady in white and his constant enquiries seem to open up a can of worms.Director Peter Godfrey's sufficient handling is patiently slow-winding, but beautifully projected with the sweeping photography and atmospheric Victorian setting. Suspense makes little headway, as it's quite a talky piece (with a captivating script); dependent on its enlivened mystery (adapted off Wilkie Collins novel) and the cleverly implemented canvas work. Sure it can feel telegraphed and contrived in certain developments, but there are interesting psychological traits holding it together, solid character groundwork and impulsive actions in what is a fiendish layout capably pulled off. Also the rest of the central cast; Gig Young, Alexis Smith and John Emery lay on ably defined performances.