Rent Corridor of Mirrors (1948)
3.3 of 5 from 63 ratings
1h 32min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Waxworks, ancient artefacts, reincarnation, insanity and murder; you'll never escape the corridor of mirrors... Mifanwy Conway (Edana Romney) is an unhappily married woman easily seduced by modern-day Bluebeard Paul Mangin (Eric Portman). Mangin becomes obsessed with his new muse believing she is the reincarnation of his lover from a former life, whose portrait hangs in his home. He adorns Mifanwy with antique jewels and precious fabrics, making her the double of his first mistress. As their relationship escalates, Mangin's controlling nature becomes too much and during a sumptuous Venetian-style ball he has planned for her, Mifanwy rebels against his brainwashing and tries to run away... This neo-realist fairy story perfectly combines elements of German expressionism with English Gothic. - Actors:
- Eric Portman, Edana Romney, Barbara Mullen, Hugh Sinclair, Bruce Belfrage, Alan Wheatley, Joan Maude, Leslie Weston, Hugh Latimer, John Penrose, Christopher Lee, Lois Maxwell, Mavis Villiers, Thora Hird, Valentine Dyall, Susanne Gibbs, Noel Howlett, Gordon McLeod
- Directors:
- Terence Young
- Producers:
- Rudolph Cartier
- Writers:
- Christopher Massie, Rudolph Cartier, Edana Romney
- Studio:
- Simply Media
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- Top 10 British Actresses of the 1940s, Top 10 Films By Year, Top 10 Films of 1948, Top Films
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Reviews (1) of Corridor of Mirrors
Dreamy Fantasy. - Corridor of Mirrors review by Steve
Arthouse fantasy about a couple of mysterious characters who seem to have become unstuck from time. Or is there's a rational explanation? It's the kind of ghostly tale of the uncanny which became popular after WWII, and owes an obvious debt to French surrealist director, Jean Cocteau.
Which is curious as this is the debut of Terence Young, who went on to make Bond films. Eric Portman is cast against type as an androgynous aesthete who meets a black haired beauty in prewar London (Edana Romney), who is the image of his renaissance painting.
While the supernatural events have a kind of opiated logic, this is foremost about about the dark atmosphere, with elaborate sets in deep shadows, dreamy symbolism, and motifs of fetishism and sexual ambiguity. George Auric's modernist score makes a big contribution to the ambience of hazy romance.
The sound is bathed in reverb for hypnotic effect, which makes the dialogue difficult to follow, despite Portman having the clearest diction in films. Romney is the lead and she looks fine as a hallucinatory apparition of a medieval aristocrat, though not a great actor. It's a curiosity which is sometimes absurd, but ultimately, haunting.
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