Review of Portrait of Jennie (1948) by Sherry L — 15 Nov 2010

Wow! This was sooo much better than I hoped for! Beautiful and emotional with streaks of mysticism.

While in 1948, movies with similar "fantasy" themes were popular like One Touch of Venus and Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid for example and I expected this to be about in the same line as those.

I must admit that I never have seen the "greatness" with Jennifer Jones, but guess her stardom could have something to do with her hubby...

Either way, most movies I've seen with her were cheesy and mediocre (but still watchable, though) so I didn't expect much of it.

Joseph Cotten plays a poor artist who meets a beautiful little girl, dressed in old fashioned clothes, in Central Park. The little girl stucked on the artists mind, and when he comes home he starts making a sketch of her from his memory.

The next time he meets Jennie, she is much older, even though it was very recently last time they met. The artist falls in love with the beautiful and mysterious Jennie, but he discovers there is something very unusual about her (and he is right!).

Also loved the suggestive ending that leads to some reflections.

This is a very overlooked classic (think of how long time it took for even me to see it!), that definately deserves one look. Specially if you love old classics, like I do!