1948 - CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS, arty British drama full of gothic touches

This is an interesting film, kind of a cross between Hitchcock's Vertigo and Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast.  The film's plot involves an eccentric wealthy artist (what else) Paul Mangin played by Eric Portman.  He believes he has found his reincarnated lover whose name is Mifanwy Conway (whew).  He manages to lure her to his extravagant villa where I guess they become lovers although it's hard to tell since this is a 1940's film.  After lots of scenes of Mifanwy wandering around the villa she manages to break free of his influence and ends up with some boring British guy and settles in for a nice boring domestic life unfortunately.

The film has lots of artistic photography and some very elaborate sets.  There is a scene set at a party hosted by Mangin that is an elaborate reincarnation of something the Borgias would have given in Renaissance Italy.  The set is really something to see.  No arguing that this is a very good looking film.

 

As for the acting, Eric Portman is the eccentric artist and he manages to give a good performance without sliding into some weirdo overacting thing.  The object of his obsession Mifanwy Conway is played by the screenwriter of the film, Edana Romney.  Unfortunately I don't think Romney really had the acting chops to pull the part of the possibly reincarnated love interest off.  She saunters around the villa in a perpetual state of overacting anxiety without really being able to convey the characters conflicted feelings about Paul Mangin.  

 

 The film was directed by Terence Young who was primarily and action director. Young's place in film history was as the director of three James Bond films with Sean Connery.  These films defined the series which obviously continues to this day.

The running time is 105 minutes.