User Reviews

This movie has quite a lot going for it.

First of all, it is beautifully photographed - at times it looks as though you are watching a portrait moving. The acting is all terrific - Joseph Cotten is perfect as a down-on-his-luck artist who begins by selling a print to Cecil Kellaway and Ethel Barrymore. They encourage him to draw people rather than the still life pictures he'd been doing. He eventually runs into Jennie in Central Park and she intrigues him, to say the least. She mentions places and times that have long passed and sings a song that he cannot forget. The next time he runs into her she's grown up a little, then every time they see one another she'd matured more and more. They normally see each other in Central Park but he does her portrait and its a masterpiece.

Movie is very unconventional for its time - there are no opening credits, the end credits are listed as "The actors are Jennifer Jones, etc., The Supporting Actors are Ethel Barrymore, etc."; a black woman is used as an actual character rather than some sort of domestic; and its not all wrapped up in a pretty bow at the end. It might seem wordy and silly to some, but I really loved it.

I've admired Jennifer Jones since seeing "The Song of Bernadette" as a kid. Aside from that movie and "Beat the Devil", unfortunately I haven't seen a lot of her movies that seemed up to her talent. In this, she is exceptionally good and its not just a showcase for her talents put on screen by David O. Selznick - in reality, she's in it far less than Cotten.

I understand the movie won an Oscar for the special effects, which are good but I didn't need them to love the movie. 9/10.

I had only seen this film only the once,until recently and I recall it was on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I only started watching this film has there was not much else on, however when it had finished, i wanted to watch it again,and stayed up late so that i could watch the repeat showing.what make this stand out was the other world feeling of it,the photography,the feel of New York in a bygone era, and the music,Debussey, which is haunting adds to the overall ambiance,It is in essence a love story which transcends time and , is told with tenderness and beauty. It's mood lingers in the heart and its planes challenge the mind. It always leaves a void when the film ends and i can truly feel Ebans pain at losing Jennie. You can read into a lot of metaphorical stuff in the film and the book - cleverly done. The ending is both heartening yet crucifying,emotionally a story of two star crossed lovers, The overall realisation that through the barrier of time love is enduring and never ending, a wonderful film which is a must for all romantics out there. Highly recommended.

The picture starts with two poems of famous writers ¨Who knoeth if to die be but to live..and that called life by mortals be but death?¨ by Euripides and ¨Beauty is truth , truth beauty , that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know¨ by Keats . When a penniless painter (Joseph Cotten) is walking in N.Y city during the great depression , he meets a mysterious girl named Jennie Appleton (Jennifer Jones) . The otherworldly Jennie inspires to the failed artist , but , previously , he has never been able to encounter the inspiration and now he's painting wonderful paintings . Meanwhile , he meets an old spinster (Ethel Barrymore) and a painting merchant (Cecil Kallaway) . But the strange Jennie disappears and he asks for her at a convent where Mother Mary (Lilian Gish) knew her long time ago .

It is an enjoyable and fantastic romance story where protagonist duo are awesome . The script relies heavily on the relationship between the two starring , but it doesn't cause boring . It's a brilliant romantic tale and though is slow-moving , isn't tiring . Jennifer Jones (producer David O'Selznick's wife) is gorgeous with her sweet and attractive countenance . Joseph Cotten is magnificent as the artist looking for inspiration . Sensitive and stirring score , including an attractive musical leitmotiv by Dimitri Tiomkin , adding music from the classic composer Claude Debussy . Lush black and white cinematography by cameraman Joseph Lawrence and the last part tinted in green and ending image about Jennie portrait in Technicolor . The movie won an Academy Award for especial effects . Besides , being produced by the great producer David O'Selznick (Gone with the wind , Duel in the sun , Third man) . The motion picture was excellently directed by William Dieterle , author of several cinema classics (Hunchback of Notre Dame , Blockade) and autobiography specialist (Juarez , Emile Zola , Reuter , Louis Pasteur , Dr.Erlich) . The movie will appeal to romantic movies fans . Rating : 7.5/10 . Above average.

Prior to my review, 50 people have done theirs on this website and there isn't much I can add to the adjectives they have used, such as "beautiful,"" "haunting," "underrated," etc.

"Portrait Of Jennie" continues to be my all-time favorite romance story, probably because it features time travel, which I usually find fascinating, and two of my most-liked classic actors: Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten.

Once you get past that beginning narration consisting of stupid New Age mumbo-jumbo, the film is pure charm and who better to exhibit that than Jones? Few women ever looked more wholesome, sounded sweeter and looked more beautiful than this actress, who really projected innocence as she showed in her Academy Award winning debut in "The Song Of Bernadette" earlier in the decade.

Cotten is a good match for her in this film. An underrated star, he had a great voice and magnetism of his own.

However, the more I watch this film the more I am fascinated with Ethel Barrymore, who plays the kindly, spinster art museum owner. She has an extremely knowledgeable countenance and delivery of speech. Cecil Kellaway plays her art museum partner and rounds out this very likable cast.. The are no "bad guys" in this film......just good people.

The mystical time-space quality in this romance, something akin to 1980''s "Somewhere In Time," fascinates throughout and special effects are pretty darn good, too, considering when it was made.

For me, as with others, this movie was a haunting one: a film that moves me each time I see it. I have viewed perhaps 10,000 films in my 60 years and this one still ranks in the Top Ten.

Thanks to it being available on DVD - and at a cheap price - more and more people are discovering this gem. This is one of those classic movies that would still appeal to younger people today.....at least, I hope I would.

This wonderful Classic film has entertained people ever since 1948 and it will continue to warm the hearts of all people who fall in love and never stop. Jennifer Jones,(Jennie Appleton) and Joseph Cotton,(Eden Adams) played the role of these two lovers who were real Soul Mates. This film has a very haunting theme with black and white and then a color background. There is a terrifying scene with a sail boat being crashed into the rocks and waves from the ocean beating against a lighthouse almost submerged in water. Eden Adams is calling out "Jennie" "Jennie, Where are You?". Ethel Barrymore, (Miss Spinney) and Lilian Gish gave great supporting roles to make this film even a greater masterpiece for all generations to enjoy.

It's the middle of the Depression, 1934, and struggling artist Joseph Cotten can't seem to find his muse. But one day he meets a strange, but enchanting girl while in Central Park. He resolves right then and there to paint a Portrait of Jennie.

Allowing for the fact that this is a fantasy, a whole lot of the story makes absolutely no sense. But you really don't care because Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones have an almost spiritual like chemistry. As Cotten investigates he finds there's real good reason for the girl's spirituality. Every time he meets her she seems to take some quantum leaps in her maturity.

The stars of Finian's Rainbow, Albert Sharpe and David Wayne, both appear in this film. This was David Wayne's big screen debut and I certainly did love the scene where he bamboozles Sharpe into commissioning Cotten to paint a mural of Michael Collins for his Irish pub. Cotten catches on and kind of goes with the flow.

Being this is a Jennifer Jones film by her husband David O. Selznick, this is still another vehicle for Selznick to exhibit the beauty that was Jennifer Jones. Every film she did, because Selznick interfered with all of them even if he wasn't directly producing, is a testament to his vision of her. Even when she's playing bad girls like Pearl Chavez or Ruby Gentry, you get a good idea what stirred David O. Selznick to devote the rest of his life to her career.

Ethel Barrymore as the society dowager and Lillian Gish as a Mother Superior are also well cast. Too bad those two had no scenes together, that would have been something.

Portrait of Jennie is an enchanting film about an enchanting girl played by one enchanting actress. What else can you say, but enchanting.

A bittersweet sense of melancholy permeates this stunning romantic fantasy, a film produced by David Selznick as a cinematic altar to his wife Jennifer Jones.

I adored Jones in Henry King's THE SONG OF BERNADETTE, but I love Jones (almost as much as Joseph Cotten did) in PORTRAIT OF JENNIE.

Cotten is Eben Adams, an artist who meets the enigmatic Jennie (Jones) in Central Park. Their time together is always limited for Jennie is compelled to return home to a place Cotten will never visit.

At first just a sweet schoolgirl, Jennie appears to have aged unnaturally every time she re-appears to Cotten -- eventually, she is old enough to acknowledge Cotten's romantic and carnal intentions towards her.

This unusual, unique studio pic epitomizes "dreamy" for it is exceptionally surreal and photographed in a strange, re-texturized black and white (von Trier's amazing BREAKING THE WAVES used a similar technique to introduce new scenes).

The climax, staged on a storm-swept island, is absolutely beautiful and immensely tragic.

Some have dismissed PORTRAIT OF JENNIE as amounting to nothing more than a series of pretty pictures. I passionately disagree. It is one of the greatest stories of true love ever filmed, and there is nothing false in its intensity or tone (not if you have loved like this).

William Dieterle directs a wonderful romantic fantasy evocative of the lonesome and lovesick . Kudos to the special effects staff and Dimitri Tiomkin for the haunting soundtrack. A down-on-his-luck artist(Joseph Cotten)gets inspiration from an otherworldly girl(Jennifer Jones).A little picture becomes bigger and memorable because of its ensemble cast. Near perfection are Ethel Barrymore, David Wayne and Cotten and the beautiful Jones. Also in the cast are Cecil Kellaway and Lillian Gish. Unusual and memorable is a scene near the finale filmed in a green tint and the climax in full color. Pretty cool for a black and white movie. Thanks to PBS for airing this almost forgotten film.

Portrait Of Jennie is a romance/drama/fantasy. It was produced by David Selznick, who produced most of Jennifer Jones films. Selznick is most remembered for producing one of the most famous films of all time 'Gone With The Wind". This film ranks toward the best producing effort of Selznick's career. This film features phenomenal scenes of 1940s NYC, haunting music, and a storyline that is unmatched for its category. Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten get an A+ each for their respective performances. Great supporting cast that includes Ethel Barrymore (who has a fantastic performance), Lilian Gish (popular silent film actress), Cecil Kellaway, and more. Since this review contains no spoilers, I will just say that 'Portrait of Jennie' is in a category of its own when it comes to romance/drama/fantasy films. A must see for all fans of classic films. I rate this film 10/10.

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter." (Oscar Wilde)

While a portrait proved to be a convincing highlight of the 1940s noir genre, it also occurred wonderfully effective in Hollywood fantasy having its purest manifestation in William Dieterle's PORTRAIT OF JENNY. Based upon Robert Nathan's novella, produced by David O Selznick, the film is a captivating insight into an artist's world, the things, events and even person that exist within his world and feed the ever-present need for inspiration. But the most noteworthy aspect about this film, perhaps, is the appearance of Jenny – the film's 'Mona Lisa' who helps a painter Eben Adams fulfill his dreams of love. Is it all real or just a product of Utopian fantasy that becomes obsession in time? Seemingly a rhetorical question but one thing is certain: there is hardly any film which addresses the idea of loving so daringly and profoundly: forget time and its limitations, forget the rational voices of this world.

In one of the most memorable scenes of the movie, Jenny and Eben talk of when tomorrow is and the core idea of what we encounter in this film lies in her answer: 'This was tomorrow once...' The title portrait of Jenny being painted by the film's protagonist as well as Jenny's 'ghost' character appear to mirror the artist's vision of his art, his inspiration and himself. Within the lack of inspiration for a more prosperous and successful work, Eben wanders the wintry Central Park in New York City (in almost endless winter of 1934) and meets a girl, Jenny (Jennifer Jones), the daughter of artists whose enthusiasm and mystery equal to his artistic search for purity and, consequently, catharsis. 'There is something extraordinary about this kid...' the thought occupies his mind and he strives to get to know her better. His search leads him to some dates, facts and people. Sarah Bernhardt in America in 1934? (as announced in the newspaper Jenny owned). Gradually, past, presence and future are vague and unimportant.

It seems noteworthy that all who help him in that search are women, from Ms Spinney (Ethel Barrymore) through Clara Morgan (Maude Simmons) to Sister Illuminata (what a name) played by Lillian Gish. Jenny is strangely unavailable to reveal more of herself. Their feelings get more lovable and his painting more absorbing but the constant feeling of inevitable end occupies the mysteries that culminate around him. 'We all know so little...' yet he is the chosen one to know something more of mystery than other people. He knows Jenny as a kid who makes a snowman and loves chocolate and a woman who shares her love. What is it if not the reflection of his lacks within the world of feelings where life and art are closely knit? The object of his desire is what he puts on canvas: Jenny. In this way, he represents all true artists who give all of themselves for the sake of their work in order to share passion with others and 'inspire' other artists. D.H. Lawrence once said a lovely sentence that comes to mind here: "Every true artist is the salvation of every other."

Apart from the in-depth analysis of the main protagonist, the director handles the difficult, unusual theme with its make-belief efforts, its idea of transcendent experience and the mysterious undertones in a subtle manner. The lovely contribution of cinematographer Joseph H. August proves exceptional in many scenes that provide the dreamlike atmosphere to the whole experience. Although he considerably drew on some techniques from the silent era, the effect is haunting here. Many scenes, particularly the ones when Eben meets Jenny look like actual paintings. Consider the glimpses of skyscrapers and Central Park in NYC and the gorgeous use of sunlight in Jenny/Eben scenes. The scene when Gus, Eben's friend, sings 'Yonder Yonder' and plays the harp is also charming. The climactic moment of hurricane and the shot of 'endless staircase' have stamped August as one of the best cinematographers. Another great job among the crew is done by Dimitri Tiomkin with the dreamlike music score that draws on the atmospheric themes by Claude Debussy. The music plays a decisive role exceptionally in the theme where subconsciousness is profoundly influenced. And the performances...

The movie was actually a vehicle for Jennifer Jones and deservedly so because she highlights the most effective power of acting. Our attention is on her, either if it is a painted portrait (commissioned to Robert Brackham) or ghost-like, subtle, sweet Jenny. She evokes the undertones of the story with her smile and genuine behavior at her leading man, Joseph Cotton. The chemistry between the two is noteworthy since that aspect makes for the successful perception of their love, beautiful but illusive love. Joseph Cotton is emotional and honest as a performer in the scenes with Jenny. In the scenes without Jenny, however, he skillfully depicts a 'lack' and calls our attention on the fact that something is missing in his life. Lillian Gish, a great silent movie star, needs a special mention and portrays the memory of the past here. Albert Sharpe and David Wayne are interesting as Eben's pals supplying the characters with an Irish flair (and the situation of Ireland in the early 1930s). But the actress who stands out among the supporting cast is Ethel Barrymore as memorable Miss Spinney, the gallery owner, who understands the torments of an artist better than any other 'living body' of the time and set.

Though failed as a 'smashing success' at the box office of the 1940s, PORTRAIT OF JENNY is worth seeing as a representative of fantasy genre and a pleasant love story within the artist's mind. Running sole 85 minutes, it may offer you a moment to forget the flying time. Time which comes from...nobody knows...and where it is going, everyone goes. However, don't people forget time when they are in love?

This is my first comment for this site, so be gentle. The history of PORTRAIT OF JENNIE is fairly well known...a love letter from producer David O. Selznick to Jennifer Jones...and it shows by giving her, in my opinion, one of the best showcases for her talents at that time. I have read the pros and cons about this film, but each time I watch it, which isn't often, being the romantic that I am, I can sense it in the way she was treated in the film.

Why don't I watch it that often? Because it touches me in personal ways in terms of the loneliness of the two main characters, the yearning to find someone and not be alone. But most importantly, the music score arranged by the great Dmitri Tiomkin from the works of Claude Debussy. I am sorry that nobody has ever issued a track LP or CD of Tiomkin's score. To me it is a beautiful, sometimes haunting arrangement, with the theme used for Jennie touching me...I believe it is called THE GIRL WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR...I could be wrong. At points it became painful for me to watch as the film touches certain personal pains (the loneliness part particularly, more so since I lost my parents recently after caring for them and have no family to speak of). When the final scene occurs, showing the portrait itself in the museum in full color and Tiomkin's music plays over it, I am in tears. It sounds stupid, doesn't it...

The film itself is not the perfect movie that Selznick had wanted but the flaws are minor to the final result. It is a film not just for those with a romantic streak still in them, but also for the lonely, maybe giving them a message of hope.

I am glad that, unlike many classic films, this one has been preserved and is available on video. Well, that's my rambling on the subject. It may not be film criticism but its how I feel about PORTRAIT OF JENNIE.

Eben Adams is a talented but struggling artist in Depression era New York who has never been able to find inspiration for a painting. One day, after he finally finds someone to buy a painting from him, a pretty but odd young girl named Jennie Appleton appears and strikes up an unusual friendship with Eben.

The film is notable for Joseph H. August's atmospheric cinematography, capturing the lead character's obsession with Jennie, amongst the environs of a wintry New York. August shot many of the scenes through a canvas, making the scenes look like actual paintings. August, who used many lenses from silent film days, died shortly after completing the film. He was posthumously nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

The film does mark a milestone in fantasy film, which really didn't much exist in the earlier years so far as I can recall. The cinematography really does set it apart. The scenes where the background looks like canvas is just a brilliant idea, and has us questioning what is real and what is just a creation. Indeed, even by adding an opening narration, we are left with the impression that this is intended as a story (creation) rather than anything that could be considered reality.

There are some movies where you just sit there wondering how to cover both your eyes and your ears as one affront to taste follows another. "No: they can't possibly..." But yes. A plot that is a succession of utterly preposterous devices constructed to allow the producer's g.f. to age conspicuously and emote. Awful, pompous dialogue, the kind that actors wade through: notice the glassy eyes of anyone on-screen who has had to listen to the stuff for fifty takes. An unerring eye for visual kitsch. All with a score from Claude Debussy.

Poor Jennifer Jones. The story was a dumb idea in the first place, she's miscast, the words are duff, and to cap it all she's been directed into the ground. "Be more winsome!" She looks like a kind of desperate ventriloquist's dummy. She's just awful.

Joseph Cotten as a romantic fruitcake painter is deeply, deeply unconvincing. The script doesn't help, but he's just not romantic lead material.

But still, I bet this was Liberace's favourite movie. Just the thing to watch while a candelabra rotates on your grand piano.

Dieterlé's film is magic itself.Borrowing from "Peter Ibbetson " (Hathaway,1935) ,from "the portrait of Dorian Gray" (Lewin ,1944,the final trick is the same)or from the "the Ghost and Mrs Muir" (Mankiewicz,1947) ,it succeeds in connecting all the links of the chain .Moreover,I'm almost sure that Richard Matheson saw this movie for its influence on his "bid time return" novel (transferred to the screen as "Somewhere in time" (1981) ) is obvious.

A painter down on his luck meets a strange girl.Her clothes are old-fashioned and she seems out of nowhere .Dieterlé marvelously creates an offbeat poetic atmosphere.Using urban landscapes,an ominous sky or the stairs in the lighthouse shrouded in a green light,he 's got an extraordinary sense of mystery.The cast is ideal:Jennifer Jones was par excellence the romantic heroine ("Duel in the sun" which was the first time she had played opposite Cotten,"Ruby Gentry" "Madame Bovary" "Love is a many -splendored thing" ) with an adequate timeless beauty,Joseph Cotten could play everything ,and Lilian Gish made a short but conspicuous appearance as Mother Superior.The Cotten/Jones meeting in the convent could have been mushy and disastrous with any lesser talent:Dieterlé makes it a moving scene ,intimate and grandiose all at once.

We all live with our past.Some of us would give everything to relive scenes of their past .Einstein told one day that time was the form of his powerlessness while space was the form of his power.Who knows if (and the lines which open the movie open any door) somewhere we are not living in our past,or in our future?

Years ago, during Christmas season, "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946) made a huge difference in an otherwise humbug seasonal experience, one all too typical for me. Today, Christmas 1999, "Portrait of Jennie" (1948) gave me the same renewal of spirit and belief in transcendant human values. Similar themes and techniques underlay both films. Hopelessness and a search for meaning and redemption is met in each by a mystical and transforming experience. Black and white photography artfully supports and enhances the plot, especially in "Portrait of Jeannie". Transcendence of monetary woes is another common thread. Unlike the Jimmy Stewart character in "It's A Wonderful Life", Joseph Cotton's struggling artist is doing what he wants to do, not lost in regrets over missed opportunities. Still he is lost, alone and unsatisfied. He finds his salvation in his work, when inspired by a ghostly acquaintance (Jennifer Jones). While there is a nod to traditional religion, the underlying theme of "I believe, if you believe" outweighs any mixed messages. The film unfolds steadily and predictably, but ultimately gives the gifts of hope and joy to any viewer. In my case I would add: despite the viewers original mood. Films like these don't come along too often. Without an ounce of traditional Christmas symbolism this film should be another holiday classic. The transition from humbug to hope is a classic holiday story and gift! As a perennial grouch at Christmas, I am surprised to find another one like it again. Just last night I said humbug to watching "It's a Wonderful Life Again." There must have been something in those post-war years when hope and optimism came rushing back filling the screen, replacing the fear and despair felt by so many. Whatever, give yourself a gift and watch this movie sometime, then pass it along. I'm glad I did!

This 1948 fantasy from Selznick Studios is definitely an a la "The Twilight Zone" production, (even if it was produced more than ten years before the far-fetched TV series.) William Dieterle is to be commended for his directing ability, the master musician Dimitri Tiomkin did well with the haunting music score, and it was dotted with a somewhat stellar cast, composed of Joseph Cotton, the outstanding veteran actress Ethel Barrymore, as well as the beautiful Jennifer Jones. The story line is very simple: an artist (played by Cotton) in depression-era New York cannot find any subject for a painting, until one day in Central Park he meets a young girl named Jennie Appleton, who is just a young school girl when he meets her. (Jennifer Jones did well playing different roles- as a young elementary school girl, a teen-ager as well as a lady in her twenties- and she was in her late twenties when the movie was produced.) Automatically, the 30's revert to a period at least a decade before this time. Not only is she a wonderful subject for one of his portraits, but in her twenties Jennie is definitely a lady with whom Cotton becomes madly in love. While the movie is surreal and has a rather sad ending, there is some sort of appeal to it. The producers dabbled well with color effects: there was a sepia tone in part of the movie, a green finish in another scene, a Technicolor scene at the very end of the movie, as well as the black-and-white in which the movie was filmed. The movie is, again, very drawing.

One of the most beautiful and haunting films of all time. During the Great Depression in New York City, Eben Adams walks through Central Park at dusk and sees a little girl making a snowman. He tells her it's late and walks her out of the park as she sings a song about where she comes from nobody knows. He does a sketch of the little girl and sells it for 12.00. every time he sees the child after that she is a few years older until she reaches the age of 18 then they fall in love.He comes to realize that Jenny is really a ghost. This film comes as a complete surprise to me because in the book other people see Jenny, the cab driver- the landlady. In the movie only the Joseph Cotton character sees her which is the best way because it makes Jennifer Jones character more other worldly.Did you know Selznick considered Shirley Temple for the part? This movie is one of the top three most beautifully photographed black and white films ever made . I even liked the green and sepia lens on the last reel. The last shot in Technicolor is breathtaking.

Portrait of Jennie (1949)

An ambitious, multi-layered, visually inventive misfire. It's not bad, and the leading actors are good or even great, including the supporting players. But there is so much striving for profundity and a failure to reach it you can't really get into the more compelling basic plot of a pretty girl from the past appearing as a vision to a lonely painter in New York. The fantasy as the core is a wonderful idea that struggles to be truly fantastic.

I'm a sucker for romantic films. I thought I this would sink me. At first I went along with the quotes about love and the voice-over intoning and the clouds swirling. But soon the production values begin to show a wobbly. I liked the scenes of New York on a canvas texture as if a black and white painting. Some city shots are photographic stills, however, and you can see the grain of the original clearly motionless, and the segues between techniques are sometimes a bit clumsy.

Even so, you get absorbed in Joseph Cotten's character. He's great. He's subtle and likable and restrained. The Jennie is a real Jennie, Jennifer Jones, who starts off playing a 13 year old with a minimum of conviction, then a 16 year old, and so on into her early 20s, where she can then radiate and be her real self at her best. (She was 29 during filming and that year married the producer, David Selznick.) Cotten and Jones don't quite have on-screen chemistry, but there is a long section just beyond halfway where the two are together romantically that is lovingly filmed. The tight close-ups of their two heads at night, in a moving shift of poses, is really great stuff and you finally really feel for the two of them.

Without giving too much more away, it's really the crux of the film that Cotten is stuck in the present and Jennie keeps appearing to him--and only him, it seems--from the past. He's confused by this but enchanted (she's a pretty woman and a nice kid both) and his painting career takes off. She is the more complex character in a way because she's vaguely aware something is wrong . I wish they had given more time to her psychology, because there is a lot there under the surface.

I feel like a curmudgeon having doubts about such a romantic film. It is an influence, no doubt, on the similar (and similarly flawed) "Somewhere in Time," though in "Jennie" we have a problem they never address of how Jennie doesn't quite notice that the cars are decades newer than she remembered. Most of the time they spend in the park or in the artist's garret, to avoid that hitch.

There is a final technical surprise near the end which I won't say much about except that it's thrilling all around, with tinting of whole sequences like some 1922 dramatic silent. (The cinematographer, Joseph August, used some silent era lenses for many scenes, and got an Oscar nomination for his efforts.) The scenes by the end are wild and beautiful, and if you have gotten into their relationship for real by that point you'll be really moved. Throw in some lightly bastardized Debussy, quite beautiful, and you have true drama.

Director William Dieterle deserves both credit for making this as different and fresh as it is and some criticism for not pulling it together more smoothly. I think it's because of Selznick, who stuck his nose into the production many times, and kept the vitals shifting as they went. Five writers were used (it shows, especially in redundant recollections of the sad-eyed Jennie throughout). And shooting on location, a novelty in the 1940s, added expense and perhaps some larger than expected challenges. Oh, look for silent era star Lillian Gish briefly as the main nun, and Ethel Barrymore in a major secondary role. There is a lot here to like, but as a total film it's weirdly imperfect, feeling almost unfinished.

Eben Adams is a struggling artist who feels his work has no real substance, but one day as he mopes around Central Park, a beautiful young girl by the name of Jennie Appleton meets his acquaintance. Totally enchanting, Jennie engages Eben in a conversation that doesn't sit quite right with the time, then after singing him a haunting little tune she vanishes as quickly as she had appeared. From this point on, Eben's life will never be the same, both artistically and emotionally.

Portrait Of Jennie can be bracketed in the multi genre department, part mystery, part romance and certainly fantastical, it's a wonderfully put together picture that is ready made to lift the gloom on a dark winters night. It's the sort of picture that I personally believe you are better going into without any real sense of plot preparation, there are plenty of great reviews for this picture readily available, and all are justified, I can but merely concur with the many positives this delightful picture has garnered.

Directed with a very astute awareness of the theme by William Dieterele, the picture benefits from excellent technical aspects across the board. Joseph Cotten gives perhaps one of his greatest performances as Eben Adams, while the classically beautiful Jennifer Jones (Jennie Appleton) lights up the screen as each scene with her in becomes hauntingly emotional. Wonderful support comes from Ethel Barrymore & Cecil Kellaway, whilst Lillian Gish pops up for a crucial, and impacting piece of work. Joseph August's cinematography is simply brilliant, nominated for an academy award, the way he uses ethereal hues to influence the story is easy on the eye and fully forms the atmosphere. Dimitri Tiomkin takes up scoring duties, appealingly influenced by Claude Debussy, Tiomkin lays down a memorable score that has much to savour. And the final pat on the back goes to the special effects team who picked up the academy award for their excellent efforts.

Technically brilliant and with a story to match, Portrait Of Jennie is highly recommended viewing to those who want to be taken far away to some place rather nice, see it with someone you care about and give them a hug as the ending plays out. 8.5/10

My admiration for Jennifer Jones defiantly survives her career-long penchant for goopy vehicles. This film, I note from existing comments, seems to inspire the kind of reverence that no rebuttal can dislodge, and so I'll merely suggest that it might be just a tad pretentious, that some might find it wordy, and that its ill-blended melange of pulp-fiction mysticism, pseudo-theology and "philosophy" adds up to nothing whatever. Some nice fantasy-effects in an impossible Central Park, and a Debussy-derived score that brings many a smile, as much for "the next bit that's left out" as for what's plundered -- it's an oddity, perhaps, that as a leitmotiv for the raven-tressed Jenny, "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" was chosen, but I did miss the trumpet in the "La Mer" borrowing. Cotten is better in "The Third Man", Gish in "Night of the Hunter", and David Wayne anywhere he isn't wrestling with an Irish brogue that comes and goes like the Cheshire Cat.