PORTRAIT OF JENNIE *

You either take to this whimsy or you don't and I'm afraid I didn't, though I do remember seeing it as a child and finding it quite fanciful. "Portrait of Jennie" is a ghost story and a love story. The portrait's painter, (Joseph Cotten, not well cast), falls in love with a ghost whom he first meets as a little girl in Central Park. She's Jennifer Jones, excellent and very convincing, whether as a child or as a grown woman. Jones was Mrs. David O. Selznick at the time and this is an O. Selznick picture so he does indulge her somewhat.

Of course, you don't have to be Holmes or Watson to know from the outset that Jennie is a ghost and that she comes to a bad end up around Cape Cod. It might have been tolerable were it not for David Wayne as Cotten's best friend with an appalling Irish accent, (he acts as if he's auditioning for the role of the leprechaun in "Finian's Rainbow"), and this kind of Stage Oirishism is even worse than seeing ghosts in Central Park. There's an impressive storm sequence in colour, (or at least, in green) and the film did win an Oscar for its special effects. It was also quite successful in its day though now it just feels like a curiosity.