JENNIFER (1953)

Agnes Langley is hired by Lorna Gale to be the live-in caretaker at the currently unoccupied Gale estate, to replace Jennifer, a cousin and previous caretaker who has vanished. When Agnes stops at a gas station to ask for directions, the attendant warns her away from the mysterious mansion but for no solid reason. Agnes moves in and local store owner Jim Hollis agrees to check on her from time to time. Agnes finds Jennifer's diary which records her unease in the house, and Agnes begins to feel that unease, like she may not be alone in the house. (The tension in these early scenes relies a bit too much on some overdone spooky music used as the background score.) Orin, a college student who works as Jim's delivery boy and handyman at the Gale house, comes off as harmless and innocent, but his prattling on about the mystery of Jennifer adds to Agnes's worries. A bankbook belonging to Jennifer is found and Agnes sees several large deposits in the weeks before she disappeared, and discovers that she may have been involved in a scandal in Los Angeles in which a businessman she worked for committed suicide. This makes Agnes think that Jennifer was blackmailing someone, and that perhaps Jennifer has been killed and her body is somewhere in the house. Slowly, almost despite herself, Agnes begins to fall for Jim, but she's also suspicious that he knows more about Jennifer's disappearance than he lets on, especially when Orin plants seeds of doubt about Jim in her mind. Encouraged by Jim to fully explore the mansion, she finds a wooden crate full of water in the basement, and when she looks in, she sees Jennifer. Or does she?

This is a decent psychological thriller; though engaging for much of its length, the solution to the mystery is surprisingly bland; everything could have been cleared up in the first twenty minutes, but then this would be an Alfred Hitchcock Presents half-hour show instead of a 73-minute B-movie. It does have a low-budget feel (the house in particular looks cheap and plain), but the polished cinematography by James Wong Howe gives it a nicely atmospheric look. The acting is a bit too low-key at times, but ratcheting things up too much might have led to a campy tone. Ida Lupino (above left) carries the movie well as Agnes, who is in almost every scene. She's a little highly strung (the reasons for which aren't explored) but mostly stays grounded. Howard Duff, Lupino's real-life husband (pictured with Lupino at right), is casually masculine and understanding as Jim, though leaving open the possibility that he may indeed be dangerous. In some ways, Robert Nichols gives the best performance as Orin whom it is difficult to get a handle on. Is he just a slightly goofy kid or is there more under the surface? Is he actively threatening to Agnes or just accidentally stirring her paranoid fears? His only problem: he's supposed to be 19 but was almost 30 at the time; he doesn’t look like a teenager but he does mostly act like one. The classic jazz standard "Angel Eyes," sung here in a piano bar by its composer, Matt Dennis, went on to become a standard, perhaps best done by the fabulous Ella Fitzgerald. In the movie, it sounds a bit bland, but Ella makes it mysterious and heartbreaking. This movie has flown beneath my classic movie radar but it's worth a look. BTW, there is a strange final shot that seems to indicate something mysterious, but it's not clear what. Ignore it. [Blu-ray]