THEY WERE SISTERS

THEY WERE SISTERS (1945). Director: Arthur Crabtree

"The truth is I could never help being a bore."

British drama/soap opera about three sisters, the romantic choices they make, and the way their lives turn out meanders along but builds up steam as it nears a powerful conclusion. Vera (Anne Crawford) is not really in love with her placid husband, so she has an affair with another man. Lucy (Phyllis Calvert) loses a child. The main and most interesting story has to do with Charlotte (Dulcie Gray) , who makes the mistake of marrying the neurotic Geoffrey (James Mason). Geoffrey is such a bitch that at one point he wants to kill his little son's dog! Mason and Gray give an absorbing two-character portrait of a cowered wife dealing with a sadistic husband leading to tragedy and a satisfying conclusion.

Verdict: No Hollywood gloss, but rather compelling just the same. ***.

A PLACE OF ONE'S OWN

A PLACE OF ONE'S OWN (1945). Director: Bernard Knowles.

"There are other worlds."

James Mason often wound up in strange movies and in weird roles, and while the character he plays isn't especially weird, it's a wonder why he bothered to take the part. On the other hand, Mason is a fine actor and is generally up to any challenge, such as, in this case, playing a much older man. Henry Smedhurst (Mason) and his wife move into a house (an all too obvious model) that is supposed to be haunted. A pretty young woman, Annette (Margaret Lockwood), comes to live with them as the wife's companion, but soon she seems to fall under the spell of another woman who either committed suicide, or was murdered, in the house. Is she going loco or do spirits that can influence the living really exist? It all builds up -- if that's the word for such a dull picture -- to a real shaggy dog (or shaggy ghost) ending that may have some viewers groaning. Dulcie Gray, an Una O'Connor sound-alike, perks up the film as Sarah the maid, and Ernest Thesiger of Bride of Frankenstein makes a welcome, if all too brief, entrance late in the picture. Mason is quite good, but he was much more fun in Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Verdict: Watch House on Haunted Hill instead. **.