Movie: Portrait of Jennie (1948)
Supernatural Romance Stars Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones
Oct 12, 2008
In 1934, the starving but nattily-dressed New York artist Eban Adams (Joseph Cotten) can’t sell any of his landscapes or still-life paintings. He wanders into a gallery and is told his work is technically sound but has no love in it. Soon after, while moping through Central Park, he meets a strange tweener girl named Jennie Appleton (Jennifer Jones), who is alternately wistful and whimsical. They strike up a friendship, and Jennie asks Eban to wait for her to grow up.
Mysterious Jennifer Jones
Clues and foreshadowing of the unfolding story are carefully placed in this scene, setting up, domino-style, the picture’s sequence of events. Each time Eban and Jennie meet subsequently – just days or weeks later – she has mysteriously grown older, more mature. Eventually, sparks fly.
Disney’s Cinderella once sang that a dream is a wish your heart makes. Jennie is Eban’s dream made real. He has found his muse.
It is a foregone conclusion Eban will paint Jennie’s portrait and, in doing so, reach his potential as an artist. Through Jenny, he finally has found love.
But is Jennie real? A ghost? A dream? Eban realizes something strange is happening. Jennie’s own explanations make little sense. He does some detective work – but the mystery only deepens.
Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones Too Old
Not often cast as a romantic lead, Joseph Cotten acquits himself ably as Eban. And Jennifer Jones has a quiet, beguiling way about her that befits her character – although in early scenes, she seems precious, her line readings mechanical. She is trying to "play young," but is unconvincing.
Beyond that, a key problem is both leads are too old for their roles. The then-43-year-old Cotten, with his wrinkled brow and waddled neck, clearly is not a “young artist,” and, especially in early scenes, much is attempted to mitigate the obvious miscasting of the then-29-year-old Jones.
Still, Cotten’s trademark sincerity and Jones’ pure luminescence – especially as Eban is finishing Jennie’s haunting portrait – help smooth over the casting miscalculations.
David O. Selznick Produced Film
Producer David O. Selznick knew a few things about making romantic pictures. And it helps the picture that the producer behind Gone With the Wind was as enchanted with Jones as Eban was with Jennie. In fact, Selznick married Jones soon after the picture's release.
Among the outstanding supporting players is the great Ethel Barrymore, as a sad-eyed, world weary art dealer. She has the film’s best line, delivered to Eban: “I’m an old maid, and nobody knows more about love than an old maid.” Cecil Kellaway is Barrymore’s business partner, and nobody does doddering better than Kellaway. David Wayne provides gusto as Eban’s only apparent friend, an Irish cab driver. And Lillian Gish is on hand as a nun who knew Jennie.
Director Dieterle Shows Restraint
In small, uncredited appearances at the end, look for the very young Nancy Davis (later Reagan) and Anne Francis as teenagers admiring the portrait of Jennie.
Fortunately, for a story suggesting either time travel, ghosts or both, there are no heavy-handed special effects. Director William Dieterle – whose resume lists many classic films – relies on mists, strange breezes and Dimitri Tiomkin’s score to suggest otherworldly forces at work. The restraint is welcomed.
New York Locations
One nice touch: several times during the film, a canvas texture is superimposed over key establishing shots of Manhattan and Central Park. The effect reminds us not only of Adams’ passion, but also how life not just imitates art, but inspires it.
About 25 years ago, the actual Portrait of Jennie was spotted hanging in Patrick’s Roadhouse, a well-known restaurant and hangout on Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, California. Patrick himself was summoned and dutifully asked, “Is that the real Portrait of Jennie?”
“Yes,” said Patrick confidently. He added he’d be willing to part with it for $350.
But the diner didn’t have the money, and sadly declined.
A few weeks later, the magnificent portrait of Jennifer Jones was gone, sold to someone who had the money. Its whereabouts today are unknown. But at least we’ll always have the movie – the kind of ethereal, over-the-top Hollywood romance utterly of its time, yet still charming in its depiction of two souls who supernaturally find each other.
