mark.waltz Wealthy Raymond Lovell is the product of the second marriage of a wealthy man and his cook, unfortunately the half sibling of the vindictive survivors of his father's first marriage. When a mine cave-in in their Welsh community has them wanting to help the families of the survivors, they contact Lovell who decides (reluctantly) to come out with his secretary (Nova Philbeam) to investigate their claim and most likely turn them down. What he finds is the trio of bible spouting spinsters determined to get their hands on his money any way they can, even though he's made it clear he's bequesting the majority of it to the loyal Philbeam. Not getting what they want makes these already looney ladies all the more a little nutty in the Macadamia Manor they live in, and through schemes like poisoned wine, a falling grandfather clock and a road that isn't really a road, it appears that neither Philbeam or Lovell will live to see a return to their happy London office space.The three sisters are Nancy Price, Mary Clare and Mary Merrall, maybe unknown names and faces to American audiences, but very theatrical in nature, as if being played by Judith Anderson, Gale Sondergaard and Margaret Hamilton with the direction of Tod Browning. But that's not the case here. This is very British, and delightfully gothic style melodrama, set in a decaying house that makes both Wuthering Heights and Manderlay seem like Tara. The oldest sister reminds me of Mary Morris's vindictive spinster matriarch in the Broadway melodrama "Double Door", made into a 1934 movie where Morris had a large safe room ready to lock anybody in (alive, and with no air) whom she feel betrayed her. The others are supposedly deaf or blind, but equally capable of the nefarious actions of their older sisters. No cute elderberry wine makers are these old ladies, closer to the three witches from Shakespeare's "Scottish Play".Also present for the melodrama is a handsome doctor (Anthony Hulme) who appears to be manipulated by the sisters, their cold-hearted cook and her mentally deranged son who is first seen flinging a rock at the window of Lovell's car. The mood is straight out of Nathaniel Hawthorne or Edgar Allan Poe, and the suspense builds up right to a conclusion that may have you clapping after 90 minutes of hissing at these three descendants of the Stygian witches. Everybody is excellent, with Philbeam delightfully bold as she stands up to each of the sisters every time they either insult her, make an accusation, or roll their hands together as they spout a threat. Lovell makes it clear that as a businessman, he is very strong willed and domineering, but as the youngest brother of the three women, it is obvious that he fears them, and for good reason. Each of the sisters has their own personality, so it's not as if they were playing the same person. Quite outstanding in almost every way, this is a must see for fans of gothic melodrama and horror films where the monsters are quite human.

malcolmgsw I counted in all no less than 6 separate attempts to kill Nova Pilbeam and Raymond Lovell.This rather resembles a Welsh Adams family or the downside of Arsenic and Old Lace.Towards the end it just becomes too laughable to take seriously.Nova Pilbeam fainting away at the sight of the three stern faced sisters.Then the sisters hauling about the furniture and breaking down walls so that they could fix Nova one last time.I have only seen this film once before,many years ago at the BFI Southbank and the ending has stayed with me ever since.So I think that you could say that it is fairly memorable.This was one of a number of rather exotic films that came out after the end of the war.All that repressed emotion no doubt.

writers_reign !948 might have been a tad too late for this Poe-faced Gothic outing just as the poetry masquerading as dialogue and penned by Dylan Thomas was a tad out of keeping with realistic speech. Thomas tips his symbolic glove in an early scene when a collapsing mine triggers falling plaster and cracks in the walls of the 'big house' in the mining village, which is home to the eponymous sisters, who pledge to rebuild the homes in the mining village destroyed by the collapse. They make this pledge despite not having change of a match but (so they think) secure in the knowledge that their half brother (Raymond Lovell), who long ago left the village and became a successful businessman, will underwrite the repairs. Lovell decides to mark their card and journeys to Wales with his secretary, Nova Pilbeam, and anticipates Ann Robinson by a good 50 years with the question, 'is this hell, or Wales'. Once ensconced in the house he begins to resemble Bob Hope in The Cat And The Canary with the three sisters blending into Gale Sondergaard. I can't think of a single reason why you would want to watch this but then what do I know.

thomandybish This film, whose screenplay was written by poet Dylan Thomas, concerns a lawyer and his young secretary who travel to the Welsh ancestral home of their client to alter his will. Seems the man is the youngest child and only male heir of a once pround family who controlled the local coal mine. The home is presided over by the man's three older sisters, each with a distinctive affliction: one is blind, one is virtually deaf, the other has painful arthritis that has molded her hands into claws. A series of bizarre events begin to occur, particularly to the man and the lawyer's secretary, that ultimately ends in a cataclysmic finale!What we have here is an old set of standards giving way to a new mindset and, to quote the poet himself, the old ways(or sisters)"do not go gentle into that good night"! These three women drift phantom-like through their gloomy mansion, exhibiting the kind of arcane Victorian propriety and claustrophobic narrowness only an isolated life in a wealthy, rarefied setting can bring. Their brother left the house and community to go to school and work, so he doesn't share their outlook. His reappearance, along with that of the free-thinking secretary, challenges the women's way of thinking. The sense of decay shown by the three sisters is heightened by the fact that the mine which has supported them is almost exhausted and, in fact, threatens the town above it by dent of the fact that the tunnels and caverns are dangerously near to collapse. A great sense of gloom and gothic atmosphere prevades the interior shots in the house. Interesting.