LADIES IN RETIREMENT

US, 1941, 91 minutes, Black and white.
Ida Lupino, Louis Hayward, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Isobel Elsom.
Directed by Charles Vidor.

Ladies in Retirement was a popular thriller of the late 30s and early 40s on stage. It has been adapted for the screen while retaining its stage origins - quite effectively as a thriller about a strange house. The film was directed by Charles Vidor who directed A Song to Remember and Gilda amongst other films at Columbia Studios. Ida Lupino is effective as the severe housekeeper/companion with her two eccentric sisters. Elsa Lanchester is striking as one of the sisters. Louis Hayward is a sinister hero. Evelyn Keyes the maid and Isobel Elsom, very effective, as the victim.

It is set in the 1830s and has echoes of the creaking Victorian melodramas. However, it is presented with the courage of its convictions and is quite entertaining. An updated adaptation was made in the late 60s as The Mad Room with Stella Stevens and Shelley Winters.

1. Entertaining thriller? 19th century Victorian melodrama? Stage origins and adaptation for the screen?

2. The use of studio sets and decor? The contribution of the cast? Musical score and atmosphere?

3. Credibility of the plot? Characters, situations? The Victorian melodrama genre?

4. Miss Fisk and her background, theatre, her lifestyle, out in the countryside, selfish? A Catholic? her relationship with the nuns? Her relationship with Lucy, her maid, with Ellen as housekeeper? The request for the sisters to come? Her agreeing? Her being harassed by them, getting desperate, reacting? Ellen's severe lecture to her about selfishness? Her death? and the suggestion by the rope, the pearls dropping?

5. The house at the edge of the moors? Sinister? The Victorian era household? Ellen and her coming to the house, the letter? Her relationship with Miss Fisk? Miss Fisk accepting the two sisters? Ellen and her looking after Louisa and Emily? Their dottiness? Ellen and her love and care, the arrival of Albert and his suspicions? Ellen being away in London, her return, her worrying? Cleaning up the house? Miss Fisk and her anger? Ellen and her decision and her plan, murder? Concealing the body? The cover-up? The sisters? Sworn to silence? Lucy and her role in the household? Albert and his return, his relationship to Ellen? The nuns, the signature, the vigil? The nightmare? Albert and the money, the deal? The police? The question of sanity?

6. The portrait of the two sisters, their age, mad, their activities? Their dependence on Ellen, Ellen bringing them to the house? Their annoying Miss Fisk? Miss Fisk’s decision – and her death? The aftermath?

7. Albert Feather, his work in the bank, the shortfall, his coming to the house, the encounter with Miss Fisk, asking for the money? His being Ellen’s nephew? Her absence, his return? The relationship with Lucy? Stealing, the visit, suspect? His part in the nightmare? The bargaining – and his being caught?

8. Lucy and her place in the household, her personality, work, help, the piano?

9. The picture of the nuns and their relationship with the two sisters? Help?

10. Bates and his place in the household?

11. The Victorian setting – but the more 1940s psychological perspective on the relationships and the violence?