Fortune Is a Woman
Fortune Is a Woman is a 1957 British film noir crime film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Jack Hawkins, Arlene Dahl, Dennis Price and Greta Gynt. Its plot concerns an attempted insurance fraud that goes badly wrong.[1] In the United States, it was released as She Played With Fire.[2] The film is based on Winston Graham's novel Fortune Is a Woman (1953).[3]
| Fortune Is a Woman | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Sidney Gilliat |
| Produced by | Sidney Gilliat Frank Launder |
| Written by | Sidney Gilliat Frank Launder Val Valentine (adapted by) |
| Based on | novel Fortune Is a Woman by Winston Graham |
| Starring | Jack Hawkins Arlene Dahl Dennis Price |
| Music by | William Alwyn |
| Cinematography | Gerald Gibbs |
| Edited by | Geoffrey Foot |
Production company | Individual Films John Harvel Productions Ltd. |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Plot
The film begins with a dream sequence: a metronome changes into a car windscreen wiper at night in heavy rain; a car drives up to a large Gotis mansion; the dreamer enters and walks there a painting of the same house hangs above the mantelpiece; the camera zooms into the door. The dreamer, Oliver Branwell, awakes with a start.
Oliver is an insurance investigator with a London firm. He is sent north to Louis Manor to probe a recent fire. Mr Tracey Moreton lives there with his wife Sarah and his mother. Tracey introduces Branwell to them and to his neighbour and cousin, Clive, and shows him the fire damage. Some paintings are scorched and one is damaged beyond repair; this is said to have been a long distance landscape view of the house (like the picture in the dream). Moreton isn't aware that Sarah and Branwell were once romantically involved when they were each in Hong Kong.
The insurance company pays out on the damage and the painting. Months later, on another case, Vere Litchen, the Singing Miner, has lost his voice and wishes to claim on this. He has a black eye given to him by his wife for having an affair with the woman in the bedroom. Vere has a painting that fits the description of the earlier destroyed painting. On a second visit, having confirmed what the view should look like, he returns and asks where Vere got the painting. The clues suggest that Sarah has sold the painting and made a false insurance claim.
Branwell teaches himself how to spot a fake painting.
Branwell sneaks into the manor to check whether the damaged painting is a copy, he finds Moreton's dead body. Soon after a deliberate fire starts in the basement. He cannot put it out. He phones the fire brigade giving his name as Tracey. The fire destroys the house and all remaining paintings (which he now knows are fake). The insurance pays £30,000.
Oliver marries Sarah raising the suspicions of the police.
Vere's rich fiancé, Croft, is shown a photo of Sarah and denies she was the woman who sold the painting to him. A relieved Branwell proposes to Sarah and they leave on a honeymoon. Now the police begin to consider him a suspect.
Blackmailed by a shadowy figure who knows of the insurance scam, Branwell and Sarah follow him and discover that Clive was the mastermind of the blackmail. Sarah disappears and sya not to follow her, but as she says she is going to Louis Manor he easily follows her.
Oliver finds Sarah with Tracey's mother, Mrs. Moreton. Whilst the viwer has forgotten hat she also lived in the manor it is odd that neither Sarah nor Oliver thought to check this out, or to check if she did or did not survive the fire!
The mother explains that it was Tracey himself who arranged the insurance fraud and set the fires. He died when she confronted him and he accidentally fell to his death.
Cast
- Jack Hawkins as Oliver Branwell
- Arlene Dahl as Sarah Moreton/Branwell
- Dennis Price as Tracey Moreton
- Violet Farebrother as Mrs Moreton
- Ian Hunter as Clive Fisher
- Malcolm Keen as Old Abercrombie
- Geoffrey Keen as Young Abercrombie
- Patrick Holt as Fred Connor
- John Robinson as Berkeley Reckitt
- Michael Goodliffe as Detective Inspector Barnes
- Martin Lane as Detective Constable Watson
- Bernard Miles as Mr Jerome
- Christopher Lee as Charles Highbury, The Singing Miner
- Greta Gynt as Vere Litchen
- John Phillips as Willis Croft
- Patricia Marmont as Ambrosine
- Rosalind Knight as Minor role
References
- Fortune Is a Woman. BFI Film Forever. 1957. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
- She Played With Fire. IMDb. 1957.
- Graham, Winston (1953). Fortune Is a Woman. DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY. ASIN B000QBA4GS.