A minor murder mystery with some high powered stars of their era and one which makes an efficient use of the 20th Century Fox backlot, Gregory Ratoff’s Moss Rose captures some of the atmospheric spell of Victorian England while failing fairly strongly to make a star of its top-billed player. There are quite a few famous names in the cast, and the movie has its pleasures, but for the leading lady, this film must have been a somewhat bitter consolation prize after having the leading role in Forever Amber taken away.
Studio: Fox
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution and Encode: 480I/MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English 2.0 DD
Subtitles: None
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hr. 22 Min.
Package Includes: DVD
Amaray caseDisc Type: DVD-R
Region: 1
Release Date: 10/18/2013
MSRP: $19.98
The Production Rating: 3/5
The script by Jules Furthman and Tom Reed from a novel by Joseph Shearing has a fair share of mystery and suspense (they pretty much bookend the movie with a long middle section that offers more light-hearted fare), but certain motivations and the use of a central key symbol (the moss rose of the title embedded in a Bible) aren’t made clear at all (to say more would spoil the mystery). Director Gregory Ratoff kind of loses focus in the film’s middle section as the mystery concerning the death of Daisy is abandoned as the movie concentrates on the growing attraction between Rose and Michael. And yet, there is some great atmosphere here. The sequence where Rose blackmails Michael for those two weeks in the country is held on a wonderfully foggy and sinister section of Waterloo Bridge making one swear he’s in England, and Rose’s tour of Michael’s childhood bedroom is quite eerily claustrophobic and off-kilter. The screenwriters don’t do as much with their detective characters (played by the ever-reliable Vincent Price and Rhys Williams) as one would expect in a mystery, and there aren’t enough red herring suspects to make the killer’s true identity the real shocker it’s meant to be.
Though originally from Wales, Peggy Cummins struggles mightily with her cockney accent with it going in and out sometimes to distraction. Otherwise, she’s full of spit and spunk as Belle/Rose, kicks a mean leg in her chorus girl scenes early on (though she certainly leaves her work for her two-week sojourn in the country with nary a problem), and looks smashing in the Victorian-era clothes René has provided. Victor Mature is a rather lackluster Michael with no discernible accent (explained away by his having spent his formative years in Canada), but Ethel Barrymore is elegance and class personified as his accommodating mother. Patricia Medina has a good moment or two as Michael’s jealous fiancé Audrey, and Margo Woode is likewise effective in the early scenes before her murder as Belle’s chorus girl chum. George Zucco makes for a splendidly sinister butler Claxton while Vincent Price and Rhys Williams play the detectives professionally but without much spark (likely due to indifferent writing).
Video Rating: 3/5 3D Rating: NA
Audio Rating: 2.5/5
Special Features Rating: 0/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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