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.

Richard Chatten 'The Three Weird Sisters' was the feature film debut of director Daniel Birt, adapted by Louise Birt and Dylan Thomas from the novel 'The Case of the Three Weird Sisters' (1943) by Charlotte Armstrong. A barnstorming piece of Grand Guignol set in South Wales which meets 'The Old Dark House' going one way and 'The Addams Family' the other; it was a typically bold offering from Louis H. Jackson's ill-fated British National Pictures, which went into receivership the same year this film was released.Madness runs in some families, in the Morgan-Vaughan's it practically gallops. The attitude to physical disability displayed here would be considered well beyond the pale today, with the three sisters described as "blind, deaf and warped". Nancy Price (who is here blind, and four years later played a wise deaf woman in 'Mandy'), Mary Clare and Mary Merrall are a blast as the unholy three; especially Clare as deaf Maude, who unnervingly is the only one who's always smiling. The rest of the cast all pitch in enthusiastically, the one outsider to the valleys being the lovely but agitated-looking Nova Pilbeam in one of her last films.When a name as celebrated as Thomas's is associated with a project it's always tempting to attribute all its qualities to him, but both the crazy mood and the ripe, fruity dialogue certainly seem to have his finger prints all over them. You won't forget this in a hurry...!

drednm Gothic tale of a dying Welsh mining town and the three old ladies who oversee it. Each old lady is afflicted: one is blind, one deaf, and one arthritic.After the town collapses into the coal mine, the old ladies vow to rebuild the town but don't have the money. So they summon their younger brother (Raymond Lovell) from London to come help them and the town. But as he drives into town with his secretary (Nova Pilbeam), someone throws and rock and hits him in the head. At the decaying mansion of his sisters, a doctor (Anthony Hulme) is summoned.But something else is wrong. The brother seems to be ill, and his secretary tries to get information from the doctor, but he seems oddly distant. As the secretary tries to warn the doctor about the sisters' odd behavior, he bristles and tells of how the old ladies put him through medical school.Stranded in the old mansion, the brother again confronts the sisters about money and finally declares he will change his will rather than leave money to the old ladies to waste on a dying town. This seems odd since they are all about 20 years his senior.Odd things keep happening, but when the lawyer shows up to draw up a new will, things come to a head when the doctor realizes that the secretary may be in danger since she is the new beneficiary.The three old ladies are remarkable and are all noted British character actresses. Nancy Price plays Gertrude, the blind one (she also co-scripted the film); Mary Clare plays Maude, the deaf one; and Mary Merrall plays Isobel, the arthritic one.Co-stars include Marie Ault as the housekeeper, Elwyn Brook-Jones as her son, and Hugh Griffith as the town troublemaker.Nova Pilbeam, best known for her 30s films with Alfred Hitchcock, retired from the screen after the release of this film and THE DEVIL'S PLOT in 1948. She was 29 years old.

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.