Jennifer (1953) User Reviews

Sticking your nose in where it shouldn't be can be deadly.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 1 September 2015]

Ida Lupino rarely gets her due other than a large cult following that sees her as being quite amazing, and in this film, she's a lonely woman who seems content to live alone, taking a job as caretaker of an old, abandoned mansion where the previous resident (the title character) simply disappeared. Lupino becomes very intrigued by the woman's life, finding her diary, interviewing those in the area who either knew of her or had small dealings with her. And what does Jennifer's cousin (Mary Shipp) have to do with it, seemingly scheming with the handsome Howard Duff who keeps paying Lupino frequent visits to "check" in on her?

There are many great visual moments of film noir style photography, particularly shots of Lupino standing in front of a four part mirror that reminds me of Hayworth in "The Lady From Shanghai". Lupino also keeps playing various records which have very dramatic piano music that adds to the suspense and insinuates that terror is about to strike. Is she a woman on the verge of madness by seeking information that she should just try to avoid, or is she a victim of a plot that began in the mansion long before she took over? Even on her way to the interview, she is warned not to stay there, and when she heads to the local convenience store, she is given all sorts of unsolicited information in regards to who this woman was. Ida comes to her own conclusions, but is she right or delusional? That's where the suspense comes in, leading you up to a chilling conclusion on a windy night where shadows take over, insinuating all kinds of horror.

While there isn't an exact "conclusion" (and some people might find the revelation to be a sort of letdown), it is an intriguing journey to the discovery of the truth even though there are insinuations that there's more to the story. Lupino is always fascinating, and it amazes me how forgotten she is beyond being one of the first women directors and the cult status she has for her melodramatic features. She's often played vulnerable characters as well, and this is one of her most superb portrayals of a woman who may be in jeopardy. Duff, one of the great film noir anti-heroes, is sturdy and excellent, and you never quite know what side of the fence he's really on. A mostly unknown cast fills out this independently made feature which is higher grade above most of the films made through Allied Artists (formerly Monogram) at the time.

Goodbye Monogram

[ptb-8 · 7/10 · 24 February 2004]

I wish I could have met Ida Lupino. When people ask who you if you could have 6 extraordinary 20th century persons over for dinner, well, for me one person would be her. I think she is now one of the great unsung and unprofiled personalities in the film industry. Her life story would make a great tele movie (Hey, Mr Bogdanovich........). Ida Lupino has been the driving force in many fascinating noir films of the 40s and 50s. I can remember being saddened at seeing her reduced to a horrible part in a ghastly AIP film is the late 70s. She was bitten by a big worm at the kitchen sink. Ugh. I should have contacted her then as she died not long after.. more from the part than the worm too. From High Sierra, Roadhouse and the extraordinary RKO thriller On Dangerous Ground, Ida Lupino was often the producer and the lead actress. Later, with her husband Howard Duff they produced many now timeless noir dramas that are still very engrossing today. One of them is JENNIFER which I think is the last film with a Monogram Pictures copyright. Monogram changed the company name formally to Allied Artists in 1953 and JENNIFER has both company names on the opening credits. This is a superior haunted house thriller equally as scary as both The Innocents and The Haunting made 8 years later. Really chilling and very creepy, this tiny film is exactly the sort of really good film Ida Lupino made and was responsible for. Try and find it...you will always remember it and as I feel, much admiration for this great and almost forgotten actress/producer.

Lupino & Duff team up in wispy but atmospheric Gothic noir

[bmacv · 7/10 · 25 October 2001]

I first caught up with Jennifer years ago while out of town when it showed up on TV in the middle of the night; I fell asleep before it ended but it stuck with me until I had to track it down. Its appeal is that, though there's not a lot to it, it weaves an intriguing atmosphere, and because Ida Lupino and Howard Duff (real life man-and-wife at the time) display an alluring, low-key chemistry. Lupino plays a woman engaged to house-sit a vast California estate whose previous caretaker -- Jennifer -- up and disappeared. (Shades of Jack Nicholson in the Shining, although in this instance it's not Lupino who goes, or went, mad). Duff is the guy in town who manages the estate's finances and takes a shine to Lupino, who decides to play hard to get. She becomes more and more involved, not to say obsessed, with what happened to her predecessor in the old dark house full of descending stairways and locked cellars. The atmospherics and the romantic byplay are by far the best part of the movie, as viewers are likely to find the resolution a bit of a letdown -- there's just not that much to it (except a little frisson at the tail end that anticipates Brian De Palma's filmic codas). But it's well done, and, again, it sticks with you. Extra added attraction: this is the film that introduced the song "Angel Eyes," which would become part of the standard repertoire of Ol' Blue Eyes.

Classic creepy house movie, powerful shock effects, scary ending

[mike173 · 20 March 2002]

In 1955 I took an entrance exam at Cambridge University, staying by myself in one of the old stone college buildings. One evening I went out to see a movie, which happened to be Jennifer. It's a classic creepy old house movie. Jennifer arrives to take over from the previous caretaker, who has mysteriously disappeared. She runs into a whole gamut of strange clues and spooky effects, pitched so you - and she -can't be sure if they are real or she's imagining them. Music and optical shock are used to great effect, with all the power that skillfully lit monochrome cinematography can deliver (considerable!!). At the end, she is reassured that it was all in her mind, and she's safe... till the very last shot, which opens up all the questions again, and still raises the hairs on my neck when I think of it. Going back to my room, I had to pass through a long set of dark cloisters - nearly didn't make it!! At least that's how it seemed back then. It would be great if the film were re-released on DVD, to see if its power persists today.

Jennifer One .

[ulicknormanowen · 6/10 · 16 July 2021]

Both movies that Lupino directed this very years ("the hitch hiker" and the neglected "bigamist" ) are better than this movie which is intriguing , entertaining ,but a little disappointing .

There are shades of "Rebecca" and countless other Gothic thrillers; Lupino becomes a caretaker in a desirable mansion where she is alone and where she feels something is wrong. The gas station man had warned her ; and the girl who was there before her disappeared in a mysterious way : a baffling diary reveals strange things and this young woman might be a blackmailer :did someone do away with her?

Howard Duff ,her real life husband , tries his best to look threatening , ambiguous ,but it does not delude for long (they would reverse the roles in "women's prison " in which Lupino became the villainess and Duff the sympathetic doctor)

Another problem : Robert Nichols is supposed to play a nineteen -year-old student ,and he's 29 and it shows!

The ending is trite and mystifying at once.

Visually Wonderful

[boblipton · 6/10 · 27 April 2021]

Ida Lupino gets a job as the caretaker of an abandoned estate. The previous owner, Jennifer, according to her cousin, Howard Duff, simply vanished. Something, however, was going on, and Miss Lupino comes to believe that she was killed... and that Duff, whom she is growing fond of, did it.

It's one of the many projects that Mr. & Mrs. Duff acted in together, and they do a nice job, even if some of the production makes me wince, particularly Ernest Gold's "Lookit me, maw!" score. But with James Wong Howe as the cinematographer, you know you're in for a good time, and he uses his deep focus techniques to make miss Lupino look tiny and trapped in a house that looks Caligariesque.

Interesting but a bit goofy.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 28 November 2011]

"Jennifer" has some interesting ideas and an interesting cast, but try as I did to like it, I just found the film to be very goofy. The film begins with Ida Lupino playing an odd lady. I say odd because she acted a bit disconnected with the world--and as the film progressed, she acted weirder and weirder. She takes the job as a caretaker of an old house with a past--something spooky happened to the previous lady who lived there. And, as the film progresses, she seems to be connecting with the spirit of that lady. During this time, she meets a man (her real-life husband, Howard Duff) and eventually begins to suspect him of some involvement in the previous occupant's disappearance.

There are MANY problems with the scrip. First, it turns out that pretty much NOTHING that Lupino's character was channeling was true--making you think her character is more a flake or perhaps mentally ill herself. Second, repeatedly, this flaky lady seems to get stupid ideas into her head and run with them--again, making you question her sanity. Yet, in their final embrace, Duff assures her that everything is fine. No she isn't--and neither is the weird script. While it has some interesting elements, it just doesn't gel and left me quite cold. Did this film have anything to say? Not really.

Mr. & Mrs. Howard Duff

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 26 January 2016]

****SPOILERS**** The 1st of 4 films that Howard Duff & his wife Ida Lupino were together in has to do with this spooky mansion that seems to be haunted by its former resident Jennifer Brown who vanished without a trace about a year ago. It's the place's new caretaker Agnes Langley, Ida Lupino,who ends up being victimized by the ghostly Jennifer in what her reasons are for her strange disappearance as well as what she had to do with a number of people including her former boss lawyer Irving Samson's untimely deaths. It's the fact of Samson killing himself when he found out that his clients money, that he kept in a wall safe, was stolen from right under his nose. Agnes suspected Jennifer stole it by finding a bank book hidden in the place with over $70,000.00 in it that was-she feels-the result of Samson paying her off in him being blackmailed by her.

It's grocery store owner and live in tenant at the Brown Estate Jim Hollis, Howard Duff, who gets very friendly with Agnes in trying to keep her from cracking up in fear that Jennifer is or was a serial murderess who's still stalking the place and targeting her as her next victim. The local delivery boy Orlin Slade, Robert Nichols, doesn't help either feeding Agnas all these weird stories about Jennifer whom he feel is still in the house hiding in a closet or the basement and coming out at night terrorizing it's inhabitants.

****SPOILERS**** Shock down to your socks final with Hollis revealing the truth about Jennifer that kept Agnes from flipping out and going stark raving mad. It's after Agnes recovered from her unfounded fears about Jennifer who as it turned went mad and ended up dying in a sanitarium that we see what seems to be Jennifer reappearing in shadow making Hollis' story about her death seem a bit phony. That's unless she's the ghost that Agnes always suspected that she is.

Dull Thriller

[kenjha · 5/10 · 7 August 2011]

A woman is hired to look after a vacated old mansion that seems to be haunted by the spirit of the woman who previously had the job but disappeared. It sounds like a good, old-fashioned thriller and gets off to be pretty good start. Soon, however, it goes awry, turning into a dull drama. It becomes a drag despite the short running time of only 73 minutes. It was directed by some mysterious fellow named Joel Newton, who has no other film credit on his resume. Perhaps he is an earlier version of "Allen Smithee," the alias given to the director of films to which no director would attach his name. Lupino and off-screen husband Duff try their best but are given little to work with.

Entertaining, if regrettably thin

[I_Ailurophile · 7/10 · 25 November 2021]

Terse townspeople, a curt introduction, a missing person, and a handsome, massive, but empty estate: so begins 'Jennifer.' I appreciate how the movie works quickly to build an uneasy atmosphere, with good use of light and shadow in the sprawling manor, sound effects, and Ernest Gold's dramatic score to spark our imagination. A movie of such a slight length must necessarily either maintain a quick pace to communicate all its plot, or be light on plot in the first place. In this instance, I think it's a bit of both.

Whether it's fast dialogue or a rapid progression and succession of scenes, protagonist Agnes is kept on edge as a lot of ideas are thrown her way or otherwise enter her mind. This also serves to keep the audience engaged - partly by its very nature, but also partly because the scenario as it presents to us is more than a little ham-handed, and one must actively maintain their suspension of disbelief. There's extraordinary focus from Agnes and around town on missing Jennifer after she enters the Gale House, and more than a few details in the house that catch Agnes' attention and make her nervous seem terribly innocuous - in both instances, more than is realistically sensible. As the character of Jim Hollis remarks at one point - "When you jump to a conclusion, you really leap!" It's a lot to take in, and for much of the runtime one teeters on the precipice of "Okay, but where is this going?" - not least of all as there seems to be little actual narrative advancement.

Joel Newton's direction broadly doesn't seem particularly noteworthy, though he does arrange some fine shots and scenes. The cast's performances, likewise, are suitable - though only star Ida Lupino stands out at all, demonstrating her superb range and nuance, and ability to wholly inhabit a character. Honestly, 'Jennifer' as a whole is much the same - kind of unremarkable, but with some bright spots. This is especially true as the feature seems to hold the bulk of its plot in reserve until the last 5-10 minutes. For all the scattered ideas that dot the previous hour, in all that time the story just doesn't feel like it's going anywhere.

That sense is rather unfortunate, as it turns out that all the while, the screenplay was (to mixed degrees of success) laying the groundwork for the finale. The plot development is still unquestionably thin, but it seems modestly more sensible in light of where 'Jennifer' finishes. Those scattered ideas that populate most of the film are either deliberate red herrings, or very underhandedly dropped hints as to the ending and actual explanation for the course of events. But all these notions, and even the conclusion itself, are not written or realized very cohesively. As opposed to the typical "trail of breadcrumbs," this is more like a handful of breadcrumbs tossed at random in an area - some are meaningful, some aren't. I do appreciate how furtive the ending is in its reveal, declining the forceful epiphany adopted in most modern flicks of a similar tenor in favor of an approach so emphatically understated as to be almost dismissive. Any viewer who isn't tuned in to that specific low-key frequency of revelation may well think the movie ended without any resolution at all. All the same, my admiration to that point is lessened by the insufficient care for storytelling that preceded it.

On the balance I did enjoy this, and I'd even give it as a modest recommendation to anyone looking for a picture built on mystery. I just wish it were more solid all around - provide more for the supporting cast to do; tighten the narrative. It's definitely flawed, but I like it more than not, and I think 'Jennifer' is worth a watch if you happen to come across it.

Really corny, a big disappointment

[robert-temple-1 · 2/10 · 5 April 2011]

I hate to say it, considering how much I admire Ida Lupino, but this film is a total flop. It was directed by 'Joel Newton', and is his sole directorial credit, so I suspect that may have been a pseudonym of someone else. Ida Lupino and her husband Howard Duff are the two leads. But despite their best efforts, the film is so badly made, so corny, and has such extremely ludicrous music that it is essentially worthless. It aims at being a sturdy film noir film, but it fails on all counts. James Wong Howe was the cinematographer, but even he is below par. His shots of 'a mysterious shadow' are not even good. In this same year, Lupino directed her brilliant film THE BIGAMIST (1953), and the previous year she had delivered a fine performance in ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1952), so she was not at all in decline at the time of JENNIFER. This is just one of those duds which all concerned must have wished to forget, and so should we.

The impact about a movie about nothing

[OurAhmee · 9/10 · 30 September 2006]

It has been almost 50 years since I saw "Jennifer" for the first and only time. I did not know the name of this movie until I looked it up on this web site, but I have told many people (especially my grandchildren) how movies do not have to include graphic details in order to frighten you and leave powerful impact. The story skillfully introduces you to concepts which if true put Ida Lupino in a very dangerous situation. Each time Miss Lupino discovers a new "fact" she draws the viewer into her confusion and fear.

This movie has such impact on me that almost 50 years later I still list it as one of the most frightening movies that I have ever seen. Yet this movie does not contain the blood and gore which became popular shortly after this movie was made. It's amazing what impact a good story and great actors can make.

Smoke And Mirrors

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 19 May 2020]

For reasons best known to herself Ida Lupino, a gifted director as well as a brilliant actress who enhanced any film in which she appeared, married Howard Duff, an actor who struggled to achieve mediocrity and they appeared in four films together. This is an elaborate spiral of little more than ectoplasm and auto-suggestion. The selling-point for me - other than Lupino who I'm happy to watch in anything - was Matt Dennis performing his own Angel Eyes but the longer the plot unspooled the less likely it appeared; the obvious spot was for Dennis to be featured in a niteclub but the action was virtually confined to the vast, cavernous mansion, in which Lupino was hired to caretake. Eventually they did contrive that she and Duff go dancing in the spot where Dennis was playing but it lacked credibility and clashed badly with the rest of the film.

Spare but Engaging

[dougdoepke · 25 February 2016]

A few years later and this 70-minute flick could have been an entry on TV's The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. It's cheaply produced with a bare-bones cast and in b&w at a time when Hollywood was going all out in Technicolor. But the plucky Lupino plugged along with her gritty little programmers that bucked the tide.

There's nothing special here, but there's enough ambiguity in Agnes's (Lupino) character and the circumstances to keep viewers engaged. A troubled Agnes (note the unflattering name) seeks escape by signing on as caretaker to a vacant old mansion, perhaps haunted by the missing former resident, Jennifer. Soon she gets involved with locals Hollis (Duff) and Orin (Nichols). At the same time, the mystery of Jennifer's disappearance deepens and we wonder about Hollis and Orin.

Oddly, not much really happens. Still, it's a clever screenplay with a number of provocative dark hints. That plus Lupino's superb acting skills provide subtle compensation. I especially like the unexpected hints that goofy kid Orin may not be the innocent he appears. But just why the studly Hollis would be attracted to the rather plain, unstable Agnes remains something of a stretch. Still, it's a measure of Lupino's all-around artistry that, for the sake of the role, she wouldn't flatter her looks. But get out your ear-muffs whenever Agnes starts spinning "Vortex" on the turn-table. It's music-to-go-mad-by, and the last thing wobbly Agnes should glom onto.

Anyhow, the results amount to a decent variation on a familiar thriller theme. I just wish the all-around gifted Lupino would get the industry recognition she so richly deserves.

Novellettish Gothic for female audiences of the '50s

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 21 September 2017]

A strange little tale that intrigues with its premise but hasn't a very interesting or satisfying conclusion. Out of work for four months, Ida Lupino interviews for a job as caretaker at a palatial estate for a family she's been warned is very eccentric. The manor is empty most of the year with the family out of town, so Lupino doesn't do much except stroll the grounds and investigate rooms. She's also obsessed with the woman who had the job before her--the mysteriously missing Jennifer--who was cousin to the woman who hired her. Curious item from Allied Artists only runs 73 minutes--and doesn't even have enough plot for this brief length! Howard Duff, talking from one side of his mouth as a gangster might, is totally inappropriate as a love-interest for Lupino, who is skittish and curt around men without explanation. Legendary James Wong Howe, of all people, was the cinematographer; he might be the one to blame for a cheat-shot near the climax, which arrives with a lot of questions still unanswered. ** from ****

So much promise

[bensonmum2 · 4/10 · 10 March 2021]

Needing employment, Agnes Langley (Ida Lupino) agrees to take a job as caretaker for an otherwise abandoned estate. She is told the previous caretaker, the titular Jennifer, went "missing". After discovering Jennifer's diary, Agnes becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery.

On the whole, Jennifer left me terribly unsatisfied. While I love the film's set-up, I don't feel the promise of Jennifer is ever realized. There's a reasonably interesting mystery, a big old house, and plenty of bumps in the night, but not much else. If the other characters had just been honest and forthcoming with Agnes from the beginning, there wouldn't have even been a mystery. It's disappointing to discover that, after 73 minutes, Jennifer isn't really missing, just somewhere else.

Despite my issues with the plot, I always love seeing Ida Lupino in just about anything she did. She was an amazing, talented woman. You can see that in Jennifer. She does so much with such a nothing plot and almost saves the film single handed. I don't know why, but I had no idea she was married to Howard Duff. The pair have some nice chemistry here - another of the film's highlights.

4/10

The House is the Star!!....

[kidboots · 8/10 · 23 July 2019]

....as well as the spectacular cinematography of James Wong Howe who at the time was suffering from a career decline so was available for this independent effort. He made the location the star instead of boosting a pretty lack lustre script. Ida Lupino also gave more than her character had - by making Agnes intense but very self contained she inadvertently switched the focus from the mysterious Jennifer to herself.

Agnes (Lupino) is keen to start on her job as caretaker at the old Gaille mansion (surely a former silent screen star residence - "a thousand nights ago Rod La Rocque swam in that pool") but she finds doubt and skepticism where-ever she goes, whether asking questions or just the general store. Her keyed up tension makes her clutch at the mystery of Jennifer, the former caretaker who mysteriously disappeared. Finding a diary with cryptic entries, an unsettling record called "Vortex" as well as plans for a sea cruise, with the loneliness of the big house Agnes is walking a thin line. She also has a few visitors, a young man on a college hiatus (who looks more like a seedy 35!!), also Jim (Howard Duff) who manages the estates finances and seems to turn up everywhere she goes. There are also odd phone calls to the Gaille family themselves. Then there are the mirror fetishes, they come into play in every scene intended to scare - all of which makes the disappointing ending even more of a let down.

Just as much of a mystery as the movie is the director Joel Newton whose credits seem to be this movie only!! Just too polished and stylish to be the work of a once offer, I really think it may be a psuedonym for a more established director who just didn't want his name connected with the film for some reason - maybe that's the real mystery!!

This is NOT a "film noir"

[Ripshin · 29 May 2011]

First and foremost...this film is not a "noir"! That term is easily the most abused on the IMDb site. Yes, it's black and white. Yes, it's shot on location in the early 50s. NO, it is in NO way a "film noir".

This is a suspense thriller, with more than a bit of the haunted house genre thrown into the mix. It's also a well-made "B" flick, with the surprising services of cinematographer James Wong Howe, as a bonus.

The film is quite moody, with wonderful location filming. (I hope to find out the location of the mansion, and if it still stands.)

Granted, the whole thing falls apart in the final ten minutes...the ambiguity is surprising, for a film of the early 50s. Did Jennfer really die? What's with that weird "college" kid? The opening/closing shot...not sure what to make of it. While I don't mind a film leaving questions unanswered, the ending here is rather pointless.

However, I do recommend it. If for nothing else, the locations, the cinematography and Ms. Lupino.

A psychological thriller at its best with Ida Lupino at the mercy of increasing scariness of the unknown

[clanciai · 9/10 · 22 May 2017]

This is a miniature but a very efficient one. Ida Lupino is one of those actors I never found lacking but on the contrary raising every film she was in to a top level. She excelled in acting parts where she could make something great out of a small character, and this is a typical example. She gets a job as a caretaker at a large but desolate mansion of a great past but with a very dark secret developing into a looming mystery of constantly more threatening proportions, as Ida finds herself persecuted by the same kind of ghost that evidently scared away Jennifer, the previous lodger. No one knows what became of her, she just vanished without a trace, and that's the mystery, which immediately starts to haunt the vulnerable Ida, who gets more and more possessed by it. Two male characters also haunt the place and act as some kind of aids but seem both very suspicious, and she definitely cannot trust them and even less the more helpful they are. What's really happening is that everyone is keeping a secret from her, and as she can get no clue to the threat of this fact she naturally feels more and more exposed to unknown dangers, and she has a right to be. It all ends up to a shocking climax, making the structure of this film very similar to many Hitchcocks, especially "Suspicion" with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine 10 years earlier. The interest and quality of the film lies entirely with suggestions and innuendos, shadows speak more than words, the moods take over and dominate reality, and you get involved in Ida's increasing terror of the unknown. It's a marvellous small film and the greater and more interesting for its fascinating minimalism.

A way of life that possesses the weak

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 3 October 2015]

What I most love about this film is the way we are kept off-guard about who the title character is, and why she has this power over a meek caretaker named Agnes (played by Lupino). To say Jennifer is a ghost is only half-right. Maybe it is easer to say she is a living woman or a way of life that possesses the weak. But the story maintains its hold on the viewer as Lupino's character struggles to get to the bottom of things. It plays out in spots as an unhealthy obsession. And Howard Duff, Lupino's real-life husband, who appears as the love interest seems to have his own obsession where Agnes is concerned, wresting her away from Jennifer.

If you get the chance to look at JENNIFER, and especially if you see JENNIFER twice or more, listen carefully as you hear the dialogue. The lines lead in multiple directions, and it is like the mystery only grows deeper about who and what is overtaking Lupino and Duff until they finally confront the truth about the life they live. Also, listen carefully to the music. There's a record that Lupino's character finds, that is replayed throughout the story. Plus during a nightclub scene, we are shown a man singing a tune called 'Angel Eyes,' while Duff holds Lupino close and looks into her eyes. It is clear to him, and to us the audience, that something has started unraveling.

It's a profound film, infused with atmospheric touches. And it is anchored with an extraordinary performance by its lead actress. Ida Lupino shined in so many classics over the years, but I think this one has to be her best.

Heavy on the suspense

[tarwaterthomas · 8/10 · 2 July 2020]

Ida Lupino, who was a low-budget version of Bette Davis, starred as a young woman named Agnes Langley who hires on as a caretaker at the ominous and forbidding Gayle estate in the foothills of Santa Barbara, California and discovers that the previous caretaker named Jennifer Brown, a cousin of the wealthy Lorna Gayle (Mary Shipp), disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Jennifer may have embezzled serious amounts of money by blackmailing a prominent attorney, and she may have been murdered as a result. Agnes and local handyman Jim Hollis (Howard Duff) go on a dead body safari, and Agnes herself becomes obsessed with finding Jennifer. It turns out that she had been committed to a sanitarium. The murder story was spread by Norma Gayle to cover up evidence of insanity in the family. Very spooky, indeed. Ida Lupino and Howard Duff were married in real life; it was one of Hollywood's longest-lasting marriages until they divorced in 1984. This suspense thriller benefits from some serious cinematography by James Wong Howe; he made the estate itself the star of the movie. Not taking away from Ida Lupino, who was an excellent actress and director. Joel Newton, whose only film this was, might be a pseudonym of Bernard Girard, who directed a ton of television episodes during the 1950s and 1960s. Try to catch JENNIFER if you can.

Ida Lupino in "The Shining"

[lor_ · 3 April 2024]

Watching Ida Lupino in a nearly one-woman show of a movie was enthralling, but its shaggy-dog story let me down. Too bad, because this is a small-budget Allied Artists release that boasts top talent at work: James Wong Howe as cinematographer and Ernest Gold with a strong music score. There's even Matt Dennis on hand in a party scene at the piano singing his jazz standard "Angel Eyes".

But the director is Joel Newton, either a one-shot or a pseudonym. His pacing is lugubrious, basically following Ida around as she is on screen almost throughout, except for a brief plot line sequence featuring co-stars Howard Duff and Mary Shipp.

Casting of Duff, ida's frequent co-star and husband, robs much of the film of maximum suspense, as he seems way too comfortable opposite her, when for dramatic purposes a more sinister Zachary Scott type would have been preferable. Similarly, the 19-year-old delivery boy is played by Robert Nichols, way too old and way too bland for the rather significant (functionally) role.

I enjoyed the atmosphere generated by Howe's location photography, but Ida deserved a better vehicle.

Spooky, creepy, ever so screechy

[BILLYBOY-10 · 7 December 2010]

Ida Lupino hasn't "been well". She's just bundle of paranoid nerves quite frankly and arrives at the old empty mansion as caretaker. She immediately becomes obsessed with the prior caretaker, cousin Jennifer, who has disappeared. Ida hears noises..sounds..things that go bump in the night and then Howard Duff appears. He runs the village store selling scotch. Soon Ida's obsession with Jennifer gets spooky and all the time the background music with the high-pitched, Yoko Ono "wooo-wooo" screechy warbling and the record playing "vortex" doesn't help matters, but Duff perseveres and manages a smooch from Ida.

Toss in the ever so slightly loony local college boy, Orin who fuels Ida's out-of-hand obsession and you have one flaky Ida. After much running in and out of the mansion, slamming doors, a terror in the basement boiler room, Duff calling for Ida, more annoying wooo-wooo soundtrack and a now fully hysterical Ida accusing Duff of murdering Jennifer, all thing come to a fully calm and serene ending except for the schmaltzy lingering shadow. Could that shadow be trying to tell us that even tho all's well that end's well, it isn't? Is Ida just as slightly if not more wacko-o than when she first arrived?

This is a cheapo and you can tell, but what the heck---with nothing better to do, why not give it a shot?

"Thousands Of People Disappear Every Year!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 13 August 2021]

Agnes Langley (Ida Lupino) starts her new job as caretaker for an enormous estate. Agnes is informed that the last occupant, Jennifer, disappeared without a trace.

As Agnes settles in to her new position, she uncovers clues, including a diary, that suggest that Jennifer might not have vanished voluntarily.

JENNIFER is a subtly suspenseful mystery. Ms. Lupino is very convincing in her sleuthing role. Really, the only problem with this movie is the ending. It seems rushed and incomplete.

Co-stars Howard Duff as the semi-creepy estate manager...