Jennifer (1953)

So much promise,  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