Portrait of Jennie (1948)

Written by CinemaSerf on July 9, 2022

This is a wonderfully captivating story featuring Joseph Cotton as ("Eben") a struggling artist - he just cannot find inspiration. When he visits the gallery of Ethel Barrymore, she acquires one of his paintings - sympathy or shrewdness? Well, shortly afterwards he encounters the young "Jennie" (Jennifer Jones) and all of a sudden his outlook brightens, his life begins to take shape - but, is she what he thinks she is, needs her to be - is any of it? William Dieterle has assembled a super cast to support this gently bubbling and engaging story - Cecil Kellaway as Barrymore's sidekick in the gallery "Matthews" and a very brief cameo from Lilian Gish all contribute really potently to this classy story. It is well photographed and delicately delivered, and that gave Cotton a chance to demonstrate that he was an actor with some depth to him. At the end, I thought - of course I know what is going happen. I didn't !