Corridor of Mirrors (1948)

Directed by Terence Young; produced by Rudolph Cartier

Journeying to London by rail, young wife and mother Mifanwy Conway (Edana Romney) recollects the man she knew seven years before. Paul Mangin (Eric Portman) was a fabulously wealthy and eccentric artist, who preferred to dwell in the past. One night, he saw Mifanwy and became smitten by her. His growing fascination with her, and the obsession he had with the past, combined to create a dramatic situation which ended with Mangin being immortalized in Madame Tussaud’s waxworks. But how did it end there? And did it end there?

An involving tale of love and madness, Corridor of Mirrors was adapted from a novel by Christopher Massie, who wrote the source book of the film Love Letters (reviewed on this blog in June, 2021). Corridor of Mirrors, at least as brought to the screen, has a quite different atmosphere compared to the other work. The screenplay was written by the producer and the female lead, Edana Romney; though the latter had had almost no film roles previously, she and Cartier formed a company to produce this movie. It took seven years to gather the financing and interest a studio in the prospects. The results are, if not unforgettable, then satisfying.

The story is rather reminiscent of a Poe tale, without the lurking eerieness. An aspect of the writing is that it keeps the viewer guessing as to where it will go, whether Mangin will descend into lunacy from what is originally a fad, and whether he will do harm as he goes. It involves the viewer as well in the sympathetic character of Mangin; he comes across as eccentric, certainly, but also lonely, with no one understanding either him or his passions. What his ultimate goal may be remains a mystery for much of the movie. It turns out to be rather simple, possibly unattainable, and perhaps deadly.

This is the first directorial effort by Young, and he does a good job. Considering that he went on to direct a number of James Bond movies, it’s ironic that he is more successful in Corridor of Mirrors when he concentrates on faces, expressions and gestures, rather than wider action; but then, leading man Portman was especially good at subtle looks, and Romney, while not in her co-star’s league, is liked by the camera.

As mentioned, Romney is capable in her performance, but not outstanding. This was her only starring role, and she soon afterward settled into the new medium of television, as a programme hostess. She became another kind of hostess when, in her thirties, she moved to Hollywood and became famous for her house-parties.

Portman carries the movie in his part as Paul Mangin. We never see the character painting, and it appears that his art is hardly a passion. Portman instead gives Mangin a quiet but deep and possibly dangerous love of the past, an idealized, romantic past that cannot be recreated. The edge with which Mangin is portrayed comes from not knowing if he realises the impossibility of his fantasies. Nonetheless, it is Portman who allows Mangin to become more sympathetic as the film progresses.

A word should be mentioned as well of Barbara Mullen, who plays the suitably unnerving Veronica. It is a small but effective role. Look for Christopher Lee in a bit part, his movie debut.

The set design and the lighting must be commended, too, particularly at the end when we see the fruition of Mangin’s fever for renaissance Italy. It might have been spectacular in colour; even so, the impression that the back garden of Mangin’s townhouse is an expansive and separate world, the product of a limitlessly romantic mind and a nearly limitless bank account, is convincing.

Corridor of Mirrors doesn’t quite match any genre, while it borrows from several. Not excellent, but very good, it conjures up a world not quite real, highlighted by the mundanity of the lives ‘bookending’ the principal story. It’s worth an evening’s viewing.