If Winter Comes

directed by Victor Saville
Category: "Drama"
Year of Release:1947
Date Added:10/26/2024
Date Watched:10/26/2024
Description:Mark Sabre (Walter Pidgeon) married the shrewish, unpleasant Mable (Angela Lansbury) on the rebound after his true love, Nona (Deborah Kerr) married another man. But it's three years later, and WWII is underway. Nona is back in town and has regrets. She and Mark confess their love for each other, but agree to stay with their spouses. Nona's husband goes off to war, and Nona joins the women's auxiliary. Meanwhile, the boss at Mark's textbook publishing firm wants to fire him for his liberal views but can't unless Mark violates a moral clause. Mark befriend a local teen, Effie (Janet Leigh) and helps her out in various ways. When Effie gets pregnant and her strict father kicks her out of the house, Mark offers to take her in. This infuriates Mable, who leaves and files for divorce on the grounds of adultery. The town is scandalized that Effie is living with Mark and reads everything in the worst possible way. He's fired from his job. When Effie gets legal notice to appear in Mark's divorce settlement, she commits suicide. At the inquest, Mark is blamed. He goes home and finds a letter from Effie explaining why she did it, and who the father of her child is. Mark goes to confront the father of the boy, one of Mark's chief accusers, but arrives just as the man hears of his son's death in the war. Mark decides to burn the letter, but before he can, he has a heart attack. Nona returns and stays with him. She finds the letter, and she and Mark — who are free to be together now — decide to burn it.
My Rating:6

Reviews for If Winter Comes

Review - If Winter Comes

It started out pretty good. Angela Lansbury, whom I've never liked, was easy not to like here. Pidgeon did good, but was 20 years too old for his role. Leigh was sweet and vulnerable in her role. There was some humor. But the ending was too stupid. Even if Mark and Nona didn't want to publicly broadcast the name of Effie's lover, they could have shown the letter to a few discrete people who could have gotten the word around that Mark was innocent. Although letting Effie stay in his house, flirting around with Nona while married to Mabel ... he wasn't always wise.

Reviewed by Roger on 2024-10-26 12:05:56

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