Pretty Good

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Peggy Cummins (Belle Adair), Victor Mature (Sir Alexander Sterling), Ethel Barrymore (Lady Sterling), Margo Woode (Daisy Arrow), Vincent Price (Inspector Clinner), Patricia Medina (Audrey Ashton), George Zucco (Craxton), Rhys Williams (Evans), Carol Savage (Harriet), Victor Wood (Wilson), Felippa Rock (Liza), Patrick O'Moore (Gilby).Director: GREGORY RATOFF. Screenplay: Jules Furthman, Tom Reed. Adapted by Niven Busch from the 1935 novel by Joseph Shearing. Film editor: James B. Clark. Photography: Joseph MacDonald. Music: David Buttolph. Costumes: René Hubert. Producer: Gene Markey.Copyright 8 June 1947 by 20th Century-Fox. New York opening at the Roxy: 2 July 1947. U.K. release: 22 September. 7,374 feet. 82 minutes.COMMENT: One of my favorite mystery thrillers of the 1940s, this is an incredibly lavish production from Fox's "A" unit, brilliantly handled by up-and-down director, Gregory Ratoff. In a gripping plot, raised against a fascinating Victorian background, and laced with deft dialogue, a group of compelling characters are enacted by Price, Barrymore and yes, Victor Mature, giving the all-time best performances of their lives.

Various internet sources state that the film "Moss Rose" was based on the Joseph Shearing novel, "The Crime of Laura Sarelle." This is simply not true as any reading of that novel will clearly show. The 1947 film "Moss Rose" was based on the 1934 Joseph Shearing Novel, "Moss Rose." And although the film plot varies greatly from the novel, the basic story is quite similar and many of the same character names were used in the film. The novel was based on the 1872 murder of a London prostitute, well before Jack the Ripper appeared on the scene.Incidentally, Joseph Shearing was one of many pen names used by Marjorie Bowen (another pen name) who was born Gabrielle Margaret Vere Campbell and later married Arthur L. Long. She wrote many thrillers, romances, and novels of the supernatural, all under various pen names.In any event, the film "Moss Rose" exudes Victorian/Edwardian atmosphere and suspense and is well worth watching. Truly, they don't make them like this any more.

Moss Rose is a good example of sometimes less is best. Without a complicated and tedious storyline, this neatly plotted 1947 mystery thriller moves at a fine pace, holding ones interest until the end. Thanks to Peggy Cummins who excels in her resplendent performance of the Cockney chorus girl who cleverly blackmails her way into an upscale English manor. Victor Mature is suave as the blackmailed , suspected murderer along with the airy Ethel Barrymore playing his doting mother and the grand matriarch of the manor. Vincent Price's role is small but he is quite capable as the polite but persistent Scotland Yard detective who has a predilection for moss roses. This intriguing Twentieth Century Fox drama is set in the Victorian era and the costumes and sets are well done along with the foggy London and English country scenes do well to enhance the atmosphere. I don't want to write a synopsis of this film and give away the surprise ending to the reader, but will say , Moss Rose still holds up well with any thriller film from it's era. If you are a fan of this genre , try to catch a look at this one. You will be pleasantly captivated by the fetching Peggy Cummins.

For his second film following service in the Coast Guard during World War II, Victor Mature takes the male lead role in a Victorian Gothic murder mystery Moss Rose. In this English setting Americans Victor Mature, Vincent Price and Ethel Barrymore are cast. Only Mature fell back on that old standby to make Americans players Canadian to explain the lack of British accent.Mature's part calls on him to be properly menacing and romantic to social climbing Peggy Cummins who suspects he murdered her friend to get out of an embarrassing entanglement as he is set to wed the socially prominent Patricia Medina. But Cummins is also intrigued by his upper class living and she a chorus girl in a music hall show as was her late friend decided to impose herself on Mature and mother Ethel Barrymore on their country estate where the Moss Rose seems to flourish with the tender loving care of Barrymore and the estate gardener. Vincent Price and Rhys Williams are the Scotland Yard detectives on the homicide case and they have another before the film is over and almost a third. Mature was the box office for this film and it was why he was cast in the male lead, but truly Price would have been a lot better in the role. Moss Rose does maintain a nice brooding atmosphere throughout and the best performance in the film is that of Ethel Barrymore. But I can't say more.