| The Woman in White | |
| Director: | Peter Godfrey |
| Producer: | Henry Blanke |
| Screenplay: | Stephen Morehouse Avery |
| Starring: | Alexis Smith Eleanor Parker Sydney Greenstreet Gig Young |
| Music: | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography: | Carl E. Guthrie |
| Editing: | Clarence Kolster |
| Studio: | Warner Bros. |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. |
| Runtime: | 109 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
The Woman in White is a 1948 American historical mystery drama film directed by Peter Godfrey and starring Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet, and Gig Young. It was produced and distributed by the Hollywood studio Warner Brothers. The screenplay is based on Wilkie Collins' 1860 novel The Woman in White and is set in Victorian England.[1]
Walking late at night from the train station to Limmeridge House, where he has been hired to teach drawing, Walter Hartright meets a woman in white who vanishes when a carriage approaches. A man in the carriage says that they are searching for a woman recently escaped from a nearby asylum. As the carriage drives by, Walter glimpses another man inside. Walter reaches Limmeridge House and meets Marian Halcombe, cousin and companion to Miss Laura Fairlie. Other occupants are elderly nurse Mrs. Vesey and Laura's invalid uncle, Frederick. A guest who has recently arrived is Count Alesandro Fosco, the carriage's other occupant.The next morning, Walter meets the wealthy Laura and sees a strong resemblance to the woman in white, so much that he mistakes Laura for her. At the breakfast table, Laura tells Marian, Mrs. Vesey and Fosco of Walter's encounter. Mrs. Vesey helps Laura recall a visit from a similar person when they were both girls. Determined to investigate, Marian discovers an old letter written by Laura's mother about a distant cousin, Anne Catherick, who looked like Laura and came to visit one summer. Having furtively discussed Anne's appearance with Frederick, Fosco steals this letter. Discovering the theft, Walter tells Marian of his suspicions of Fosco.
Although Laura is engaged to Sir Percival Glyde, she and Walter begin to fall in love. Glyde arrives, hoping to move up the wedding in his eagerness to acquire Laura's fortune. That evening, Walter finds the woman in white, Anne, crying in the garden. Anne says that she wants to warn Laura about something but refuses to enter the house and soon disappears. In front of both Laura and Marian, Walter confronts Fosco and Glyde with what Anne told him – that they are forcing Frederick to allow Glyde to marry Laura for her fortune. Laura flees the room, Fosco and Glyde deny the charges and Marian does not believe him. Walter leaves Limmeridge House.
Despite telling him that she does not love him, Laura marries Glyde. Months later, Marian comes back to Limmeridge House only to find all the old servants gone and new servants employed. Fosco and his wife, Countess Fosco have moved in. Returning from her wedding trip, Laura admits to Marian that she is miserable with Glyde, who cares only for money and will inherit her fortune if she dies.
Anne slips into Limmeridge House to warn Laura against Fosco and Glyde, hiding in a secret room with the assistance of the countess. Anne enters Laura's room to talk with her, is confronted by Fosco and Glyde, and dies in front of Laura and the countess. The men announce that it is Laura who has died. But when Walter attends the funeral, he realizes that the woman in the coffin is Anne. He believes Laura is locked in the same asylum where Anne had been. Fosco has hypnotized Laura to believe that she is Anne and he is her father. Resisting Fosco's influence, Laura escapes from the asylum. She encounters Glyde, but Walter saves her, and Glyde dies in the scuffle.
Meanwhile, Marian has returned to Limmeridge House to try and get Fosco to let Laura go. She offers him a bargain: if he signs a confession and releases Laura from her fraudulent confinement, Marian will leave the country with him. Fosco tells Marian the truth; his wife, the countess, is Fredrick's sister who bore Anne out of wedlock. Fosco helped cover it up and married her soon after. A year later, Laura was born, daughter of Fredrick's brother and first cousin of Anne.
Fosco gives Marian an emerald and diamond necklace he had promised to the countess, who is listening in. When she hears that he is leaving with Marian, the countess retrieves a dagger and stabs him. The police arrive just as Fosco dies from his wounds, and the countess retrieves the necklace. Walter later marries Marian, and they have a daughter. They live at Limmeridge House with Laura and her son by Glyde. The Countess Fosco, Anne's mother, is living in the renovated asylum, happily showing off her emerald necklace.