Ladies in Retirement

1941

Crime / Drama / Film-Noir

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 72% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 72% · 50 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.1/10 10 2167 2.2K

film noir housekeeper gothic

Plot summary

Ellen Creed is a housekeeper who looks after Leonora Fiske, a retired actress living in the English countryside. When Ellen's eccentric sisters visit their sibling at Leonora's home, tensions soon lead to murder.

Director

Charles Vidor Photo
Charles Vidor

Top cast

Ida Lupino Photo
Ida Lupino as Ellen Creed
Queenie Leonard Photo
Queenie Leonard as Sister Agatha
Evelyn Keyes Photo
Evelyn Keyes as Lucy
Elsa Lanchester Photo
Elsa Lanchester as Emily Creed
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
847.9 MB
1280*958
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 32 min
Seeds ...
1.54 GB
1442*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 32 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by dougdoepke

Where the Fog Never Lifts

In 1942, I expect the studios tossed off productions like this like cars on an assembly line. But don't let that fool you. Assembly line product or no, this is an atmospheric and expertly acted 90 minutes from Columbia Pictures, with that great unsung actress of the period Ida Lupino, supported by two of the daffiest character actresses of the day, Elsa Lanchester and the wild-eyed Edith Barrett.And what a wacky production it is. Adapted from a stage play, everything takes place on a single foggy sound stage. But that's okay because it's a Gothic thriller with lots of shadowy interiors and dark secrets inside a big old house. Lupino's cursed with two ditzy sisters and, by golly, she's going to take care of them come what may. It's this unbending family loyalty that finally lends Lupino's role an uncommon measure of dramatic pathos. Watch her with her tightly wrapped hairdo and stiff-necked manner. It's like she's taken a solemn oath to defend her pathetic sisters, and she's going to do it, no matter the sacrifice, unlike the bounder Louis Hayward who takes advantage of the situation only to enrich himself. But it's really the girlish Barrett, an obscure RKO actress, who steals the show-- all innocence and wide-eyed enthusiasm over the least little thing. No wonder, Lupino takes extreme protective measures. Stylish director Charles Vidor does a lot with the slender material. Just consider the single, fog-bound set that could have become impossibly static. But Vidor keeps things moving and our attention with it. Then too, he knows how to use the Louis Hayward character to liven up the Gothic solemnity. What's also notable is that neither the screenplay nor Vidor takes the easy way out by vilifying the flighty Mrs. Fiske (Isobel Elsom). She's ultimately as sympathetic as Lupino. I kept wondering what Hitchcock would have done with the material since the theme and characters are right up his alley. Be that as it may, this is one of the many by-passed gems from the studios' golden age, and deserves rediscovery on its own many merits.
Reviewed by blanche-2 7 / 10

good Gothic thriller

Ida Lupino stars in "Ladies in Retirement," a 1941 film also starring Louis Hayward, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Isobel Elsom and Edith Barrett. Lupino is Ellen Creed, the housekeeper/companion to a retired actress Eleanora Fiske (Elsom) who "has friends" that send her money besides her pension. Translation: she got around. Ellen's crazy sisters (Lanchester and Barrett) are being evicted from their place in London, so Ellen gets Fiske to agree that they can visit. Of course Ellen doesn't intend that they visit, she intends that they move in. They turn out to be impossible, bringing in branches, shells, dead birds, scratching the funeral and living like coyotes, so after 6 weeks, Fiske tells Ellen that not only is she throwing out her sisters, but Ellen is going with them. The next day, Ellen kills the old woman and tells her sister she's purchased the house.Complications arise when a relative of the Creeds, Albert Feather (Hayward) who has already been to the house to see Ellen when she was in London and met Mrs. Fiske, shows up again. It doesn't take him long to figure out what went on and what's going on.Lupino's career would have been better, of course, if she hadn't been stuck at Warner Brothers where the plum roles she might have played went to Bette Davis. She is very good here in a restrained performance as a determined young woman who takes her responsibilities to her sisters very seriously. Lanchester turns in an excellent performance as the willful sister, and Edith Barrett, the more fragile one, is very amusing. Lupino was married to Louis Hayward at the time of his filming. Hayward could look strange, possibly when his weight was up - here he is most attractive and charming as Albert. He was marvelous as Simon Templar, the Saint, and here he brings that same smooth as silk quality to his performance. Evelyn Keyes has a small but showy role as a maid who can't resist Albert. Isobel Elsom is excellent as Mrs. Fiske - distracted, self-involved and somewhat annoying with no coping mechanisms.The big question is, if Ellen's two sisters are crazy, and Ellen can kill so easily, is Ellen crazy as well? Hard to say but perhaps her obsessiveness over her sisters and her determination to get what she wants are indications that she has a streak of instability.The sets are very noticeable today as is the fake fog, and I have to add that a title like "Ladies in Retirement" sounds like an early '30s film with Constance Bennett. Nevertheless, it has a good, suspenseful atmosphere and while a little slow moving, it definitely held my interest.
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