Acting Saves ‘Mrs. Winterbourne’ From Herself
Despite its provocative title, the 1948 novel “I Married a Dead Man” is the least of Cornell Woolrich’s huge output of dark fiction - a commonplace soap opera that hardly bears mentioning in the same breath with such tormented gems as “Black Alibi” and “Rear Window.”
But like much of Woolrich’s work, “I Married a Dead Man” has exerted a peculiar appeal upon Hollywood for many years. Its new movie-screen resurrection is called “Mrs. Winterbourne.” It’s Woolrich, all right - but recycled as a peculiar star vehicle for a newly glamorized Ricki Lake. The subject matter seems just the sort of scandalous absurdity that Lake’s TV talk show could milk for a week’s worth of gossip.
Of course, Lake was an impressive big-screen talent before the tube beckoned, and she retains that winning presence, holding her own even in the company of such superior talents as Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser. And MacLaine plays down to nobody.
The tale finds Connie Doyle (Lake) pregnant and abandoned, and stuck on a train bound for derailment. A passenger who is similarly pregnant (Susan Haskell) is en route with her husband (Fraser) to meet her wealthy in-laws, the Winterbournes, for the first time. The inevitable wreck requires strategic fatalities, and Lake finds herself mistaken for Mrs. Winterbourne.
Of course, the deceased Mr. Winterbourne has a twin brother, also played by Fraser, and if not for director Richard Benjamin’s deft and decisive comic touch, the whole thing could deteriorate into sentimental dreck with little effort on anyone’s part.
The screenplay, attributed to Phoef Sutton and Lisa-Marie Radano, relies too heavily on Woolrich’s predictabilities and coincidences, even to the point of having Loren Dean, as Connie’s slimy sweetheart from the bad old days, show up on the very eve of her marriage to the surviving Winterbourne brother. Anyone adapting Woolrich needs to remember this: He wrote while intoxicated. The present film has its moments, but the story is neither prime Woolrich nor a particularly gripping romantic adventure.
MacLaine is impressive as the gruff, lonely matriarch who warms to Lake as though she were a long-lost daughter. The performance is really just “Guarding Tess” all over again, but MacLaine is too effective for anyone to object much.
The first filming of “I Married a Dead Man,” incidentally, is “No Man of Her Own” (1950), with Barbara Stanwyck; a French remake of 1982 is called “I Married a Shadow.” The former shows up often on cable TV’s American Movie Classics channel.
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ‘Mrs. Winterbourne’ Locations: Lincoln Heights, Newport and Coeur d’Alene cinemas. Credits: Directed by Richard Benjamin; starring Ricki Lake, Brendan Fraser, Shirley MacLaine and Loren Dean. Running time: 1:46 Rating: PG-13