Candles at Nine (1944) Online

To someone of my generation aged 69 I can only remember Jessie Mathews from her playing "Mrs Dale" from "Mrs Dale's Diary on 1950s BBC radio.This is the first DVD I have to show her dancing, singing & acting.Yes I too thought the actress playing Mrs Julia Carvery (Mrs Hope) was a parody of Judith Anderson's magnificent "Mrs Danvers" from "Rebecca" especially when she tried to get Jessie Mathews to throw herself out of the window.There is a cameo performance by a very young Patricia Hayes who plays Gwendolyn a daily servant girl and forever in my mind as Mrs Cravatte from Hancocks Half Hour 1950s TV version.

Yes £100,000 was a lot of "dosh" in 1944 and Jessie Mathews' unscrupulous relatives are all after a share, despite being left nothing by the late Mr.Hope.If you have seen "The Way to the Stars (1945)" there is a character in that film called "Tinkerbell".In "Candles at Nine" he has a ne'er-do well brother (Reginald Purdell) and they parody Flanders & Swan at one stage giving a humorous recital.

Fortunately Jessie Mathews has the help of an ex-detective William Gordon who saves her from these murderous relatives.In "Millions Like Us" the actor who plays the doctor here plays the butler Griggs who tries to bump off William Gordon.And contrary to "Writers Reign's" review there are a few references to wartime shortages i.e. only 5 inches of bathwater, and turning off lights.It has a mildly funny ending and I awarded it 6 stars.

If you're an ardent Jessie Matthews fan you will like Candles At Nine because Jessie does get to do one song and dance number. But other than that this is one very confused film. It seems like it might have started out as a satire on these inheritance murder stories, but got lost on the way.

As is typical in these stories old Elliot Makeham has gathered his closest relatives for a reading of a rather sarcastic will. After putting them all down including his Mrs. Danvers like housekeeper Beatrice Lehman and butler John Salew, Makeham reads that the fortune which he acquired through some shady means is going to a young performer played by Jessie Matthews who is not present. Later that night Makeham is killed during a false alarm panic over a supposed fire.

But for Matthews to inherit everything she has to stay in the creepy old house with the creepy old staff for a month. Why do people write such nonsense in wills? Still that allows Lehman and Salew to do their dirty work.

Candle At Nine is one confused film that should have stuck to being a murder mystery or gone for broader satire. As it is it's not that good in either genre.

OK, I'll admit straight up that I've been a huge fan of Jessie Matthews ever since I first saw her in "First A Girl", but unfortunately I can't give this film the greatest of reviews. It is undeniably cute and has a number of amusing scenes, but when the end arrives you feel that they could have included so much more. The director seems to have been content to provide the movie with a single dramatic moment, whereas the viewer would have expected at least a few. Jessie gives her usual top performance - the scene where she is drunk in the restaurant is particularly funny - but some of her charm and beauty has started to disappear by this stage. It is telling that this movie sits outside her fabulous run of films by several years(those that she made between 1931 and 1938), and I would not recommend it as a first viewing for someone unfamiliar with her work. If you are simply a fan of the period then you may enjoy it, as the rest of the cast put in fine performances. Be warned: this movie has recently been released on DVD (end of 2006) but it is not a good transfer. It has been lifted from video tape by the look of it, and burnt on a home recorder.

During the 1930s and 40s, there were many dozens of films with rather similar plots to "Candles at Nine". Fortunately for this one, about midway though the story, it decided to toss the formula and try to be (somewhat) unique.

The story begins with an old man inviting his greedy relatives to his home. He plans on announcing what he's going to do with his money after he dies...but true to the old formula, he's dead before he can make the announcement. At the reading of the will, however, everyone is shocked....the money doesn't go to his servants or sycophantic family but an unknown family member who has no idea she's related to a rich man. Once it's announced, however, they all seem to try very hard to impress the new heiress....well, that is everyone but the disgruntled servants who seem a bit more menacing and, potentially, homicidal! What's next?

The first half of the film stinks because it is just too familiar. Add to that an unnecessary (and annoying) song and dance number and I was NOT happy when I watched. Fortunately, the story heated up after the midway point, when the writers actually showed some originality! Worth seeing.

Oh dear! This is one that will appeal only to the most ardent Matthews fan. What possessed anyone to contemplate another Wicked Housekeeper movie crossed with the Conditional Will in which a heroine inherits a fortune BUT ONLY if she stays for one month in The Old Dark House that comes complete with its own Mrs Danvers, here phoned in by Beatrix Lehman (presumably Gale Sondergaard and Judith Anderson were playing two of the witches in a Road Company Macbeth) is anyone's guess. The film suffers from terminal sloppiness; made and presumably set in the middle of the Second World War it makes virtually no reference to shortages and ordinary people think nothing of driving to and from the country at a time when a major celebrity, Ivor Novello, was imprisoned for doing the same thing and Jesse Matthews is portrayed as an ordinary working girl yet one who lives in a lavish, beautifully appointed flat; for no apparent reason the hero figure, ostensibly employed as a Turf Commissioner, takes it upon himself to 'protect' Matthews yet never reveals just how he knew that the butler, Grimes, was planning to shoot her (or where a butler would get a gun, for that matter) and when he himself is knocked out by Grimes and left trussed in a locked room by butler and housekeeper neither he nor Matthews mention this when, having been freed by Matthews who took an axe to the door unmolested by Lehman, they meet Lehman at breakfast. Okay, it was wartime and audiences weren't too choosy, but this really won't do.

Unfortunately Jessie Matthews suffered two major blows to her life and career in the late thirties.Her marriage to Sonnie Hale broke down and Gaumont British ceased film production.She made no major films till this one.She doesn't appear till 20 minutes had gone.Then comes a stylish musical number.Then unfortunately it is the mystery film that takes over.It runs on familiar lines and really does Jessie no favours.Little wonder that she appeared in future in film cameos yv and radio.I was fortunate enough to see her at the NFT in London talking about her career.