The Three Weird Sisters *** (1948, Nancy Price, Mary Clare, Mary Merrall) – Classic Movie Review 12,185

Director Daniel Birt’s 1948 British melodrama film The Three Weird Sisters is based on Charlotte Armstrong’s novel The Case of the Weird Sisters, and stars Nancy Price, Mary Clare, Mary Merrall, Nova Pilbeam and Raymond Lovell.

Dylan Thomas had a hand in the screenplay of this enjoyably over the top tale of a trio of aged troublemakers after gaining an inheritance – even if it means murder to get it. It might sound like a black comedy but it is actually a mammoth macabre melodrama.

It is almost impossible to detect the Welsh bard’s touch, but with a plot as way out as this, that might be for the best. Still, there is nothing wrong with the Gothic atmosphere, or the acting and Nancy Price, Mary Clare and Mary Merrall make a delectably terrible trio as the three weird Morgan-Vaughan sisters in Thirties South Wales. And Raymond Lovell and Nova Pilbeam are good company as their rich relative and his secretary.

The elderly Morgan-Vaughan sisters Gertrude (Price), Maude (Clare) and Isobel (Merrall) live in a decaying and claustrophobic mansion in a Welsh mining village. Gertrude is blind, Maude is almost deaf and Isobel is crippled by arthritis. After a coalmine collapses, they need to finance repairs, but have no money.

Their wealthy younger half-brother Owen (Raymond Lovell) and his secretary Claire (Nova Pilbeam) arrive from London, and a series of strange events occur, convincing Claire that the sisters are plotting to murder Owen for his money.

It is Birt’s feature film directorial debut and one of the last films of Nova Pilbeam, who briefly continued working on stage and TV, but retired from acting three years after it was made.

The screenplay is adapted by Dylan Thomas, David Evans, Nancy Price and Louise Birt from the novel The Case of the Weird Sisters by Charlotte Armstrong. It is mistitled The Case of the Three Weird Sisters in the opening credits.

Charlotte Armstrong wrote 29 novels, as well as short stories, plays and screenplays, which include Incident at a Corner, episode of Startime, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1959, plus three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Sybilla (dir. Ida Lupino); The Five-Forty-Eight (adapted from the John Cheever short story) and Across the Threshold, 1960.

Four well-known films were also made from her work: Talk About a Stranger, 1952 (from the short story The Enemy), Don’t Bother to Knock, 1952 (from the novel Mischief) (dir. Roy Baker), The Three Weird Sisters, 1948 (from the novel The Case of the Weird Sisters) (dir. Daniel Birt), and The Unsuspected, 1947 (dir. Michael Curtiz).

Nova Pilbeam died on 17 July 2015 in London, aged 95. She is remembered for ever for Alfred Hitchcock’s films The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and Young and Innocent (1937), as well as for Tudor Rose (1936).

Filming location: National Studios, Elstree, Hertfordshire, England, UK.

Release date: July 12, 1948 (UK).

The Three Weird Sisters is directed by Dan Birt, runs 82 minutes, is made by British National Films, is released by Associated British-Pathé, is written by Louise Birt, David Evans, Dylan Thomas and Nancy Price, based on the novel The Case of the Weird Sisters by Charlotte Armstrong, is shot in black and white by Ernest Palmer, is produced by Louis H Jackson, is scored by Hans May, and is designed by C Wilfred Arnold.

The cast are Nancy Price as Gertrude Morgan-Vaughan, Mary Clare as Maude Morgan-Vaughan, Mary Merrall as Isobel Morgan-Vaughan, Nova Pilbeam as Claire Prentiss, Anthony Hulme as Dr David Davies, Raymond Lovell as Owen Morgan-Vaughan, Elwyn Brook-Jones as Thomas, Edward Rigby as Waldo, Hugh Griffith as Mabli Hughes, Marie Ault as Beattie, David Davies as Police Sergeant, Hugh Pryse as Minister, Frank Crawshaw as Bank Manager, Frank Dunlop as Ben, Lloyd Pearson as Solicitor, Doreen Richards as Mrs Probert, and Bartlett Mullins as Dispenser.

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