Wait - a movie about Poe involving Joseph Cotten, Barbara Stanwyck, and Leslie Caron! Where has this been my whole childhood?! Well, no wonder because this was difficult to find online which is whey I accidentally posted it once without actually having watched it.
The story begins with a man calling himself Dupin (Joseph Cotten) acting mysterious and broody while drinking in a tavern. I love Poe’s mystery stories so this made me happy right away. Enter the young maiden, Madeline Minot (Leslie Caron) looking for her boyfriend’s grandfather to beg him for money towards saving the French republic. Turns out Grandpa Thevenet (Louis Calhern) is a drunken cad who lives with three servants trying to kill him for his money. The fabulous Barbara Stanwyck plays housekeeper Lorna Bounty, the leader of the group who see this young woman as a threat to their inheritance. She is awkwardly dubbed for a random singing performance, but other than that Stanwyck plays a woman both sympathetic and conniving.
Despite grandpa being a curmudgeon who holds onto the days of Napoleon, he’s not an idiot and suspects what the staff is up to. His own life does not seem to concern him, but he instantly takes a liking to Madeline and warns her of what the small household might try to do. Madeline asks Dupin to help her save the old man’s life by proving that the staff are trying to kill him. Despite the grandfather’s faults, Madeline honestly wants to save his life both because she is fond of the awful fellow and because she knows her boyfriend would want her to.
Lorna is immediately attracted to Dupin (shaw! he’s Joseph Cotten) when he comes to the house looking for Madeline. He also randomly reads from a book of poetry he finds in the house. What poem you may ask? Should I tell you? Nevermore.
Grandpa does have a pet raven named after a famous French poet Villon, played by Jimmy the Crow, a famous animal actor with 28 IMDB credits. He has a part to play in the mystery and one of the twists to the ending.
Dupin always has a drink in his hand and acts philosophical about various topics like time, money, and other things getting his way. Still, he is blunt and admires Madeline not out of sheer appreciation of her beauty, but of her ideals. He has a good line which describes her as “courageous as she is foolish. This comes from a faith in life, Thevenet, something you and I both lack. A dream which is not for sale and never can be locked away”.
Spoiler alert: Dupin turns out to be Edgar Allan Poe himself, waiting in town while writing Annabel Lee and owing money to everyone.
