WHILE I LIVE

Audrey Fildes and Sonia Dresdel

WHILE I LIVE (aka The Dream of Olwyn/1947). Director: John Harlow. 

On the Cornish coast, young composer Olwyn (Audrey Fildes) lives with her older sister, Julia (Sonia Dresdel) while she tries to put the finishing touches to a composition entitled "The Dream of Olwyn." Unfortunately, Olwyn sleepwalks one night and winds up taking a header off of a cliff. Twenty-five years later Julia lives in the same house with her young cousin Peter (Clifford Evans), whom she raised, and his more practical wife, Christine (Patricia Burke). One evening into the household comes an unexpected visitor (Carol Raye), who claims she has no memory but has a connection to Cornwall and the family. Julia is convinced that this young lady is the reincarnation of her dead sister, but Christine is a little suspicious, leading to conflicts between her, her husband, and his somewhat domineering aunt. 

Clifford Evans and Patricia Burke

While I Live could have gone in several different directions -- oddly, no one wonders if this woman might be a con artist when you consider that Julia appears to be quite wealthy -- but what it offers the viewer (very little, in fact) is like a mild, forgettable episode of One Step Beyond stretched to 80 minutes! I won't give away any more of the film's flimsy secrets in case there are masochistic viewers who have a need to see virtually every bad British movie ever made (apparently I'm one of them!), but this has to be classified as a time-waster. You keep hoping something of real dramatic interest will occur but it never quite does. The acting is professional at least, with Tom Walls making the best impression as the house man Nehemiah. As for Olwyn's pleasantly romantic musical composition, it sounds like warmed-over Rachmaninoff but was composed by Charles Williams. 

Verdict: Based on a stage play that must have been equally dull. *1/2.