Verdict
Summary
A haunting and unusual film noir cum supernatural horror film, Corridor of Mirrors was the first film from director Terence Young, who would go on to direct a handful of 007 movies, including Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball, and it’s a stylish film done in a gothic fashion.
Plot:
A woman becomes the mistress of an eccentric wealthy man who believes he and she are both reincarnated lovers from hundreds of years past.
Review:
Mifanwy (Edna Romney) is at a nightclub with some friends when she’s picked up by a very wealthy man named Paul (Eric Portman), who seems drawn to her from beyond the ages. Over the next few weeks and months, she becomes his mistress, and he gives her lavish gifts and the run of his mansion filled with mirrors. She carries on a double life, going home to a simple life where another man loves her but understands that she has a lover she values more than him. Paul begins to obsess over Mifanwy, and confesses to her that he believes they are both reincarnated from a pair of lovers from another age, and that she embodies – both body, mind, and spirit – the ideal version of the woman he has always searched for, but with his obsession over her comes a strange price: Mifanwy will become his prisoner in the house, like another ghostly woman who lives in the house has become before her. Paul has other lovers too: A nightclub singer drifts in and out of the house, unloved and unwanted, and eventually Mifanwy will get in the crosshairs of Paul’s violent rage, which manifests when one of the three women in the house will die by strangulation.
A haunting and unusual film noir cum supernatural horror film, Corridor of Mirrors was the first film from director Terence Young, who would go on to direct a handful of 007 movies, including Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball, and it’s a stylish film done in a gothic fashion. While satisfying on the whole, the movie teases with its supernatural elements, but it should appeal to fans of weird, eerie horror films of the era.
Cohen Media Group and Kino Lorber recently released a Blu-ray and a DVD edition of Corridor of Mirrors, and the film transfer is warm and filmic with sharp picture and sound. No special features, other than bonus trailers are included.
