Synopsis
Incredible evil!
A wheelchair-bound woman manipulates her family to a point where they suspect she may be unhinged.
The Sign of the Ram
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Alternative Titles
Il segno del capricorno, O Signo de Áries, Le Signe du Bélier
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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USANR
Releases by Country
USA
03 Mar 1948
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Well It's hard to but heads with John Sturges who has done a lot of fun action movies but this really is another realm for him but still deals off with some standoffish material. Very Gothic in it's setting of a house on the edge of a cliff giving off waves of tension that is to unfold with a young nubile maid to help out with the wife who was crippled saving her step children is subjugated to stir in thought of infidelity and futility. It's a movie really to see Susan Peters role really who just conveys so much gamut of emotion. It's an outsider noir just for the anxiety it brings to the screen. I enjoyed it but I don't think it was totally memorable however worth checking out in the astrological time of the Aries;)
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Caught this on TCM’s Noir Alley this morning. Sorry Eddie Muller; I liked it, but it’s not noir. It’s got the shadows and the darkness, but I’d categorize it more as a gothic melodrama—heavy Rebecca vibes for sure. John Sturges was likely directing with Hitchcock in mind—a shot that pushes in on a bottle of pills concealed behind someone’s back is like a less flamboyant version of the famous crane shot of the key in Ingrid Bergman’s hand from Notorious—and he did a more-than-serviceable job.
The person who deserves the most credit for making the film work, though, is lead actress Susan Peters. She plays kind of a new twist on the Wicked Stepmother archetype; one whose scheming and manipulation…
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"Love can be selfish too"
Poet Leah St. Aubyn (Susan Peters) lost the use of her legs saving her step children in an accident years ago. She's been plagued with self doubt about her desirability to her husband and usefulness as a mother figure ever since. Over time, her fierce protectiveness and love for her family has turned more and more controlling. The gradual tightening of her grip on them and her increasing exercise of control over their lives has largely gone unnoticed until they are awakened to the reality of their situation after reaching marrying age and having Leah interfere with their relationships. Her efforts to sabotage their happiness set in motion a scenario that can only end poorly. …
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I will admit that I had a lot of fun while watching THE SIGN OF THE RAM. But, wow ... it was definitely a pot-boiler!
One of the issues is the odd opening credit, "The return to the screen of Miss SUSAN PETERS." Right up front, we're told that this is a showcase production for one person ... and she gives quite a good performance. In many ways, she reminded me of Joan Crawford in one of her "nastier" roles. But, right from the beginning, the emphasis is not on going to see a movie ... it is in attending the return of Susan Peters.
Marketing aside, if they set a gothic story in a fog-bound setting, they have my…
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“I like the cliffs on a moonlit night.”
The return of Susan Peters. Cornwall is kind and cruel in this “strong willpower” gothic noir, a film that I have to imagine Jimmy Sangster saw before writing Taste of Fear. It has moments of screeching music crescendo melodrama I love, but not enough.
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A wicked stepmother story set in a mansion on the cliffs of Cornwall, and starring Susan Peters in her only film appearance after being tragically paralyzed three years earlier, at just 23. Unfortunately, despite how poignant it is to see Peters, and even more so in light of how the rest of her short life would play out, this is a pretty weak film, falling short on all fronts. It takes about a half an hour to really get going, and even when it does, it sleepwalks through the machinations of this woman to deny her adult stepchildren happiness in marriage and to keep them at home, under her sway. None of the character motivations make a lot of sense,…
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This psychological thriller set on stormy Cornish coast has both the setting and the vibe of Rebecca Du Maurier. Susan Peters overturns the Wicked Stepmother trope with a standout performance of smiling villainy in a wheelchair, so often a locus of impotence and pity.
The studio must not have been able to get Hitchcock so they got Hitch’s favorite screenwriter, Charles Bennett and a young John Sturgess. They tossed in Burnett Guffey and his noir toolkit to give the film a great gothic (if not noir) aesthetic.
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1948 Ranked
John Sturges RankedWeird little movie in a few ways. First off, it is billed and known as the return of the recently paralyzed Susan Peters. She's fantastic, but the knowledge of what's happened to her in real life mixed with the impact of her character's recent paralysis couldn't have been all that pleasant to play, relive, and eerily anticipate. Second, the structure is odd. Sherida is our audience entry point from the get-go, a bit of a fish-out-of-water and outsider trying to understand and fit in the family. This means of access works for the audience, but the focus shifts completely away from her and on to Leah, turning Sherida from important to peripheral. This isn't a…
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1. Susan Peters, you’ll always be a star; caught this in Criterion Channel’s Gothic Noir collection
2. love the British seaside feel to this, the Cornwall cliffs, the foghorns, the waves..
3. masterful piano playing; i like the name Sherida
4. progressive in ways for casting a character with disabilities as nuanced, multidimensional, despite being malicious & conniving
5. part of the DMWCU (the Dame May Whitty Cinematic Universe) -
For a movie that's often touted as a film noir, The Sign of the Ram plays more like a Gothic melodrama. Consider that it takes place in a cavernous mansion along the Cornwall shores that's been in one family for generations, a family that has skeletons in the closet. Practically the only thing noir about it is the use of shadows.
The family at the center has the very British name of St. Aubyn: father Mallory (Alexander Knox), second wife Leah (Susan Peters), and his three older children from his first marriage: Logan (Ross Ford), Jane (Allene Roberts), and Christine (Peggy Ann Garner). Leah is a poet, confined to a wheelchair after saving two of the children from drowning. Into…
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Sturges and Bennett both comes across as functioning on autopilot mode here, with all the heavy lifting relegated to Susan Peter’s in this touted return to the screen where she has to command as much gravitas as possible from a wheelchair. It’s not a terrible idea for a family melodrama and is an interesting counterpoint to Leave Her to Heaven where the toxic obsession with a husband is replaced with a toxic obsession with stepchildren, but it wouldn’t have to hurt to give a deeper psychological explanation than just her star sign.