Ladies in Retirement (1941)

John Chard

8.0

Nov 2, 2013

As queer as mice in a cage. Ladies in Retirement is directed by Charles Vidor and adapted to screenplay by Garrett Ford from the Reginald Denham and Edward Percy play of the same name. It stars Ida Lupino, Louis Hayward, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Edith Barrett and Isobel Elsom. Music is by Ernst Toch and cinematography by George Barnes. A housekeeper takes drastic action when the head of the household insists that her two batty sisters be evicted the next day… Willow, Tit Willow, Tit Willow. Hee, the title conjures up images of some batty biddy comedy set in a retirement home,…

CinemaSerf

7.0

Mar 28, 2022

"Leonora Fiske" (Isobel Elsom) is a retired actress, a kindly soul, who lives in a remote cottage with her companion "Ellen" (Ida Lupino) and her maid. When "Ellen" asks if she might bring her sisters down to stay for a few days, they cause chaos to the old lady's normally ordered life and she asks them all to leave. Lupino has other ideas and is soon running the house as "Fiske" has "gone away". Unbeknown to her, though, her rather roguish distant nephew "Albert" (Louis Hayward) had previously stopped by to visit them whilst she was away, and when he returns to discover the old lady gone and…