Rent This Was a Woman / The Living Idol (1957)
2.9 of 5 from 51 ratings
3h 13min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Double bill of fantastic thrillers...
This Was a Woman (1948)
A manipulative women who will do anything to achieve her goals. She sadistically controls her children's lives and commits heinous acts including murder.
The Living Idol (1957)
Liliane Montevecchi is Juanita, a young women who is haunted by ancestral visions of sacrifice and murder. - Actors:
- Steve Forrest, Liliane Montevecchi, James Robertson Justice, Sara García, Eduardo Noriega, Daniel Arroyo, Rodolfo Calvo, Chava Godínez, Elodia Hernández, Ignacio Peón, Sonia Dresdel, Barbara White, Walter Fitzgerald, Cyril Raymond, Marjorie Rhodes, Emrys Jones, Celia Lipton, Scott Forbes, Lesley Osmond, Kynaston Reeves
- Directors:
- René Cardona, Albert Lewin, Tim Whelan
- Producers:
- Marcel Hellman, Albert Lewin, Gregorio Walerstein
- Writers:
- Val Valentine, Joan Morgan, Albert Lewin
- Studio:
- Screenbound Pictures
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Horror, Thrillers
More like This Was a Woman / The Living Idol
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Reviews (1) of This Was a Woman / The Living Idol
Tea, Treachery and a Touch of Witchcraf - This Was a Woman / The Living Idol review by griggs
A British slice of domestic poison that plays like a genteel Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, This Was a Woman is an elegant but chilly melodrama about a family quietly eaten from within. It’s more drawing-room deceit than true thriller, and most of the cast seem frozen in polite restraint.
Sonia Dresdel, though, is mesmerising. As the narcissistic wife and mother from hell, she turns manipulation into performance art — all arched brows and measured venom. Her presence gives the film its pulse, lifting it above its stagey trappings.
The script lands some sly blows against post-war class snobbery and moral hypocrisy, even if the direction plays it safe. Faint traces of mysticism and witchcraft add an unexpected twist — as though evil itself had settled into suburbia and put the kettle on.
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