In 1934, impoverished painter Eben Adams meets a fey little girl named Jennie Appleton in Central Park, Manhattan. She is wearing old-fashioned clothing. He makes a sketch of her from memory which involves him with art dealer Miss Spinney, who sees potential in him. This inspires him to paint a portrait of Jennie. Eben encounters Jennie at intermittent intervals. Strangely, she appears to be growing up much more rapidly than is possible. He soon falls in love with her but is puzzled by the fact that she seems to be experiencing events that he discovers took place many years previously as if they had just happened. Eventually he learns the truth about Jennie and though inevitable tragedy ensues, she continues to be an inspiration to Eben's life and art, and his career makes a remarkable upturn, commencing with his portrait of Jennie.
The book on which the film was based first attracted the attention of David O. Selznick, who immediately purchased it as a vehicle for Academy Award winner Jennifer Jones. Filming began in early 1947 in New York City and Boston, Massachusetts, but Selznick was unhappy with the results and scheduled re-shoots as well as hiring and firing five different writers before the film was completed in October 1948. The New York shooting enabled Selznick to use Albert Sharpe and David Wayne who were both appearing on stage in Finian's Rainbow, giving an Irish flair to characters and the painting in the bar that was not in Nathan's novel. As Portrait of Jennie was a fantasy, Selznick insisted on filming on actual Massachusetts and New York City locations as opposed to studio sets, which dramatically increased the film's production costs. The film's major overhaul came when Selznick added a tinted color sequence for the final scenes. The final shot of the painting, appearing just before the credits, was presented in three-strip Technicolor. Portrait of Jennie was highly unusual for its time in that it had no opening credits as such, except for the Selznick Studio logo. All the other credits appear at the end. Before the film proper begins, the title is announced by the narrator. The portrait of Jennie was painted by artist Robert Brackman. The painting became one of Selznick's prized possessions, and it was displayed in his home after he married Jones in 1949. The film is notable for Joseph H. August's atmospheric cinematography, capturing the lead character's obsession with Jennie, amongst the environs of a wintry New York. August shot many of the scenes through a canvas, making the scenes look like actual paintings. August, who used many lenses from silent film days, died shortly after completing the film. He was posthumously nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Dimitri Tiomkin used themes by Claude Debussy, including Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, the two Arabesques, "Nuages" and "Sirènes" from Nocturnes, and La fille aux cheveux de lin, with the addition of Bernard Herrmann's "Jennie's Theme" to a song featured in Nathan's book, utilizing a theremin. Herrmann was assigned the original composing duties for the film but left during its extended shooting schedule. A scene of Jennie and Eben having a picnic after witnessing the ceremony in the convent, features in the original screenplay. It was filmed but deleted when it looked as if Jennie's hair was blending into the tree next to her. The scene that featured Jennie doing a dance choreographed by Jerome Robbins took over ten days to film, but was not used in the completed film.
Reception
When it was released in December 1948, it was not a success, but today it is considered a classic in the fantasy genre with a 91% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Upon its release, The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther called it "deficient and disappointing in the extreme;" but the Variety reviewers found the story was "told with style, taste and dignity." Most modern film critics have also given the film strong praise: for example, Leslie Halliwell noted that it was 'presented with superb persuasiveness by a first-class team of actors and technicians'. "Portrait of Jennie," the title song written by J. Russell Robinson, subsequently became a hit for Nat King Cole. An EmArcy Records recording, Clifford Brown with Strings featured the late great, lyrical jazz trumpeter, Clifford Brown with his poignant readings of several standards and evergreens including "Portrait of Jenny." Although this instrumental version of the song was arranged by Neal Hefti for Mr. Brown's date, the melodic line is close to what Nat King Cole had recorded in 1948. However, for some unknown reason, the track listing appears on Mr. Brown's lp jacket cover with the spelling of the name, "Jenny" with a "y" instead of an "ie." In other words, despite the spelling difference of the song's name, the melody IS the same. It was even revisited in 1958 by pianist Red Garland on Manteca, and again in 1966 by jazz trumpeter Blue Mitchell on his Bring It Home to Me. Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass recorded a popular version of Portrait of Jenny heard widely on jazz radio stations on their 1976 LP The Jazz Album featuring Guido Basso. Joseph Cotten's performance as Eben Adams won the International Prize for Best Actor at the 1949 Venice International Film Festival. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
Portrait of Jennie was presented on the radio program Academy Award on December 4, 1946. Joan Fontaine starred in the adaptation. Lux Radio Theatre presented an hour-long adaptation of the film on October 31, 1949, again starring Joseph Cotten, but this time with Anne Baxter in the role of Jennie.
