The Sign of the Ram


The Sign of the Ram is a 1948 American film noir directed by John Sturges and written by Charles Bennett, based on a novel written by Margaret Ferguson. The drama features Susan Peters and Alexander Knox. It also featured Ron Randell.
The film marked Susan Peters' return to the screen after a three-year absence following an accident that paralyzed her. It was her final film.

Plot

The story tells of Leah St. Aubyn, an invalid wife and mother who exerts dictatorial control over everyone she knows. Leah's family forgive her temperament due to her medical condition, yet she exploits that fact fully. Eventually her behavior leaves her alone and without friends. Yet, even in her dark moments she insists upon "controlling all." Finally, she engineers her own death.

Cast

It was based on a novel by Margaret Lindsay which was published in 1945. The New York Times said it was "a book to chill the cockles of your heart." The novel concerned a poet in a wheelchair, and was thought to be an ideal comeback vehicle for Susan Peters.
Susan Peters had been injured in a hunting accident near San Diego on 1 January 1945 that permanently paralysed her. Peters was under contract to MGM at the time. Her last completed film was Keep Your Power Dry. She had an incomplete film The Outward Room which MGM wanted to reshoot to incorporate Peters' accident but she persuaded Louis B. Mayer otherwise.
Actor Charles Bickford read the novel and told Peters about it. "Leah is a completely domineering woman", said Peters. "But I know what makes her that way. It is a fear of being alone."
Peters took the project to her agent, Frank Orsatti, who got director Irving Cummings involved. Cummings had been ill and wanted to move into producing. Producer Irving Cummings and his son Irving Cummings Jr., and the Orsatti Agency set up an independent company, Signet to make the film. Signet signed a deal with Columbia which provided cast and crew, production facilities and distribution. Peters received 33% of the profits. "It seemed to much more sensible than for me to make a picture on a straight salary, what with income taxes and all", said Peters.
It was Cummings first movie as a producer. The project was announced in April 1947. John Sturges was announced as director in June. Peggy Ann Garner was borrowed from 20th Century Fox.
Filming started 8 July 1947. "I know they will come in to see how I look in a wheelchair", said Peters during the shoot. "If I can send them out thinking I'm an actress I'll be satisfied. This is my great opportunity."
Seymour Friedman shot background footage in Cornwall, England.

Reception

Film critic Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times, was harsh. According to Crowther: "Plainly the story is claptrap. And the direction of John Sturges is such that the illogic and the pomposity are only magnified. By showing Miss Peters, in her wheelchair, as though she were an alabaster doll, with just about as much personality, he has completely denatured her role. And by directing Phyllis Thaxter, Peggy Ann Garner, Allene Roberts and Alexander Knox to hit such a slowness of tempo and such a sombreness of tone that the whole thing drifts into monotony, he has only emphasized the static qualities. If it weren't for the noisy interjection of thunder-drums and pounding surf from time to time, this would be an effective soporofic. And it might have been kinder to let it be."
Film critic Hal Erickson wrote for AllMovie: "Far more tasteful than it sounds, Sign of the Ram was a worthwhile valedictory vehicle for Susan Peters, who died a few years after the film's release."
The film was not a box office success.

Susan Peters' later career

In February 1948, Irving Cummings announced that Signet's next movie would be a romantic comedy, Paris Rhapsody, based on a script by Charles Bennett. It would be made in Paris the next winter. The same month Signet announced they would make The Pasadena Story.
However the film was never made and The Sign of the Ram would be Peters' last feature. She separated from her husband Richard Quine in March 1948 and made a TV series, Miss Susan, and toured in two stage plays The Glass Menagerie and The Barretts of Wimpole Street. She committed suicide in 1952.