What is the secret of the “Moss Rose?”

Moss Rose (1947) is an American period mystery drama directed by Gregory Ratoff and starring Peggy Cummins, Victor Mature, and Ethel Barrymore. The supporting cast includes Vincent Price, Rhys Williams, and Patricia Medina. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Marjorie Bowen, based on a true-crime Victorian murder case.

The story is set in Victorian London and centers around chorus girl, Belle Adair (Cummins), whose real name is Rose Lynton. She sees gentleman Michael Drego (Mature) leave her friend Daisy Arrow’s (Margo Woode) apartment moments before she discovers that Daisy has been murdered.

Daisy decides to blackmail Michael thinking he is the murderer and is willing to do almost anything to keep himself from hanging and his family from scandal. Rose’s blackmail plans are quite unusual but Drego agrees to them. Rose begins to have second thoughts when a second murder is committed that is similar to the first.

Peggy Cummins, Ethel Barrymore, Patricia Medina, and Victor Mature

Gregory Ratoff (1893 – 1960) was a Russian-born American film director, actor, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his acting role as Max Fabian in All About Eve (1950). Some of the films Ratoff directed include Intermezzo (1939) starring Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman in her American film debut, Rose of Washington Square (1939) starring Alice Faye, Don Ameche, and Henry Fonda, Adam Had Four Sons (1941) starring Ingrid Bergman and  Warner Baxter, Oscar Wilde (1960).

Peggy Cummings (1925 – 2017) was an Irish actress who had a brief but memorable career in Hollywood. She is best remembered for her starring role in Gun Crazy (1950) playing a murderous femme fatale, who robs banks along with her husband. Cummings was originally cast as Amber St. Clair in Forever Amber (1947) but was replaced by Linda Darnell when Darryl Zanuck, after looking at the rushes, thought she was too young. After Gun Crazy, Cummings never made another film in Hollywood.

Victor Mature (1913 – 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who became a major movie star during the 1940s under contract to 20th Century-Fox. Before his film career took off, Mature starred in Lady in the Dark (1941) on Broadway opposite Gertrude Lawrence. Some of Mature’s notable films include I Wake Up Screaming (1941) with Betty Grable, and The Shanghai Gesture (1941) with Gene Tierney. In 1942, he starred opposite Rita Hayworth in the musical My Gal Sal. Other notable films include Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Robe (1952), the first film released in the Cinemascope widescreen process. Mature was self-deprecating when it came to his acting. He said, “I’m no actor, and I’ve got 64 pictures to prove it.”

Ethel Barrymore (1879 - 1959) was an American stage and film actress and part of the famous Barrymore family of actors. Her equally famous brothers were Lionel and John Barrymore. Barrymore got her start on the stage and she was among its brightest stars for many years. Barrymore also had a successful career on the other side of the Atlantic in London where she starred in Peter the Great. She achieved one of her biggest Broadway successes in W. Somerset Maugham’s comedy, The Constant Wife (1926). Barrymore was a popular character actress in film during the 1940s. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in None but the Lonely Heart (1944) opposite Cary Grant who played her son. Other film roles include The Spiral Staircase (1946), The Paradine Case (1947), and Pinky (1949).

 

Victor Mature and Peggy Cummins

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Discussion questions

1. What genre would you classify this film?
2. Peggy Cummins was given the lead in this film after being fired from Forever Amber. What did you think of her performance?
3. The film had great production values, a good cast, and a tight script. However, the film was a box office failure. Why do you think this was the case?
4. Filmed entirely on the backlot at 20^th Century-Fox, did the recreation of Victorian London look realistic to you?
5. Did it remind you of any other film you’ve seen?
6. Was there a favorite character actor or performance that you especially liked?
7. Where you surprised when the true murderer was revealed?  Did you suspect someone else or where you on the right track all along?