Stolen Life *** (1939, Elisabeth Bergner, Michael Redgrave, Wilfrid Lawson) – Classic Movie Review 13,595

Elisabeth Bergner impresses in a dual role in this tale of an unhappy wife who swaps places with her deceased identical twin sister, in the 1939 British drama film Stolen Life.

‘CALL ME LIAR -CALL ME CHEAT… I don’t care as long as I can hold his love.’

Director Paul Czinner’s 1939 British drama film Stolen Life is based on the 1935 novel Uloupeny Zivot by Karel J Benes, and stars Elisabeth Bergner and Michael Redgrave, with Wilfrid Lawson.

Elisabeth Bergner impresses in a dual role in this tale of an unhappy wife who swaps places with her deceased identical twin sister, killed in a boat accident, in order to be free of her husband. Michael Redgrave plays mountaineer Alan MacKenzie, who meets and falls in love with Martina, but marries her forceful twin sister Sylvina, tricked into proposing to the wrong twin.

But true love will find a way. Sylvina is drowned in a sailing accident, but Martina is rescued from the water clutching her sister’s wedding ring and mistaken for her, so Martina decides to impersonate her dead sister, who it turns out had been having an affair with another man and planned to divorce Alan.

A campy, preposterous soap opera, it is far from a great movie, but it is confidently handled package of melodramatics with just enough bite and good acting to amuse and entertain.

It is remade as A Stolen Life with Bette Davis in 1946.

The film was made on the eve of World War Two at Pinewood Studios Iver Heath, England, with location filming in Cornwall, the south of France, and the Dolomites in Italy.

Stolen Life is directed by Paul Czinner, runs 90 minutes, is made by Orion Productions, is released by Paramount British Pictures., is written by Margaret Kennedy and George Barraud, is shot in black and white by Philip Tannura, is produced by Anthony Havelock-Allan, is scored by William Walton, and is designed by John Bryan, with costumes by Joe Strassner.

It was released pre-war on 18 January 1939 by Paramount British Pictures and re-released in 1942 during World War Two.

Czinner and Bergner fled Germany after the Nazi takeover in 1933, first to Vienna then to London, where they were married. Their films were banned in Germany. Stolen Life finally premiered in France in 1946 and in West Germany in 1951.

Paul Czinner (30 May 1890 – 22 June 1972) was born to a Jewish family in Budapest, Austria-Hungary. Elisabeth Bergner (22 August 1897 – 12 May 1986) was born Ella vel Ettel Bergner to a Jewish family in Drohobych, Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Ukraine). She became a British subject in 1938. Czinner was gay and they enjoyed a happy union, personally and professionally.

The cast are Elisabeth Bergner as Sylvina Lawrence / Martina Lawrence, Michael Redgrave as Alan MacKenzie, Wilfrid Lawson as Thomas E Lawrence, Richard Ainley as Morgan, Kenneth Milne-Buckley as Garrett, Mabel Terry-Lewis as Aunt Helen, Clement McCallin as Karal Anderson, Stella Arbenina as Nurse, Ernest Ferney as Superintendent Demangeon, Oliver Johnson as Professor Bardesley, Annie Esmond as Cook, Roy Russell as British Minister, and Homer Regus as Mayor.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,595

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com