While I Live [The Dream of Olwen] ** (1947, Sonia Dresdel, Tom Walls, Carol Raye, Clifford Evans, Patricia Burke, John Warwick) – Classic Movie Review 13,754

The 1947 British drama film While I Live stars Sonia Dresdel as a crazed Cornish spinster who becomes convinced that an unknown amnesiac young woman is the reincarnation of her dead composer sister.

Director John Harlow’s 1947 British drama film While I Live [The Dream of Olwen] is based on the play Olwen [This Same Garden] by Robert Bell, and stars Sonia Dresdel, Tom Walls, Carol Raye, Clifford Evans, Patricia Burke, John Warwick, and Audrey Fildes.

While I Live [is a creaky, overacted old thriller melodrama, with young amnesiac pianist Sally (Carol Raye) compelled to the cliffs by crazed Cornish spinster Julia Trevelyan (Sonia Dresdel), who supposes that she is her reincarnated sister Olwen (Audrey Fildes), a sleepwalking clifftop fall victim 25 years earlier. Tom Walls plays a local faith healer, called Nehemiah, who also claims to have second sight and becomes involved.

Julia is listening to a radio broadcast of Olwen’s final composition on the 25th anniversary of Olwen’s death, when an unknown young woman (Carol Raye) knocks on the door, walks up to the piano and begins playing along with the music. The woman, who looks and acts like Olwen, says she has lost her memory yet is familiar with the isolated house and the family. Julia offers her refuge.

The overheated film of course defies any kind of credibility throughout, although that is its charm and allure, and it is still sneakily entertaining, with the formidable Sonia Dresdel, ideally cast as the domineering elder sister Julia, and Tom Walls (from the Aldwych farces but in one of his later career serious roles) giving especially enjoyable turns.

It was highly popular when reissued as The Dream of Olwen to cash in on composer Charles Williams’s hit piano theme. The musical theme ‘The Dream of Olwen’ is reprised throughout the film, and is still performed regularly.

The film is based on a play by Robert Bell named as This Same Garden in the opening credits, although it was first produced as Olwen in March 1947 with Hilda Bayley starring as Julia.

Cast: Sonia Dresdel, Tom Walls, Carol Raye, Clifford Evans, Patricia Burke, John Warwick, Audrey Fildes, Ernest Butcher, Enid Hewitt, Sally Rogers, Edward Lexy, Johnnie Sheffield, Brenda Cameron, Diana Luke, Doreen Fischer.

It is the first film of Audrey Fildes, who went on to play Louis Mazzini’s mother in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

It is made at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios, Boreham Wood, England.

Release date: 7 October 1947.

While I Live [The Dream of Olwen] is directed by John Harlow, runs 85 minutes, is made by Edward Dryhurst Productions, is released by 20th Century Fox (UK), is written by John Harlow and Doreen Montgomery, is shot in black and white by Freddie Young, is produced by Edward Dryhurst, and is scored by Charles Williams.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,754

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