While I Live

While I Live is directed by John Harlow and written by Robert Bell, John Harlow and Doreen Montgomery. It stars Tom Walls, Clifford Evans, Sonia Dresdel, Patricia Burke, John Warwick, Edward Lexy and Audrey Fildes. Music is by Charles Williams and cinematography by Freddie Young.

It has been 25 years since her composer sister died in tragic circumstance, but Julia Trevelyan (Dresdel) still obsesses over her. Then one day an amnesiac woman arrives at the family home looking for help, and now Julia is certain that she is the reincarnation of her beloved sister.

It has become one of those films more known for its theme music than for the film itself. For here we have Charles Williams' quite beautiful "The Dream of Olwen" featuring as a key part of the narrative. It's the piece of work that Olwen Trevelyan (Fildes) was struggling to finish before her untimely death. While it's undeniably the beating heart of the pic, it's a disservice to ignore what characteristic and narrative smarts are on show.

This is a fascinating delve into not only the world of amnesia, but also to that of grief as a sometimes unstoppable force. Thus with the setting to the tale being a cliff top dwelling in Cornwall, pic is ripe for ethereal tones and shadowy visuals, with the mystery of the amnesiac lady a constant intrigue. It's all very improbable of course, and much of the acting is of its time and very "correct" as it were, but this is a lovely film with sharp themes at the core, some nifty tech aspects on show and a bona fide classic piece of music driving it forward. 7.5/10

I remember seeing this film on TV as a boy in the late 50s/early 60s and have never forgotten it. Very powerful with wonderful music. The image of a sleep-walking woman on the cliffs sticks with me after 40 years.Would love to see it again, but for some reason it isn't regarded as Classic enough for release on DVD. Why doesn't someone release the theme tune as a single with clips from the film on the accompanying video? It worked for 'Love is all around me'... Have sometimes toyed with the idea of writing to Total Film and submitting candidates for the Top 100 British films which they never seem to mention, such as this and some of the best George Formby and Gracie Fields films. When I was a boy they were often on TV. Why aren't they now?

Compared to today's line-readers sometimes called, "actors," this cast is first-rate. A bit corny, perhaps, but so is Gone With the Wind. The film hit a nerve with 1947 audiences who were dreaming their war dead might return. Watch it with that thought in mind and you'll shed tears.

The film keeps replaying and replaying Charles Williams' "Dream of Olwen" a perhaps little too much, but I don't tire of it. For over 50 years, "Dream of Olwen" has been one of my favorite musical pieces. Not until recently did I learn that it came from this film.

The young amnesiac woman who visits on the night of the 25th anniversary of the death of Julia's sister, Olwen, brings too many coincidental similarities to Olwen. The story is an wonderful original mystery tale.

it struck so powerfully when I was young it has stayed in my mind ever since. The daughter in her night dress, sleep walking on the top of a cliff on a windy rainy dark night, and going to throw herself over, as her mother had, but being rescued just in time by her boyfriend and another I think. My philosophical response to it in later years, was that in the event she didn't have to do what her mother had done. In adult interpretation this would be that the repetition compulsion had not had to be acted out. And that this was a deliverance. It must have some connection with my mother's early death from cancer. Jeremy Ross. AFECT film school. London

A little like the Nino Rota theme from the "Glass Mountain", this film is much more memorable for the beautiful, haunting melody "The Dream of Olwen" from Charles Williams than for it's acting. The story revolves around a spinster "Julia (Sonia Dresdel) who has been mourning the death of her musically gifted sister for a quarter of a century. Out of the blue, an amnesiac lady (Audrey Flides) arrives at their home and "Julia" soon becomes convinced that she is the reincarnation of her dead sibling. Not a view shared by everyone in the family - but, eerily, she has knowledge and habits common to the deceased. It's a gently presented melodrama - a good cast telling a charming tale that hasn't really much depth either in the plot or characterisation departments but tugs at the heart strings nonetheless...