The 1948 version of “Portrait of Jennie” has a few characteristics that strick me as odd. First, the film seems to take on the features of an old detective movie. Eben is sitting in a chair or starring out of a window into the night, a pondering look displayed across his face and then, finally, his voice is playing over the scene. Something like, “Who is this Jennie, and where could she come from. I find myself slipping into a fantastical world unknown to mankind.” Definitely similar old detective films! But Eben is indeed trying to figure out anything and everything he can about the Jennie; the one thing in life that is wonderful and all his, but he can never hang onto. So in a way Eben is a detective.
I also feel like actress playing Jennie captures the character from the novel, but at times she goes over board with it. Acting very strange and making weird noises.
Jennie also always seems to head toward a light when ever she leaves a scene. She also almost always has a light of some sort position behind her head resembling a halo, as if she is an angel, Eben’s guardian angel. She gives him the opportunity to prosper as an artist, and propells his career to a level unknown to him. Within in doing all of this, the film is continuing to imply that Jennie is a ghost/angel or just simply dead.
There is a ton of forshadowing within the film; maybe a little too much at that. Every time Jennie sees a portrait having to do with an ocean, she freaks out and becomes incredibly scared. Eben is also painting those pictures, landscapes of the place where he is caught in the hurricane (I think it’s the same place, but don’t quote me on that). Then Mr. Mathews walks his dog, who just happens to be SKIPPER (an allusion to a the sea, with the skipper=captain thing) and who just happens to run to Eben, the man who is fighting the sea in the end of the novel.
I just jotted down these things while watching the film and thought I would share.