Brilliant and touching

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A distinguished cast (including a pre-horror stardom Vincent Price as a police inspector!), a clever "voice recognition test" sequence, and some plot surprises make "Moss Rose" worth your while, although it's quite slow-moving and somewhat derivative. The mystery resolution has some daring psychological implications. **1/2 out of 4.

Cockney Music Hall dancer Peggy Cummins (Rose) is travelling on a train and reminisces about her life and, in particular, the recent occurrences which cue the film into a flashback sequence. We start with her friend and co-dancer Margo Woode (Daisy) and Woode's relationship with upper class Victor Mature (Drego). Cummins wants to be a lady and live the lifestyle afforded to those in high society. We follow her dream as detective Vincent Price investigates murder. And where are these moss roses and bibles appearing from? This is a thriller that successfully keeps you guessing as to who the murderer is. The only nuisance with the film is Cummins and her cockney accent. First of all, it's rubbish. Secondly, she keeps slipping in and out of it throughout the film – what is she doing? I always find that Ethel Barrymore creeps me out and she does the same in this film as she plays the role of Mature's mother. Her face is weird. The rest of the cast are all fine and the settings and locations provide a rewarding atmosphere. The ending is pretty standard stuff, especially if you have seen numerous films of this sort. However, it is still an entertaining journey through foggy London and a wealthy estate.I guess the moral of the story has something to do with there being nothing wrong with aspirations to be somewhere else in life, but you may have to resort to underhand tactics and there could be a bit of murder to get through before you can realize the dream. Maybe just stick to Shoreditch – I believe it's pretty trendy these days.

Moss Rose is a good example of sometimes less is best. Without a complicated and tedious storyline, this neatly plotted 1947 mystery thriller moves at a fine pace, holding ones interest until the end. Thanks to Peggy Cummins who excels in her resplendent performance of the Cockney chorus girl who cleverly blackmails her way into an upscale English manor. Victor Mature is suave as the blackmailed , suspected murderer along with the airy Ethel Barrymore playing his doting mother and the grand matriarch of the manor. Vincent Price's role is small but he is quite capable as the polite but persistent Scotland Yard detective who has a predilection for moss roses. This intriguing Twentieth Century Fox drama is set in the Victorian era and the costumes and sets are well done along with the foggy London and English country scenes do well to enhance the atmosphere. I don't want to write a synopsis of this film and give away the surprise ending to the reader, but will say , Moss Rose still holds up well with any thriller film from it's era. If you are a fan of this genre , try to catch a look at this one. You will be pleasantly captivated by the fetching Peggy Cummins.

For his second film following service in the Coast Guard during World War II, Victor Mature takes the male lead role in a Victorian Gothic murder mystery Moss Rose. In this English setting Americans Victor Mature, Vincent Price and Ethel Barrymore are cast. Only Mature fell back on that old standby to make Americans players Canadian to explain the lack of British accent.Mature's part calls on him to be properly menacing and romantic to social climbing Peggy Cummins who suspects he murdered her friend to get out of an embarrassing entanglement as he is set to wed the socially prominent Patricia Medina. But Cummins is also intrigued by his upper class living and she a chorus girl in a music hall show as was her late friend decided to impose herself on Mature and mother Ethel Barrymore on their country estate where the Moss Rose seems to flourish with the tender loving care of Barrymore and the estate gardener. Vincent Price and Rhys Williams are the Scotland Yard detectives on the homicide case and they have another before the film is over and almost a third. Mature was the box office for this film and it was why he was cast in the male lead, but truly Price would have been a lot better in the role. Moss Rose does maintain a nice brooding atmosphere throughout and the best performance in the film is that of Ethel Barrymore. But I can't say more.