Mrs. Winterbourne
Encyclopedia
Mrs. Winterbourne is a 1996
romantic comedy
/drama starring Shirley MacLaine
, Ricki Lake
, and Brendan Fraser
. The film is loosely based on Cornell Woolrich
's novel I Married a Dead Man, which has already been filmed in Hollywood as No Man of Her Own
(1950) starring Barbara Stanwyck
, and in Bollywood
as Kati Patang
(1970).
, Connie Doyle's (Ricki Lake
) early life is given to give us an idea of her mindset. At 18, she meets womanizer Steve DeCunzo (Loren Dean
), moves in with him and winds up pregnant. When she informs him of the fact, he kicks her out, denying responsibility. Destitute, Connie has nowhere to go, and, trying to find a shelter, gets inadvertently swept aboard a train at Grand Central Terminal
. With no ticket, and no money with which to buy one, Connie is rescued by Hugh Winterbourne (Brendan Fraser
) and taken to his private compartment. There, she meets his wife, Patricia, who is also pregnant. When the train crashes, Connie is mistaken for Patricia because she is wearing Patricia's wedding band and wakes up in the hospital, no longer pregnant. Patricia and Hugh both died in the crash.
Seeing the wrong name on the wristband on her child, Connie thinks the hospital has messed up until she sees the wedding band still on her finger. Once she realizes what has happened she tries to explain the situation, but is prevented from doing so by the nurses who believe she is just hysterical. Eventually, she meets Hugh's mother, Grace (Shirley MacLaine
), who has a bad heart. Afraid of making her ill, and with nowhere else to go, Connie believes it is the best thing for her and her baby to accept the woman's offer and go to Grace's home. At the Winterbourne house, Connie meets Bill (Fraser), Hugh's identical twin brother. When the initial shock wears off, she nervously begins her new life. This life is one she never expected to be a part of. The world is very different, and she finds it difficult to adjust to the high society position she is now required to shoulder. Bill is a bit wary of Connie, and questions her identity. He even investigates things on his own. Eventually, he falls in love with her and her former identity doesn't matter to him anymore.
Connie bonds with Grace, and being an honorable woman, feels guilty for taking advantage of her kindness. She decides to leave, but is stopped by the chauffeur, who makes her realize she and the baby are just as valuable to Grace as Grace is to them. She returns home to find Grace has had a heart attack because of her absence, and decides to let things go and marry Bill as Patricia Winterbourne. Steve discovers Connie's good fortune, and tries to blackmail her. In the confusion that ensues, Steve is shot. Bill and Connie flee the scene, and think each one is the one who shot Steve. It is then that Bill reveales that he knows Connie's true identity. And that he loves her as Connie rather than Patricia. Both believe they are home free, until their wedding day. When the priest tells Bill and Connie that Grace is confessing to the murder, both of them hurry to her side and confess to the murder themselves. Shocked, the police tell them they already have the murderer in custody, and it is not any of them, it was the woman Steve started seeing after dumping Connie, who is also pregnant. The Police only came to question about the check Connie had written out to Steve. Connie tells Grace the whole story, the wedding goes ahead as planned, and everyone lives happily ever after.
, the film holds a 7% 'Fresh' rating (2 'fresh' reviews, 27 'rotten') It was also a box office failure, grossing only $10,082,005 based on a $25 million budget.
1996 in film
Major releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
/drama starring Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
, Ricki Lake
Ricki Lake
Ricki Pamela Lake is an American actress, producer, and television host. She is best known for her starring role as Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray, her ground-breaking documentary film The Business of Being Born, and her talk show which was broadcasted internationally from...
, and Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser
Brendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
. The film is loosely based on Cornell Woolrich
Cornell Woolrich
Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich was an American novelist and short story writer who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley....
's novel I Married a Dead Man, which has already been filmed in Hollywood as No Man of Her Own
No Man of Her Own
No Man of Her Own is a 1950 drama starring Barbara Stanwyck.It was the second she made with director Mitchell Leisen. It was based on a Cornell Woolrich novel, I Married a Dead Man. Woolrich is credited as William Irish in the film's opening credits.The film was later remade in 1996 as Mrs....
(1950) starring Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
, and in Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
as Kati Patang
Kati Patang
Kati Patang is a 1970 Indian Hindi movie produced and directed by Shakti Samanta. It became a box office success. It stars Asha Parekh as a woman pretending to be a widow, and her ensuing trials and tribulations...
(1970).
Plot
With flashbacksFlashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
, Connie Doyle's (Ricki Lake
Ricki Lake
Ricki Pamela Lake is an American actress, producer, and television host. She is best known for her starring role as Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray, her ground-breaking documentary film The Business of Being Born, and her talk show which was broadcasted internationally from...
) early life is given to give us an idea of her mindset. At 18, she meets womanizer Steve DeCunzo (Loren Dean
Loren Dean
Loren Dean is an American actor. He has appeared onstage and in feature films.-Early life:Loren Dean Jovicic was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. His mother worked as a family and marriage counselor and his father was in the clothing business. His parents divorced when he was a small child...
), moves in with him and winds up pregnant. When she informs him of the fact, he kicks her out, denying responsibility. Destitute, Connie has nowhere to go, and, trying to find a shelter, gets inadvertently swept aboard a train at Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
. With no ticket, and no money with which to buy one, Connie is rescued by Hugh Winterbourne (Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser
Brendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
) and taken to his private compartment. There, she meets his wife, Patricia, who is also pregnant. When the train crashes, Connie is mistaken for Patricia because she is wearing Patricia's wedding band and wakes up in the hospital, no longer pregnant. Patricia and Hugh both died in the crash.
Seeing the wrong name on the wristband on her child, Connie thinks the hospital has messed up until she sees the wedding band still on her finger. Once she realizes what has happened she tries to explain the situation, but is prevented from doing so by the nurses who believe she is just hysterical. Eventually, she meets Hugh's mother, Grace (Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
), who has a bad heart. Afraid of making her ill, and with nowhere else to go, Connie believes it is the best thing for her and her baby to accept the woman's offer and go to Grace's home. At the Winterbourne house, Connie meets Bill (Fraser), Hugh's identical twin brother. When the initial shock wears off, she nervously begins her new life. This life is one she never expected to be a part of. The world is very different, and she finds it difficult to adjust to the high society position she is now required to shoulder. Bill is a bit wary of Connie, and questions her identity. He even investigates things on his own. Eventually, he falls in love with her and her former identity doesn't matter to him anymore.
Connie bonds with Grace, and being an honorable woman, feels guilty for taking advantage of her kindness. She decides to leave, but is stopped by the chauffeur, who makes her realize she and the baby are just as valuable to Grace as Grace is to them. She returns home to find Grace has had a heart attack because of her absence, and decides to let things go and marry Bill as Patricia Winterbourne. Steve discovers Connie's good fortune, and tries to blackmail her. In the confusion that ensues, Steve is shot. Bill and Connie flee the scene, and think each one is the one who shot Steve. It is then that Bill reveales that he knows Connie's true identity. And that he loves her as Connie rather than Patricia. Both believe they are home free, until their wedding day. When the priest tells Bill and Connie that Grace is confessing to the murder, both of them hurry to her side and confess to the murder themselves. Shocked, the police tell them they already have the murderer in custody, and it is not any of them, it was the woman Steve started seeing after dumping Connie, who is also pregnant. The Police only came to question about the check Connie had written out to Steve. Connie tells Grace the whole story, the wedding goes ahead as planned, and everyone lives happily ever after.
Cast
- Shirley MacLaineShirley MacLaineShirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
as Grace Winterbourne - Ricki LakeRicki LakeRicki Pamela Lake is an American actress, producer, and television host. She is best known for her starring role as Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray, her ground-breaking documentary film The Business of Being Born, and her talk show which was broadcasted internationally from...
as Connie Doyle/"Patricia Winterbourne" - Brendan FraserBrendan FraserBrendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
as Bill / Hugh Winterbourne - Miguel SandovalMiguel SandovalMiguel Sandoval is an American film and television actor.Sandoval was born in Washington, D.C. He began working as a professional actor in 1975 when he joined a mime school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He later joined the troupe full time and continued his study of mime. He began his film career in...
as Paco - Loren DeanLoren DeanLoren Dean is an American actor. He has appeared onstage and in feature films.-Early life:Loren Dean Jovicic was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. His mother worked as a family and marriage counselor and his father was in the clothing business. His parents divorced when he was a small child...
as Steve DeCunzo - Peter GeretyPeter GeretyPeter Gerety is an American actor.Gerety began acting while a student at Boston University, participating in productions at the Charles Playhouse. In 1965, he joined the Trinity Square Repertory Company, a resident theater company in Providence, Rhode Island where he appeared in over 125...
as Father Brian Kilraine - Jane KrakowskiJane KrakowskiJane Krakowski is an American actress and singer. She is most well known for her performance of Elaine Vassal on Ally McBeal, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and for her current role as Jenna Maroney on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, for which she has been nominated for three Emmy...
as Christine - Debra MonkDebra MonkDebra Monk is an American actress, singer, and writer.Monk was born in Middletown, Ohio. She was voted "best personality" by the graduating class at Wheaton High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. She graduated from Frostburg State University in 1963...
as Lieutenant Ambrose - Cathryn de Prume as Renee
- Susan HaskellSusan HaskellSusan Haskell is a Canadian actress. She portrays the role of Dr. Margaret "Marty" Saybrooke, bad-girl-turned-good-turned-bad-again, on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live.-Private life:...
as Patricia Winterbourne - Bobcat GoldthwaitBobcat GoldthwaitRobert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film and television director. He is commonly known for his energetic, ravenous stage personality, his dark, acerbic black comedy, and his gruff but high-pitched voice.- Early life :Goldthwait was born in Syracuse,...
(uncredited) as TV comedian - Paula PrentissPaula PrentissPaula Ragusa , better known by her stage name Paula Prentiss, is an American actress well-known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, What's New Pussycat?, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View and her co-starring role in the television situation...
(uncredited) as Maternity nurse
Reception
Mrs. Winterbourne received generally negative reviews; on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film holds a 7% 'Fresh' rating (2 'fresh' reviews, 27 'rotten') It was also a box office failure, grossing only $10,082,005 based on a $25 million budget.