Looking for a movie...

I can only remember snippets of it.

-black and white movie
-lighthouse
-there's a storm; rain and waves splashing hard on the lighthouse
-a spiral black color strip that coils diagonally around the lighthouse
-the film had to do with time travel or something
-gives me the goosebumps...

thanks, researchers...

Hi there,

I wouldn't be surprised if mutliple movies matched your description -
this is the one I found:

The Portrait of Jennie (1948)
A painter is haunted by a girl who is from an earlier era. But the
more he sees her, the more he realises that she is a ghost. In the
climax, she reappears near a lighthouse during a storm.

"One would be hard-pressed to find a more fascinating film conceit
than a man being forced to recognize a ghost by having him witness a
recreation of the ghost's demise."
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/archive/portraitofjennie.html

This reviewer explains why the storm sequence has stuck in your mind,
the effects received an Academy Award:

"One of the intriguing aspects of Portrait of Jennie was Selznick's
desire to enhance the impact of the climactic storm sequence. He
wanted to see it built up on a scale that would make it comparable to
the impact of the earthquake in San Francisco (1936, MGM) or the
hurricane in The Hurricane (1937, Goldwyn). To that end, the New York
and Los Angeles showings of the film featured a "cycloramic screen
together with multi-sound" -- essentially, once the storm began, the
screen opened up to three times the normal size and multiple sound
sources bombarded spectators. The effect was spectacular apparently,
but probably ill advised in the sense that it overpowered the impact
of what was otherwise a rather fragile mood-piece. "
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/jennie.shtml

More reviews at the Internet Movie Database:
http://us.imdb.com/TUrls?COM+0040705

Google search used:
lighthouse "time travel" fifties
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=lighthouse+%22time+travel%22+fifties

The only aspect I could not verify was "a spiral black color strip
that coils diagonally around the lighthouse".

I trust that this answers your query. Feel free to request
clarifications on any aspect of my response.

Thanks for using Google Answers, and best wishes,
from robertskelton-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by robertskelton-ga on 21 May 2002 05:29 PDT

It is available on DVD:
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=%22Portrait+of+Jennie%22+DVD

A good composite image which might match your memories is at:
http://www.themave.com/Cotten/portjennie.htm

Hey thanks man! That was fast...I'll see if I can get a copy of the
movie somehow... I still don't know for sure if that's what I'm
looking for (the strips twirled around the lighthouse will confirm
it), but so far, it appears this is the one...

That's probably it, although there is a B&W Michael Powell film called
"The Phantom Light" that might also be the one you're thinking of. The
plot summary on the Internet Movie Database reads: "A lighthouse
keeper has been murdered in mysterious circumstances and, during the
ensuing investigation a Phantom Light keeps appearing at the scene of
his death."

I haven't seen the film, so I didn't want to officially answer this
question, but it seemed like a possibility, so I wanted to mention it.

Here's the IMDb page on the movie: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0026868

Writer89