Mrs. Winterbourne

Plot synopsis:
In flashbacks, Connie Doyle's (Ricki Lake) early life gives an idea of her mindset. At 18, she meets womanizer Steve DeCunzo (Loren Dean), moves in with him and winds up pregnant. He kicks her out, denying responsibility. A destitute Connie, trying to find a shelter, gets inadvertently swept aboard a train at Grand Central Terminal. With no ticket and no money, Connie is rescued by Hugh Winterbourne (Brendan Fraser) and taken to his private compartment. 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, which has the couple's names engraved on the inside. In the hospital, no longer pregnant, she learns Patricia and Hugh both died in the crash.
Seeing the wrong name on the wristband on a child, Connie thinks the hospital has messed up until she sees the wedding band still on her finger. She tries to explain but is prevented from doing so by nurses, who believe she is just hysterical. She meets Hugh's mother, Grace (Shirley MacLaine), who has a bad heart. With nowhere else to go, Connie believes it is best for her and her baby to accept the offer to go to Grace's home. Connie there meets Bill (also played by Fraser), Hugh's identical twin brother. When the initial shock wears off, she nervously begins her new life. This world is very different, and she finds it difficult to adjust.
Bill, a bit wary of Connie, questions her identity, believing she is after the family's money. He investigates, learning her real identity. They walk around Boston and begin to bond. Bill prepares to expose Connie when he learns that Grace plans to change her will to include Connie and baby Hughie. He changes his mind when Connie becomes upset and begs Grace not to include her and Hughie in the will. Connie's protests make Grace want to include them even more. A drunk Paco, the family's chauffeur, demands that Bill and Connie dance a tango. They do so and end up sharing several kisses.
Connie bonds with Grace. Feeling guilty for taking advantage of Grace's kindness, she decides to leave with Hughie. Bill attempts to convince her to stay, proposing to her. He tells her think about it overnight. Connie decides to run away anyway. Paco follows her to the train station, tells her about his own shady past, and makes her realize she and the baby are just as valuable to Grace as Grace is to them.
Connie returns home to find Grace has had a heart attack because of her absence. She 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 reveals that he knows Connie's true identity, and that he loves her anyway. 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. Like Connie, Steve had gotten her pregnant and abandoned her. The police only came to question about the check Connie had written out to Steve. Connie confesses the whole story to Grace, who says she'll get over it, adding that she'd like more grandchildren. The wedding goes ahead as planned, and Bill presents Connie with a wedding ring with their names engraved on the inside, just like the real Patricia's ring.

Tags: romantic

Review:
'Mrs. Winterbourne' is a highly improbable take on the Cinderella "rags to riches" story about 18 year-old Connie Doyle (Ricki Lake), who finds herself enceinte, unmarried, and homeless.
There she shares a compartment with a young married couple, Hugh and Patricia Winterbourne (Susan Haskell and Brendan Fraser), who are also expecting a little bundle of joy.
Connie decides to carry on the charade (it's almost ironic that her her name is Connie, since she's "conning" everyone) even after coming face to face with her coddling "mother-in-law" (Shirley MacLaine) and Hugh's twin brother, the cold and unfriendly Bill Winterbourne (also Brendan Fraser).For a fluff film like this, the cast is surprisingly good.
Why either talented actor would want to participate in a film like this is a mystery to me, but maybe it's for the best.
But I have a difficult time understanding why Ricki Lake was cast as Connie.
She has a tendency to overact in many scenes, she doesn't make a convincing 18 year-old at all (she was 28 when cast), and her transition from sharp-tongued teenager to polite young socialite bride-to-be is too fast and unbelievable.Overall, 'Mrs. Winterbourne' is a good film for a boring Friday night.
But as soon as Ricki Lakegets on the train, this movie starts to get watchable, and as soonas she moves in with the Winterbournes, it starts to get honestlyfunny.Brendan Fraser is really a great actor, isn't he?
But, by a twist of fate, Connie is mistaken for Patricia and finds herself and her new baby in a private hospital, as befitting the wife of a member of the rich Winterbourne family.
She meets her new mother-in-law (Shirley MacLaine) and her "husband's" twin brother, Bill (Brendan Fraser) and goes home to a posh, Boston mansion, complete with servants.
Don't get me wrong, I love Ricki Lake, and I don't think she was bad here, she just wasn't given anything to do, and we were never given any reason why Frasier should experience such a dramatic sea-change.
Ricki Lake, God bless her, was, in a word, miscast; without the strength of Fraser and Maclaine, this movie is a two, at best a three.
Still, for a movie that had so much potential (if not for the sometimes unbelievable -yet entertaining- storyline, then definitely for the two aforementioned lead actors) that was lost beneath the looming shadow that is Lake, I'd watch it again.
Excruciating, impossible comedy, an adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's story "I Married a Dead Man", concerns homeless, pregnant, incredibly naive young woman (Ricki Lake, three years after debuting as a TV chat-show hostess) coming in contact with a wealthy Bostonian family who believe she's an in-law of theirs.
The wonderful cast includes Brendan Fraser, Shirley MacLaine and an unbilled Paula Prentiss, but not even their lively efforts can make this script easy to swallow.
A wonderfully colorful role that the actor fitted in the best way possible.Not the tightest story you'll ever find, nor the most credible, but the movie has heart and old fashioned romance.
The central problem of this movie is that Ricki Lake simply isn't a strong enough actress to carry a lead role.
The plot is implausible but there are some excellent performances and memorable scenes.Brendan Fraser is gorgeous (as always) and there were many entertaining moments where he shines in his dual roles as identical twin brothers.
Shirley MacLaine is excellent as an incorrigible matriarch and Miguel Sandoval hilarious as the devoted butler.Ricki Lake plays Connie, the title character, who is mistakenly identified as Mrs. Winterbourne after an accident.
The family have their own fears and pains but Connie and the Winterbourne's manage to be positive influences on each other allowing healing, growth and romance.Of course I've seen it all before but this movie is definitely worth a look if feel good comedy romances are your thing..
Well, I finally caught it the other day on HBO Signature and it was so awful, I felt like calling my friends and thanking them for saving me the price of a movie ticket!Shirley MacLaine was wonderful, but when isn't she?
Shirley McLaine is, as always, wonderful to watch and just as delightful is Brendan Fraser..
I don't really want to reveal any of the plot, because it unfolds so beautifully if you have no idea what's coming.Barbara Stanwyck starred in the original in 1950, entitled No Man of Her Own, and while the black-and-white version is also very entertaining, I like the remake a little better.
In this version, Ricki Lake, Brendan Fraser, and Shirley MacLaine are the leads, and they play off each other very well.Mrs. Winterbourne is a romance, a thriller, a mystery, and an all-around cute flick from the 90s.
Ricki Lake was pretty good in the lead role as Connie Doyle, I don't think that she's a bad actress and I don't think at all that she gave a poor performance here.
Like I said, I think one of the movies main problems is the underwhelming writing that can come up sometimes, but I think another problem with Mrs. Winterbourne is Brendan Fraser.
Now I don't mean to hate on Brendan Fraser, and I think he has given some good acting performances in other films, but to be honest, I just didn't think he was a good fit in this movie.
Mrs Winterbourne had great potential and could have been up there with films such as While You Were Sleeping (excellent cast).
Shirley MacLaine does her best and is the star of the film but Brendan Fraser, who despite being handsome and watchable, over acts.
Poor Ricki Lake is out of her depth here and brings the movie down to an "average" film.
Ricki Lake's acting was very good and believable (even though the times are modern, they're ARE SOME innocent young women still out there!).
I don't know how to tango but this scene is sooooooo romantic that I think I need to learn!I have to agree however with the comments from "Wherever-in Arizona" about how quickly Bill's (Brendan Frasier) character changes personality so quickly from this dry, cool and questioning guy to a fun-loving passionate guy.
Ricki Lane (as Connie Doyle) successfully plays the role of a woman who is trapped between what she thinks is good for her child and her conscience.
Shirley Maclaine (as Grace Winterbourne) portrays a rich lady who's hungry to see a grandchild that she forgets to protect her wealth just so she could leave these to a grandson (and daughter-in-law) she believed she has.
Let's not forget Miguel Sandoval who, as Paco, was a very charming and convincing butler.While the storyline needs more polishing to be believable, this film managed perfectly to entertain me, leaving me to forget intellectualizing on it.
Thus, I spent the entire time enjoying the movie.If there is any film that amuses and entertains (and makes one believe that there still is such a thing as "romance"), this is it!.
From the over-bearing, but well meaning Mother (Shirley MacLaine) and the delicious Brendan Fraser, to the funny and lovable Paco - this film had me laughing and clutching my cushion till the end.
Shirley MacLaine carries a lot of the movie - but we all know she can act.
Pay close attention - if you miss a scene, now that we have DVD, you will find yourself going back to figure out what you missed.It won't be on many peoples all time favorite movie list, but through all of the subterfuge many of the characters are involved in, plus a lot of smiles and laughter, make it a good DVD for girls to rent for a Saturday night when they don't have a date.
The third version of William Irish's absorbing psychological thriller "I married a dead man",after Leisen's "no man of her own" (1950),starring Barbara Stanwyck, which I have not seen but would like to,Robin Davis's 1982 "j'ai épousé une ombre" starring Natalie Baye.That French attempt,although it did a lot of francs (no euros at the time),was a disappointment,because the heroine ,without her terrible guilty feeling,was devoid of interest, and because the scenarists felt compelled to secure a ridiculous happy end which the novel had not.William Irish's world is noir,desperate ,some of his short novels to rival the best of Poe.What about Richard Benjamin's work?It's an insult to the great writer who once gave Hitchcock "rear window" .You simply cannot turn an Irish tragic heroine into a Pygmalion/my fair lady character .Connie was not a crude vulgar woman,she was a frail girl who said to us at the beginning of the book-which like Benjamin's film is a long flashback- "We've lost;that's all I know,we've lost".Oddly the part of the father has been ruled out,probably to make room for MacLaine who gets here the lion's share .The director does not know what he wants to do,a comedy or a thriller ,and the movie suffers accordingly.Best performance:Baby Hughie.Since I wrote my comment I had the opportunity to see "no man of her own";It's the best by far!.
I don't understand why anyone thought it would be a good idea to take a classic noir thriller like Cornell Woolrich's "I Married a Dead Man" and turn it into a romantic comedy.
Thanks for that should go to Brendan Fraser, Shirley MacLaine, and Miguel Sandoval, for their well-executed performances.
I just finished watching this movie on TV and couldn't understand why anyone would bother releasing this film to theater other than to cash in on some reputable names of actors that obviously made poor decisions, furthermore why anyone would bother spending more than pocket lint to be subjected to such pathetic dribble.For starters, if this character found herself in such a sit com like situation as she did, why didn't she just tell the truth instead of dragging things out until the inevitable, tedious and way too predictable end.Brendan Fraser is a capable actor and what can I say about Shirley MacLaine.
Once again I see that without good writers, even great actors, (MacLaine) wished they had called in sick or checked into rehab instead of appearing this achingly painful rehash of twenty different crappy movies already made.And, please, giving a makeover to Rikki Lake is like spraying Febreze on dog crap.
I imagined it as a romantic comedy of sorts, and yet from the very beginning it was really quite heavy, dealing as it did with young Connie (Rikki Lake) being homeless, then meeting up with a sleazebag and then being tossed out by him when he gets her pregnant.
Then mistaken identity turns into deliberate deceit on Connie's part (although I understand it wasn't malicious.) Once she gets taken in by the Winterbourne's after the train wreck that kills their son and his wife (whom the family has never met, and whom Connie is mistaken for) the only character who really made sense to me was Bill (Brendan Fraser), who seemed appropriately suspicious of her given the circumstances.
Shirley MacLaine (as the matriarch of the Winterbourne clan) was probably the best part of the movie and provided much of the comedy, and the closing scenes (as everyone tries to protect Connie/Patricia) was quite touching, as was the point that the Winterbournes became the family she never had.
But overall I would say it's a fun romantic comedy.This movie is about a woman named Connie who is pregnant and penniless.
A movie not worth mentioning, if Shirley MacLaine were not acting in it..
Connie Doyle (played by Ricki Lake) is abandoned on the streets by her former lover as she tells him that she is pregnant and does not want an abortion.
Months later, in an advanced stage of her pregnancy and on the way to a shelter for the homeless, she enters the wrong train and gets involved into a chain of coincidences that finally leads to the end that, when the train crashes in an accident, she is mistaken for Mrs. Patricia Winterbourne, another pregnant woman, who loses her life under the shattered heap of steel.
Thus, when Connie wakes up at the hospital, she finds herself in a different world, as the member of a wealthy family and with a little son who is enthusiastically welcomed by his supposed grandmother.The main part of the plot that follows this exposition is what should be romantic comedy, from the time on when Connie meets Hugh Winterbourne's brother Bill.
At least this explains why Bill's part is played by a good-looking Brendan Fraser, while for Connie's part an actress with a more average look and figure was chosen.
But it is hard for me to believe that the female perspective would turn this movie into anything worth mentioning, if it were not simply because Brendan Fraser appears on the screen.
The only genuine reason for watching the movie could be the fact that Shirley MacLaine plays Grace Winterbourne, Connie's supposed mother in law.
It's a charming movie with a decent soundtrack and pretty good acting (with an admitted exception of Ricki Lake).
What a knock out this movie could have been if the screen writers would have kept to Woolrich's original 1930's epic, instead of pulling the viewer back and forth between heart warming nostalgia and blaring modernism.Ricki Lake's performance was admirable, though I did feel she was miscast.
Fraser, as always was wonderful, Shirley MacLaine was priceless, but it was Miguel Sandoval (as the quirky Cuban Butler) who almost stole the show.All in all, I did like this movie.
And though no one would ever accuse this movie of being intellectual or at times rational, Mrs. Winterbourne is a must see for all die hard romantics...for it will leave you with a smile..
This is a wonderful movie starring two of my most favorite stars, Ricki Lake and Brendan Fraser, as well as a famed actress, Shirley MacLaine.
Now Connie assumes the role of Patricia Winterbourne and eventually, Hugh's brother Bill finds out who she really is but doesn't say anything.
I saw this movie mainly to see Shirley MacLaine (that and I heard it was supposed to be really funny) and let me say that I liked it, but I was sort of dissappointed.
Connie Doyle is thrown out by her boyfriend when she becomes pregnant, and she ends up on a train with the Winterbournes, a wealthy young couple on their way to Boston.
Complications arise, but everything works out in the end.Shirley MacLaine is quite winning at Grace Winterbourne, and Miguel Sandoval steals most of his scenes.
"Mrs. Winterbourne" is the kind of movie I almost hate myself for liking.
But if Brendan Fraser is involved, I'm willing to take that plunge.Ricki Lake is the heroine as the pregnant Connie Doyle, who is fleeing her typically no-good dirtbag boyfriend Steve.
She realizes she's considered the wife of Huey, a young man who was very wealthy but on the outs with his family.With baby in tow, Connie arrives at the Winterbourne estate and meets Mrs. Winterbourne (McLaine) and her dead "husband's" brother Bill (Fraser), who smells a rat from the beginning.
I love this movie Saw it years ago and many times afterwards whenever it came out on TV Even hired it several times The story is simple and sweet WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD If you haven't seen the movie rather watch first A abused girl (read exploited girl) Connie by a rat of a man who gets her pregnant then dumps her She's assisted by a homeless man who directs her to a home for unmarried mothers She is "crowd" forced onto a train where she meets Hugh Winterborne who is coming home after marrying a woman called Patricia Hugh assists her and introduces her to Patricia The two bond and Patricia lets Connie put her wedding ring on Unfortunately the train is derailed and both Patricia and Hugh are killed and Connie lands up in hospital and gives birth When she awakens she discovers that she has been mistaken for Patrica Winterborne She is frantic and wants out but the fates don't blow the way she wants it to and she lands up farther and farther in a deception that she cannot get out of without hurting her "mother in Law" who has taken totally to her new "grandson" The movie is sweet and very down to earth Loved all four of the main characters Ricki Lake (Connie) Brendon Fraiser as both the deceased brother and the two brothers, Shirley McLain as the new grandmother and Paco as the chauffeur All four deliver a good performance and each in their own way is well cast I loved the movie and as soon as I can find a copy it will definitely be added to my prized DVD Collection.
It is however her two redoubtable co-stars, Brendan Fraser and Shirley Maclaine who steal the show and are obviously on screen at almost all of the movie's best moments.
Mrs. Winterbourne (1996): Dir: Richard Benjamin / Cast: Ricki Lake, Shirley MacLaine, Brendan Fraser, Loren Dean, Jane Krakowski: Intriguing romantic comedy that has its charm before surrendering to stupid situations that derail any richness it had.
Shirley MacLaine is a compelling actress but as Mrs. Winterbourne she is just a presence playing a type who will save the day.
I believe that those who are most vocally panning "Mrs. Winterbourne" are doing so because they simply don't like the genre of light-hearted romantic comedy.
Of COURSE Brendan Fraser has women swooning over his Hugh/Bill Winterbourne.
Also, I am forced to agree that Ricki Lake does NOT look like a character who just turned 18 years old.
Did Shirley MacLain read the script before she signed up?Ricki Lake comes off as a tubby little tomboy; as a leading lady in a feature film she makes a great talk-show host.
Yes, often something naughty would come out.With that said, Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser are charming, warm and human.