My Cousin Rachel lost a good deal of weight in Hollywood. Though the Daphne du Maurier novel was hardly serious reading, its climax did probe the ethics of a murderer and allow his crime to go unpunished. When his clemency disturbed the Johnson Otlice, producers of the film version merely omitted the murder from their script. This compromise left My Cousin Rachel moral, meager, and pointless.

The tim traces the double of Richard Button, as Rachel's relative, while he wenders whether her husband died of a tumor Rachel's questionable herb brew, is Olivia de Harviland, as the gracious Rachel, gauntly or gniless? Sine the anther won't reveal the answer and the actress seems as puzzled as the audience, the picture's ending is annoying rather than mysterious.

Because each scene is a meledhma, clanging tote grenade music helps identify the major crises. But even amid the noise, Miss de Harviland excellent. The role is not demanding she stirs more tea than emotions. But her quiet sinuses effectively balance the wild eyed portrayal by Button.

The picture is being mentioned as a possible Academy Award winner, and with its inedible episodes, as least it is not dull. But in Manchit will be impressing it My Censin Rochel earns anything but sympathy for Miss de Harviland.