After being a mainstay in British cinema in the early 40's, legendary Scottish actress Deborah Kerr officially announced her star arrival with Black Narcissus. For the now 75-year old erotic psychodrama by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Kerr earned rapturous praise that included the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Since the movie's release and Kerr's move to Hollywood while under her contract with MGM Studios, the rest remains history.
But let's talk more about Kathleen Byron.
The acclaim that Deborah Kerr received was well-earned. In addition, both Jack Cardiff and Alfred Junge were rightfully rewarded Oscars for their cinematography and art direction, respectively. Yet, Kathleen Byron's only accolade was a Best Actress nomination alongside Kerr bestowed by the New York Film Critics Circle. After Black Narcissus, Byron made her own foray into Tinseltown despite not having played a role as iconic as Sister Ruth. Nevertheless, her performance remains vital to the film's horror aesthetic. Byron's role as the depraved nun acts as an amalgam of the picture's handling of the terrors of physical isolation and sensual repression.
In Black Narcissus, Sister Ruth and her convent of nuns led by Sister Clodagh (Kerr) take part in a mission to settle on a palace in the Himalayan mountains to form a school and a hospital. A mission that becomes complicated by the grimy weather, famine, and the tension-filled abstinence. During the opening credits sequence where we get an overview of the palace, the harsh winds blowing and the ominous choir sounds underline the air of despair that will eventually befall our doomed nuns. However, none of them are more doomed than Sister Ruth.
When Sister Ruth is chosen to join Sister Clodagh on her mission, there is already apprehension from Clodagh and their Mother Superior due to her fragile mental state. Their worries prove to be justified when Mr. Dean (David Farrar), a dashing Englishman and palace servant, ends up in the convent's midst. In Sister Ruth's first interaction with Mr. Dean, she expresses unsettling glee over nursing a villager's wound while drenched in blood. As she fawns over his physical allure, she quickly mistakes his compliment on her work for affection.
Since that brief encounter, Ruth becomes a woman possessed only without a demon or spiritual entity taking hold of her. When observing Mr. Dean's interactions with her rival Sister Clodagh, suspecting her of trying to romance him away from her, she's always drenched in shadow as she watches them from far away. Even while having one-on-one talks with Clodagh, like in the scene where she confronts her over her own infatuation for Mr. Dean, she's still engulfed in a tint of darkness while giving an eerie boogeyman-type grin.
Byron's visibly maniacal energy also makes her a perfect foil for the stern composure of Deborah Kerr as Sister Clodagh. Even when Clodagh blissfully daydreams about her life pre-nunhood, she still swiftly puts on her stoic Sister Superior facade. When in the presence of Mr. Dean, whose flirty posing and always unbuttoned shirt awaken Clodagh's passions, she still forcefully buries those feelings by angrily rebuffing him. It's clear she feels as caged by the habit she wears as Sister Ruth is. It's just Sister Ruth is more honest about it.
Sister Ruth's whirlwind of distress reaches its culmination in her very last scene. Once again, she watches Sister Clodagh from the shadows before stepping out in her red dress, appearing sweaty and pale like a ghost. As she creeps up behind Clodagh to try and kill her while Clodagh is ringing the morning service bell, ominous choir sounds can be heard. The same sounds heard during the opening credits encompass the dread-filled atmosphere which permeated throughout the picture and put it in near-religious horror movie territory.
That being said, Kathleen Byron's performance still puts Black Narcissus further into that genre realm. Her demonesque smile and the way she pops in and out of the film like a ghost periodically making its presence in a haunted house known cause as lasting an imprint as the luscious cinematography. As distressing as her screaming “Clodagh, Clodagh, Clodagh!” during a later confrontation with Mr. Dean still is, Byron ensures with great abandon that when watching Black Narcissus, Clodagh is not the only person we're thinking about.
