The first official "Gainsborough Gothic" bodice-ripper was a smash hit for WW2 weary audiences in Britain, making instant stars out of James Mason, Stewart Granger, Phyllis Calvert and Margaret Lockwood. Audiences went back to the cinema time and time again to see the diabolical exploits of the nasty and sexy Mason, the cruel and calculating Lockwood and the doomed lovers Granger and Mason. The Regency-era setting is cleverly contained in a flashback from a WW2 black-out. Lovely, fair-headed and popular Clarissa Richmond (Calvert) befriends a poor pupil at her school, the raven-haired and almost humourless Hesther(Lockwood). Big mistake! In the years to come Clarissa has married the dastardly Lord Rohan (Mason), who only wants her as a broodmare. Things are looking up when she comes across Hesther again, and meets the dashing Rokeby (Granger). But then Hesther has her eye on Lord Rohan...
So, how does this melodrama with a rather hokey plot (though it's very much "Vanity Fair" spun-off) hold up today? Not bad, not bad at all, if you can forgive the creakiness and chunks of awful dialogue. The four stars all create such believable persona's that they were all pretty much typecast forever. Interesting that Lockwood only really played three "wicked" women in her career, but she's forever immortalised by this and her subsequent "The Wicked Lady". While Mason, Granger and Lockwood stick out firm in the memory, Calvert is really the glue that holds it all together though. Her Clarissa is almost so sugary to induce diabetes, but Calvert makes her believable and sympathetic.
So, how does this melodrama with a rather hokey plot (though it's very much "Vanity Fair" spun-off) hold up today? Not bad, not bad at all, if you can forgive the creakiness and chunks of awful dialogue. The four stars all create such believable persona's that they were all pretty much typecast forever. Interesting that Lockwood only really played three "wicked" women in her career, but she's forever immortalised by this and her subsequent "The Wicked Lady". While Mason, Granger and Lockwood stick out firm in the memory, Calvert is really the glue that holds it all together though. Her Clarissa is almost so sugary to induce diabetes, but Calvert makes her believable and sympathetic.