Grim period piece obviously modelled on successful Gainsborough melodramas - it has basically very much the same ingredients but its centre is much darker, despite glorious Technicolour. Perhaps because it was inspired by the true story so its not really as far-fetched as "The Man in Grey", except that towards the end scriptwriters clumsily had to untangle everything they weaved before, resulting in what appears as quickly patched up finale.
The first time I saw Valerie Hobson was in 1946. "Great Expectations" where she had impossible task to play grown up character of Jean Simmons and suffice to say, she was only memorable as inadequate Simmons. Here, on the other hand, she appears as a stunningly beautiful, statuesque and regal woman - it could be technicolour or camera, in any case she is pleasure to watch as long as her character is strong, wilful and passionate. When towards the end of the movie, her Blanche Fury succumbs to pressure and inexplicably becomes all soft and weepy, the whole story slides downhill. The story is fairly interesting - impoverished governess arrives in a wealthy estate, just to find herself in the middle of inheritance drama - but in the second half the characters of Hobson and Stewart Granger complete change and this transformation is so quick and sudden that it leaves you confused. One moment they are capable to fight off the whole bunch of horse thieves and before you know it, they metamorphose into different people whose words and motivations appear very confused and contradictory. Sybille Binder has a nice, unfortunately underused turn as a sinister servant and this role could have been explored much more if only scriptwriters planned it differently. Strangely, the movie was not great success as expected - it could have been that at this point audience was saturated with costumed histrionics or the characters were not likable, in any case it actually looks much better and more serious than movies that preceded this. Perhaps the remake would be good idea?
No comments:
Post a Comment