Die schwarze Füchsin

This was a hard film to see for a very long time, at least in any form that would do it justice. But the small snippets of it I'd caught made me steadfastly wait for the day I could view it, and having done so, I can say it's considerably better than its fairly middling reputation.

Maybe the easiest way to describe it is as Powell & Pressburger's "Wuthering Heights" - it's set in that gothic period drama genre, anyway - but at root it's a grown-up, thoughtful and adult romance-of-sorts set on windswept fairy-tale moors.

The two films it fits closest to in their body of work would be "I Know Where I'm Going" (for the elemental setting) and especially Black Narcissus, for the matchless colour photography and mood of suppressed eroticism bubbling savagely beneath the surface. You can feel the invisible forces of superstition and desire affecting events, the tiny figures swamped by a greater Nature beyond their understanding or powers.

As I've already said, this is a grown-up film, a good 15 years or more before its time in its depiction of adultery and complexity of emotion in a potboiler setting. The sexuality in it is not explicit, but it's firmly engraved in stone between the lines of the script and in small moments of quiet force - flickers of understanding, judgement or confusion passing over every face throughout, speaking volumes.

There's a lurid, hyperreal, almost cartoonishly painterly look to the colour films of the 40s and 50s, which was never seen again afterwards, and is now impossible to recreate. This one has the texture of Singin' In The Rain but is, unusually, set largely outdoors, in the real world, in wide open spaces. Because of this, the nature scenes look, gorgeously, straight out of Bambi.

Gone To Earth is not P&P's greatest film, but it's a real treasure nonetheless. A wild, dark, pagan beauty.

I believe I saw this movie perhaps 50 plus years ago, as a young man. It must have been in the mid 1950s or around then. I found Jennifer Jones to be a marvelous actress in this movie and found that to be true in other movies she starred in. But I was overwhelmingly struck with the beauty of the Shrophire countryside which to some extent was almost as much of an attraction to me as Jennifer Jones. I have searched for a long time for this movie...but all I could truly remember of it , with the obvious exception of Miss Jones, was the scream or shout at the end of it ----Gone to Earth. I only know have found out what the meaning of that call was. I will be wanting to purchase this movie soon. Don Berghuis

A beautifully made and gently rolling film, almost surreal in content.

Some moments almost seem off cue and through a breathtakingly simple narrative visual style, comes a story of innocence, passion and ultimate tragedy. The music is hypnotic and compliments the flow of the film.

Superb performance by all - including 'Foxy'! If this film was made today it would be showered with Oscars.

Finally, it is hard to see a comparable style in the British film industry prior to this and certainly nothing after it. It is this fact that I believe contributes to the films unique qualities.

about a wild child in rural England in 1897. Half gypsy, the girl (Jennifer Jones) worships nature, animals, superstitions, etc. but has an odd, eerie "one-ness" with the world. However, when sex enters the picture, her world spins out of control. A timid parson (Cyril Cusack) marries her but chains her to a sexless marriage. She runs off with a lusty squire (David Farrar) and lives in his ramshackle estate. Truly offbeat story, totally gorgeous cinematography by Christopher Challes, and good performances by all make this watchable. Sadly, the US version had 30 minutes lopped off and shows it. The Brit version, titled "Come to Earth" is supposedly superior. Symbolism is worthy of any good Lawrencian story where love is in opposition to nature and where sex can only survive outside marriage. Jones looks great. Oddly forgotten now, she was not your average leading lady, and like Meryl Streep or Glenn Close or Bette Davis, chose to play all sorts of "character" parts rather than be confined by Hollywood. Worthy of the Emeric Pressburger/Michael Powell canon; this might be a great film!

Among the strangest, and loveliest, of the Archers films. As with so many of their films, its real subject is the profound, almost mystical, connection of people to their physical environment, most notably the British countryside. The much under-rated Jennifer Jones gives an utterly fearless performance, throwing herself into a role that sounds unplayable on paper. The Christopher Challis three-strip Technicolor photography is bold and gorgeous, underlining the central importance of the landscape. Strange in the best possible sense, in that it takes us somewhere we've never really been. Even the Bronte sisters couldn't capture rustic England as well. But they never had the benefit of Technicolor.