Jassy la zingara

Set in the 1830s, in elegant period costume, JASSY is a very English tale of love, hate, marriage, adultery, sadistic husbands, scheming wives, whip-wielding fathers, capricious lovers, unrequited love, gambling addicts, snobbery, class antagonism, bigotry, a girls' boarding school, country houses and masters and servants. Oh, and two murders, one by poisoning. And a suicide. It would be nice to add: - and all in the first reel. Well, not quite.

Bernard Knowles, a distinguished cameraman turned moderate director, makes something of a jumble of the first half hour, introducing too many characters and failing to distinguish those with an important part to play. It seems at first, for example, that the splendid Linden Travers as Lady Helmar will be a major protagonist, but she disappears after a couple of scenes, a typical waste of her talents. It's only with Barney's rescue of Jassy that Knowles starts to pull the disparate threads together.

Margaret Lockwood is wonderful as Jassy, the remarkable, psychic, gypsy girl with immaculate English enunciation, though brought up and tutored solely by her father, the resolutely Scottish John Laurie. Coping well enough as the disadvantaged young woman working at the finishing school, she really gets into her stride as the whip-cracking - metaphorically speaking - mistress of the manor house. Looking, as she does, the epitome of glamour, it's no wonder lecherous landowner Helmar - Basil Sydney - finds it difficult to keep his hands off her. Strutting around like an overfed turkey-cock he's entertaining throughout; both he and Lockwood kept getting the giggles in their highly-charged scenes together, setting each other off, causing several re-takes. No doubt some of the corny dialogue didn't help and later, in the court-room scene, Alan Wheatley uses the old acting technique of speaking very slowly and deliberately, to take the curse off a particularly trite sentence. Matching Margaret in the glamour stakes, Patricia Roc 'The Goddess of the Odeons' is excellent as the fickle, opportunistic Dilys, a welcome contrast to her goody-goody Caroline in THE WICKED LADY. The young Dermot Walsh is convincing as one of the few wholly honest characters. All this and Dennis Price, Esma Cannon, then around fifty but playing the much younger Lindy and Ernest Thesiger too.

Thought lost for many years, JASSY was located and restored in the early 1980s, receiving its first British TV transmission in December 1984 on Channel Four. I should love the opportunity to see Jassy and Dilys on the big screen and the continuing lack of a DVD release remains a mystery. Certainly for Margaret Lockwood fans, JASSY is a film to see again. And again...

Margaret Lockwood is good in this sinister tale of 17th Century British mysticism. She is the eponymous character who can sense impending doom. A dangerous occupation back then, but luckily (or not) local landowner "Barney Hatton" (Dermot Walsh) sees a way of using her to help restore his family fortunes lost by his father (Dennis Price) at the hands of the pretty odious "Helmer" (Basil Sydney). As the plot unravels, we discover that "Jassy" has her own particular axe to grind too - and, well let's just say you wouldn't want to be "Helmer"! The look of the film has something of the Daphne du Maurier about it, but the plot is a little too slow to develop, and there is much too much dialogue. Still, Lockwood is well worth watching here - as usual - and there is just enough menace provided by the eerily lit and well scored production to keep this interesting.

This story is set in 19th century Britain. Nick Helmer (Basil Sidney) is a real jerk in this period drama. When the story begins, Helmer is gambling and manages to take just about everything from Mr. Hatton. Soon, Hatton has killed himself and his family is no longer living in their grand estate. Hatton's son, Barney, befriends a young woman named Jassy (Margaret Lockwood) and she is indebted to him. And, through the rest of the film she works hard to return the favor...and get revenge on Helmer. Why revenge? Well, it's not just because Helmer ruined Hatton's family but because Helmer has killed her father! What comes next? See the film...and see how Jassy ultimately becomes mistress of the house. There is much more to this complicated tale...but I don't want to tell too much of the story, as it would ruin the suspense.

During this era, Margaret Lockwood many many wonderful films, such as "A Place of Ones Own", "The Wicked Lady" as well as "Bedelia"...so it's no surprise that I enjoyed "Jassy". The story is well acted and never dull....and Lockwood is radiant and up to her usual high standard of acting. Well worth seeing...and with a very strange but worthwhile ending.

Sprawling costume drama casts Margaret Lockwood as a gypsy girl Jassy who has second sight. She gets a job as maid in the household of a once-great family who have lost everything due to father's (Dennis Price) gambling. But she falls in love with the son (Dermot Walsh) whose ambition it is to regain the family estate from the cruel master (Basil Sydney).

Later, Jassy gets a job at the school for girls where she befriends the daughter of the cruel master (Patricia Roc) and poses as her friend when the girl is expelled from the school. She moves into the estate where she is made housekeeper. But the cruel master has his eye on her.

In another storyline, a brutish blacksmith beats his wife and daughter (Esma Cannon) causing the daughter to lose her voice via a throat injury. She eventually gets a job as maid in the estate where Jassy has gone to live. The "loony" as she is called, becomes the devoted slave to Jassy.

After a riding accident, the cruel master is saved by the loony. He is returned to his estate where Jassy takes full control. But after his death Jassy and the loony are accused of murder.

Lockwood is terrific as Jassy, the gypsy girl who is kinder and truer than all the grand people around her. Cannon turns is a superb performance as the pitiful loony. Dennis Price, Patricia Roc, Dermot Walsh, and Basil Sydney are also very good. Co-stars include Linden Travers, Ernest Thesiger, Cathleen Nesbitt, Susan Shaw, Hugh Pryse, Jean Cadell, Beatrice Varley, Torin Thatcher, and Nora Swinburne.

A busy, almost overwrought period melodrama from Gainsborough that's so plot-heavy no scene seems to last longer than 30 seconds. The studio clearly lavished plenty of money on the production, and the stars give it their all to make Jassy an enjoyable, if slightly silly, watch.