L'homme en gris

"The Man in Grey" was the first of the "Gainsborough melodramas", a series of films made by Gainsborough Pictures; they generally had a period setting and a highly dramatic plot. They can be considered as "women's pictures" in that they were primarily aimed at a female audience. (During the war, with so many men serving in the Armed Forces, women made up the greater part of cinema audiences). Unlike many Hollywood "women's pictures" which revolved around a central female character, however, they often featured strong male characters in prominent leading roles.

The main action takes place during the Regency period, although this is set within the framework of a story set in 1943 and involving a romance between the modern descendants of the families featured in the Regency story. The "man in grey" of the title is Lord Rohan, a man notorious both for his debauched lifestyle and for his savage temper. (He has killed several men in duels). He marries Clarissa, a beautiful heiress, but theirs is a loveless marriage from the start. (He marries her partly for her fortune, partly to provide an heir to his family estates). They lead separate lives, and Clarissa falls in love with a handsome young actor named Rokeby. Rohan begins an affair with a scheming young woman named Hesther, who was a former school friend of Clarissa and an actress in the same troupe as Rokeby.

Some have drawn parallels between the four main characters in this drama with Ashley, Melanie, Scarlett and Rhett in "Gone with the Wind", who like Rokeby, Clarissa, Hesther and Rohan can be divided into "two good and two bad". It seemed to me, in fact, that the main influence on Eleanor Smith, the author of the novel on which the film is based, was Thackeray's "Vanity Fair". Apart from the Regency setting there are parallels between Hesther and Thackeray's Becky Sharp and between Clarissa and Becky's friend Amelia. One similarity with "Gone with the Wind" is that the "bad" characters are more memorable than the "good". We remember "Gone with the Wind" for Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable rather than Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland, and here it is James Mason and Margaret Lockwood who stand out more than Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger. (Of the four it was Lockwood who was the biggest star when the film was made; Mason and Granger, later to become big names in both Britain and Hollywood were young actors in the early part of heir career)'

Mason and Lockwood were later to star together in another Gainsborough melodrama, "The Wicked Lady", probably the best remembered of the series. In that film too, Lockwood played a beautiful but ruthless and amoral woman with a more innocent friend, and Mason played her lover. Her Hesther, like Becky Sharp, is from a lower social station than her friend and an ambitious social climber, although she is more evil than Becky, or for that matter Scarlett, ever knew how to be. Lockwood, however, did not only play villainesses; she was to play the heroine in "Jassy", a third Gainsborough melodrama.

Mason's Rohan is a particularly well-drawn character- a drinker, gambler, womaniser and brawler, an arrogant, cynical, dissolute libertine who never does an honourable thing and yet remains very touchy about his honour, so touchy that he is prepared to kill anyone whom he believes has dishonoured him. His family motto is "Who Dishonours Us, Dies." Lady Caroline Lamb's famous description of Lord Byron as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" could apply to Rohan- perhaps even better than it did to Byron.

Today, Gainsborough melodramas like this one and "The Wicked Lady" can come across as very dated and more than a little camp, with their exaggerated emotion, their exaggeratedly black-and-white view of the world and their exaggerated style of acting. Our tastes in Regency drama today tend more to quiet, well-mannered adaptations of that quiet, well-mannered author Jane Austen, someone whom the British cinema ignored altogether in the forties. (The only screen adaptation of her work from the period was the American-made "Pride and Prejudice"). Yet, if we can make allowances for lurid, blood-and-thunder plots and stylised, non-naturalistic acting, they can still yield plenty of entertainment. 7/10

'The Man In Grey' was the first film in the cycle of Gainsborough costume melodramas (which ended in 1948 with 'The Bad Lord Byron') and it's easily one of the very best. At the time, it was the pairing of a superstar (Lockwood), a star (Mason), a rising star (Calvert) and a newcomer (Granger), a combination which catapulted all four to the top of their profession, and made them the four names most associated with the costume. It's a pity that the four never made another movie all together!

Margaret Lockwood as Hesther was just pure evil - a cold, calculating woman. One does get the idea that there is a small glimmer of kindness inside her, but she squashes it pretty quickly. Phyllis Calvert was as sweet as honey, as usual the beloved heroine. Her Clarissa is the main character of the tale - married off to Lord Rohan (Mason) because he desires an heir, she soon tires of his indifference and falls for traveling player Rokeby (Granger). Hesther (Lockwood) in turn falls for Rohan and he for her. And of course you know that's set for trouble. A hint of how much trouble? THIS is the film with the infamous horse-whip thrashing scene.

What's also interesting is the whole story is told in flashback, when Calvert and Granger, descendents of the Rohan and Rokeby families, meet at an auction of the Rohan estate. Nice to see a bit of modern dress for a change!

I'll explain the subject of my review later.

I won't lie and say I enjoyed this film, though I certainly loved seeing all the actors so young, and their acting was marvelous.

"The Man in Grey" begins at a modern-day auction where Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger meet. Granger is hoping to pick up something from the Rohan family - one of his ancestors was involved with a Roham. Calvert actually is a Rohan.

As they look over the various small items available, the film dissolves to an earlier time period. We see how these items were connected to the various people in the story.

The lovely Clarissa (Calvert) marries the wealthy, arrogant Lord Rohan (James Mason) not for love, but so he can have an heir while he continues with his hedonistic life. While in school, Clarissa befriended a poor girl, Hester (Margaret Lockwood). One night she sees that Hester, who had run off to get married, is in a play, and makes contact with her.

It's not long before Hester is living in the manse with Clarissa and Lord Rohan and decides that three's a crowd. The unhappy Clarissa meets Rokeby (Granger), and they fall in love. He wants her to leave Rohan. What will happen to the lives of these four?

Apparently this film was a huge hit and really established these stars. For me it was problematic. The first complete turn-off was a discussion of a disgusting dogfight. Thank God it was just a discussion. I nearly stopped watching then but soldiered on. It solidified Lord Rohan for me as a revolting human being.

And then we have little Toby (Antony Scott). You're kidding, right? He plays a boy slave who is devoted to Clarissa. He's a white kid in blackface. Stupefying. Or was he? Supposedly he is the son of Harry Scott, part of the minstrel team of Scott and Whaley. Scott and Whaley supposedly actually were black. But boy this kid looked like he had on blackface. A little mystery that I couldn't solve.

The Man in Grey is a story where good is good and evil is evil, no in betweens. Hester and Lord Rohan are nasty pieces of work.

See it for the fine actors and as an example of Gainsborough films - this is probably the most successful one.

The Man in Grey was the first and probably the most successful of the Gainsborough melodramas. The lavish regency tale centres around the aristocratic Clarissa Richmond (Phyllis Calvert) who dutifully enters into an loveless arranged marriage with the cold hearted Lord Rohan (James Mason)- the Man in Grey of the title.

Love and intrigue are to enter Clarissa's life when a chance meeting with an old school friend, the scheming Hester (Margaret Lockwood), leads her to the dashing Rokeby (Stewart Granger).

The story reaches its dramatic conclusion through twists and turns of plot and excellent performances from who can be called the four cornerstones of the war time British cinema - Stewart Granger, James Mason, Phyllis Calvert and Margaret Lockwood.

The Man in Grey is my personal favorite of all the Gainsborough films, it is high drama and escapism. The Man in Grey is definitely worth another look.

A film which has a lot to answer for, since it started both a trend for Gothic romantic melodramas in British cinema which proved ideal escapist fare for a country at war, as well as starting off various star careers (notably James Mason and Stewart Granger). The former, in particular, cornered the market for a while in brooding anti-heroes whose sadistic streak women seemed to find perversely attractive; incidentally, his part here was smaller than I had anticipated – since the protagonists were really the two ladies who suffered at his hands i.e. Margaret Lockwood and Phyllis Calvert (both of whom would likewise become fixtures in this type of film). Still, this being the prototype, its makers utilized modern-day book-ends – with the conveniently look-alike descendants of the 'good' couple, Calvert and Granger, having better luck coming together – as a safety-pin (not to mention adopting such anachronistic devices as having Calvert's "nigger" servant-boy played by a white child in black-face!). With this in mind, the film is somewhat halting as entertainment when viewed today, but it nevertheless yields pictorial felicities aplenty (courtesy of cinematographer Arthur Crabtree, who would almost immediately graduate to director and dabble in the costume genre for himself), as well as considerable interest throughout. For the record, the latter arrives by way of the occasional powerful scene (Mason and Granger's night-time scuffle in a public garden, Lockwood's come-uppance at the hands of the doting but honor-bound Mason) or humorous incident (a stock-company performance of Shakespeare's "Othello" in which Granger and Lockwood discuss attending aristocrat Calvert, a mutual acquaintance, during the all-important murder scene of Desdemona). Among the film's more notable (and commercially successful) follow-ups, then, were FANNY BY GASLIGHT (1944; which re-united Mason, Calvert and Granger) and THE WICKED LADY (1945; again directed by Arliss and featuring both Lockwood and Mason).

JAMES MASON: THE STAR THEY LOVED TO HATE (TV) (Mike Healey, 1984) **1/2

This adequate, if hardly comprehensive, look at one of the most revered actors of the 20th century (one I greatly admire myself) probably amounted to his last ever interview – since the versatile British thespian would die before the program had even aired! With a career spanning some 50 years, it necessarily skimps over score of titles (even some very good ones) and, given the title, tends towards discussion of his sinister roles (which is actually how he rose to stardom: see my review of THE MAN IN GREY [1943] elsewhere and on whose R2 DVD this documentary was included, albeit in abridged form) rather than being a broad overview of his entire body of work – though, curiously enough, there is no mention at all of Alfred Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) in which the actor did play villainous and is possibly the best film he was ever associated with! Mason, graceful as ever, is quite candid in his recollections – from the peculiar circumstances surrounding his first marriage (actress/writer Pamela Kellino would leave her cinematographer/director husband Roy for him, yet the three would form a lasting if not very successful film-making alliance!), his famous criticism of the British movie industry in a series of articles (what was seen as career suicide at a time when it had basically peaked did lead to a move to Hollywood, though his beginnings there were inauspicious) and when it came to choosing the three pictures he was least fond of, namely LADY POSSESSED (1952; one of the Kellino collaborations), FOREVER DARLING (1956; in which he appeared as an angel alongside Lucille Ball) and KILL! (1971; Romain Gary's bizarre thriller about drug-smuggling). In direct counterpoint, then, the two roles he had singled out over the years as his favorites – ODD MAN OUT (1947) and LOLITA (1962) – are likewise given their due. All in all, a nice record of one of filmdom's most compelling and intelligent presences in rare self-appraisal mode.