The gentleman in gray
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The gentleman in gray |
| Original title | The Man in Gray |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1943 |
| length | 122 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Leslie Arliss |
| script |
Margaret Kennedy Doreen Montgomery Leslie Arliss |
| production | Edward Black |
| music | Cedric Mallabey |
| camera | Arthur Crabtree |
| cut | RE Dearing |
| occupation | |
| |
The Gentleman in Gray is a star-studded, dark, British costume drama from 1943 directed by Leslie Arliss, starring James Mason , Margaret Lockwood , Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger . The story is based on the novel of the same name (1941) by Eleanor Smith . The Lord in Gray is considered a prime example of British escapism cinema by the production company Gainsborough during World War II.
action
At the beginning of the 1940s there was an auction on Lord Rohan's estate. The last survivor of this once respected noble family, Lady Clarissa, who is currently serving in the British Navy, meets Air Force pilot Rokeby on this occasion. He is interested in a jewelry box from the collection. When the power went out due to the war, the two of them meet again the next day. During their conversation, Clarissa and Rokeby discover that there were connections between their ancestors that were extremely tragic.
At the time of the Regency , i.e. in the first quarter of the 19th century, there was a ancestor of Clarissa, who was also called Clarissa, and a then Rokeby. At a girls' school in Bath , Clarissa at the time had made friends with Hesther, who came from a very humble background, a contact that was not welcomed by her classy, blasé environment. Hesther was the exact opposite of the somewhat stilted upper-class beauty: a wild, passionate young woman of quick resolution who, in her casualness, even ran off with an ensign. A gypsy who read Clarissa by hand warned the young woman from a good family not to continue to get involved with Hesther, from whom nothing good was to be expected. Both women's fates were connected in the most terrible way when Clarissa met the notorious bon vivant and libertine Lord Rohan at a ball. He was also known as the “gentleman in gray” because of his clothes. On the outside, Rohan was a cultured gentleman, but deep down he had a deeply sadistic streak. Rohan had invited to the ball to choose a bride from among the young women. Clarissa was forced into a marriage with him which only served to bring Lord Rohan a male ancestor. Her faithless husband remained loveless, and both sons, the family owners, were almost completely withdrawn from her from the start.
When Clarissa was out one day, she was stopped by a suspected highwayman named Rokeby, whom she later saw again on stage. Here the elegant beau played Othello in the Shakespeare play of the same name. His Desdemona was Hesther of all people! This is how Hesther finally met Clarissa's husband, the Lord. He recognized in her a sister in spirit who, like him, was scheming, lying, ruthless and insidious. Unlike Clarissa, he didn't believe Hesther's stories about her supposedly terrible fate. She said that her ensign spouse died in her arms, leaving her penniless. Clarissa is dismayed, but her husband Rohan instinctively sensed that Hesther was lying. Rohan was fascinated by this woman whom he accepted as his wife's close companion. Their unscrupulousness, their lies, their harshness in reaching the desired goal - all of this reminded him very much of himself. Although he actually didn't want that, he let Clarissa Hesther talk him into being the governess of both sons. It happened as it should: Lord Rohan secretly began an affair with the unscrupulous liar and intriguer Hesther.
Clarissa met Rokeby again at a derby and had to find out that this, despite the first two very strange encounters, was actually a gentleman. Meanwhile, Hesther began to spin off their intrigues. She wanted to oust Clarissa as Rohan's wife, and since she instinctively sensed that something like a romance was developing between her and Rokeby, she tried to fuel this development. Clarissa and Rokeby should no longer be around Lord Rohan. She managed to persuade her employer, Lord Rohan, to hire Rokeby as library manager at the country estate. Hesther's goal: Rohan should break up with Clarissa and instead marry her one day. That would make the long-awaited social and financial advancement perfect. But Rohan could not be manipulated so easily: He refused to let Clarissa go for Rokeby, and so Clarissa's “beautiful” plan threatened not to work. So she came up with the evil idea of driving Clarissa to her death. In Lord Rohan's absence, Clarissa fell ill, and Hesther drugged her into a deep sleep and opened the windows under the pretext of nursing her while a storm was raging outside. In fact, Clarissa died soon after. Hesther hadn't had enough, she wanted to erase all memories of Clarissa and burned all her personal belongings. The only witness, a page boy named Toby, told Rohan about it. The latter, beside himself with anger, took his riding crop and literally whipped the intriguer to death. Rohan followed the old family motto: "Whoever dishonors us dies."
Back to 1941: Clarissa's jewelery box has survived two centuries and a fire during Clarissa's agony. The auction of the Rohan estate will resume the next day. But Clarissa and Rokeby are too late to purchase the small box. The reason: In the meantime, a fortune teller has predicted a wonderful future together for them.
Production notes
The novel by Eleanor Smith proved to be a true bestseller in Great Britain in 1942 but also in the USA despite a certain dustiness, whereupon a film adaptation of The Man in Gray was commissioned immediately that same year . The film premiered in London on August 6, 1943. The German premiere took place in February 1946.
For three of the leading actors, Mason, Calvert and Granger, this film marked a career breakthrough, while Margaret Lockwood was already a star.
Maurice Ostrer took over the production management. Walter Murton , whose last film activity this was, designed the film structures, Elizabeth Haffenden the costumes. Louis Levy was the musical director.
The cost of making the film stayed below £ 100,000, and revenues were well over £ 300,000. This made The Lord in Gray a great commercial success. In Germany, the strip ran far worse.
useful information
In the second half of the Second World War, the producing film company Gainsborough Pictures , starting with The Lord in Gray , developed into the most important company when it came to producing opulent costume dramas and tearful love tugs. Almost all of Gainsborough's films in the 1940s, which were almost always released on the German market immediately after the end of the war, developed - “although the critics wrote about them with contempt”, as Jörg Helbig recalled - to big box office magnets in Europe, occasionally also on the US market and also produced numerous film stars, above all Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Patricia Roc , Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger. Gainsborough's greatest hits include Gaslight and Shadow , Madonna of the Seven Moons , Cornwall Rhapsody , The Woman Without a Heart , Three Marriages , Dangerous Voyage and Paganini .
Reviews
The Lexicon of International Films says: “A ruthless adventurer kills her friend, the wife of her aristocratic lover, and is brutally murdered by him herself. Only James Mason's confident portrayal makes the gloomy, in many flashbacks confused, gothic novel from the 18th century [sic!] Halfway worth seeing. "
The Movie & Video Guide stated: "Sophisticated costume drama, told in flashbacks, is entertaining".
"All ingredients that have been tried and tested for a long time: Gypsy fortune-tellers, scowling-looking villains with black eyebrows, an exuberant diary that is kept by a candied violet gulping, doe-eyed girl, a fire-breathing adventure who raves about discord and low-necked robes ..."
Halliwell's Film Guide said it was a "rather dull flashback costume melodrama that evoked the public imagination in the midst of a dark world war".
“All that glitters is truly not gold in the foreign films that the Allies sent to the zones of occupation after the Second World War. The gentleman in gray from England hardly lives up to expectations and in his gloomy melancholy - garnished with flashbacks - is not necessarily suitable to meet the expectations of the audience. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Brian MacFarlane: An Autobiography of British Cinema, Methuen-Verlag 1997, p. 110
- ^ Jörg Helbig: History of British Film. Verlag KB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999. p. 82
- ↑ The Lord in Gray. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2020 .
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 819
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 644
- ↑ The Lord in Gray in Back thenKino
Web links
- The Man in Gray in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Man in Gray on screenonline.org