The Man in Grey (1943)
Directed by Leslie Arliss

Film Review

The Man in Grey was the first in a run of enormously popular period melodramas made by Gainsborough Pictures in the 1940s.  Based on a novel by Eleanor Smith, it combines elements from the 'woman's picture' and historical fiction into a new kind of film with a distinctive identity, one that was generally reviled by the critics but absolutely adored by British cinema audiences.  The four lead players in this film - Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert, James Mason and Stewart Granger - became major film stars in their own right as a result of its success at the box office, on both sides of the Atlantic.  For a time afterwards, Lockwood and Mason would struggle against being typecast as villains, and no wonder.  In The Man in Grey, both actors appear to be the very quintessence of evil.

Formulaic and predictable as the film is, the sheer quality of the performances makes it thoroughly engrossing. Leslie Arliss's direction is hardly inspired but thanks to Arthur Crabtree's atmospheric photography The Man in Grey has a haunting Gothic feel about it, vaguely reminiscent of Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940).  Calvert and Granger are excellent in their amiable dual roles (they appear as the descendents of two of the main characters in an effective framing story), but it is Mason and Lockwood who give most entertainment value, both clearly revelling in their villainous portrayals of characters who have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Mason, the sadistic hedonist, finds his match in Lockwood, the ruthless social climber with a penchant for murder.  Lockwood is described as 'deadly nightshade' at one point and this is exactly what she is, a callous, unfeeling reptile of a woman, her venomous nature accentuated to an almost unbearable pitch by the trusting devotion of Calvert's saintly Clarissa.  Such is the torrid chemistry of the Lockwood-Mason coupling that repeat performances were inevitable - the most memorable of course being in Gainsbourough's deliriously uninhibited The Wicked Lady (1945).

Film Synopsis

In Regency England, Hesther Shaw is welcomed by Miss Patchett to her school for young ladies in Bath.  Hesther's straitened circumstances makes her resentful of the kindnesses shown to her by Miss Patchett and her pupils but she soon buries her grievances and makes friends with the universally popular Clarissa Marr.  Shortly after Hesther elopes with a penniless soldier, Clarissa leaves the school and begins her life in London society.  Lord Rohan, a wealthy but dissolute landowner known as 'the man in grey', forces her into marrying him with hopes that she will soon provide him with an heir.  By chance, Clarissa meets up with Hesther, who now earns her crust with a travelling theatre company.  Clarissa and another member of the company, Rokeby, form an instant attraction.  Having assumed the role of Clarissa's companion, Hesther embarks on an illicit affair with Lord Rohan.  Realising that Clarissa and Rokeby are in love, Hesther conspires to bring them together, for motives that are far from friendly...