The Man in Grey (1943)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Leslie Arliss

Writers:

Eleanor Smith (novel)
Doreen Montgomery (adaptation)

Release Date:

13 March 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

At an estate auction in WWII England, two strangers meet and muse about their families' history and possible connections...

Plot Keywords:

Actress | England | Jealousy | Murder | Color In Title

Cast

Margaret Lockwood	...	Hesther Shaw
Phyllis Calvert	...	Clarissa Marr
James Mason	...	Lord Rohan
Stewart Granger	...	Peter Rokeby
Harry Scott	...	Toby
Martita Hunt	...	Miss Patchett
Helen Haye	...	Lady Rohan
Beatrice Varley	...	Gipsy
Raymond Lovell	...	The Prince Regent
Nora Swinburne	...	Mrs. Fitzherbert (as Norah Swinburne)

Runtime:

USA:90 min | UK:116 min (original version)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (BAF Sound System)

Certification:

UK:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #11271, Adult Audience)

Filming Locations:

Gainsborough Studios, Islington, London, England, UK

Company:

Gainsborough Pictures

Trivia:

The trailer gave such purple descriptives as "James Mason as the Suspicious Husband", and "Stuart Granger as the Gay Adventurer".

Well written but too much of a chick flick for my taste.

You can regard this movie as an '40's chick flick that has a story of a typical romantic-dramatic novel, women love to read. It has all of the ingredients you could expect, like true love, friendship and rivalry. It has not just a triangular love story but its even more complicated than that. It's all well constructed though but this nevertheless doesn't mean I can regard this movie as being something different than a chick flick.

The story truly saved this movie for me, or else it would had been a real dreadful one to watch. It has all of the typical clichés women seem to care about but as a man it just isn't all as compelling to watch. The story is solid and keeps you interested throughout. The love stories are original since it doesn't always picks the easiest road to walk on. Marriage and friendships turn bitter and characters are changing throughout. I like movies in which its characters are slowly but steadily changing into someone different.

It also is of course thanks to the acting that this all works out so well, even though the dialog and directing style are all extremely old fashioned. But oh well, this is of course consistent and normal for the genre. In the '40's director Leslie Arliss made several movies like this one, often with the same actors involved, without ever gaining real fame for it really.

Women will surely appreciate this movie even better than I did already.

7/10