The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Not one cockney in sight but you can't really blame simpleton country farmer Bernard Miles (Trewhella) for his humorous comment referring to Londoners in this way. A lot of northerners even today refer to all Londoners as cockneys and I know this as I'm a Londoner living up north. Anyway, the central casting of Sally Gray as dancer Jenny or Ginny is completely wrong in this film. She is meant to be born into a working class family but has this ghastly air of superiority only found in the most confident of wealthy children. And her accent is pure upper class. This is completely wrong for the film. Also, her name changes in the film – she definitely starts off as a Ginny and by the end of the film and the cast list at the end of the film, she has turned into a Jenny. She was called Ginny! Loads of times! The film suffers as its two main characters – Gray and artist Michael Wilding (Maurice) are totally unappealing and we just don't care what happens to them as they are awful. The two characters who stand out are Stanley Holloway (Charlie) as Gray's dad who portrays a working class dad correctly and with a dash of humour and Bernard Miles as the humble farmer from down South who undergoes a character change and walks away with the film's acting honours. Nancy Price is also memorable as the uber-religious nut-case mother of Miles.The story is one of taking the wrong path when it comes to love and the effect it has when everyone gets it wrong! Holloway and artist Michael Clarke (Fuzz) are the most likable characters and your sympathies are with them. Back to the story, you can see how this will end and I just didn't care. Back to northerners, they also say "tea" when they mean "dinner" and I'm just another blasted cockney from South Kensington!

'Carnival' is a 1946 melodrama from Rank/Two Cities which is compelling and memorable in parts but, overall, does not quite manage to attain the status of a great movie. A solidly old-fashioned filming of Compton Mackenzie's 1912 best-seller of the same name, the movie details the life of the beautiful dancer Jenny Pearl (Sally Gray).Born into a relatively humble family, she strains against her less than opulent surroundings but also is aware of her responsibilities towards her sister and parents. The movie is quite successful in conveying the harsh and unforgiving nature of mundane existence in the poorer areas of London that frays lives and so tears at and conflicts Jenny's heart. Upon the death of her mother, she is ultimately trapped into a loveless marriage with a hardy, unsympathetic Cornish farmer named Trewhella (Bernard Miles). She relinquishes her burgeoning dancing success and the attentions of her male admirers in order to safeguard her sister's future well-being. Jenny and her sister, played by Hazel Court, then move to the Trewhella's coastal farm in Cornwall.This transplantation heralds the most inspired and evocative scenes in the movie. There are several breathtakingly striking scenes on the towering cliff faces overlooking the sea. A dark, menacingly unwelcome atmosphere is also effectively created at the remote farmhouse into which Jenny and her sister come. The visit of a friend of Jenny's and subsequent arrival of her erstwhile lover Maurice (Michael Wilding) sparks a culture clash as the unloved, hard-working and God-fearing Trewhella is spurred into dreadful and impassioned action against his unloving wife who is not at one with the country way of life.'Carnival' is a movie that will stick in my mind due to the starkly impressive coastal cinematography by Guy Green and the brooding performance of Bernard Miles as Trewhella. Watching him on screen evoked memories of the malevolent contribution turned in by Duncan Macrae in 1947's 'The Brothers'. 'Carnival' is certainly a well-detailed and occasionally gripping movie with many interesting facets to it.

Having just watched Carnival I was interested to see what other IMDb users thought about it. Astonishingly there was just one review! Extraordinary! Well - if you get the chance, do try to catch this excellent piece of British cinema history. As well as being an unusual, well acted and interesting drama, Carnival is crammed with wonderful English stars and character players ... in fact, there are so many that well-known faces such as Kathleen Harrison aren't even billed in the credits! The film marked Sally Gray's triumphant return to the screen following a five year absence, and although a good ten years too old for her role, she still gives a luminous performance, commanding all her scenes with a natural authority and star quality. There is one scene which made me smile, as the supposedly 19 year old Sally looks into a mirror and wistfully says "In eleven years I'll be 30. I wonder what I'll look like". Not much different, one imagines the audience thinking. The plot concerns a young dancer (Sally Gray) in turn of the century London. Her home life is not particularly harmonious, living with her mismatched parents (Stanley Holloway and Catherine Lacey) and her younger sister (Hazel Court). Courted by stage door johnnies along with her fellow dancers (Jean Kent, Brenda Bruce), she resists temptation but does fall in love with a temperamental artist (Michael Wilding). When he asks her to go away with him, she must choose whether to follow her heart or stay on the straight and narrow. At this point the film takes a most unexpected and fascinating turn, leading to a genuinely shocking conclusion, and I defy anyone to guess what will happen in the last three minutes!

Carnival is a great movie, and a great story, but the wonderful Jean Kent is truly wasted in such a small role. The actress who played Jenny Pearl was harder to warm to than Miss Kent would have been in the same role, and it's a shame their casting wasn't reversed. That said, the role of Irene was quite similar to that of Lucy in "Fanny By Gaslight", though drastically smaller.Jenny Pearl is a beautiful girl born into a poor family. She can't keep away from the stage and performing from a young age and, with friend Irene, becomes a ballet dancer, with no shortage of male suitors. However, she pushes away the one man she truly loves and ends up marrying another, after her mother's death, to provide security for herself and her crippled sister, May. This ultimately ends in tragedy for all involved. 8/10, and I still hold that Jean should have played Jenny!